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By Emma last year, at the end of April Leave a comment on this post
There is one thing to be said of one-day tournaments. No one expects an English impression. Of course, my inner patriotic flag-waver occasionally gets over-excited by gritty half centuries and out-swingers that inevitably evade the edge, but it was evident from as early as the tentative pushes played to Dwayne Leverock’s tweakers that this World Cup was going to be little different to the last.
So back to the drawing board, and the full length game. As any revising teenager will tell you, time is short between England’s return and May 17th. Yet somehow, Peter Moores, along with a criticised selection committee and a captain under pressure, must select 11 players to take the field at Lord’s. Although it has been a long winter for many of those returning from the Caribbean, it is surely a question of how many appearances they will make for their counties, and not whether they will appear.
Whilst those in the national one-day squad have been touching up the Bajan suntan, some of the Ashes party have already started their first-class accounts for 2007 with mixed success. Pleasingly, the first round of Championship matches has not undergone a domination of rain or, indeed, of any particular discipline. Both teams failed to successfully remove the other at a high scoring game at Taunton, while Mushtaq Ahmed ran amok in the first innings at Sussex after declaring himself below full match fitness. Alastair Cook made his second century in as many games after captaining the MCC last week, Hoggard made a good second innings four-for, while Will has already flagged Harmison’s impression on return. Geraint Jones, however, compounded his disappointing winter with single figures in both innings, and Ashley Giles spent the first week of the season in Colorado undergoing exploratory hip surgery.
Difficult decisions will have to be made before England play again, not least being how much rest to give the players returning this week. Unfortunately for both Jones and Giles, their names almost certainly will not be amongst those causing concern.
Tags: 2007-world-cup, county-cricket, england, West-Indies-in-England |
Don’t know if I’m really looking forward to test cricket after the one day thing - or dreading being in a state of horror for 5 days rather than just one. Enjoying the resumption of the county scene though especially as a Durham supporter…
Who’s going to be w/keeper then? Will Nixon be given the nod for the test team?
I’ve been wondering that too, Ceci, re Nixon. He’s one of the few that have come out of the last two tournaments with his reputation enhanced but I don’t know how he’s regarded for the longer game. And because of his age, he’s surely just a short-termer. But he’s defied all the nay-sayers so far, and I like him. I like his spirit. And he seems a really loyal sort of guy and a team player too.
Nixon is seizing the day - and who’s to blame him after nearly 20 years’ grafting in county cricket. Have seen a couple of young wicket-keepers mentioned - but suppose it depends whether Moores is able to look at long-term team building or whether the ECB want a quick fix to paper over the last 6 months or so. Still, Harmison/Jones/Hoggard may be available again….
I think Nixon’s done enough to earn a go at Test level. It’s a mistake to think that we need to pick young players all the time. All series are important, not just the Ashes, and we needn’t be constantly thinking about building in the international side - let the younger players earn their keep and learn their game at county level.
Among the names bandied around, Davies didn’t get much of a show in the Championship - 3 catches, a stumping, and two low scores. Read was run out 36 (he only batted once) and took 5 catches and a stumping. Prior, who I think is the most likely to take the gloves next, only got 14 but took 4 catches and 2 stumpings.
Lots of keepers stood up yesterday in the FPT, but I saw one first hand. Tim Ambrose made 111 off 83 balls, having finished a second innings half century against Lancashire the day before and has been consistently good in pre-season. But I suppose that’s the reaction a guy has to make when they’re told Kumar Sangakarra is their replacement overseas player. Moores has worked with him before at Sussex, where the battle between Ambrose and Prior even drew comment before Moores left for the Academy (cricinfo is so useful…)
But hey, I’m biased.
Yeah, Emma, sometimes I think people are too obsessed with the Ashes and the World Cup, and want to smash all the toys afterwards when things don’t go right. All series are important.
I’d love to see Nixon have another go.
And it’d be great to see the Fab Four bowling attack back in action. It’s been a long time — Trent Bridge ‘05.
After saying that everyone is too obsessed with the Ashes and World cup, what does Kathy hark back to, but that long distant time ago, when England won the Ashes! Yes, I see why therapy is a problem for you.
Yes, Caro, that happens to be the last time they played together, which I mentioned in passing. And if Harmison, Hoggard, Flintoff and Jones are all fit and firing, they may be part of the future too. Perhaps you might try a bit of therapy too, for the chip on your shoulder.
I’ve heard this mentioned a couple of times, first in an article by Mike Atherton, then in another article quoting him today, that England’s cricket system is producing too many one-dimensional young men who can only communicate in sullen grunts, compared to the much more well-rounded and fluently articulate young Australian cricketers. Is this true? Who can they be talking about? A lot of sportsmen get overinterviewed and often don’t have much interesting to say beyond cliches. (There are a few characters who are an exception to that and I would certainly include some Australians among those, but they tend to be the oldest ones, the guys in their mid-30s.) So who are these one-dimensional young England grunters? I ‘d love to be enlightened. Or was Atherton just being a bit bitchy?
Found a website (http://howzaat.pupheadsoftware.com/dataec/indexsurrec.html) with great coverage of Surrey’s record. It’s got the BBC commentary from the game, video highlights and an animated scoreboard with every shot from the game!
I was checking out http://www.cricketsreligion.co.uk, because they say that with only a completed, Excel spreadsheet, they can animate any match for free. They’re a not for profit and get sponsors to make a donation to pay for the back end stuff.
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