So, the debate around whether players and playing too much has recently reared its head again, with speculation around that Kevin Pietersen wanting three-months off at some stage to recuperate and recharge his batteries.
Was was apparent when watching England v West Indies on Sky Sports today (well played Windies, shame the weather truncated what could have been a classic) is that Mike Atherton could be in need of a rest.
Athers is a legend, and I spent my teenage years admiring one of the finest English batsmen of his generation, but – be it overwork, illness or just the fact that he was flanked by two younger chaps – Athers looked worn out. Is he the first possible victim of commentator burn out?
Wow. Do England have just upset the apple-cart by beating a lacklustre India and kocking them out of the tournament.
Collingwood’s boys do need to back it up and put another good performance in against the West Indies tomorrow. Its going to be an intriguing contest.
Back to the England v India game. What impressed me was the way England out-pysched their opponents. All the talk ahead of the game was that England would bomb the Indian batsmen, and they did.
Sidebottom got into the Indian’s with short stuff, and – seemingly scared of how their gun player would perform against a pumped up England attack with a fairly new ball – dropped Youvraj Singh down the order.
The inexperience top order stuttered, and what should have been a cakewalk for the uber-talented Indian line up became a stuggle.
When Youraj eventually got to the wicket he needed to score at 12+ an over, Foster’s smart glovework off Swann saw off the dangerman, and – despite some late hitting getting them closer than they looked likely to – England got the result they were after.
So, England v South Africa. Well, Wayne Parnell bowled very tidely up front, but the real cracker jack for the Saffas was Jaques Kallis, who touched 90mph with his bowling and then scored at a run-a-ball to see his side home.
Have to admit that they did field very well indeed too, with Van Der Lawnmower pulling of a tremendous catch to see off KP. We weren’t great with the bat or ball.
Trent Bridge - decent venue
Trent Bridge is a decent venue these days, and we didn’t have to queue long at all at the Trent Bridge Inn. The advertising in the ground was all aimed at the Indian TV audience and the dancers seemed to be not particularly motivated.
Anyone else going to Trent Bridge tomorrow should be aware that there is a complete ban on spectators taking booze into the cricket. This is because – after paying upwards of £40 a ticket – they want to make a killing on the bar sales too.
The Village Cricketer is tomorrow jumping on the train to Trent Bridge to watch Ireland v New Zealand and England v South Africa in the ICC T20. Will report in depth once I’ve sobered up.
Now that’s more like it. A thumping victory over Pakistan means that England now qualify for the next stage, despite what happens when Holland play Pakistan. Pakistan needs to hammer Holland to get through on net run rate.
Very timely look-a-likey here. Both tall, blonde and feminine.
On one hand we have Apprentice star, Apprentice finalist and possible Apprentice winner Kate Walsh. The Apprentice final is tonight and tasty Kate will be up against Yasmina Siadatan to hear Sir Alan Sugar say “you’re hired.”
On the other hand we have Stuart Broad. Effective executor of the innovative and effective round-the-wicket-at-the-death ploy, although not quite so effective at the hitting-the-stumps-with-the-ball-when-attempting-a-run-out ploy. Young Stuart will be competing today to keep England in the T20 Cricket World Cup in a must win match against Pakistan.
I’ve been an England cricket fan as long as I can remember. I’ve always wanted and expected wins, and became obsessive about following England’s progress since the South African’s toured here in 1994.
I’ve seen some highs and many lows. I’ve coped with Neil Smith puking on the pitch and the Sri Lankan pinch-hitters humiliating us in the 1996 World Cup. I’ve coped with us failing to bowl out the Windies as the umpires refused to give any LBWs in the first (or was it second) match of the tour of the Caribbean in 1998, as well as the collapse that preempted Atherton’s resignation in the last match. I’ve coped with us losing to the Kiwis in 1999, further piss poor World Cups in 1999, 2003 and 2007 and failing to chase down the Zimbos score in Harare in 1996/7. I’ve even coped with the batting collapse that led to Australia winning the Adelaide test in 2006.
Even throughout all of this humiliation, I remained confident that we’d beat the minnows. The closest we have come in recent years to losing to a non-test playing nation was when an 18-year-old Baz Zuiderant slapped our boys around the sub-continent in the 1996 World Cup.
Now, we were – supposedly – piss poor in those days. These days we have quality players and momentum, with ODI, T20 and Test success in recent months, and consider ourselves to be a decent side. Tonight we lost to Holland + Dirty Dirk. Dirty Dirk, to be fair, didn’t even do that much. It was the repo man, the restaurateur and the insurance broker that did the damage. Its the equivalent of Matlock Town beating Manchester Utd in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.
Its a mighty f*ck up and deeply embarrassing. We – the highly paid pros – bottled it on numerous occasions and let the village cricketing ICC associate nation of Holland humiliate us. Oh deary deary me.
