Saturday review – 21 Jan

It’s been a rather dismal week for England. There aren’t many worse ways to start a series than a three day defeat and England will have to play much, much better in the next two Tests to get anything out of this series. The match was also notable for controversies about Saeed Ajmal’s delivery action and the DRS. For once though the cricket actually overshadowed everything else, which is good. Other things happened elsewhere in cricket, but to be honest I was not paying that much attention. I gather that the BBL overcame it’s uncertain start and sold a shedload of tickets at the Waca though. Good for it. In better news, Andy Murray eased into the round of 16 at the Australian open with three pretty convincing wins. He’s still set to face Djokovic in the semis though, so no doubt he’ll be Scottish before the end of next week.

All of the good articles this week were about the England’s defeat, as indeed were most of the bad articles. (Someone somewhere may have written about Australia v India, but surely no one still cares about that?) My favourites were:

The Teesra and other variations – Alan Tyers, The Cricketer
(As amusing as one would expect from the author.)

Jonathan Agnew’s BBC column

Andrew Strauss must lead inquiry into England’s batting failings – Vic Marks, the Guardian

Test Match Special suffers along with England in Dubai – Adam Mountford, BBC

All in a Spin – David Lloyd, Sky Sports

Saturday review – 14 Jan

It’s mostly been a pretty dismal week in cricket with the ECB accepting the Morgan review. It surprised me, as I hadn’t seen very many who supported the proposition and a huge number who opposed it. It was hugely infuriating to see it accepted, as I wrote about. In better news, England won their second warmup match and won rather more convincingly than their first one. All the bowlers looked good, and I’m greatly looking forward to the start of the series. The other two subcontinental teams currently playing had dismal weeks, with India looking about to lose the third Test inside three days and Sri Lanka bowled out for under 50 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka.

My favourite articles this week were mostly about the foolishness of accepting the Morgan review, but there are also a pair of good previews for the Pakistan v England series.

A step backwards for County Cricket? – Lizzy Ammon, Mirror

A bad decision for English cricket – George Dobell, Cricinfo

Travel time reclaimed from County Championship – King Cricket

England prepare to stay at No1 by innovating and avoiding complacency – Mike Selvey, Guardian

England’s lethal cocktail – Sam Sheringham, BBC

Saturday review – 7 Jan

After a hiatus for Christmas and New Year’s I am resuming my Saturday Review this week. The week was dominated by the New Year’s Tests, though in each case the hosts won comfortably on the fourth day. England began their tour of the UAE and bowled the ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI for 281, though it could have been better after the ICC XI were 90-6 just before lunch. Broad was the main destroyer, taking four wickets including one each in his first three overs. Anderson, Finn and Swann all picked up two. My favourite articles this week were:

Ian Bell: Lord Megachief of Gold 2011 – King Cricket

Bradman versus Warne – Ashley Mallett, Cricinfo

India have an athleticism problem – Harsha Bhogle, Cricinfo

Everyone’s invited to cricket’s giant virtual bar – Jarrod Kimber, Cricinfo

I’ve stopped writing summaries of them because I’m rubbish at it and don’t enjoy it. But I highly encourage you to read all of those, especially Jarrod Kimber’s as it describes everything I love about Twitter. It’s especially useful in America as there isn’t anyone local with whom I can talk about cricket.

Saturday review – 17 Dec

After the thrilling start to the week with New Zealand winning in Hobart, it’s been pretty dull. I haven’t watched the start of the Big Bash; it starts at 02.00 here and in any case last time I watched Shane Warne bowl I had nightmares for about four years. (They stopped just over a year ago.) India played a warmup match against players of whom I have never heard and probably encouraged Australia with their performance. Outside Oz England announced their tour match opponents and Sri Lanka, still missing Murali (who has the third highest wickets per match ratio in history), lost the first Test against South Africa by an innings and 81 runs.

My favourite two articles this week were about Lancashire legend Roy Tattersall, who died late last week. Andrew Hignell in the Cricketer wrote primarily about Tatt’s role in helping Lancs share the 1950 title and Paul Edwards in Cricinfo wrote more broadly about Tatt’s life and career, both during and after his time at Lancashire. Both are fantastic articles.

