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Australian press threaten boycott
By Will last year, at the start of November, 5 Comments »
Australia are gearing up to face Sri Lanka but a cloud is looming: the Aussie print media might boycott the Test because Cricket Australia have implemented a new policy in which they’re charging news organisations for permission to take photos.
How utterly blinkered Cricket Australia are. Any organisation that makes the ECB look vaguely competent is worthy of immediate ridicule. CA are renowned for major cock-ups. Remember the farce with the tickets for the last Ashes series? And of course the “fun police” inside the grounds. Cricinfo and other media companies also (if my memory serves me) had trouble at the grounds due to CA’s extortionate Wifi fees (all grounds in England are free, as well they should be). As if they don’t make enough money, they now want to risk their reputation and for the sake of a few extra dollars.
I hope they boycott it. We do not want journalism following the same seedy, greedy path of television rights.
5 Comments »Atherton moves to The Times
By Will last year, at the end of October, 2 Comments »
Mike Atherton has been announced as The Times’ chief cricket correspondent, replacing Christopher Martin-Jenkins. Atherton is the foremost player-turned-writer and, at 39, quite young to hold such a prestigious post.
He’s by some distance my favourite writer, as he marries a deep knowledge of the game during his time as a player with the detachment required to write about it. The Times is also my favourite paper, so now there’s no reason to waste any more money on The Telegraph.
2 Comments »Notes from the pavilion for October 19th
By Will last year, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
Links of note from the past 24 hours:
- Breaking: Rashid misses out on Test squad - Yorkshire Post - 19 minutes after the England squad announcement for their tour of Sri Lanka, the Yorkshire Post gets right to the point. Where’s Rashid? Come off it.
Excusing India’s defeat
By Will last year, at the end of August, 10 Comments »
I’m in India, hence the total lack of any posts here (bar Ian’s - thanks), but while I was wolfing my breakfast this morning I read a curious sub-header in today’s Hindu. I don’t have it in front of me now, so forgive me if it’s not entirely accurate, but it said of Dravid’s decision to field first: “Probably due to extensive cloud cover”. The partisanship here is like no other country. Face it; England outplayed you.
The channel I watched it on contained commentators who shared a mixture of English and Hindu. But when Sachin was scratching around, as is his modern wont, any drive which pinged off his bat was met with “What a shot! What a shot there from Sachin Tendulkar…and it’s fielded in the covers preventing the single”.
Anyway, it’s a topic for another day. Here’s the brilliant contraption in which I was pushed up 46kms of India’s “Blue Mountains,” the Nilgiris. It really is spectacular here.
Times World Cup supplement
By Will last year, mid-March, No Comments; be the first!
Patrick has been slaving over The Times’ World Cup supplement over the past couple of weeks, which rolled off the printers and into the shops this morning. It’s a really good read (and not because I’m in it). Rod Gilmour, Nutley’s finest, also did a load of work for it before escaping to the Caribbean like the professional loafer he is.
No Comments »Australian media reflect culture of winning
By Will last year, mid-February, 41 Comments »
I can’t help but enjoy Australia’s slip from grace. I’m British and it’s my absolute right. Most of all though it’s the Australian media which really gets me going.
Australia only need lose once and immediately, without prejudice or loyalty, their champion side is reduced to a bunch of complete losers. When they enter a losing streak, as they have in the past two weeks, the headlines make hilarious reading: “hapless,” “demoralised,” “licking wounds,” “Australia agony”. It goes on and is completely, brilliantly merciless. Until they win, and they’ll once again be hailed as the greatest sporting side in the history of the planet.
I’m probably completely wrong, but the turncoat style of Australia’s papers is in some ways a microcosm of a society which simply cannot accept losing. Ever. In any form, at anything. And this isn’t to say the criticism isn’t valid - Australia have been shoddy, no mistake. It’s just the tabloid turnaround which just astounds me…there is never any balance or reasoned debate as to their fall from grace. “BLOODY LOSERS. SACK THEM ALL” you half expect a headline to read.
