The bowler’s pace and style will be sorely missed, as will the highly anticipated rematch with Steve Smith and companyIf you started following cricket recently, you might wonder why the fuss about Jofra Archer missing this year’s Ashes. A player with 13 Tests for England, the last well over two years ago, and 42 wickets averaging 31. Those who watched four years ago will know why Archer is imprinted on an Australian cricket consciousness as firmly as on England’s. His earlier work in Australia’s domestic T20 league had already introduced an incredible athlete in the field and a force with the ball. Then he showed up in the second Ashes match of 2019 in place of the injured James Anderson.Weeks...
This is a weirdly muddled England Test side, planning for the Ashes while the best team in the world are in townAdam Gilchrist’s autobiography True Colours: My Story is one of the great “unreliable narrator” sports books. Not because there’s a single false note in its 500 pages of tearful, heartfelt authenticity, but because it’s not really His Story but is instead a meditation on his own obsession with certain concepts – Australianism, Baggy Greenism, Good Blokeism, and above all the good health, the sacred vibes of the Aussie Test team.Changes of personnel are agonised over. Gilchrist worries endlessly about morale. There are 34 entries in the index under the heading “Team Feeling”. In the Gilchrist universe Test cricket, teamship...
I have seen some of the messages my good friend has received and they are absolutely horrendous - people need calling outEoin Morgan took me aside at a training session before the ODI team’s first practice match a fortnight ago and asked me to be his vice-captain for this series against Ireland, which starts on Thursday. I have been absolutely buzzing about it ever since.People might think phrases like “it being an honour” are just trotted out at times like this but it genuinely is. It means a huge amount to me and especially from a captain like Morgs. Growing up playing cricket I never thought I’d one day be able to say I was vice-captain of my country and...
Anderson, Broad, Archer and Woakes are too good for tourists as they make most of tricky pitch and cloudy dayThis is an old story, but a good one, and worth telling again. Back in the late 1980s, Boris Becker beat Andre Agassi in the first three matches they played against each other. Agassi’s problem was he just could not figure out how to break Becker’s serve. He ended up getting a little bit obsessed and started watching video tapes of his service games on loop to figure out his secret. Then one day he finally cracked it. He realised that Becker had a tell. Before he tossed the ball, he would stick his tongue out. When he was serving wide...