A cracking 12 months of Test cricket. Two close series win at home for England, with some good individual performances (Crawley 267/Jimmy's 600th wicket) and a great comeback in the fourth innings vs Pakistan when it seemed we were destined to collapse.
Then there was a second whitewash of Sri Lanka on the trot with Root finally putting in some consistent performances with the bat and our two wily seamers taking wickets on alien, Asian pitches.
Add on Pakistan finally playing Test series IN Pakistan (South Africa are playing a series there) and India's crazy series win in Australia. Plenty of brickbats being thrown around the Australian media at the moment about the team and their coach Justin Langer.
Oh, and no pitches that were absolute roads. See what happens when you have an equal contest between bat and ball?
England start their tour of India next week and it's going to be interesting.
Yes, Rick, condolences. I remember Rod being behind the stumps when I was watching the Ashes in the school holidays and quite admired his tenacity, persisting in the teeth of a difficult start to his test career, which of course we watched gleefully. Shane Warne is undeniably a cricketing immortal, and to lose them in the same week is a bitter blow to any cricket fan, let alone a countryman of theirs.
A cracking 12 months of Test cricket. Two close series win at home for England, with some good individual performances (Crawley 267/Jimmy's 600th wicket) and a great comeback in the fourth innings vs Pakistan when it seemed we were destined to collapse.
Then there was a second whitewash of Sri Lanka on the trot with Root finally putting in some consistent performances with the bat and our two wily seamers taking wickets on alien, Asian pitches.
Add on Pakistan finally playing Test series IN Pakistan (South Africa are playing a series there) and India's crazy series win in Australia. Plenty of brickbats being thrown around the Australian media at the moment about the team and their coach Justin Langer.
Oh, and no pitches that were absolute roads. See what happens when you have an equal contest between bat and ball?
England start their tour of India next week and it's going to be interesting.
This post aged well...
a rotten 12 months of Test cricket for England.
England start their Test series against the West indies on Tuesday. Their best bowler Olly Robinson has just been ruled out by yet another injury.
It doesn't matter as Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad will take the wickets. Oh, wait...
I was stunned about Warne. It came totally out of the blue.
I was stunned about Warne. It came totally out of the blue.
It really did. It feels like the whole nation is still in a state of....disbelief.
I only knew Warne through what I saw of him on the field (or the occasional news story) but from all the tributes flowing in for him, he sounded like a genuinely nice guy.
I don't know if any of you will be interested, but I found this a really good interview by the guys from The Last Word with Stephen Fry and his time as president of MCC. Covers a lot of ground...