I met two great Aussies on safari last week, Shelley and Paul. Both in their thirties, travelled all over the world, they were eager to hear my thoughts of Australia. “Been to Aus then Will?” And I told them I had. Before I could finish Shelley said “Yeah great isn’t it? Awww the beaches, everything’s just great isn’t it? Don’t you think?” And it is, and I love the country. But disliking Australia was not an option!
Billy Connolly observed this in one of his stand-up routines years ago. He’d arrived in Australia for the first time and, at a press conference at Sydney airport, was bombarded with questions about the country. “How are you finding Australia Mr Connolly? Liking it here?” “I’ve only just got off the fucking plane, but the tarmac is indeed terrific!”
Not all Aussies are like this but the positive, must-win vibe runs through the country like a critical artery. Cut it, and there’s blood everywhere. Losing is just not an option and losers should be shamed. Britain is completely, emphatically the opposite. We love to shame the losers too, but we also love to love the losers and the underdogs. Whereas in Australia, a crap league side would be backed to the hilt with a genuine belief their fortunes would turn around, in England we actually enjoy the struggle! Of course we don’t want England to lose, but we just shrug our shoulders, tut, throw a dart at Ricky Ponting and move on. C’est la vie.
I’m not sure what I’m wibbling about now, but do leave your thoughts. Scott’ll be best placed to ridicule this post…
41 Comments »Benaud - the voice is back
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of May, 4 Comments »
It’s not often that I can refer to two pieces in The News Of The World within a matter of hours. In fact, I can count on half my left hand the number of times I’ve read it in the past five years. It’s a fine publication I have no doubt, but I’d rather..well, I just think it’s crap.
However, I’d completely forgotten Richie Benaud’s famous and long-standing affiliation with the paper. He’s written for them since 1600, give or take a year, and I was amused to see the JPEG on their site (above) claiming “The VOICE is BACK“. The paper’s agenda is so clearly targetted at those with nothing better to do than scratch themselves in public, or eat microwaveable roast potatoes (I ask you - does anyone actually buy those things? What’s difficult about roasting a flipping tat?), so it’s amusing to see someone of Benaud’s stature and reverence rub column inches with ladies such as the one on the right.
Look at Benaud’s grin though - he’s loving it…
4 Comments »Blogburst
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, 1 Comment »
I’ve been invited and accepted onto a new service called Blogburst. A select number of blogs (under a thousand), Blogburst connects blogs with traditional media publishers (newspapers). So there’s a tiny chance some of my/our posts might end up in a newspaper in the USA. Which is rather cool, a bit bizarre but moreover most unlikely. They ought to though, because - well they just should! Scott, that means no spooling misktukes from now on! (from me too).
1 Comment »Cricket’s status and popularity in India
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of March, 7 Comments »
After the Ashes, cricket’s stock rose significantly in England. But even in September 2005, with most of the country drunk on Ashes fever - literally, in some cases - it probably only matched India’s insatiable appetite for the game.
This remarkable fact has been highlighted by Paul Coupar, who’s out there for The Wisden Cricketer and is kindly blogging for Cricinfo too. It makes quite startling reading:
And that appetite for cricket has not changed if Nagpur’s local Sunday paper, The Hitavada, is anything to go by. In a 16-page paper, there are 15 cricket pieces. Remarkably, one of them is headlined ‘Chappell has acknowledged receipt of email’. Over on the front page, the three lead stories are: ‘England Cook up a defiant story’, ‘Keep restraint, Pawar tells Chappell in surprise meet’ and, finally, the tiddling matter of President Bush snubbing a proposed nuclear deal with Pakistan.
I agree with Paul that the appetite for cricket has, in recent times, been somewhat gluttonous; Chappell-Ganguly-gate was unnecessarily long-winded, but it nevertheless demonstrates the unparalleled lust for cricket. Is there any other sport which binds a country’s people together as much as cricket does for India?
7 Comments »The last Sunday before the last Ashes Test
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of September, 6 Comments »
Quite a sad feeling, really, that it’s suddenly all come to an end for another 18 months. It does feel like yesterday that the Lord’s Test was getting underway, yet we’ve had four Tests squeezed in a matter of a few weeks. On the up side, there are but 15 months until the 2006/7 Ashes series begins; will England be defending them, for the first time in 18 years? Or will we be, once again, trying to wrestle them from Australia’s vice-like grip?
