England get out of jail in the cricket world cup again!

Another stuttering Cricket World Cup performance from a completely over-cooked England team leading to another nail-biting and highly unlikely win snatched from the jaws of defeat.

Stephen Fry on cricket

Stephen Fry making a speech about cricket :

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. It is an honour to stand before so many cricketing heroes from England and from Australia and at this, my favourite time of year. The time when that magical summer sound comes to our ears and gladdens our old hearts, the welcome sound of leather on Graham Swann.

I have been asked to say a few words - well more than a few. “You’ve twenty minutes to fill,” I was firmly told by the organisers. 20 minutes. Not sure how I’ll use all that time up. Perhaps in about ten minutes or so Andrew Strauss would be kind enough to send on a a physio, that should kill a bit of time.

Now, many of you will be wondering by what right I presume to stand and speak in front of this assembly of all that is high and fine and grand and noble and talented in the world of cricket, and to speak too in this very temple of all that is historic, majestic and ever so slightly preposterous and silly in that world? I certainly can’t lay claim to any great cricketing achievements. I can’t bat, I can’t field, I bowl off the wrong foot. That sounds like a euphemism for something else, doesn’t it? “They say he bowls off the wrong foot, know what I mean? He enters stage left. Let me put it this way, he poles from the Cambridge end of the punt.” Actually as a matter of fact, although it is true in every sense that I have always bowled off the wrong foot. I have decided, since Sunday, to go into the heterosexual breeding business. My first three sons will be called Collingwood Fry, Anderson Fry and Monty Fry. That’s if their mother can ever get them out, of course. But back to the original question you so intelligently, if rhetorically, asked. If I can’t play, what can I do? I can umpire, I suppose, after a fashion. A fashion that went out years ago around the time of those two peerless umpires, perhaps some of you are old enough to remember them, Jack Crapp and Arthur Fagg. I remember them. I remember them every morning, as a matter of fact: Crapp and Fagg. Though now, sadly, the law says we can no longer do it in public places. And I believe that may even apply to smoking too. Anyway. We were on the subject of why I’m speaking to you. I don’t play. I’m not even a cricketing commentator, journalist or writer. I suppose the only right I have to be amongst you, the cricketing élite, might derive from my being said to represent, here in the Long Room, all those who have spent their lives loving the game at a safe distance from the square. It is love for the game that brings me here.

In the forty-five years that I have followed cricket, I have seen it threatened from all sides by the horrors of modern life. The game has been an old-fashioned blushing maiden laid siege by coarse and vulgar suitors. A courtship pattern of defence, acceptance, capitulation and finally absorption has followed. When I started watching, A. R. Lewis played for and captained England as an amateur. The game could never recover surely, from being forced, against the will of many of those who ran this place, being forced to become solely a professional sport? I am just old enough to remember too the Basil D’Oliveira affair in all its unsavoury nastiness: the filth of racism and international politics was beginning to stain the pure white of the flannels. The one-day-game appeared, shyly at first. The balance of bat and ball, essential for cricket to make any sense as a sporting spectacle, became threatened, everyone agreed, by the covering of wickets which would privilege batsman, and then that necessary equipoise was threatened the other way by the arrival of extreme pace and the pitiless bouncer. The look and style of cricketers was apparently forever compromised by helmets and elastic waisted trouserings hideous to behold. Cane and canvas pads were replaced by wipe clean nylon fastened by Velcro. Kerry Packer arrived and sowed his own blend of discord. The continuing rise and mutation of one day cricket caused panic from Windermere to Woking as white balls and coloured pyjamas threatened the sanity of Telegraph readers everywhere. Rogue South African tours caused alarm and frenzy. Pitch invasions marked an end of the days when schoolboys could lie on their tummies by the boundary-rope filling in a green scoring book, until they got bored which they inevitably did, all except the speccy swatty ones who were laughed at and are now running the world. The rest of us were too busy asking the man in the Public Announcement tent to put out a message for our lost friends Ivor Harden, Hugh Janus, Seymour Cox and Mike Hunt. One turbulent decade began with John Snow getting barracked and bombarded with tinnies and ended with batsmen getting bounced and sledged. Cameras and microphones got closer and closer to the action to overhear the insults and demystify the bowling actions. The art of spin had disappeared, for ever, some believed. Cricketers wives wrote books about the overseas tours. Reverse swing seemed to arrive out of nowhere : “Not only does he bowl off the wrong foot. They say he swings it the other way.” Ball tampering became a matter of dinner party chat from Keswick to Canterbury . Clever 3-D images were painted on the grass round about the long stop area advertising power generation companies no one had ever heard of. Advertising was not only to be seen on the grass, but on the clothes, Vodafone and Castlemaine were stitched bigger and brighter on the shirts than the three lions and the wallabies and that mysterious silver feather that Kiwis seem so unaccountably fond of.

