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ECB announce 16 man touring party to the Ashes 2010/11

Posted on September 23, 2010
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The England selectors today named a 16-man tour party under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss for the forthcoming Ashes Test Series in Australia with Surrey pace bowler Chris Tremlett and Sussex left-arm spinner Monty Panesar both recalled to the squad.

Tremlett, who won the last of his three Test caps against India in 2007, is recalled to the England set up for the first time since the tour of New Zealandin 2008. While Panesar wins a place in the tour party after a successful domestic season which saw him take 52 First-Class wickets for his new county.

Surrey’s Steven Davies has been named as England’s deputy wicketkeeper behind Sussex’s Matt Prior and is the only member of the squad uncapped at Test level.

The Selectors also today named eleven players to be awarded 12-month England central contracts with Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott and Middlesex pace bowler Steven Finn each winning a central contract for the first time. A further five players have been awarded incremental contracts.

Today’s announcement also included the naming of the 16-man England Performance Programme (EPP) squad which will be based in Australia in the lead up to the first Ashes Test in Brisbane through until the start of the third Test in Perth. Michael Carberry, Craig Kieswetter, Ajmal Shahzad and James Tredwell, who have all represented the senior England side over the past 12 months, are among those included.

Commenting on the selections, ECB National Selector, Geoff Miller, said: “We believe we’ve selected an outstanding Test squad for what will be a fiercely contested Ashes series in Australia. In order to retain the Ashes we will need to play to a very high level and we believe we’ve selected a squad to do just that.

“Clearly there are always difficult decisions to make when selecting an England squad and this Ashes squad was no different. We feel that Chris Tremlett’s inclusion will add a real threat of pace and bounce …

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The Hansie Cronje Story (book review)

Posted on September 10, 2010
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On June 1st 2002, Hansie Cronje, arguably one of the greatest South African cricket captains, died in a plane crash in the Outeniqua Mountains. He was 32. It brought to an end the colourful career of a dedicated cricketer a husband and a favourite son of South Africa.

Penned by Garth King, the biography was written to give the public closure on the sensitive subject, one that has rocked not only South Africa but the cricketing world. In addition, the hope that the people would learn from the good and the bad from Hansie’s far too short a life was also in the family’s mind allowing this project to proceed. The thing that struck me more than anything is that this is a well-balanced biography. It includes perhaps some of Hansie’s darker moments along with the good, the good times and the bad together with the realisation that he made one grave error during his cricketing career that spiralled out of control.

He was prone to sulking if a result on the field didn’t go his way, unreasonable and unwilling to be the butt of a joke despite handing out the pranks himself. One such example as King writes “he would tune the team bus’s radio to static and then crank up the volume”. However when an identical prank was played on the sleeping captain he was not best pleased, in King’s words he was “unreasonably grumpy”.

Brought up in privileged surroundings along with his brother Frans and sister Hester, Cronje enjoyed the good life that his family and sport afforded him often watching Welsh rugby on the video courtesy of a highlights video that was played constantly. Similar to Donald Bradman, Hansie had to choose between cricket and tennis as a teenager. He chose cricket and never …

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Ask Bearders Book Review

Posted on August 3, 2010
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Bill Frindall was an integral part of Test Match Special from June 1966 until his ultimate ill-timed dismissal in January of 2009, ironically an Ashes year. To many, Bearders was one of the main reasons to tune into Radio 4’s TMS, he will be sorely missed by hundreds of cricket fans around the world. Buy Now

Ask Bearders is as you would expect a collection of questions put to the great statistician and fast bowler over his career as the BBC’s main cricket statistician and radio pundit he would often be heard to growl at a question posed by cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew on air.

The questions included in this book are sectioned and appear within numerous chapters such as “on the ump”, “stats cricket”, “bowling wizards” and “well fancy that”. This isn’t your usual book, there’s no story or writing style to comment on, simply Bill’s precise and often dry responses to the fans who attempt to trick him with an impossible question.

Although not meant to be a tribute as Agnew suggests in his foreword, “Ask Bearders” is a tribute to the bearded one. Although no longer here to continue his blog, a blog he started in 2001 in response to the thousands of questions he would receive over his radio career, the book serves as his final farewell to those who took the time to question his deep knowledge.

Terry Jones of England asked a question of Bill in which he described it as being one of the more unusual questions he had been asked in his first 50 years, elevating him to agony aunt status!

“My mother was to take me (aged three) to see Bradman’s last innings at Worcester in 1948 but instead went into labour delivering my brother. He was born on 28 April, …

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Bradman And the summer that changed cricket – Book Review

Posted on August 2, 2010
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Bradman And the summer that changed cricket : Christopher Hilton | JR Books

I’ve been fortunate enough to have read and reviewed two previous books by Christopher Hilton (Cricket’s 300 Men and The Birth of the Ashes) and one thing Hilton could not be accused of is lack of research and depth in his books. His latest offering, “Bradman and the summer that changed cricket” pushes the boundaries even further with an impressive, almost statistical, ball by ball account of the matches in the summer of 1930.