Frankly, we ought to be defending them when we next meet Australia. We’ve been the better side for the majority of the summer, bar a McGrath blitz at Lord’s. Another McGrath and Warne show might yet upset me, and the millions of English fans now hooked on the great game. Caged animal, backs to the walls, etc…buyer beware!
On what is the last Sunday before the last Ashes Test of the summer, there have been a veritable feast of words written in the press which I’ll briefly summarise…
Andrew Strauss’ diary for the Telegraph seems to get longer each week, and this week he’s written a very extensive and insightful piece.
Looking back, the first morning of the series, at Lord’s, seems like an age ago, but what is still very clear is the reception we received as we made our way slightly nervously on to the field that morning. Walking through the Long Room, we were met by the most incredible roar from members full of hope and expectation that this series was going to be different from its predecessors.
And
If I had been lucky enough to play in three Tests like that over the course of my career, I would retire very satisfied, but to have three in a row is astounding. All 22 players know that we have been part of something incredibly special over the past six weeks. One of the greatest series of all time is being played out, and it has created the best possible advert for the game.
That’s what has struck everyone who has seen this series: one after the other, each Test has matched and bettered its predecessor. You half expect one or two Tests to be rained off, or piddling out to a draw. Every bloody game has been painfully brilliant to watch; imagine what it’s like for the players involved!
He ends - not quite tempting fate, but… - with:
Regardless of the result, we will be determined to enjoy what could be the defining Test of all our careers.
Mike Atherton continues his excellent form (honk!) with a piece about Freddie. Jonny Wilkinson, David Beckham, and now Andrew Flintoff.
Rugby and football blossomed in the afterglow, much as cricket is doing now, but Wilkinson and Beckham have been in slow decline ever since. Wilkinson because his body cannot cope; Beckham because he cannot cope.
Regardless of the result at the Oval, Andrew Flintoff now walks in such company. Maybe he is not earning the dollars (yet) of the other two, but in terms of profile and popularity he bends his knee to no one at present.
Too true. Giant performances in the last three Tests, he will almost certainly be named as one of the men of the series - if not officially, then certainly by his teammates and the Australians. England needed something special from him, but I don’t think anyone quite expected he’d have such a country-binding affect. Oh to be seven or eight years old and have a hero like Flintoff to aspire to…
Meanwhile, Scyld Berry mentions something, and someone, we’ve all forgotten about: Duncan Fletcher.
More than anyone else, more even than Michael Vaughan, this England team are Fletcher’s creation, although he will always be first to give the credit to the players. Just as much as Jack, Fletcher can look at the England team and say “this is the house I have built”. The position which he took up at the climax - after sitting on the dressing-room balcony for most of the match - said so much about his approach. Close to them, but not of them. Ready to hand. ‘There’ - and Giles looked in for a chat before batting - but not imposing.
His influence cannot be underestimated, and should not be glossed over here so briefly. So I’ll do a post on him this week. But Scyld’s article comes with the depressing news that Fletcher has been turned down British citizenship. A win or a draw at The Oval might just persuade the Government to change their minds.
So, on to Thursday - and the weather is set fair (at the moment). Tell your friends; invite them over; crack open a beer / coke / tea / water; get your prayer-mats out!; “renew” your incontinence pants; change the nappies; charge your mobile phones in anticipation of “This is going down to the wire mate ru watchin?” type messages; don’t allow anyone with a heart condition near The Oval, or your TV; polish your voodoo dolls; tell everyone to come here and comment & chat like the crazed cricket-addicted fools we all are; are we in for another nailbiter?
May the best side win.
