Posts Categorised: England

0England: Time for a “Sir Alex” style manager?

Respons­ib­il­ity is a chal­lenge for all of us at some time in our lives. Some of us devel­op it young, some nev­er quite seem to grasp it at all. Life cir­cum­stances can help or hinder us, as can some luck along the way. Celebrit­ies and pub­lic fig­ures face the same chal­lenges we all face, but they do it in the pub­lic eye where every­one can (and does) judge them. Throw in fame and money and the chal­lenge gets all the lar­ger. Rather than wait for mis­takes to hap­pen and then lam­baste our young role mod­els, is there any­thing that can be done to help and pre­pare them?
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0500 Plus? Perhaps This Year

Firstly dear read­er an apo­logy for our lack of recent com­mu­nic­a­tion – we both appre­ci­ate it that people take the time to pour through our mus­ings and hope you con­tin­ue to do so.
Now down to business.
Back in August last year Eng­land did the unthink­able and broke the record for the highest ever one day inter­na­tion­al score, post­ing 444–3 – a run high­er than the pre­vi­ous total that had stood for a little over a decade.
It was a massive score – one that would have been seen as simply unachiev­able in years gone by. But the game, like England’s bat­ting order, has come on in spades in recent times with T20 crick­et lay­ing much of the found­a­tion for a new style of play.… Read Full Article

0Ruthless India Despatch Visitors

There was a point in the fourth test between India and Eng­land when the hosts were 30-odd runs behind their oppon­ents with only three wick­ets remaining.
It was a false dawn though and the mas­ter­ful Kohli and mag­ni­fi­cent Jay­ant Yadav (in only his third test) com­bined to take the match and with it any hopes of a series draw bey­ond the grasp of the visitors.
It served to under­line the gulf in exper­i­ence of con­di­tions on the sub-con­tin­ent. India rammed home their great­er know­ledge and under­stand­ing of how to play in such an arena. Through most of this series they have been the far bet­ter of the sides and a win was inev­it­able once a lead of 200 was sur­rendered. … Read Full Article

0Political Machinations Start Series With a Bang

Dur­ing a week in which the world saw a new Pres­id­ent elec­ted Com­mand­er-in-Chief in Amer­ica and Brit­ish Prime Min­ster Theresa May vis­ited India, it is per­haps apt the first test is com­pared to glob­al polit­ic­al machinations.
The say­ing goes that a week is a long time in polit­ics – and the say­ing would appear apt in crick­et too.
Only a few days ago many naysay­ers (myself included) were fear­ing the hosts could inflict a series white­wash on the vis­it­ors — espe­cially if the top order in par­tic­u­lar didn’t apply them­selves bet­ter.… Read Full Article

0Bangladesh Cricket logoCongratulations to Bangladesh as England Spin to Defeat

Well done Bangladesh on a first test win over Eng­land. The vic­tory was thor­oughly deserved and the series could have so eas­ily fin­ished 2–0 to the hosts rather than the 1–1 draw.
Both matches were excel­lent adverts for test crick­et in that they were test­ing for both teams with the Tigers in my mind claim­ing a points vic­tory over the two games. In Mehedi Has­an they have clearly unearthed a young dia­mond who may yet help to pro­pel his team to more vic­tor­ies against the top teams.… Read Full Article

0Professional England See Off Tigerish Bangladesh

Well done Eng­land on a pro­fes­sion­al ODI series vic­tory against Bangladesh. The Tigers might not be viewed by all as the toughest oppon­ents and the vis­it­ors will cer­tainly face stern­er tests – but any Asi­an oppos­i­tion on home soil is any­thing but a pushover.… Read Full Article

0Ring of Steel Brings Tear to the Eye

It was, in many ways, reas­sur­ing to see the mil­it­ary might of Bangladesh and the show of force they put on ahead of the start of the ODI series start­ing tomor­row (Fri­day).

Pic­tures and video clips cer­tainly show they mean busi­ness.  I heard one radio com­ment­at­or liken the secur­ity to that you would see for a trip by Barack Obama.… Read Full Article

0Points to Ponder After Opening Loss

One test in, Eng­land are one-nil down. Well done Pakistan
Hav­ing brushed Sri Lanka aside Eng­land are in the midst of a much stern­er test against an in-form Pakistan. And the vis­it­ors suc­ceeded where many oth­ers have failed of late, i.e. to expose England’s weaknesses.
Per­haps England’s main weak­ness is a lack of top qual­ity spin­ner. Moeen Ali is use­ful for a good few overs and tends to sur­prise many bats­men and trick them into a false sense of secur­ity. He is, how­ever, a second spin­ner. If he couldn’t bat would he be in the side? Very unlikely. He’s a backup option, not lead the attack mater­i­al. How and why Eng­land have chosen to ignore Adil Rashid amazes me. Over the dec­ades Eng­lish select­ors have shown a reluct­ance to pig leg-spin­ners and Rashid is seen as sus­cept­ible of leak­ing a few runs – but he has proven in ODIs and T20s that he is able to keep it tight. Thank­fully they have at least indic­ated they are will­ing to put this right by nam­ing him in the 13 man squad for the second test. They must pick him – espe­cially as Old Traf­ford tends to offer encour­age­ment to the twirlers. Eng­land have a bit of a selec­tion dilemma on their hands – I sus­pect Ben Stokes and Moeen are fight­ing it out for one place.
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