The county game was rent asunder into leagues and divisions that no one really understands; the politics and governance of cricket, with its contracts and coaches, its bloated fixture lists and auctions of broadcasting rights caused hand-wringing too, though many would rather it were neck-wringing.

Meanwhile, drugs, drinking binges, embarrassing text messages and other scandals continued to erupt like acne on a teenager.

South Africa returned to the fold as other countries entered the club of test playing nations. Kenya, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Two of those speccy boys who used to score at the sidelines got their revenge, their names were Mr Lewis and Mr Duckworth.

To the dictionary of acronyms and initials were added ODI, T-20 and IPL. Power plays and baseball style pinch-hitters were swept in. The old lady of cricket was getting a right duffing up.

Yet, amazingly, none of these changes, professionalism, the covered wickets, helmets, day-night games, confirmed the dire prognostications of those who believed each one might hammer a stump into cricket’s fragile heart. For this same period of my cricket watching life saw some of the greatest matches in the game’s history. The 1981 and 2005 Ashes series, the Tied Test; a new aggression and boldness of stroke play that no one could disapprove of. Scoring rates went up and great batsmen emerged: Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting amongst many others. And miraculously, to keep the game balanced, Warne and Murali showed that far from being dead, spin bowling was supremely alive; even providing a new ball in the form of the doozra. Huge crowds and rising popularity in fresh territories confirmed cricket’s health. Levels of fitness and standards of fielding rocketed. And all the while, the game’s greatest expression, the 5 Day Test Match, led the way, providing the greatest entertainment, the most excitement and the deepest commitment from the players. All those mournful predictions had come to nothing. The greatest of games had triumphed again.

But now, now, in the age of the internet, just as the great, great players of the past ten years have one by one started to play their farewell matches and leave the field for ever, hideous new forces have been at work. The newly emerged South Africa became mired in scandal, intrigue and misery as the new disease of spread-betting lived up to its name and spread, spread like cholera through a slum. Grotesque emails from professional umpires hit the headlines; allegations of systematic cheating and match-fixing have become commonplace, a dismal and lamentably organised Shop Window for international cricket, its 2007 World Cup seemed to lay the game low: an incomprehensible and dreadful tragedy in the death of Bob Woolmer its ghastly and unforgettable legacy. As if that weren’t enough we were more recently treated to the embarrassing spectacle of cricket’s governors cosying up to a Texan fraudster with a helicopter and a bigger mouth than wallet.

A new kind of bitterness has entered some quarters of the game as ex-players become commentators, columnists and journalists and begin to turn on their erstwhile teammates, dispraising the current players, pouring scorn on their technique and deprecating their tactical nous. We have video of course and can see that these pundits know what they were talking about: historical archive reveals that Boycott, Botham, Gower, Atherton, Willis, and Hussein were never out playing a false shot, never shuffled across, never missed a captaincy trick, never dropped a catch, never posted a fielder in the wrong place and never bowled off line or off length in the entire course of their careers.

The benefits and the drawbacks of broadcast technology bewilder us. Hotspots and Hawkeye, referrals and replays, umpires have never been more pressured and exposed and greater more seismically structural questions have never been asked about the meaning and spirit of the game. The rewards are greater, the stakes are higher, the price of failure more public and humiliating.

So a hundred years on from cricket’s Golden Age of C. B. Fry here is another Fry, searching for a way to toast a game that appears to have become … well, toast.

