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The astounding cricket played by England and Australia has not only rejuvenated the 123 year old Ashes competition, it’s also demonstrated that the five Test series is one of the supreme forms of spectator sport available on earth today.
New column by Mike Marqusee in Wednesday’s Guardian, and reproduced on his own blog, praising the current Ashes series.
Geraint Jones, Blessing Mahwire and Tapash Baisya are among the shock omissions from the thirteen-man ICC World XI chosen to play Australia in a six-day exhibition game at the Sydney Cricket Ground in October. Continue reading “Geraint, Blessing, World snub shock”
ODIs do not need fixing – Smith
(News 24 via UCBSA website, 15.8.05)
Another reason why Graeme Smith will never be the captain Hansie Cronje was…
Deja vu all over again? Maybe. But England’s two-run victory over Australia in the women’s one-day international at Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday was a quite historic occasion. Continue reading “England defeat Australia by two runs”
It happens every time the Prince of Wales gets married. In 1981, within weeks of Charles’ wedding to Diana, a young tearaway called Ian Botham marked the occasion by leading England to a stunning set of victories over Australia at cricket.
– Matthew Engel, Financial Times, 19.8.05
Proof that even Matthew Engel can talk bollocks sometimes. Or does he? Continue reading “Beautiful game rises from the Ashes”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/aug/20/media.cricket
Thought-provoking opinion piece in today’s Guardian by former New Statesman editor Peter Wilby on the controversy over English Test cricket TV rights. Wilby argues that Government intervention to keep Test cricket on free-to-air television would be inappropriate. “But sport is just entertainment, for heaven’s sake.”
When I heard that SBS would be televising the Ashes this year, I wondered how they would reconcile cricket with the multicultural requirements of their charter. Continue reading “Save Your Legs! SBS Sunday 8.30pm”
Players came together to celebrate wickets in the same manner that accountants gather to discuss a book-keeping oddity and the tiny band of Indian supporters waving their national flag allowed it to droop in confusion when Shahid Afridi and Kumar Sangakkara teamed up to dismiss Nicky Boje.
– Neil Manthorp, CricInfo, 17.8.05
If it finishes with a winning margin of two runs then it must be The Greatest Game Ever. Right? Wrong. Continue reading “Victory by two runs in the Greatest Afro-Asian ODI Ever”
While the Asian XI appeared overjoyed about playing with each other, the South African team that charitably took in two Kenyans to give an all-Africa feel to the outfit, behaved like they were on a long-overdue trip to the dentist.
– Ranajit Dam, CricInfo, 17.8.05
It’s a Wednesday in the middle of winter in Centurion. So why aren’t the South African fans thronging in their thousands to see the latest figment of Jagmohan Dalmiya’s cash register… er, imagination? Continue reading “Real Midwinter cricket as Africa meets Asia”
The ever-diligent Rajneesh Gupta notes that Australia has now had more sixes struck against them in the current Test series than in any previous series. And that with two matches to play.
England has clobbered 26 sixes over the ropes thus far in the 2005 Ashes, beating the 23 struck by the South Africans of 1966-67 at higher altitudes.
There’s some undocumented stats that could probably help explain this phenomenon better: (i) the dimensions of the playing area for each Test; (ii) the weight of the bats used in hitting those sixes.