| 
Posts and words
Loading ...
andy bull
Australia win another World Cup
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
Australia have won the Under-19 World Cup. Of course they have. In doing so, they unearthed a host of promising performers – including the new Glenn McGrath – and demonstrated an eerily familiar ability to peak when it matters. Not bad for a team coached by an ex-member of Westlife. So, we can pin green and gold to the senior trophy for 2015 and 2019 (providing it still exists), right?
Well, yes, probably. However, a similar move after England’s Under-19 triumph in 1998 would not have proved wise. Here’s the team that defeated New Zealand in the final of that tournament:
SD Peters
RWT Key
PJ Franks
OA Shah
GP Swann (whatever happened to him?)
CP Schofield
GR Haywood
GR Napier
JC Powell
NJ Wilton
RJ Logan
Only three of that victorious mob could be said to have gone on to enjoy senior international careers of note, and both Key and Shah will feel they only offered glimpses of their best. By my reckoning, four of those players are no longer playing county cricket. Paul Franks is, but, as Andy Bull noted a few months back, his is arguably the most unfulfilled talent on the list.
Colt success does not always translate to the pinnacle of the game, and few things are guaranteed in cricket. However, young Mitchell Marsh and his team can console themselves with the fact that Australian dominance usually is.
No Comments »The noughties: looking back
By Rich Abbott last year, mid-November, 4 Comments »
If, back in late 1999, you’d taken a break from worrying about the millennium bug (what was that about?) and wondered instead what the next decade had in store for world cricket, you’d have been hard pushed to predict the current landscape of the sport.
Now, as the noughties – a term given a certain appropriateness by messers Warne, Symonds and Stanford – draw to a close, they come under assessment from the cricket writers.
Rob Steen has reviewed the decade in general over on Cricinfo, and uncovers good news for the Test match format, while Andy Bull, at the Guardian, has been kept awake at night wondering who the player of the decade has been. Incidentally, Kevin Pietersen weighed into that debate in an interview published today in The Times, naming Jacques Kallis the player of this, and indeed any other, decade!
As for the best game of the past ten years, we’re blessed with choice. Sky Sports showcased one candidate yesterday, by showing a re-run of the unbelievable South African run-chase against Australia at the Wanderers in 2006. In a way, that match defined the decade: pyjama-clad, high-octane, T20-style hitting, but that didn’t stop it reducing a number of seasoned cricket watching locals to tears. In a good way.
4 Comments »Spin, to Top Spin
By Will last year, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
Those not in the know (surely none of you, oh dear readers) will have heard Lawrence Booth’s move from the Guardian to the halls of the Daily Mail. His essential weekly round-up email, Spin, has morphed to Top Spin at the Daily Mail’s site. Pen pics for England’s frighteningly forthcoming tour of South Africa is first on the agenda.
But Spin readers need not fret, for Lawrence has handed over the reins to Andy Bull, one of sport journalism’s up-and-comers. It’s in good hands, and remains required reading if cricket’s your bag.
1 Comment »