Cricket

So, after a nip and tuck South African affair, Norm and I finish the week by selecting our teams to represent a post-1945 England. As always, players need only have played for England after 1945 to be eligible for inclusion and the merits of their inclusion are to be judged on the totality of their career, not just the part of it that took place after Hitler’s War. As alaways, you can follow the action here or at Norm’s Place

Lovely story told by Simon Hoggart in his Guardian column at the weekend: The death of Simon Gray lets me reprise a favourite story. He was a close friend of Harold Pinter, a great cricket lover. Once Pinter wrote a poem about his hero Len Hutton. It read, in its entirety “I saw Hutton in his prime / Another time, another time.” He sent it to several of his friends. Soon afterwards Pinter and Gray were at the same dinner party and Pinter asked what he thought of the poem. “I don’t know, Harold,” said Gray. “I’m afraid I haven’t finished it yet.” [Hat-tip: Stephen Pollard]

Readers awaiting the announcement of my M XI of test cricketers should fret not. It will appear. And soon. In the meantime the estimable Norm has challenged me to a game of fantasy cricket. As he explains, the idea is that we shall each select a side, playground style and then see how the XIs may match up against one another in a subsequent, enjoyably imaginary, series. You can follow – as I imagine you’ll want to – the game here and at Norm’s place.

So, as expected, Kevin Pietersen will captain England against South Africa at the Oval. A dubious gamble in my view, given the potential for the captaincy to adversely impact impair (thanks mystery commenter!) his batting, just as it did Michael Vaughan. Then again the selectors ensured that they had very few options, thanks to their criteria. As Geoff Miller said today: “In choosing a new captain, we were keen to identify a player who could lead the team in all three forms of cricket and bring fresh enthusiasm and ideas to the role of captain.” In other words slap and tickle 20/20 cricket helped determine the choice of a captain

The test match at Edgbaston is bubbling up nicely. If they can snaffle Graham Smith’s wicket England will be favoured to mop up the South African tail and claim a victory that looked unlikely after their careless batting displays. Hurrahs for Paul Collingwood and, with the ball, Freddie Flintoff. UPDATE: OK, so that didn’t work out did it? But I’d have also been happy to have been at Headingly today where, in his 11th innings after he struck his 99th first-class century, Mark Ramprakash has made it to the top of the mountain. The 100 Century Club has a new member. What’s more, Ramps’ may be the last admitted to

Regular readers may not be surprised that I’m sceptical of the benefits of the new referral system being trialled in the Sri Lanka-India series. This morning’s events at Edgbaston demonstrate why. Kevin Pietersen was given out caught in the gully off Jacques Kallis. Replays and the “Snickometer” suggested that he’d hit his pad, not the ball, before it spooned up to Prince. So far so good: refer this to the Third Umpire and he’ll say that Pietersen is not out caught. But he might also mention that he looks as though he is out LBW. But the umpire in the middle can’t really say to Pietersen, “OK, so you didn’t

Yes, I know I have posted this before, But, dang it, I’m sailing around Corfu. And anyway, Left Arm Chinaman’s blu-tak recreation of England’s horror-show in New Zealand last winter deserves a fresh airing:

What is it about Ian Bell? By which I mean, why does the poor fellow arouse such animosity? No other player in the current England team sees his failures magnified and successes downplayed to such an extent. Even when he bats well, his critics use this as evidence that, damn it, he should be batting like this all the time. Perhaps today’s splendid 199 against South Africa will quieten the critics. But if so, I suspect it will do so only temporarily. A friend suggests that Bell is the victim of the “Henman effect”. That is to say, he’s a nice, middle-class public schoolboy (Rugby in Bell’s case) whose demeanour

It’s that time again folks so here is the M XI, to follow those led by Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich,  Fry, Gower,  Hutton,  Imran , Jardine, Kapil. and Lloyd 1. Arthur Morris (AUS) 2. Vijay Merchant (IND)3. Charles Macartney (AUS)4. PBH May (ENG) (Capt)5. Stan McCabe (AUS)6. Keith Miller (AUS)7. 8. Rod Marsh (AUS) (Wkt) 9. Malcolm Marshall (WI)10. Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)11. Glenn McGrath (AUS) Country representation so far [before the M XI is counted!!!!!!!!!]: England 45, Australia 27, West Indies 17, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 11, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1, USA 1. If Neville Cardus were selecting this side, Archie Maclaren would

One of the sadder constants in international sport is that any major decision made by the International Cricket Council will, more probably than not, damage the long-term best interests of the game. That sorry streak continues today: The result of the controversial 2006 Oval Test between England and Pakistan is to be changed, the BBC understands. The match was awarded to England when the Pakistan team refused to come out onto the field after tea after being accused of ball-tampering. But the International Cricket Council is expected to change the result to a draw at its meeting in Dubai. BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said the move would open up

It’s Clive Lloyd’s turn to lead a side in this series. So here is the L XI, to follow those led by Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich,  Fry, Gower,  Hutton,  Imran and Jardine and Kapil. 1. Bill Lawry (AUS)2. Justin Langer (AUS)3. Brian Lara (WI)4. Maurice Leyland (ENG)5. Clive Lloyd (WI) (Capt)6. Denis Lindsay (SA) (Wkt)7. Ray Lindwall (AUS)8. Harold Larwood (ENG)9. Jim Laker (ENG)10. George Lohmann (ENG)11. Dennis Lillee (AUS) Country representation so far: England 45, Australia 27, West Indies 17, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 11, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1, USA 1.

The ICC (that’s the International Cricket Council) and the authorities in England keep banging on about how they want to ensure that test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game. Then they keep announcing additional one day and 20/20 competitions. You tell me how that adds up. Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire backer of the new England vs West Indies 20/20 challenge matches (for $5m each game) says he finds test cricket “boring”. Virgil was right: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes… Stanford sees 20/20 as a way to “crack” the American market. Now I think he is almost certainly mistaken in thinking this is possible but I’m not prepared to

Apologies for the delay in publishing this latest installment in our marathon series. Still, here it is at last. So far we have has featured teams skippered by: Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich,  Fry, Gower,  Hutton,  Imran and Jardine. Now it is Kapil Dev’s turn. 1. Gary Kirsten (SA)2. Rohan Kanhai (WI)3. Vinod Kambli (IND)4. Jacques Kallis (SA)5. Alvin Kallicharran (WI)6. Alan Kippax (AUS) 7. Kapil Dev (IND) (Capt) 8. Alan Knott (ENG) (Wkt)9. Anil Kumble (IND)10. Khan Mohammed (PAK)11. Bart King (USA) Country representation in the series: England 41, Australia 23, West Indies 15, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 10, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1,

It is not, right now, saying much to observe that Kevin Pietersen is England’s best batsman. His century against New Zealand today has not been the stuff of legends but it has at least rescued England from the perilous position they had put themselves into at 86/5. But if Pietersen is England’s best batsman, we must hope that he is also be their most ignorant. How else to explain his prediction that Monty Panesar “will be the best finger-spinner the world has ever seen”? Of course there’s no reason to suppose that test cricketers might also have some appreciation for the the game’s history. But it would be nice to