As drama plays out on the field, the experience of Azeem Rafiq highlights a glaring failure to combat institutional racismFailure tastes like the bathroom floor after a night out. It floods like a blush from the ears to the fingertips, sending you burrowing for sanctuary. It haunts, pouncing in the night. But what turns misfortune into something far worse? What if it is just the vagaries of luck? A momentary lapse of concentration? Who decides what, and who has failed?Is failure winning the toss – at last – in overcast conditions at Headingley and choosing to bat, and then being bowled out for 78, India’s ninth-lowest total in history? Continue reading...
As drama plays out on the field, the experience of Azeem Rafiq highlights a glaring failure to combat institutional racismFailure tastes like the bathroom floor after a night out. It floods like a blush from the ears to the fingertips, sending you burrowing for sanctuary. It haunts, pouncing in the night. But what turns misfortune into something far worse? What if it is just the vagaries of luck? A momentary lapse of concentration? Who decides what, and who, has failed? Related: England’s cricketers privately query £2.1m bonus for ECB executives Related: Azeem Rafiq: ‘It brings back a lot of hurt to be around cricket people’ Continue reading...
Much has been made of their gamesmanship but the tourists exercised smart tactics and had 11 potential matchwinnersIt is said that you cannot win a Test match in one hour but that you can certainly lose one in the same period. If that is true, England proved that you cannot win a Test match with aggression alone but you can certainly lose one through mindless aggro in a red-mist session.The most remarkable thing about India’s win at Lord’s earlier this week was that it was not one freakish innings or spell that turned a losing position into a winning one. Barring the 89-run stand between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, aided and abetted by England’s tactics, the game was won...
Victory came in the modern India way – with a swagger and without taking a backward stepOllie Robinson emerges from the darkness of the Long Room on his way out to the middle. England are 90 for seven and Robinson is about to face the hat-trick ball from Mohammed Siraj. All around the ground, India fans are in raptures. Standing at first slip, Virat Kohli is waving his arms, conducting them like an orchestra. The prevailing smell is of English blood.As Robinson descends the pavilion steps, a couple of India players in tracksuits are coming back in the opposite direction, having just been out on the field delivering drinks. Robinson stops and waits for them to step aside. They do...
Slow starts are nothing new to the batsman, but 33 innings since his last Test century the murmurs of discontent from within India have begun to swellRishabh Pant is the next man in. Everyone knows Rishabh Pant is the next man in. Even when he’s not batting, the India No 6 still manages to impose himself. The commentators warn in menaced tones about the “dangerous Pant”.The cameras try to pick him out on the India balcony. And right at this moment, with the second Test agonisingly poised and Lord’s a hive of tension, the next man in is reclining across a bench, watching the game from a horizontal position. Related: Mark Wood and Moeen Ali finally break India resistance in...