All Change
What's that clattering sound? Journalists jumping on a bandwagon perhaps? A couple of weeks ago the criticism of the England team following the defeat at Lords was really rather vicious. It was articles like this one, in particular (spectacularly ill-informed, ignoring England's recent record run of victories) which made me want to start this blog. OK, so I really didn't expect England to win at Edgbaston, but I did think it was way too early to write the team off. The criticism of Ashley Giles was particularly harsh (does David Houghton really think that he's not showing disrespect for the King of Spain by saying that he's a waste of space?!). It was interesting to see an article by Justin Langer this morning, with the title "Giles is the key to home success". Even I think he may be exaggerating with that one.
I imagine that old Ashley is probably getting pretty excited about the prospect of a raging turner up at Old Trafford, but it seems that the pitch might actually turn out to be hard, fast and bouncy, favouring pace. How good would that be? The Australians will be reinforcing their helmets. Not that I have a bloodlust, you understand, but there's no more thrilling sight in cricket than fast bowling, as far as I'm concerned, and Warne might not take ten wickets, although bounce would favour legspin too, of course.
Following my comments about the respective merits of Botham and Flintoff, it was good to see one journalist (at least) agree with me, complete with stats (Botham's career actually tailed off mmore than I thought it had).
Viv Richards, however, seems to think that Roger Harper and Eldine Baptiste were better bowlers than Shane Warne. Oh dear.
Finally, just in case this linktastic post has given the (very false) impression that my favourite newspapers are the Times and the Telegraph (only the cricket, only online), then here's proof in the Guardian, if further proof were needed, that Ray Illingworth's brain really is made of cheese. I can't really believe that the Test against Pakistan at Headingley in 1971 was quite as amazing as the one we've just seen.
I imagine that old Ashley is probably getting pretty excited about the prospect of a raging turner up at Old Trafford, but it seems that the pitch might actually turn out to be hard, fast and bouncy, favouring pace. How good would that be? The Australians will be reinforcing their helmets. Not that I have a bloodlust, you understand, but there's no more thrilling sight in cricket than fast bowling, as far as I'm concerned, and Warne might not take ten wickets, although bounce would favour legspin too, of course.
Following my comments about the respective merits of Botham and Flintoff, it was good to see one journalist (at least) agree with me, complete with stats (Botham's career actually tailed off mmore than I thought it had).
Viv Richards, however, seems to think that Roger Harper and Eldine Baptiste were better bowlers than Shane Warne. Oh dear.
Finally, just in case this linktastic post has given the (very false) impression that my favourite newspapers are the Times and the Telegraph (only the cricket, only online), then here's proof in the Guardian, if further proof were needed, that Ray Illingworth's brain really is made of cheese. I can't really believe that the Test against Pakistan at Headingley in 1971 was quite as amazing as the one we've just seen.
posted by djbrd at 8:15 am
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