I have really enjoyed listening to the Trinidadian commentator Fazeer Mohammed during the West Indies series. Really enthusiastic, with great knowledge and a sense of humour. At one point during the Headingly test he started singing a calypso!
I love cricket but I really don’t want to listen to just ex-players, because mostly these days they are boring. Thinking about it, listening to test matches on the radio with my dad first got me into the game. I have a feeling that TMS was better then and certainly didn’t suffer by having a mix of people from all walks of British life. In fact, the posh pro -broadcasters Jonners and Henry Blofeld rubbing shoulders with the likes of Fred Truman, John Arlott and Trevor Bailey et,al gave it it’s flavour.
I enjoy test cricket but I do get the impression that aside from the Indians (when playing at home) no nation is particularly good at it at the moment. Certainly not when compared to the Australian side of the 90’s or indeed the West Indies side of the 80’s. Is that a fair assessment?
Sounds fair to me. India at home are different class. We’ll see how they cope with English conditions next summer, but I still think thy’ll be extremely hard to beat.
The Ashes this winter should be great entertainment. I think the two sides are pretty evenly matched and one or two individual performances are likely to be the difference.
I don’t see any current test team that would rival the great WI or Oz sides that you mention. They won wherever and whoever they played. To be mentioned in the same breath, India have to dominate away from home.
As an aside the footings for our extension are currently being dug by hand by Tom, a ground worker from our village. Tom’s lad is currently at Eton, he watched some TV programme, liked what he saw, applied and won a scholarship and now boards all free of charge.
Agree with that. Blowers etc used to describe the scene, the buses, pigeons, lady in red dress etc. The stories about ex players are mildly interesting for the first dozen times you hear them.
The old team were / are legends. Hopefully the new ones will evolve into a more interesting style like Phil Tufnell has. But at the end of the day, anyone but Boycott.
Given the more than slightly odd touring party selected and the unavailability for selection of Stokes (and Hales) the Ashes tour this winter/Strayan summer has a certain odour of imminent train wreck about it. I imagine that the Strayan press will be very sympathetic. The cricket section of the Courier Mail in Brisbane (a noted hotbed of thoughtful journalism) doesn’t seem to have noticed the story at all.
I have just seen the video on the BBC news.
If that is Stokes in the video (and it certainly looks like him) he woill be lucky to escape prison, let alone play for England again.
But when we have the courts not imposing a prison sentence for ABH on a girl because she was too bright for prison I expect he will get a fine and miss the England tour, go to India for a nice little earner in the IPL and come back as if nothing has happened.
England XI: Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (capt), Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes
Hmmm, some inexperience there!
Without Stokes I really fear for England and I didn’t have an awful lot of hope before he punched that guy’s lights out. Australia are flawed too of course but if they can keep their seamers fit and firing, I think they will have more than an edge with home advantage and all.
No but he is a serious competitor in pretty much every discipline of the game. He is the best fielder and a superb bat and is capable of match winning spells of bowling. His abscence leaves a huge hole.