The series would change the way England approached a series and in its very next series encounter saw Douglas Jardine command a small army of soldiers to Australia to recapture the Ashes in 1932-3, Bodyline. Buy Now

If you are looking for a comprehensive account of the 1930 tour then this is most certainly the book for you. The trip begins with a build up in Tasmania and Western Australia, the smallest of details recounted in black and white. It was on this tour that Sir Donald discovered he suffered from debilitating seasickness.

Accompanying the match reports and scene setting accounts are newspaper reports of not only the matches but the pomp and ceremony that followed the young cricketer on their long journey beginning in March and ending in October 1930. Bradman only missed four matches in the whole tour, three against weaker sides expected to prove little competition. The book includes scorecards from the matches he missed including Essex, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Sussex.

Australia’s tour of England was not expected to be a major success given the lack of experience and make up of the team. With this in mind and the lack of expectations, the departure, certainly in press terms, was rather muted and cautious.

Bradman’s first run outside …

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Alec Stewart’s Cricket Companion – Book Review

Posted on July 28, 2010
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stewartbI have always been an admirer of Alec Stewart. I never held it against him because he played for England, there was always something about him as a cricketer that caught my imagination. Was it his great work ethos, competitiveness or his cricketing ability? Whatever the answer, they are just some of his traits many people, myself included, admired about the Chelsea loving cricketer. Buy Now

Alec Stewart’s cricket companion is an interesting and eclectic look at cricket and sport in general. The book isn’t structured and Alec, in his introduction, makes no apology for this! The book isn’t an autobiography as such, it’s a chance for Alec to share his thoughts on what’s happening in the cricket world today including the way twenty/20 has captured the public’s imagination. It also includes numerous stats, trivia and a generous helping of history through the ages.

Statistics feature heavily throughout and include amongst other the World Cup, the Ashes, Twenty/20 and a ground by ground breakdown (England & Wales). We learn that Sheffield hosted a Test match at Brammall Lane in 1902. The ground’s only Test match ended in a 143 run victory for Australia) nothing new there then). It is better known today as home of Sheffield United FC.

For me, my greatest memory of Alec came during the 1993/4 season when England toured the Caribbean. Against all the odds he pummelled the West Indian bowling in Barbados and scored back to back centuries with a great deal of panache and determination.

Stewart’s Test debut was at Sabina Park, a game he remembers with pride after helping England (with 13 runs!) secure an unlikely victory. He was fortunate to be out in the middle when Wayne Larkins struck the winning runs; it allowed him to collect a stump as a treasured …

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Harold Larwood biography – review

Posted on July 28, 2010
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Duncan Hamilton, who is perhaps better known for his award winning book on Brian Clough “20 years with Brian Clough” has once again put pen to paper with his comprehensive biography on England great Harold Larwood. Apart from a collaboration in 1965 between Harold and Kevin Perkins there has been no other biography fully endorsed by the Larwood family and in all likelihood there never will be another. To be honest, there is no longer any need, Hamilton has it covered.

The book is as comprehensive as you could ever wish to read on the former Nottinghamshire pit boy, a book that has obviously been written with a great deal of thought, care and admiration for the once lambasted England hero who played no small part in quashing Sir Donald Bradman’s effect in the notorious Bodyline series of 1932-33.

Harold was not only fast but incredibly accurate. Countless batsmen testify to this fact but it is left to Somerset’s  tail-ender Bill Andrews to succinctly tell it how it was “he was bloody frighteningly fast”.

Andrews, like many other batsmen to face the fast bowler, was concerned for his health when faced with the prospect of facing the demon bowler.  Following a previous encounter against Larwood, Andrews was so worked up he had developed stomach pains so severe that he was caught on the toilet when he was called in to bat!

Bill called out “who’s out?” to which the reply came back “Frank Lee. They’re bringing him back on a stretcher”. Andrews said “I was really in a state, and it took some time to adjust my clothing. As I passed the umpire I said hopefully – I must have broken the two minute rule”.

With testimonies like that, the book succeeds. The descriptive powers and …

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Aussie’s steal Flintoff’s Car

Posted on July 17, 2009
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Not the sort of thing you’d usually shout about but this is a classic! Looks like nothing can halt Freddie Flintoff from reaching the big game, not even two Aussie pranksters swapping his car for a dreaded pedalo.

Check out the video now then head over to eBay to bid on the actual pedalo Fred uses. We’re auctioning it off for charity, with every penny of the proceeds going to the Andrew Flintoff Foundation – a charity that helps fund physio wings in kids’ hospitals around the UK. So bid now and bid well.

