Bazball is no magic formula, it’s another cheery novelty – the idea of the quick fix will always seduce lovers of the long gameI got a little teary the other night. It’s a really stupid story. You know that famous scene in Coronation Street when Hilda Ogden comes home from the funeral and there’s a parcel of Stan’s belongings on the table, and she opens Stan’s glasses case and suddenly, despite herself, she starts to weep uncontrollably? Well, it was like that, except rather than a dead husband I was mourning an era of English Test cricket. And instead of a pair of glasses, it was an interview with Graeme Swann on the Rig Biz sports comedy podcast.The bulk of...
Since the triumphs of his playing career, the Ashes-winning captain has struggled to find a meaningful niche in cricketI keep a photograph by my desk of England’s victory lap of the Oval after the last day of the 2005 Ashes. The friend who took it was drunk, so the outfield lists like the deck of a ship. It was shot on one of those disposable plastic cameras, but you can still pick out the players making their way around the boundary.There’s Andrew Flintoff, one arm above his head, Marcus Trescothick, holding the little crystal replica of the urn, Steve Harmison, one hand throttling a bottle of champagne, and Michael Vaughan, dapper despite his tired whites. He has an England flag...
New Zealand’s one-run victory over England gave devotees a pinch-yourself moment of glee at one of the greatest TestsMemorable things happen at three o’clock in the morning. Perhaps you watched the then Conservative defence secretary Michael Portillo climb slowly on to a wooden stage, to be sent into the political wilderness by a returning officer in a ceremonial chain at 3.10am on 2 May 1997. But forget that – were you up for Neil Wagner?Were you pulling on your second pair of bedsocks on a chilly February night as he thundered in, all big-hearted fury and handyman vibes, at the Basin Reserve? Were you wrapping your hands round a cup of tea with your ear against the radio? Were you...
Even at 36, the seamer showed in the first Test against New Zealand that he’s still capable of ripping an innings apartThe ancient Greeks believed that the gods Deimos and Phobos stalked the battlefield. These sons of Ares spread panic amongst the ranks. Fear was infectious. All it took was one afflicted soldier to turn and run before entire armies were routed.The stakes are much lower during a batting collapse but the same invisible force can descend on those yet to take guard in the middle. Like a herd of spooked wildebeest a dressing room can become gripped by terror as the wickets column ticks over, especially when an apex predator like Stuart Broad is charging towards the crease with...
Nine decades ago this week, Australia’s under-fire cricket board rowed back on complaints against the tourists’ brutal bowlingIn this era of cricketing glut, some matches pound through the sausage machine so effectively, they might never have happened at all. But one series continues to hold fast in the imagination: England’s Bodyline tour to Australia of 1932-33.It was 90 years ago on Wednesday that the Australian Cricket Board swallowed their pride and sent a cable to the MCC, taking back their earlier complaints of “unsportsmanlike” behaviour by the English cricket team, who had been pounding down brutal leg theory bowling in the name of victory. It was done through gritted teeth, under pressure from the then Australian prime minister Joseph Lyon,...