The Summer Game

https://i0.wp.com/news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/72100000/jpg/_72100418_england_getty.jpg?resize=330%2C185
Expect more of these poses. Image courtesy: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/72100000/jpg/_72100418_england_getty.jpg

<This article first appeared in sloword.wordpress.com. Given the abject surrender by England yesterday, I thought it may be pertinent to read what I had written almost a year ago. You can read the original here>

I read this article by Jonathan Agnew and was struck by it’s smarmy tone. As an apology for Peter Moores‘s reinstatement it fails convincingly. About the only thing the article does is re-iterate the infantile regurgitations of team, team player and togetherness. It has all the hallmarks of those (more…)

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WC2015 – Two big matches already

By Ben Sutherland (Flickr: Eoin Morgan of England) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
It’s been a strange first week at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 edition. Two of the biggest matches have already been completed. Australia beat England, to no one’s surprise and then India beat Pakistan, to no Indian’s surprise. I must confess a slight feeling of doubt. Oh no, not about England losing, but about India winning.

England have clearly not yet learned the art / science behind limited overs cricket despite a healthy investment in coaching staff. For one, (more…)

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How to bat

Your way through this blog. It's really very simple. Check the offside menu (if right handed) or leg side menu (if left handed). All posts are categorized as either: Opinions: Where I talk about radical new ideas for improving the game, selling it in new markets, provide personally viewpoints on players, rules, administrators…

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#WC2015 kicks off

Australia v India 1st ODI at the MCG, Jan 2004
Australia v India 1st ODI at the MCG, Jan 2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5-0 so far, but February 15th, 2014 is another day, another match, another team in another country. A country that has not been too kind to Indian cricket teams. Though, in recent years, despite the 4-0 a few years ago, Indians have shown some fight. Even the recent 2-0 was not without it’s moments.

Still, off we go with (more…)

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A spell at last

3 or 4 years later, <after this story> I was in Canada, far removed from cricket. A chance remark by a friend at dinner found me searching out a cricket club in Canada. Their first question "Do you keep wickets?" "No, I don't , but I bat a bit and bowl a bit."…

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Forward Defensive

< This is a continuation of an earlier post written many, many months ago. Why has it taken so long to get to this one? Well, TheLastWord outranks me in the office and he was off writing about trips to Nepal and France. This gave no one else a word in edgeways. They say I wasn’t motivated enough. I talked about opportunities and the fact that the LastWord was taking so much room in my head and a couple of stormy meetings ensued. So, anyway, we then had the divorce and I came here to run my own blog devoted only to cricket. 

Also, I’m not sure anyone is reading this. Anyway, it is here now.

EDIT: 2022. I’m back here because they wanted me back. They being the rest of the avatars with whom I share a mind, body and soul. >

Batting was about survival, because I knew only how to play off the front foot. It was in my final year in school that I finally found my name on the board. This was it. I was on the school cricket team. This is how it happened. (more…)

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Death on the cricket field

Phil Hughes http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1411858/australian-cricketer-phil-hughes-dies-brain-injury.jpg?w=480&h=270

Phil Hughes is dead. He died from a brain injury caused by a vertebral artery dissection. The dissection was caused by a cricket ball bowled by Sean Abbott.

He was 25, just a few days from his 26th birthday.

Sean Abbott is 22, 3 months short of 23. (more…)

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ek glo! Despite you, Hansie!

Almost exactly 3 years ago, LeggieLefty wrote this ode to cricket. At that time three young men had been sent to jail for "spot-fixing", predetermined outcomes within a match. Today's news is that the one N Srinivasan has been named in a corruption scandal. At the time he was the head of the…

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Dedicated to Cricket

Hello, You may know by now that I used to blog at http://www.sloword.com SloWord really had no place for cricket in that blog, which has become a more general purpose blog that shares nostalgic stories, essays, travelogues and poetry. The Slo-Man wrote a satirical post here http://www.sloword.com/2014/10/09/sad-news/ announcing the separation of the cricket…

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