More humilliation. Another Ashes thumping (4-1). Jonathan Agnew wrote recently that it has been the most disappointing in his 10 tours of covering the series over the years. What can you say to that?
There are a lot of stories that come out on the back of a tour like this.
Jacob Bethell’s Godfather being Tony Cozier is something I did not know. Caribbean swaying Palm Trees hey.
Ultimately, if you are providing the results, you don’t come under such intense scrutiny. England just haven’t made it happen this time.
Worst case scenario – Ashes contest over before Christmas. Yet again. A margin of 82 runs not as disastrous as it could have been. Finally a win in Melbourne, fifteen long years in the making. 15. Let that sink in.
I am over the moon Joe Root has scored a 100 Down Under. I am devastated that the England Cricket Team just are not good enough as a unit at the moment. After all the analysis, there have been some stand out quotes :
Isa Guha – “This is a Nightmare”.
Sir Alistair Cook – “It’s just a game of cricket”.
Two days. Not for 104 years has an Ashes Test been over in two days. All the hype and it’s a two day affair. I’ve known Wandering teams bat for longer.
My take on it is – results are required – and Ben and Brendan have openly said that this Series will define it all. Vaughan may just like to step up if this series goes the way of the last three.
There are some good stats and diagrams showing that our key batsmen are just getting out chasing balls they should be leaving well alone. Move feet in Brisbane – please!
This is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the game and the finances and players behind it. There are some surprises unearthed and some obvious home truths.
Statistics for breakfast. Regression Analysis for lunch, and IPL / NBA comparing and contrasting for post clubbing bacon butty.
I liked it. Even for a lifetime cricket fan, there were many facts and figures that were totally new to me. It deserves MCC Book of the Year 2023 imho. The front cover picture which is half cricket ball, half metal cogs and mechanism is spot on. It’s an intricate, warp and weft account. Admittedly at times I did think I could be in a sterile board room looking over Profit and Loss spreadsheets, but just as it’s a learned skill to read a scorebook, it is a learned skill to understand money. The book (as its title suggets) unearths the anatomy of the (modern) great game.
Once we’ve moved on from the well trodden, time worn conversations and observations about State/Private school provisions and the chances of becoming a Batsman or Bowler (Stuart Broad here can be classed with the Great Don as being what Mathematicians would call an [out and out] ‘outlier’), we move towards how scoring rates have changed.
One of my favourite lines in the book? “It is a myth that the rise in run rates in Test cricket was influenced by T20. Instead, the surge in Test scoring rates foreshadowed the invention of the new format”. Deep praise, for the pinnacle of the purest of formats. Naturally, all this is backed up by diagrams even the FT would be proud of. But really, reading between the lines of a ‘Head and Shoulders’ time graph, it all just boils down to Adam Gilchrist of Australia.
There are great insights into how the women’s game was originally an integral part of the fabric and how Afghan refugees are bringing Cricket to Germany. I note they are still laburing in position 35, when the Top 20 (in T20) was originally part of the rhetoric, but they are a long way off Mongolia in position 94. It’s a book that subscribes to the ‘PEE’ way of writing : Point, Evidence, Explain, and as such it’s worked out the exam formula and gets an A minus. A few more amusing anecdotes wouldn’t go a-Dennis Amiss but making money isn’t usually a business of gags and jokes.
There are published IPL salaries, although interestingly Moeen Ali’s take-home pay from the Royal Challenger’s Bangalore is listed as [unknown]. I wonder why? None of any of this is possible without the paying public, and a population that is willing to play. The latter is partly why Bangladesh have entered the Test arena and Kenya not (yet).
Will you be ‘purring with pleasure’ as the Mail on Sunday suggests as you read it? Possibly. The Economics of the Leather and Willow will continue for a long while to come.
A whizz bang trip to Reigate CC. We stumbled upon this beautiful Scorebox donated to the club by Cricket fan Sir Jeremiah Colman of the renowned condiment business.
Sutton won on runrate during a rain affected game.
Unlike the frequent cartwheeling stumps, Bashir’s ball dribbled between Siraj’s legs and onto the stumps to gently dislodge the bail for an England victory with India a perilously close 22 runs short in the final session of play. Jadeja left stranded on 61*. What a match. To be there on Days 4 and 5 was as engrossing as it gets. 2-1 Eng in the series. To Old Trafford.
Forty years ago (give or take) I was given ‘The Character of Cricket’ by delightful neighbours. It has sat on various shelves over these past four decades – occasionally picked up, often Paul Cox’s illustrations were mulled over, but the artistry of Tim Heald’s words gathered patience and galvanised there on those shelves.
Like some of the very best things in life, it quietly just got better with age. Finally, I have got round to reading it. In the summer of 1985 Tim Heald toured England and Wales visiting County Grounds and many other pitches.
I enjoyed reading about St.Helen’s, Swansea, and was inspired to look at a bird’s eye view of the key hole shaped ground (Rugger in the Winter, Cricket in the Summer) on the internet, what can possibly be finer than a cricket pitch by the sea? No wonder Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers of the Caribbean felt in the groove and plonked his six sixes over the boundary ropes there.
There are some sweet anecdotes of Prep School, Public school and Oxford University (The Parks) cricket. It is a land of Morgans, English country gardens, Stately Homes, Boaters and Debutantes. Although to set things on an even keel, the late Tim Heald does (presumably for the sake of journalism rather than a longing to luxuriate in) visit Indoor Quick cricket in less salubrious environs.
I have savoured every page of this book all these years down the track. And speaking of tracks, the penultimate chapter, Trantridge Hardy and the chapter’s closing sentence are a true mark of the man. Vintage.