6 Comments »The things I, and they, said…
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of August, 5 Comments »
Chris reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to. Trawl back through my blog, and other people’s sites and blogs, to find out what people said of England’s chances. You can start by looking at my “Ashes” tag. There are ten pages there, and this link starts at the back of the queue (i.e. 7 months ago), so you’ll need to click “Previous page” at the bottom to trawl through. You can see the first Ashes post was 7 months ago, in January, in which I said:
Naturally, all talk is on The Ashes which is already becoming tiring. The expectation on England is going to be massive and, in my opinion, they can only win if Harmison is on form, Flintoff bats naturally and bowls quickly, Strauss & Trescothick continue to score hundreds and Vaughan too. They’ll also benefit from a) winning the toss, b) some luck and c) someone breaking McGrath’s arm. England - whether you like or agree with Jagdish’s views - are a fine team, captained superbly, and whatever happens let’s hope the media don’t shoot them down. (incidentally tickets for the Lord’s game are going for over £300 I heard in the pub last week, on eBay and private sellers etc…)
Seven months on: Harmison hasn’t really been on form, but has still been influential in this series by smashing balls into batsmen’s heads. 16 wickets is also fairly handy. Flintoff has batted naturally and bowled very quickly. Vaughan has won the toss. England has has its fair share of luck. McGrath’s elbow, not arm, has been injured, and Vaughan has captained the side imaginatively. It’s an easy game, this punditry 
In February, Mark Waugh wrote England off, but Peter Lever reckoned England would do ok:
“England might have a chance, but I don’t know if they believe in themselves against Australia,” he said.
Towards the end of March, I wrote:
As I’ve said in the past, I am excited about this Ashes - but am also much more relaxed about it. The past 3 or 4 have been painful to watch - really, really painful - not least because winning the Ashes was seen as the only way to resurrect English Cricket, back then. English Cricket isn’t in the mess it was 5/10 years ago, and for that reason alone, England can at last try to enjoy this series and not worry too much about the outcome. That’s Vaughan’s motto, after all - “enjoy yourselves†- and I’m sure Australian’s wouldn’t begrudge England the odd victory in a few month’s time, although I don’t doubt for a second which way they want the pendulum to swing for the final result
Can you smell the reserved “I don’t want to be too cocky, and please let England perform well” nature of my post there?
And perhaps most interestingly, 3 months ago I wrote of a John Buchanan quote, speaking of Ricky Ponting:
“He’s growing I think every series as a person, as a leader, as an occupier of a fairly significant position in Australian society.â€
Australia can’t, now, win this series. The best they can hope for is a draw, to retain the Ashes. What IF Australia don’t win at The Oval, and hand the Urn over to England? What ramifications does this hold for Ponting, who is “an occupier of a fairly siginificant position in Australia society?”
If you know of any links or quotes, or indeed comments on blogs (here and elsewhere) that showed Australia’s lack of respect for England (on those lines, anyway), send them in…
5 Comments »The most important Test for 52 years
By Will 3 years ago, mid-August, 2 Comments »
Scyld Berry:
If there has been a more important Test match in living memory than the one scheduled to start at Trent Bridge on Thursday, it can only be the Oval Test of 1953, when England regained the Ashes after 19 years, an even longer interlude than the current one of 16 years.
As if the pressure on both teams wasn’t already enough! There is some fabulous stuff in the press today:
Scyld’s article on why England can reverse the Ashes trend.
Mike Atherton, whose articles I always enjoy, writes a light-hearted but revealingly clever piece on Ponting and Vaughan:
I’m not looking forward to confirming the news tomorrow morning [Gillespie missing out on selection] - it could be the end of his Test career.
Maybe I’ll let Merv tell him - the fat b****** has to do something for his money. Who voted him in as a selector anyway?
Cricket v Football at The Observer.
A very long, not particularly revealing but ultimately enjoyable interview with Simon Jones in The Sunday Times.
Another excellent writer and commentator, Vic Marks, says in his Guardian column:
Brett Lee acknowledged: ‘We are happy to come away with a draw.’ When did we last hear Australia so relieved, so ecstatic to avoid defeat in an Ashes Test?
Mike Selvey, Marks’ TMS colleague, has been trying to escape from Ashes Central, but failed. In his article, he said he even tried listening to the White Stripes’ album Elephant - but even this thwarted his attempts to get away from the game:
To avoid the chatter [on the plane] I turned on my iPod - the White Stripes’ Elephant would be a good safe haven I thought - and what did I hear? “Waking up for breakfast, burning matches, talking cricket” on There’s No Home for You Here and “It’s quite possible that I’m your third man” on Ball and Biscuit
Funnily enough, I too thought once thought those were the lyrics (”burning matches, talking cricket”) but my mate corrected me, almost in disgust at my obsession with the game. Apparently it’s “Burning matches, talking quickly.” Still sounds like “cricket,” if you ask me.