We could choose to believe that and retreat into memories of an apparently innocent and gilded past. We could wash our hands of it all, or we could choose to continue to believe in the game. Not necessarily in its administrators, nor even its players, though most of them in all divisions of the game are proud and gifted. We could choose to have faith in cricket. I for one do truly believe that the game itself, as first played by shepherds in the south of England, the game that spread to every corner of the world, the supreme bat and ball competition, the greatest game ever devised, will continue to provide unimagined pleasures, that true drama will once more come centre stage, booting into the wings the tragedy and farce we have witnessed over the past decade in particular. There will be new scandals of course: that you can depend upon. Undreamt of debacles, imbroglios, furores, brouhahas, crimes, rows, walk-outs and embarrassments are waiting around the corner, quietly slipping the horseshoe into the boxing-glove and preparing to give the goddess Cricketina a sock in the jaw. But new geniuses, new historic last ball climaxes, new unimaginable heights of athletic, tactical and aesthetic pleasure await us too. It is up to the players to believe in the game and the cricketing administrators to believe in the players. But most of all it is up to us to keep the faith and be unashamed, be proud of our love of cricket. Here, in the very place that is so often called cricket’s Mecca, cathedral and temple, is the place for us all to pledge that faith. I do so happily as I raise a glass in toast, on behalf of cricket lovers everywhere to Andrew Strauss in his Benefit Year and his wonderful Team, to Ricky Ponting and his fine tourists and to cricket itself. For, to misappropriate Benjamin Franklin, Cricket is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. So then: raise your glasses, to Strauss, England, Australia and cricket.

Wow, It's just not cricket...actually it is

I'm sure there was a fair few MCC members scowling yesterday but ultimately yesterday was just a cricket carnival.

Even the most cynical of England fans would doff their caps to the Indian fans, fanatical doesn't even begin to cover it. As the Australian will attest our "Barmy Army" are no slouches either so it made for an amazingly vibrant evening. If they fail the old Tory "cricket test" then who cares.

With 153 runs under our belt I thought England were at least 20 short but in the end it was an absolutely enthralling finish.

So chuffed England won, this tournament is really catching fire now, England have an extremely difficult job on their hands later today but after yesterday anything is possible. Hope some of those Indian cricket fans will revert to plan b and support us now.

England press self-destruct button

Can ANYONE tell me the point of this :

Pietersen resigns of England captain

Kevin Pietersen has left his position as England captain in the wake of the row between him and coach Peter Moores.

BBC Sport understands Moores will also leave his post, although it is unclear whether they have quit or been sacked.

"Pietersen gave an ultimatum to the ECB saying 'sack the coach or I go'," BBC sports editor Mihir Bose told 5 Live.

"The ECB has said 'we value you as captain but we don't take dictation from you'. So they accepted his ultimatum and he has suffered."

Bose added: "Moores' position has become untenable so he goes.

"The managing director of the ECB, Hugh Morris, had been talking to various people and there was the feeling that Pietersen lost the support of members in the dressing room."

Both their jobs were rumoured to be under threat following an emergency meeting of the England and Wales Cricket Board on Tuesday evening.

This is just ridulous...a completely artificial crisis coming out of absolutely nothing. What is the point of the two of them going now in the lead up to The Ashes?

More dirty laundry

Flintoff drunk during Ashes practice

"Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has said a training session was cancelled because Andrew Flintoff was under the influence of alcohol.

The incident happened during last winter's Ashes tour to Australia where Flintoff was captain.

Fletcher told the Daily Mail: "You just hope the players do not let you down. Sadly Flintoff did.

'We arranged a fielding practice in Sydney. He turned up still under the influence of alcohol.'"

Whilst yesterday I said you should never do you dirty washing public this probably did need to come out...Pretty appalling really.

Botham & Boycott are a pair of pests

Fletcher rounds on pundits

This seems a touch un-necessary....any chance of any dignity in sport. I know you've all got books to flog and everything but come on.

England in one-day shock

Ie. we won another series...fantastic work. Great to see the new boys coming to the fore. A bit of optimism? We'll know when the tests roll round. Bring it on.

England secure series win against Sri Lanka





Love it that Sri Lanka are sponsored by Dilmah...it's our favourite tea in the world!

