In their own version of this story England are the heroes. But what if they are not and some proper needle is needed instead?We’re here to make memories. We’re here to save Test cricket. Dream bigger. Nothing is out of reach. Also, “fuck off you fucking prick”.The paradoxes of Bazball are already manifest, and indeed a huge part of the fun. Here we have the game of reinvention, where the only rule is to break all the rules. Play like it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, because that’s the best way to win. Dance like nobody’s watching so everyone can see what a great dancer you are. Is this still maverick thinking? Probably. It is, at the very...
Rain cut the third day short but it was the heavy skies that brought it that put paid to the home side’s openersYou learn as you go that cricket in England has moods. Like some figure from myth whose face changes with angle and light. The first day of the Edgbaston Ashes Test was one mood, the bucolic English summery kind that justifies the work of pastoral poets. The second, jaunty scoring gave way to a half-overcast grind under high cloud. The third, after England had bowled to a seven-run lead, a sudden darker mood flashed at the home side in a window before rain.Rain, cloud, darkness. Few sports make you think so much about light. All countries have sun,...
As rain scuttled day three memories flooded back of our annual trip to watch England lose at cricket, and the sense of two lives drifting apartThe rain came to Edgbaston early on the third afternoon, with the Australians still batting and a nasty swirling wind that whipped you in the face like a wet towel. Edgbaston, it has to be said, is not the most auspicious place to be when it rains. Most of the seats are entirely open to the elements, and so when the weather hits the only places to take shelter are the poky little gangways at the bottom of each stand. And so here we cowered and shivered, pressed up against roughly 2,000 other punters all...
Birmingham bathes in blue to raise funds for prostate cancer research in memory of Bob Willis and enjoys some fancy dressEdgbaston turned Blue for Bob on Saturday, part of a fundraising campaign run by the Bob Willis Fund to raise money for prostate cancer research and awareness. They’ve raised £800,000 in their first two years, part of which has gone towards the development of new, non-invasive tests at the University of East Anglia. The day doubles up as a celebration of Willis, there were hundreds of big bushy wigs on show, and a bowling net behind the RES Wyatt Stand where people were invited to attempt their best impressions of his loping run. Impressive as all that is, the fund’s...
Mercurial spinner proves he is the polar opposite to Jack Leach with a performance of highs and lows on return from Test exile“Ashes?” “Lol.” And so, after a two-word WhatsApp exchange and a two-year break, Moeen Ali is back at the top of his mark. There’s a roar of approval as his name is announced, a newish red ball in his hand and a fresh page to be written. Moeen has bowled 11,854 balls in Test cricket and most of them, like most of everything, have been instantly forgettable. But then there are the ones you remember.For his nine years in international cricket this has been the eternal illusion of Moeen: a cricketer in whom you can see whatever you...