There’s lots, lots more besides which I’ve no doubt missed, but that lot ought to keep you honest for the time being. This lull in the Tests has been strangely uncomfortable, almost like when you walk to the next ride and find it’s crap, after going on a 100mph rollercoaster. The tumbleweed has been, well, tumbling - but I’m getting that familiar, nervous excitement returning to the pit of my stomach. It’s 1-1, guys and girls - and it’s about to kick off again in just four days time!
2 Comments »Cricket: the new sport of choice
By Will 3 years ago, mid-August, No Comments; be the first!
Another fascinating article about the rise of Cricket in Britain. I’m copying it below for posterity - all copyright and rights remain with The Observer and the original author.
No Comments »Last friday afternoon, the group of young boys were gathered as usual in the inner-city playground next to the estate where they live, white, black and Asian youngsters idling away the summer doing what kids do best - playing. They gather there every summer, as regular as migratory birds, shooting hoops into the desultory basket, or more likely playing out their football fantasies against a dusty background of competing replica shirts.
But last week something was different: the boys were, as usual, playing but their sport of choice was new. They were playing cricket. There must have been 20 of them crowding the outfield and in the centre was a brand new set of bright blue plastic stumps being defended by an excited youngster swinging his shiny new blue bat with determined animation.
A friend who has passed this playground for the past 10 years had never before seen these young boys of summer playing anything but football or basketball. Here was proof if any were needed, in the week in which the England football team, multi-millionaires to a man, were beaten so abjectly in Copenhagen, that cricket is the sporting news this summer.
No Test series has been more eagerly awaited than the present one and none, not even Ian Botham’s Ashes of 1981, has proved more continuously inspiring or produced such intense and enthralling cricket. The Australians arrived in England at the beginning of June acclaimed not only as the greatest team ever to have played the game but as revolutionaries, the team that had re-made Test cricket as a more vigorous, athletic, attacking game for our impatient age.
They had in their ranks three players - Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist - who would be automatic selections for an all-time great cricketing XI, and most of their batsmen averaged more than 50. They had spent the best part of the past decade or so beating teams hollow all over the world, and, with their usual swagger and arrogance, expected to do the same to the Poms.
We knew England were an improving team. We knew that under coach Duncan Fletcher and captain Michael Vaughan the team had remade itself and was winning series in difficult places such as South Africa and Pakistan. We knew that in Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard, and Marcus Trescothick, as well as the captain himself, we had young cricketers of character, determination and high ability.
What we didn’t know was just how determined they were to take on the Aussies, and how, through doing so with such gusto and aggression, they would introduce a new generation to the intrigues and complexities of Test cricket, perhaps the greatest of all games.
The tied one-day final at Lord’s in July, the clatter of 17 wickets on the first day of the first Test, England’s thrillingly narrow victory at Edgbaston, then the almost unbearably exciting draw at Old Trafford in the third Test… it is impossible to predict what will happen next in this remarkable summer of cricket. What is certain is that both teams will continue to play hard and to win, but, following Flintoff’s example at Edgbaston, when in the immediate aftermath of England’s victory he thought only of consoling Brett Lee, who had come so close to leading Australia to improbable triumph, they will also play with courtesy, sportsmanship and fellow feeling.
If you contrast the attitude of our cricketers with that of the monosyllabic truculence of the pampered and often preening footballers who represented England in Copenhagen you will understand why those boys in the playground were last week playing a different game.
My only regret is that from next year no cricket will be available on terrestrial television for them to watch and be inspired by.
Cricket is the new football
By Will 3 years ago, mid-August, 2 Comments »
(England v Australia, Third Test, Old Trafford)
Excellent newspaper and media round-up by my Cricinfo colleague par excellence, Jenny Thompson, including such gems as:
2 Comments »More prosaically, The Times reported that England cricket shirts are outselling football strips across the country, and even reported on a 20% upsurge in sales of cucumber, scones and tea: “all staple ingredients for a good afternoon tea at the cricket, suggesting newcomers to the sport enjoy all aspects associated with watching it”.
