Tag: Lancashire

Saturday review – 26 Nov

My weekly look at my favourite stories and blogs starts with one that I saw just after finishing last week’s review. Sky Sports’ Dave Tickner argues that Test cricket is not dying, but changing for the worse. The statistics about the rise of two Test ‘series’ like the one we saw in South Africa are troubling, if not outright alarming. It’s an analysis with which I am inclined to agree, for the most part.

Giles Clarke today wrote a piece reaffirming the ECB’s commitment to Test cricket. It’s a response to a piece in the Telegraph yesterday and it’s a pretty good one. Although I still don’t agree with the logic of having extra World Cup preparation instead of a Test match, he does well to explain why the decision is not all about money. Oddly though, he also says that international cricket is not allowed to clash with the Olympics, despite the fact that the second Test against South Africa is scheduled to do just that. I assume some part of that is mistaken, but I don’t know what.

At Cricinfo, Anantha Narayanan has a piece looking at the most significant hundreds under a variety of conditions. It’s a very good read if you like statistics. (And who doesn’t like statistics?)

Andy Bull writes for the Guardian about a WWI naval battle and cricketers who have read their own obituaries. After one of the better introductions to a cricket article, it eventually gets around to a discussion about the possibly premature obituaries for Ricky Ponting’s career.

The Lancashire website has a lovely story about the scorer for the club. I’m not sure exactly when it popped up, but I didn’t see it until this week (Tuesday I think) and it’s a very good read.

Anyone who regularly reads these will have noticed that I tend to follow cricket more closely than the other sports about which I blog. I don’t read cricket blogs exclusively though and this week there was an amusing post by Bath Rugby’s Sam Vesty on Living Rugby. (Living Rugby is an excellent site all round, it should be noted.)

Lancs News

We’re still waiting for the release of next season’s County Championship fixtures. The most current news is that it will be a week from today. In the meantime all we know is that there won’t be any Roses matches next year and that Lancs will play the MCC in Dubai from the 27th of March. (Shrewd observers will note that this already clashes with a Test match. Presumably the ECB were cross that they couldn’t make a Roses match clash with a Test this year and had to think of something different.)

Whilst we wait there has been some news from the Shires. Yorkshire had a massive shake up of course and now Lancs have announced that they probably will not be profitable until 2013. This is not surprising, as the long legal battles have delayed the redevelopment of Old Trafford and meant that there have not been any Test matches in the north west since the Kiwis toured in 2008. There will be four matches at OT next year, and the unveiling of the Championship pennant, but it is not until the Ashes come back in 2013 that the crowds will really come in. (And hopefully there will be another Championship pennant to unveil that year.) It’s not good news, of course, but nor is it disastrous. A lot of clubs are posting losses and at least there are very large profits forecast from 2013-2016. It could be much worse. We could be Yorkshire.

Jimmy Anderson has also revealed that he would like to have a better chance to play in the IPL. Good luck with that, mate. I don’t see the ECB budging and making a window for the IPL (nor should they). And I don’t see the IPL budging and accepting that they are less important than international cricket and should schedule themselves around it, rather than insisting that it be the other way around. So I don’t see there being English players with a significant part in the IPL anytime soon. I can understand why Jimmy (and others) would want to play in the IPL, but I’m fine with them staying in England.

Top ten moments of 2011

Twenty-eleven is over as far as English cricket is concerned, so I am getting a jump on the year end reviews. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do a top ten so early, but then I realised that I would probably forget in December. Here, then, are my top ten cricket moments of 2011:

10 – Nasser Hussain v Ravi Shastri. Just the best of all the times over the summer the Indians were cross with Nass over a perceived slight.

9 – MS Dhoni recalling Ian Bell at Trent Bridge. It was a very polarising moment, but I think MS Dhoni did the right thing by recalling Bell. Bell was an idiot, but it wouldn’t have been right to take a wicket like that.

8 – Lancashire force a super over on T20 finals day. Lancashire lost in the super over, but only got that far courtesy of a six off the last ball of the innings to draw the scores level. I include it because it was probably the most exciting moment in a T20 I have ever seen.

7 – KP scoring 200 in the first test against India. In an odd way it was one of KP’s worst innings. He was under some pressure coming into the series after a run of low scores. He did not look comfortable for most of the innings, but once he got to his century he found another gear and slogged his way to 200 before the declaration.

6 – England record their highest ever innings total in Australia. It was a tour of records and one of them was England scoring 644 in the first innings of the Fifth Test. Never before had they scored so much in an innings in Australia, though they had declared on 620-5 at Adelaide.

5 – England complete the 4-0 whitewash of India India fought back well in the last Test, but needing less than 30 to make England bat again with five wickets in hand they suddenly collapsed and England won by an innings and eight runs.

4 – England’s spectacular victory in Cardiff. Only 900-odd turned up in Cardiff to watch the end of what looked like a rain affected draw. Instead England blew Sri Lanka away for 82 and won by an innings and 14 runs.

3 – Stuart Broad taking a hat trick against India. After batting England back into contention in the first innings, Broad blew away India’s lower middle order to keep England’s deficit manageable. Admittedly, Harabajan Singh should not have been given LBW, but it was India who refused to use the DRS so I have no sympathy.

2 – Lancashire winning the County Championship. The County Championship went right down to two wire for the second year in a row. Warwickshire couldn’t bowl out Hampshire on the final day and Lancashire thrillingly chased 211 in the last two hours to bring the trophy to the northwest for the first time in 77 years.

1 – England winning the Ashes. It’s the only thing that could beat out the Red Rose to the top spot. A first win in Australia for 24 years topped off by Jonathan Agnew doing the sprinkler.

Honourable mention: VVS Laxman losing his off stump as England marched to victory at Trent Bridge.