Balls

Hot on the heals on Lancashire's disappointment Everton & Waterloo both lose at the weekend. *Pout*.

Judging the mood of the Evertonians I know I am fearful or another Villareal effect if we don't turn it round in the second leg against Metalist. I hope not 'cause it was a cripplingly depressing season two years ago. Again, depsite being talked of as shangri-la European football might well turn into a poison challice for Everton.

Villa V Everton

Speaking of poison challice's Waterloo's recovery from being poisoned (Ie going up into National Division One) is stuttering with a bonus point loss to Henley...sounds like ill discipline cost them dearly. A win there would have put us well and truely underway....hope we can sort it out at Blundelsands on Saturday.

Henley V Waterloo.

Whilst that was dampening my spirits the final of the Twenty20 world cup was proving totally compelling. India V Pakistan was the dream final...a derby between the two most cricket obsessed nations on earth. Brilliant stuff...It went right to the wire and was impossibly to call right upto the very end. Congrats to India in winning what has been a tremendous competition. Looks like it's been well & truly hyped up over there :

Indian Reaction

No more special one

Wow really shocked at this

Jose Mourinho leaves Chelsea

You've got to love Jose...Arrogant, possibly. Honest, most of the time. Entertaining, always. The premiership will be duller without him. I suppose it's what happens when you do a deal with the devil. Abramovitch was always going to take over slowly. Can't see this director of football guy commanding anywhere near the same loyalty from the spine of that Chelsea team somehow. Anyway this is the BBC's Jose quote anthology

This is pretty impressive :

666666 > .66666

Yuvraj Singh smacks 6 sixes in an over completely eclipsing Dimi Mascheranas hitting him for 5 sixes last week. The icing on the ignomany cake really. The Twenty20 World Cup is proving to be a great tournament, just a pity we don't seem capable of mounting a challenge in limited overs cricket.

The tournament has been made bearable for me by those lovely people at the "Out of the Ashes: Lovers of English Cricket" facebook group. Thanks for the banter chaps and uber-thanks to Swotty Mel & Ceci for their Collingwood photoshops :

*sigh*

God that was a pitiful start to the weekend's sport :

Australia 136-2 (14.5 overs) bt England 135 (20 overs) by eight wickets

Not good at all....they basically made mincemeat of us. You almost expected that Australia were going to put us out. If anyone could have done it (136 from 9 overs required to destroy our run rate) it's them. These Twenty20 specialists really need to up their game otherwise the wilderness awaits. Our only compensation is that Australia's guernsey style attire is more embarressing than our team's performances...



and so to the rugby :

England 0 - 36 South Africa

It's difficult to know where to begin...ultimately England are so far behind the rest of the field it's untrue. We truly worth our current world ranking of 7th. The performance on Friday was that of a minnow desperately trying to live with vastly superior opposition and should be judged as such.



The picture above is of the only two people who can hold their heads up. Robinson was the only player who put in a world class performance and basically he ran himself into retirement. Lewsey was his usual self but him and Billy Whizz couldn't do it on their own. The rest of them played right into South Africa's hands all game. This world cup is proving to be a depressing one but to be honest I didn't really expect much else.

Big games tomorrow

BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | English | England v South Africa (Fri):

"With Jonny Wilkinson and Olly Barkley both sidelined, Mike Catt, 36 on Monday, will start at fly-half, with Andy Farrell alongside him as a second playmaker and the team's principal goal-kicker."

Common sense has prevailed there I think but still not too happen with a 36 year old with a bad back as our fly-half. Ultimately I think this game is irrelevant for England...it pains me to say it but I just don't think we are capable of winning.

England did well to hold Zimbabwe at bay today at the Twenty20 World Cup...looked a bit dicey at one stage...didn't want to go the same way as Australia. KP did his magic and the required run-rate was always going to be challenging for the Zimbabweans. I was just wondering about Mascheanas' bowling when he made the breakthrough for us. Australia tomorrow...a win would put them out. That would be nice.

Midweek aceness

Another great night to be a sports fan...more entertaining matches in the rugby world cup which really is shaping up well. The less established nations are giving great accounts of themselves and the crowds seem to be having the time of their lives. Highlights are available here.

