Two England greats may have been exiled, but how can people care when their careers have taken place behind paywalls?The Ashes aftershocks have rumbled on over the past week, and on Tuesday peaked with the news that neither Jimmy Anderson nor Stuart Broad will feature when the so-called “red-ball reset” begins in the Caribbean next month.Both are known to be hurt to miss out and a touch miffed at being told in a couple of short, sharp phone calls rather than in person. Broad was literally raging against the machine in his final outing – picking a fight with a robot camera that kept moving on the boundary’s edge in Hobart and his latest newspaper column continues the theme. Continue...
Two of England’s finest fast bowlers are casualties of a red-ball reset that straddles the line between bravery and stupidityIt’s the beginning of the end, then, for the two finest fast bowlers England have ever had, the decision to drop them as sudden and unexpected as a bullet in the back. Like they say in the Sopranos: “Our line of work, it’s always out there, you probably don’t even hear it when it happens.”Jimmy Anderson knows it. He wrote as much in his column just a couple of weeks ago: “Everyone’s future is in doubt, it always happens when you get beaten in Ashes.” But it’s one thing to say it, another to really believe it’s true and might be...
The white-ball expert seems more like an overwhelmed shopper at the crease for England in the red-ball gameIt’s a familiar scene. You’re perched in front of the TV, remote in hand, “deciding” on something to watch. There’s that show about the mafia, or the one about drugs, or that one about drugs and mafia? What about this new police one? It’s written by that bloke who did that other police one, I think he used to be in the police, or the mafia, or both? No? Well there’s that subtitled one we recorded? Mmm, bit too much of an investment, it’s only a Tuesday night after all and I sort of don’t want to have to watch the screen all...
The scandal of ECB executives sharing a £2.1m windfall shows why shuffling England’s backroom staff is not enough“Terrific, Mr Mayor. We found the shark!” It has been hard to find any great sense of resolution in the departure this week, by mutually lawyered-up consent, of the head coach, the batting coach and the “managing director” of the England men’s cricket team.In fairness Chris Silverwood never seemed that convinced himself, carrying out his public duties with the fearful, haunted look of a man who only left the house to fetch a pint of milk but finds himself 11 hours later still in his pyjamas, 18 Jägerbombs deep, a tattoo of monkey on his neck, and being asked now to give the...
Eoin Morgan said the result did not matter but will be worried by the failure of his batters and seamers in the West Indies“The whole tour is one where the development of our game is actually more important than the series win,” Eoin Morgan said before a ball was bowled. “Our level of intensity and our performance is far more important than the result, and actually the result looks after itself.”The results did not, in the end, look after themselves. England leave Barbados defeated 3-2 in the T20 series but having participated in some gripping games in front of boisterous crowds. There is no shame in providing compelling entertainment and after a lopsided opening match, when on a poor pitch...