(Another) Ashes Preview
By Will 3 years ago, mid-July, 3 Comments »
Under four days until the fixture of all fixtures begins. England v Australia, at Lord’s - and the weather is set fair (for now…). Here’s a newspaper and blog roundup:
Mike Atherton, writing for The Telegraph, spends time profiling John “buck” Buchanan, including his highly unsuccessful time with Middlesex (”In the case of Middlesex he admits he may have been guilty of trying to teach them to run before they could walk.”)
Is he from the Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger school of post-match sociability? More Wenger, it seems. “I’ll find it difficult to have a drink with Duncan -we’re in competition after all. If we did have a chat I’d be constantly looking for clues in everything he said and I’d be completely guarded myself. It would be a very stilted conversation.’
When Duncan Fletcher became England’s coach, his wary-looking face, publicity-shy personality and, at times, glum facial expressions from the balcony conveyed a man not happy with his lot. This quickly changed, however, and he is now a highly respected and integral part of the renaissance of English cricket. Importantly, and pleasingly, he has also been recognised by the public as one of the crucial figures in England’s recent winning streak. He is an excellent tactician & batting coach, and an even better people-person. I’d be interested to hear from the Aussies reading this what they feel about their coach.
Uber Scott, who really should have been mentioned by the BBC instead of me, is passionate about the forthcoming duals awaiting us. Despite predicting an Australian victory by 3-1, he says:
My prediction is that Australia will win the series by three Tests to one. However, while that might be a familiar scorecard, I have high hopes that the five Tests in this series will see a standard and intensity of play that we’ve never seen in the history of the game. This could be a series we are talking about for the rest of our lives.
I tend to agree with most of those sentiments. My concerns, however, are that Australia’s weaknesses (which are few and far between) won’t be exploited by England sufficiently. Hayden, for example, looks arthritic at the crease at the moment; exploit that, Harmison. Australia will usually (with the current side) successfully target a players weaknesses, England must too. Ponting’s early fallabilities; Hayden’s decreasing confidence; Gilchrist’s vulnerabilites with the ball cutting back into him (from around the wicket: something Flintoff executed brilliantly in the NatWest one-dayers). If if if if IF England can do these things each session, we could be in for a series to end all series.
Andrew Miller details the head-to-head battles that will decide the series.
Vic Marks ends his piece with a gem:
This is their goal - to keep news of Wayne Rooney’s in-growing toenail off the back pages until the third week in September.
Peter Roebuck says England have chosen a competitor rather than a batsman in Kevin Pietersen.
The venerable AKR has a poll on his blog.
Mike Selvey has a dig at Gus Fraser (why not?) and the ICC’s recent disasterously ill-thought-out one-day plans:
Actually it has been another salutary exercise in cricket’s ability to make what is essentially a simple game into something akin to nuclear physics. The first game at Headingley was a hoot. First we had Vikram Solanki, a fellow who as 12th man habitually spends most of his time on the field anyway while Steve Harmison changes a shirt or Freddie Flintoff goes for a pee, coming on and staying on while a bowler, Simon Jones, stayed off for good. No one noticed the difference and it was made no clearer when it was explained that the game’s first supersub was in fact not a substitute at all but a replacement, which does not have quite the same ring to it.
He also hails Nancy, of Lord’s Lunches fame, who recently passed away:
Once Mike Brearley, captain of England, thought the soporific post-prandial mob he was leading perhaps needed less indulgence. Something a little less substantial, Nancy? “Tell you what, Michael,” she countered, hands on hips. “I won’t tell you how to fockin’ bat and you don’t tell me how to fockin’ cook. All right?”
I got a phone call from Nancy’s daughter Jeanette this week to say that her mother had passed away after a bout of pneumonia. My sadness is tempered only by the knowledge that Nancy would have looked at the picture at the top of this column and said, “Well, you don’t look too fockin’ sad to me, you eejit.” She was a grand lady.
Paul Kimmage sees Justin Langer philosophising about life, writing, cooking and roses and finds it all a bit perplexing. No, you didn’t misread that - Justin Langer does have a rose garden:
3 Comments » « Previous Entries“I love my rose garden, I love my family, I love my meditation, I love the soft side of things,†Langer told The Australian newspaper earlier this year.