It seems that England are going to take to the field on Friday with *drum roll* Andy Farrell at fly-half. The man is more than capable of putting in a performance but surely if this was was our fall-back position for what is one of the most key postions on the pitch (a position seemingly cursed with injury) then we should have blooded him before now. Personally I think he's capable of doing it...never forget his record in rugby league. It's just you need to be a natural in that position rather than a stop-gap. Sometimes with Farrell you can almost see him going through the decision process in his mind (This is to be expected with his amount of experience playing at this level). At stand-off you need to be instinctive. We'll see anyway...The South Africans fill me with trepidation. Rightly or wrongly this will be a grudge match for them after 2003 and they look bang on form.

Down in the cricket Twenty20 world cup Zimbabwe gave us all a checkle by beating Australia in the thriller.

BBC Report




I know it sounds petty but I will always love to see the Australians getting beat...we'll see if England go a similar way today when we play the Zimbabweans.

At 8pm turned over for England V Russia...great performance from England. Russia were very lively in attack but England looked really well balanced for once and it was just basically an impressive job-done type performance. No fireworks just beating the opposition all ends up. McClaren has GOT to stick with those players now. Lampard simply cannot come back into the midfield now that Barry & Gerrard are looking such a good combination, same goes for Heskey and Owen. We just looked really well set-up...it's something that looked a million miles away againt Andorra a few months ago.

BBC Report



Whilst that was going on news was coming through that the Scots were winning against France in Paris and so I spent the last 20 minutes of the England match anxiously checking teletext. That was a monumental result for them...McFadden scored an absolute pearler...what with that and the goal he scored at the weekend (and his two goal of the season awards for Everton) he seems to be turning into the classic scorer of good goals (as opposed to the good goal scorer).

BBC Report

0-1 McFadden
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Great days

Ah does it get better than this :

Important games in footy, rugby and cricket on the one day. Our apetite had been well and truly whetted by Argentina's fantastic performance against France the night before...they really worked themselves into the ground for that. It was so good to see a nation that's basically been cast adrift by the powers that be come good. Again as at Twickenham last year they did it with quiet dignity...the epitome of being a good winner. So onto Saturday

England V India

England V USA

England V Israel

Who could ask for me...I resisted the temptation to put a treble on the three of them seeing as the odds would be so rubbish. Had some some my bro and some friends round and watched the footy with the rugby on a portable tv with the volume turned down (we also had the cricket updating on teletext 'cause we've got no Sky).

Thoroughly enjoyable although the rugby seemed a wee bit tortuous...they'll be lucky to get out of the group playing like that I'm afraid. Barkley and Ress impressed, Lewsey and Farrell did okay....not a lot else to be happy about. South Africa look scarilly good and on the evidence showed so far in the tournament Samoa could give us big problems. As a footnote it was great to see ex-Waterloo scrum-half Chad Erskine playing for the USA in the world cup.

In the footy it was just a good day at the office. Richards looks the business, chuffed he got a goal. Wright-Phillips took his well and Owen's was something really special....job done. If we can get a result against Russia on Wednesday we are back on an even keel.

Mad-dog and glory?

Looking back there's not been much cricket in the blog this summer....it's been pretty turgid and up & down. Loads of injuries and flashes of brilliance dulled by long periods of averageness.



It's warrants mentioning however tonight's tremendous 8th wicket stand by Broad and Bopara to swing the one dayers round England's way.

Broad smiles all round

Bad news for poor David Beckham though...just as he looks certain to get the caps he needs for his tonne he get's a knee injury. He's really pulling his tripe out at the moment ans I suppose something had to give eventually.

Beckham misses England qualifiers

And finally Everton have replaced the potential Frenandes signing with Thomas Gravesen...


much as we loved Mad-dog it's fair to say that is less positive a-move. Still a loan move can't really go wrong, he was a superstar in that final year of his contract. I don't blame him for going to Real, I just hope he comes back with some of the hunger with which he left. If we can get into the UEFA group stage then he'll be very valuable to us. Plus he was such a popular character with the fans that he'll get everyone bouncing.