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Gideon Haigh’s Inside Out – book review

Posted on April 8, 2009
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Not only is Gideon a great Aussie bloke but he is a highly talented and skilled writer whose limits know no bounds! Well, that’s not entirely true. If he could carry off his literary skills onto the cricket field he would surely be playing alongside Punter, Pup and Mitch but they don’t and he doesn’t! This is probably a good thing!

Inside Out is his latest offering; the usual sharp wit is there as is the effortless writing that we have come to know and love in recent times. Haigh is up there with Cardus and is without doubt “the don” of our time as far as author’s go. Enough flattery, he gets enough! The articles are taken from a variety of sources that include “The Australian”, Cricinfo and Wisden Cricketer.

The book takes a detailed look at the administration, Bodyline’s 75th anniversary and a whole host of articles on Sir Donald Bradman to name but a few. In the book Gideon claims the best book written on Bradman is by Irving Rosenwater “The book is as superior to all other Bradman biographies as Bradman’s average is to those other batsmen”.

Putting Bradman to one side, Gideon devotes an entire section to commenting on various articles and books that have been published over time including Jack Fingleton’s “Cricket Crisis”. Fingleton’s book, published in 1946, is a retaliatory publication aimed at the bow of Sir Pelham Warner’s 1942 offering “Cricket between the two wars”. Both men give their account of that infamous dressing room incident that centred around the Australian captain Bill Woodfull and Sir Pelham Warner. Of the Australian captain, Fingleton with one hand commended his skipper as a fine fellow and with the other claimed “but Bodyline was a grim and ruthless battle into which a leader of …

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I didn’t know honest Guv !

Posted on March 29, 2009
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You have to laugh don’t you. Well, that’s exactly what I did when I read this afternoon that the Home Secretary, yes the Home Secretary has been found out trying to pay for a TV package as part of her parliamentary duties – give me strength!

Her husband decided to watch a couple of “Adult” films on pay per view and then claimed for them back on expenses! Nothing wrong with his taste, everyone is entitled to watch what they want to as long as they are consenting adults, heck he even paid for “Surf’s Up” and “Ocean’s 13″ too. That said, are you trying to tell me you can’t distinguish between that and a bill for web connection? NO! What a pathetic excuse and from the Home Seretary Jacqui Smith herself!

Ms Smith said she “mistakenly” claimed for a TV package when billing for a web connection and would repay the cash.

Downing Street said she had done the “right thing” by quickly rectifying the “inadvertent mistake”.

The Home Secretary is already under investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards over her use of the second homes allowance.

MPs can claim for subscription television services but they have to be used wholly, exclusively and necessarily to perform their duties.

BBC political correspondent, Gary O’Donoghue, said a source told him Ms Smith was “livid and shocked” when she found out about the films.

He said he was told Ms Smith was not at home when they were viewed and said she had no intention of resigning over the matter.

Mr O’Donoghue said he was told Ms Smith had given her husband a “real ear-bashing“.

Last month Ms Smith was criticised for claiming taxpayer-funded allowances for a second home while living with her sister.

But she insisted she had …

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Matt Laffan, an Australian inspiration 1970 – 2009

Posted on March 10, 2009
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Way back in 2001, Australian Story aired a special programme about Matt Laffan and his fight for a normal life, to play rugby and to dance. Just over a week ago, Matt Laffan lost his battle and died in Sydney, the city he loved.

Born in 1970, Matt was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder and was only given a short time to live, they didn’t think he would last a week such was his overwhelming odds against survival.

I had never heard of Matt Laffan until two days ago when Australian Story aired an updated programme to pay their respects to Matt on his passing on the 1st March 2009. For those interested the programme will be repeated on Saturday 14th March. It may also get a repeat showing on ABC2 on Tuesday. So please if you haven’t seen the episode, I highly recommend it.

Matt came across as a cheeky larakin with a mind as big as New South Wales and a heart to match. He loved flirting with the ladies although he claimed he never saw that he was a charmer and a good flirt – I’m sure he knew what he was doing but would rather not say!

Matt Laffan

“I have never taken to the Rugby paddock, but the game is in my blood. My old man has coached Rugby all my 37 years and thus it has been with me forever. And with it have come experiences and friendships and lessons learned that have assisted to shape me into the evolving man I am.”

For someone like me who never knew him; the best compliment I could give would be that I wish I had met him – a very inspiring character who would certainly not be short of a word or two! If …

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England travel to Trindad for 5th Test

Posted on March 5, 2009
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England take on the West Indies on Friday, the same day Australia hope to secure a series win against South Africa in Durban. It’s a win or lose situation for England and unless they set out to attack and take the game to the hosts the series will be a confidence sapping defeat.

