Today we choose our villain of the decade. Tell us yours in the comments below.

Read the rest of this entry »

There was a strange moment at Durban this morning as the second Test entered its final phase. Graeme Swann, a man you suspect could sell ice to the Eskimos, failed to persuade Andrew Strauss to review a not-out lbw decision against Dale Steyn – a decision that would have been overturned had the TV umpire become involved.

It didn’t matter, of course: England won by an innings and plenty. But such has been Swann’s impact this year that he could probably ask to open the batting and bowling and Strauss would agree without quite knowing why.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we choose our hero of the decade. Tell us yours in the comments below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we choose our spell of the decade. Tell us yours in the comments below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shane Watson and Ian Bell seem to have nowt in common - one’s a burly, injury-prone Australian all-rounder, the other’s a scale-model of an English Test batsman - but there are similarities.

Most strikingly, the people who you’d think would support them actually hate them. The English don’t trust Bell. Even if he hit six hundreds in a row, they wouldn’t warm to him, suspecting that he was merely setting them up for some elaborate future disappointment. Australians tend to agree with Chris Gayle that Shane Watson’s ‘soft’. Aside from being injured pretty much the whole time, his metrosexual tendencies don’t endear him to people who kid themselves that they live in a tough, harsh land, rather than a middle-class utopia with a fantastically high standard of living.

Read the rest of this entry »

Merry Christmas! Today we choose our innings of the decade. Tell us yours in the comments below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ian Bell keeps his place at Durban, to snorts and grunts everywhere. We know what Sir Ian would do, “What’s the point in bringing them if you don’t play them?”, he chuntered this morning while the camera focused on Liam Plunkett and Luke Wright. You have to have reserves Beefy.

At the moment (40 odd for 2) Andrew Strauss will be happy with Anderson, Onions and Broady after a dangerous and disciplined start. Not only have they made Graeme Smith look (a little) stupid, always nice, but they are taking the focus away from the decision to play four bowlers on a pitch that has been described as batsman-friendly. Things can change quickly though, especially with Smith and Jacques Kallis at the crease.

Read the rest of this entry »

Merry Christmas! Today we choose our innings of the decade. Tell us yours in the comments below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Perfect last-minute Christmas gifts for a hated family member

Andrew Flintoff: Being Freelance

with Raymond ‘Chubby’ Chandler, Freelance Press (hardback – do not strain back when lifting)

Revealing account of Flintoff’s battle to stop his agent saying things that make him look silly in the press, his campaign against rap music, his controversial views on immigration, higher-rate taxation and alcohol-free lager, and his struggle to stay fit long enough to get a chance to represent Joe Swash and the Red Team on ‘Hole In The Wall’.

Read the rest of this entry »

In quieter moments at Centurion, Alastair Cook may have had an uncharitable thought. Was he, you may have wondered mischievously, at all grateful that Ian Bell’s Christmas-cracker-joke leave-alone against Paul Harris deflected attention away from his own failures? After all, he is only human. And even the season of goodwill has its limits.

Cook turns 25 on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day, barring an unfortunate accident with a wishbone, he will win his 50th Test cap. He has over 3,500 runs, nine hundreds and an autobiography on his CV and is hoping to add the England Test captaincy in Bangladesh. This is a paragraph any 20-something would happily cut out and frame on the toilet wall.

Read the rest of this entry »