Tommy returns

It's going to be tricky with him, AJ and Carsley in the team though.

England v West Indies

England beat West Indies to clinch the series

Kudos to the Windies for making England srap all the way for that win...what an odd, odd run of form Steve Harmison is having.

England on the way back?

BBC Report

Beckham and Owen returning for England seems to be making a real difference. Solid, professional performance last night. Some fantastic delivery from Beckham. All of a sudden they just look brighter.



Thank God.

The cricketers are attempting to wrap up the series today but are being dogged by a storm in a tea-cup started by Michael Vaughan. Can't really see the big deal in mentioning the effect the Fredallo incident had on team moral but it's making for a messy row going into an important game.

Vaughan V Flintoff?

Everyone V Vaughan

Vaughan V The Guardian

Ultimately however this series will say more about the West Indies than it will about England.

and the winner is...

BBC SPORT | Cricket | Gilchrist stars in Aussie Cup win

So basically the world's longest presentation ceremony comes to an end. No-one even got near the Aussies. The final ended somewhat farcically but ultimately, from the outset of the competition all those weeks ago, there was only ever going to be one winner.

If I were going to be ultra picky the way the final ended with Sri Lanka chasing runs in rain and then near darkness meant there was never any chance of an upset. If the weather's not good enough then play it the next day...simple



This is a minor, minor niggle. No-one can say the Aussies were head & shoulders above everyone else.



England, at best, marked time throughout the tournament...never looked like putting together any real form after the Sri Lanka defeat. Pity as it would be nice to have all three world cups under our belts.

Dismal England knocked out of Cup

Dismal England knocked out of Cup

Ugh! Don't really want to get into a rant about it all. Grim, grim, grim. Utterly dissapointing.



:(:(:(

All we hope for now is that someone stops the Aussies.

South Africa beat Sri Lanka....just

BBC SPORT | Cricket | Last-gasp S Africa beat Sri Lanka

4 wickets in 4 balls for Inga the slinga! Amazing stuff.

The cricket world cup is now hotting up...hopefully the Bob Woolmer murder won't be all it's remembered for. The folks in the Caribean deserve better than that. I don't hold much hope for England but who knows. Australia are looking ominous...England, the South Africans and the Windies don't look capable of stopping them, with Pakistan and India already home it might fall to the Kiwis. Anyone but Australia will do me!

Cheltenham

Well I know absolutely nothing about racing but Paddy Power gave me a free £10 bet which I lumped onto Kauto Star in the Gold Cup. I only got 13/8 but as they say never look a gift horse in the mouth. Go raibh mile maith agat



Hope to get to Chester again this year...that was an absolutely top, top day out.



Over in the West Indies England were put into bat by NZ....looked like a very useful toss to win. Early rain means it's nipping about all over the place.

Ireland v Zimbabwe

BBC SPORT | Cricket | Live - Ireland v Zimbabwe:

Weirdest wicket ever? : "As Matsi smashes a drive back at the umpire, bowler McCallan mis-fields straight onto the stumps. Taylor can't believe it.".

That was a truly tremendous game. Zimbabwe were cruising 'til that freak wicket...then Ireland turned the screw so they needed 9 off 6...them the Zimbabweans got it back to one of one but a last ball run-out meant a tie. Fantastic result for the Irish and an honourable mention to Zimbabwe for hold their nerve. Proper Vitae Lampada stuff. I wonder if this'll mean The Irish will switch from Mode B (Lovable, plucky minnows who are happy enough just to be there and very probably don't even care about the game in question) to Mode A (proud, chest beating Celtic warriors).



I was going to construct a Bjørge Lillelie type response but talk of Zimbabwean politicians taking one hell of a beating might be a bit of a faux pas given recent events.

Earlier we had a 14 ball over "A flurry of wides then saw Hurdle take 14 balls to complete his second over,"

At least it wasn't Bermuda's big hero Dwayne Leverock...



...Partly 'cause of his unathletic build he's become a bit of an overnight cult hero after he took a flurry of wickets in England's warm up game.

Look forward to seeing how this tournament will unfold for England. Big game tomorrow if they are going to progress.

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