Following the horrific scenes in Lahore all eyes will be on Strauss and his merry men as they attempt to salvage a series draw against a team that has produced some dazzling cricket with extraordinary results. With one Test remaining in the series West Indies hold a slender 1-0 lead. At best England can only hope for a series leveller but anything other than a win will hand the unlikely series win to the hosts.

Sky bet currently have the West Indies as favourites to win the final Test match at 11/4 or 3.75 with England drifting at 13/8 or 2.62.

England interim coach Andy Flower has been taking about Steve Harmison in the press leading up to the final Test in Trinidad and he didn’t pull any punches either, Harmison will not be left wondering what he has to do, that’s for sure!

According to Flower Harmison is simply not up to standard and has little chance of being recalled to the starting XI,

“At the moment he hasn’t, otherwise he would have done it,” Flower said. “But I don’t think by any means that Steve’s finished. He’s still got a hell of a lot to offer. Fast bowling is long, hard work and at the age of 30 it is only going to get harder work, so it is up to Steve really. He’s got to put in the performances which make the selectors pick him time and time again. I’ve only known …

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South Africa favourites to level series

Posted on March 3, 2009
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With the second Test match starting in Kingsmead, Durban this Friday Australia has its hands full according the latest odds across the board. Betfair have South Africa at 2/1 to win with Australia at 13/5 and the draw an outside chance at 6/4.

Despite the predicted second Test win for South Africa, Australia are clear favourites to take the series with odds of 4/5. South Africa is a distant 9/2 with a healthy offer of 11/4 for the draw.

I was quite surprised when I noticed this earlier today especially given the fact that Australia won the first Test in Johannesburg by 162 runs. In a shortened series anything could happen I guess and one thing is for sure – the Boks will be up for revenge after the bowlers failed to take advantage of the visitors in the first innings.

Following on from the terrible atrocities in Lahore today, it will be interesting to see how the players will handle the attack on the Sri Lankan team. Although none of the players sustained any critical injuries others within the party have perished and it is truly a dark day for cricket and Pakistan.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting had this to say in response to the gun attack in Pakistan:

“On behalf of the Australian cricket team I would like to express our deepest condolences to those who have been affected by the tragic events in Pakistan this morning. An act of violence like this is a terrible thing and when it involves those who are part of our cricketing family, players the world over are affected.

The wider cricketing community has been shocked by what has occurred and our thoughts and full support is with those involved.

We have spoken with members of the

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Gunmen shoot Sri Lanka cricketers

Posted on March 3, 2009
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Terrible news coming out of Lahore this morning is that gunmen have attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on its way to play in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

At least five members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were injured – two from bullets – and five Pakistani policemen escorting the team bus were killed.

This is a terrible attack and will be a huge blow to cricket in general and especially the general loving Pakistan community. We all know that cricket Pakistan have struggled over the last few years due to major concerns over security with major teams refusing to travel. This will certainly not help and it is unlikely that any team will travel to Pakistan for the forseeable future.

Cricket Australia are reported to be shocked by the news according to The Times of India.

Pakistani officials said about 12 gunmen were involved and grenades and rocket launchers have been recovered.

The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says the incident will come as a big blow to Pakistani cricket.

Pakistan invited Sri Lanka to tour after India’s cricket team pulled out of a scheduled cricket tour following the deadly November attacks in the western Indian city of Mumbai.

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Australia cruise to 162 run win in Johannesburg

Posted on March 2, 2009
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Australia have taken a one-nil lead in the three Test series against South Africa with an impressive 162 runs win against the Boks. The visitors have shown the true value of batting to number 10 over the last 12 months but no more so than here in Johannesburg.

Day five loomed bright and early this morning with the game finely balanced with both sides in with a chance of snatching victory. Unless the weather had intervened the draw was the only unlikely result especially with a full day’s play on offer.

Australia required eight second innings wickets for victory and South Africa just 276 runs to win, both a possibility given the pedigree of the two teams on show. Unfortunately for South Africa the win was very much a distant dream by lunch with the home side sitting on a precarious 5 for 247.

Tight bowling was the key to the early success as the visitors just sat back and waited for the mistakes to come. Hilfenhaus and Johnson bowled well and troubled both batsmen (Kallis and Amla) early on. Despite the onslaught they survived the double pronged attack until Siddle forced a mistake from Amla who held out to Hughes at mid-wicket.

Five runs later Andrew McDonald, who is still learning his international trade, applied constant pressure and it was AB De Villiers who lost his patience and fell to a leg before decision with Billy Bowden officiating. Aware of the importance of his wicket South Africa went to a referral but it was in vain.

Kallis struggled to push the game on and was eventually bowled by Johnson five runs short of a dogged 50. The promising and highly sought after Duminy shared a brief 39 run partnership with Boucher until Duminy gave Siddle his second …

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