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Tim de Lisle’s Ashes blog
By Will 2 years ago, mid-September, 5 Comments »
Tim de Lisle, a former editor of The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and columnist for Cricinfo and The Times, is blogging for us at Cricinfo. I’ve been franticly trying to get it ready for Monday and it’s just about ready to rock.
Tim will be writing about the build-up to this winter’s Ashes - and of the series itself, I hope. Should be great so check it out.
5 Comments »Boy scouts versus Dad’s Army
By Will 2 years ago, mid-July, 5 Comments »
November’s Ashes series, the most hyped in memory, promises to be a battle between young and old, between inexperience and gnarled old pros. So often the side who sent pensioners to Australia in recent series, it is England who will be by far the younger side as they were last year.
I was reading Tim de Lisle’s piece in today’s Times over several coffees this afternoon. In it he makes mention of England’s “young old guard”:
On Thursday, England’s captain will be Andrew Strauss, a man who made his Test debut only 27 months ago. Their gnarliest veteran will be Marcus Trescothick, aged 30. The most prized wicket will be that of Kevin Pietersen, a Test cricketer for only a year. Five of the likely squad — Alastair Cook, Jamie Dalrymple, Liam Plunkett, Sajid Mahmood and Monty Panesar — are new since the Ashes series and only Trescothick and Matthew Hoggard have Test careers stretching back three years
The situation England find themselves in is a potential precipice: they could fall spectacularly against Pakistan, or move confidently away from the edge and find young talent who have the bottle to battle their way in Australia. Replacing England’s key players in the winter were the likes of Alastair Cook, Monty Panesar and Owais Shah - none of whom were in the slightest bit fazed or overawed. They performed as they have for their counties, with little fuss and no less shortage of skill and flair (with Monty’s and Cook’s fielding the only worrying aspect).
All is not lost. In fact, I’m reminded of last September when my mate said “Well that’s that then. We’re f***** for the next Ashes.” Amid all the celebration and relief in watching England’s players lap up their victory, it was an odd angle to take. When asked to reason his oddness, he said “We weren’t expected to win it this year [2005]; we’re now favourites for next winter and it’s all going to go belly up.”
He has a point. As a nation, we’re the best, most ankle-snapping of underdogs. I don’t think expectation necessarily sits comfortably in the minds of British sportsmen and women. Think Tim Henman; think England’s Rugby Union squad after winning the World Cup; England’s footballers, well, the less said about them the better. And to that list you can add the England cricket team. So maybe (he says, clutching armfuls of straw) England’s current woes might stand them in better stead for the future than we believe. The thought of having the 2005 squad back together again is fanciful; it won’t happen, and England could well be thankful for that so long as the young replacements mature quickly and rid themselves of, well, the “replacements” tag.
Don’t underestimate the importance of this series against Pakistan in the rebuilding of England. It’s massive, and promises to be absolutely fascinating.
5 Comments »The importance of being earnest
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-April, No Comments; be the first!
Tim de Lisle opened up in Cricinfo with an interesting post relating to independence in the media.
Trescothick is much liked, and even after his story changed, most commentators were gentle with him. But one pundit was conspicuously tough: Mike Atherton, cricket columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, who said Trescothick’s virus line was “so utterly implausible” that “ridicule is the only proper response”.
Atherton used to open the batting for England with Trescothick. He was a team-mate for years at Lancashire of Trescothick’s agent, Neil Fairbrother, who also came in for criticism in Atherton’s piece, albeit unnamed. The condemnation possibly went a touch too far, but it came from the right place: a belief in honesty. Atherton can’t stand spin - of the PR variety - and he is right to highlight the way it is spreading through the sports world.
Atherton is one of the best ex-player pundits for three reasons. He wants to get better; after a tentative start, his writing has steadily acquired more scope and flair. He is curious: he asks questions, while some ex-players still wait for the questions to come to them. And he has a clear grasp of the importance of being independent. He knows he is now batting not for England, but for his readers.
In a free press, that distinction is straightforward. In televised sport, it is becoming a grey area. The ultimate producer of cricket in India is now the Indian board. Atherton, who commentated for Sky on the India-England series, says local commentators were “asked not to mention sensitive subjects”. This provoked denials, but it will continue to be an issue. And some ex-players just don’t seem to see that it matters.
I posit that it is not quite so simple as this though. As a general rule of thumb, in whatever field you work in, you do not crap in your own nest. Cricket authorities are different in various places but all of them expect their broadcast partners to be supportive. And the management of the broadcasters themselves would be most displeased if the commentators were to disparage the game, lest they invite viewers to change the channel.
After all Michael Atherton would hardly expect the Sunday Telegraph to be very friendly to him if he bagged the paper in his column.
That is why there will always be a role for newspapers and blogs in cricket and indeed, in many other areas. We can ask the questions that broadcast media can not ask.
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