Mickey Arthur Shocked By Aussie Performances
And he’s the coach, so surely he’s shocked at himself as well. The story is here on the BBC web site.
Mitchell Johnson’s Nightmare
It seems Mitchell Johnson‘s tour is not going well and this article in the Daily Mail is a good bit of fun. This is the first couple of paragraphs.
A low-grade rumble went round The Oval on Sunday afternoon. It was the sound of schadenfreude, which until then had always felt like a concept, not a noise. But Mitchell Johnson had just overstepped in his first over – and few things titillate an English crowd more than a Johnson transgression.
Johnson is usually a self-contained problem, a pet project that Cricket Australia keeps telling us is almost there (and God help the rest of the world when he finally cracks it). But on Sunday he was symptomatic. And it was curious to watch.
There’s a lot more in the same vein.
The Australians Have Called For The Bus
It’s just gone six and there is at least 30 minutes to go. But the Aussies have had enough, so they’ve called up the team bus.
It looks like they’ll lose by eight wickets. Even the two video replays haven’t helped.
England Give Australia A Good Polishing
As if Friday’s pasting with a lot of help from an Irish dwarf wasn’t enough, they got supremely polished by England on Sunday. Sadly, England will have to shuffle the pack as two of their team, have got to go to a funeral.
Apparently, Australia are doing special deals on the trains to Edgbaston. If the match finishes early, you can take any train home.
Never Pick A Fight With Small Irishmen
It’s an old maxim amongst experienced police officers, but the smaller the guy you’re trying to arrest, the more backup you need.
Australia forgot this yesterday and Eoin Morgan and England put another team from down-under on the barbie,
So Australia mpve on the Oval one match down to England, and a man short too, as Cummins is going home.
England Against Ukraine at Cricket
Radio 5 has announced this morning that an English touring cricket club is in Ukraine. Apparently there are eight cricket clubs in Kiev.
I can’t help being reminded of the very funny Michael Bentine sketch, where he was taking cricket to the natives, in some unnamed country. The last line as he held up a box, was.
And this is 27s. and 6d.
Classic humour from the only Peruvian born in Watford.
Staffordshire’s Finest
Yesterday BBC Radio 5 Live had a big day out at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium. Apparently, the warm up comedian was Heening Wehn, who describes himself as the German Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain. Then there was an edition of Fighting Talk.
One of the first questions was about who was Staffordshire’s finest sportsman.
The panel went on to choose the obvious, Stanley Matthews, the football legend.
But the greatest sportsman from the county only got a passing reference.
Sydney Barnes was an amazing cricketer, who many pundits reckon was the greatest bowler ever. This is John Arlott’s view of his bowling.
He bowled right arm fast-medium but also had what Arlott called “the accuracy, spin and resource of a slow bowler”. Barnes’ high delivery provided him with a lift off the pitch that forced even the best batsmen to play him at an awkward height. He was clever at concealing his pace and could produce deliveries that were both appreciably faster and slower than his usual fast-medium pace; and could bowl an effective yorker.
In other words, he could bowl just about anything. Even the Australian, Richie Benaud, included him in his greatest cricket team of all time.
Like Matthews he was still playing at an advanced age. I saw a documentary about Barnes in the 1960s and at the age of around 90, he was still working for the local council. He must have been a remarkable man.
What It Is About Stuart?
Broad, Lancaster and Pearce
Can we have ever had three England captains or managers with the same first name?
Fighting the Devil
Jonny Bairstow has effectively won the last one-day international for England at Cardiff tonight on his debut. England were up against it, when he started his innings, but 41 runs from just 21 balls got England home. At the end, Rahul Dravid, the former Indian captain, warmly congratulated him, for what he had done.
Cricket is a warm compact sport and I suspect that all the Indian players knew of Jonny’s father, David Bairstow, who took his own life in 1998.
India Goes Barmy
My next door neighbour was once a retired British Army Colonel. After visiting India and seeing the rehearsal for the Republic Day ceremony in New Delhi, I said it was the best military ceremony, I’d seen and that included quite a bit of the Guards in London.
He said it was debatable, whether the Indians copied us in this field or we copied them. It doesn’t really matter, as a good spectacle is always a good spectacle.
So now after a disappointing summer for their cricketers, Charaan Shetty has launched the Indian Cricket Dundee, which is talked about in the Times today as an Indian version of the England’s Barmy Army.
The Anonymous Widower 