Roguish interloper who stole radio rights to England’s winter tours bowls tidy opening over for listeners fearing loss of TMSThe barbarians are at the gates. The lunatics are on the grass. Ten kilo bags of mixed gravel aggregate are two‑for‑one at your local Bumcrack Warrior Warehouse. And most alarming of all, starting with Wednesday’s rain‑ravaged first one‑day international in Dambulla, the cricket is now on commercial radio.When the news broke in April that TalkSport had outbid the BBC to take the radio rights for England’s tour of Sri Lanka the response was mixed. Reactions tended to veer between mild irritation at the loss, for a few months, of a much‑loved programme; to wistful, sun-bleached nostalgia for a world shadowed with...
Echoes of Arjuna Ranatunga’s World Cup-winning blueprint – potent spinners, pinch-hitting openers, bucket loads of confidence – can be seen in the England ODI side todayAs England and Sri Lanka prepare for the five-match one-day series starting on Wednesday in Dambulla, a warm-up of sorts for the World Cup now less than eight months away, it feels the right time to stumble backwards 22 years, to one of cricket’s greatest stories.On 17 March 1996, in the sultry atmosphere of Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s captain, lifted the World Cup high into the air. No one could quite believe it. Sri Lanka, the baby brother of the Asian block, the international whipping boys, had popped out of the hat,...
Rory Burns and Joe Denly can open, and they are joined by Keaton Jennings, Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid – but great sides have a rock solid opening pairPerhaps Ed Smith has lost his touch. Almost for the first time since he became England’s national selector in May he has announced a Test squad without surprises. Generally this is a good thing, suggesting stability, the ship on a steady course and sailing smoothly towards its destination with the usual, reliable crew. But that is not quite the case at the moment.Great sides have a rock solid opening pair and, whoever Smith and his fellow selectors picked on Friday, that was not going to be the case for England this autumn...
Series victory against India was a fillip as was Joe Root’s century but who opens the batting in Sri Lanka is no clearerThe players deserve their rest after a whirlwind five-Test series completed in record time, which has enchanted those able to watch it. The margin of victory, 4-1, compared with 3-1 in 2014, is a bit of a puzzle since India competed far better this time around, especially when the ball was in the hands of their pacemen and the bat in the hands of their captain, Virat Kohli. But by the Oval both those parties had run out of steam.In at least two Tests the outcome was in doubt during the final innings. As a consequence the cricket...
India are likely to face their stiffest opposition from South Africa, England and New Zealand in defence of the title they won at Edgbaston four years agoCoach Darren Lehmann Related: Everything up for grabs for England in the quickfire Champions Trophy | Vic Marks Related: England deserve Champions Trophy favourites status under Eoin Morgan | Vic Marks Continue reading...