There is an excellent ‘letter’ posted at King Cricket this week. The writers make some very good points and I’ll certainly try to bring my blog in line with their recommendations.

In Cricinfo, Harsha Bhogle has a good look at Australia’s recent captains and the differing tasks facing Dhoni and Clarke for Boxing Day. I found the historic look the most interesting of almost anything I read this week.

Also in Cricinfo (I spend a lot of my time there) Andy Zaltzman looks in his own almost indescribable way at Australia’s recent batting woes and at the form of dolphins hunting in the Tasman Sea.

Saturday review – 10 Dec

I had a bit of trouble assembling my customary review this week, like last week there were quite a few very good pieces and I like to stick to just five. The five I selected are presented in no particular order.

To begin with, at Cricinfo Christian Ryan writes about the relative lack of left arm orthodox spinners and explores possible reasons for their scarcity.

Keeping with the theme of spin, Barney Ronay in the Guardian writes about the modern trend of ‘mystery spinners’ and offers a brilliant summary of their career:

claim a sensational televised three for 12; invent a delivery called the Zangler, the Knucklechuck or the Massive Pie; become the officially recognised next big thing; play a season for the Bangalore Cheesesteaks; get the yips; get no-balled for chucking; have a tantrum while playing for Devon; disappear completely.

On the BBC website Jonathan Agnew looks at the squad for England’s tour of the UAE and suggests perhaps that Bairstow out to have been picked over Bopara. I’m tempted to agree, as Bopara has never really looked like a test level batsman, but I’d rather not blood Bairstow in the UAE.

In the wake of Andrew Flower suggesting that he might step down before the 2015 World Cup, Lizzy Ammon has a pice in the Mirror about his history and the incredible effect he has had on the England side since he was given the top job in 2009.

Finally, on the week of Peter Willey’s 62nd birthday Rob Steen writes at the Cricketer about Willey and the defiant innings he played to save the 1980 Oval test against the West Indies.

Saturday review – 3 Dec

Far and away the best article I read this week, or any of the last several weeks, was Jarrod Kimber’s ‘Occupy Lord’s‘. I can’t really do it justice with a description; it’s absolutely brilliant and you should go read it immediately. (Hopefully then coming back and reading the rest of this!)

Mukul Kesavan has a great article in Cricinfo today about the fallacy of ‘international hundreds’. It’s very cleverly written, and of course it is nice to see a reasonably high profile writer agree with me.

Also in Cricinfo, Sriram Dayanand has an essay on John Arlott, how he affected Harold Larwood and the role he played in getting Basil D’Oliveira to England. Whilst the events described are fairly well known, the extent of Arlott’s involvement is seldom mentioned.

At the Cricketer, Mark Baldwin writes about the County Championship fixtures and the half-baked Morgan Review. It’s an excellent dissection of the confusion the ECB exhibit with respect to the domestic game.

Lastly, on the Guardian Sport Blog Max Benson wrote about the rise of British sport and the new found edge that we see in cricket and elsewhere.

Saturday review – 19 Nov

I’ve decided to make it a regular Saturday feature on the blog where I gather my favourite stories from the week. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the media focus this week has been on the deaths of Peter Roebuck last Saturday and Basil D’Oliveira earlier today.

Jarrod Kimbler at Cricket With Balls wrote an excellent piece about Roebuck being the lone dissenting voice in the Australian press corps during their years of dominance and how the manner of his death may affect how he is remembered. (As an aside, I am very glad that CWB is back up, the style is unmatched.)

Peter English wrote for Cricinfo about the irreplaceability of Peter Roebuck.

Vic Marks wrote about both for the Guardian – Roebuck last Sunday and D’Oliveira today. Both are excellent pieces; the Roebuck one is a more personal tribute, whereas the D’Oliveira piece gives some fascinating background to D’Oliveira’s move to England and his role is starting South Africa’s isolation.

Jonathan Agnew wrote for the BBC about D’Oliveira showing that sometimes sport and politics must mix, with a lovely reminder that racism in sports used to be much worse than it is now.

Other things did happen in cricket this week too, and King Cricket wrote about the absurdity of Australia being out of a Test series after only three days.