In sport, everything needs context. In a high-scoring one-day match, fours become mundane. However, when your team needs 20 to win off two overs, fours become that much more exciting, because the match situation gives them added meaning. Similarly, a tight finish in a knock-out match is that much more exciting than one in a dead rubber. Context matters.

I went to Old Trafford yesterday to watch Lancashire play Warwickshire in the Twenty20 Cup. The ground was half-full, but that was pretty much as good a crowd as there could have been – half the stands were shut. Somewhat bizarrely, the full half was all clustered around one side of the ground as well, meaning bowlers were either running in from the crowd end or away from the non-crowd end.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is not an email we enjoy receiving too regularly: “I am writing to inform you that I wish to unsubscribe from your magazine.”

When we lose readers, it is hard not to take it personally. But what followed makes our efforts to produce a popular title feel futile. The (ex)reader continues:

“Here are my reasons. The international game lacks context. The proliferation of two-match Test ‘series’ shows that no one is interested in the best form of the game.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Damn, it’s just got sunny and warm hasn’t it. There goes my moaning introduction to this piece about the start of the county season. I had lines lined about anoraks, shivering, hot chocolate, ice hotels, umbrellas and the bit at the end of The Shining where Jack Nicholson freezes to death in a snowy maze. But, no, it’s actually really very pleasant out there. You could even get away without a jumper. So go to the cricket.

The ECB has got lucky with the weather. They know it, Andrew Strauss knows it and John Kettley knows it. Everyone knows it.

Read the rest of this entry »

The story of Lalit Modi’s latest game of brinkmanship with English cricket is the story of England’s fractious relationship with Twenty20. Like it or not, the founders of a format simultaneously hailed as cricket’s saviour and destroyer continue to chug along several yards off the pace.

At almost every turn, England has treated Twenty20 like a necessary evil. Even when the format emerged on the county scene in 2003, it was regarded as a crowd-puller rather than a legitimate form of cricket. After all, left elbows are supposed to be high, not jockeying for position in a mascots’ race or levering oneself out of the pitchside Jacuzzi.

Read the rest of this entry »

Other than Pakistan there will be no team less prepared for the World Twenty20 in April and May than England.

The bizarre paradox that in an era of short-format overkill there are very few Twenty20 internationals means that the Indian Premier League, which finishes less than a week before the World Twenty20 begins on April 30 in the Caribbean, is the key preparation for players going into the tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

The ECB faced criticism today over its decision to rest senior figures for the tour of the UAE and Bangladesh.

A press release confirmed that Giles Clarke will NOT be travelling with the squad to Dubai in February. Read the rest of this entry »

Point-scoring in county cricket is never a simple business. No three-for-a-win here. Instead, teams gather a hatful of points for a win, and then there are baffling bonuses for batting and bowling feats. Followers of the Championship are forgiven for wondering what a win means exactly. And the tinker-happy ECB has just announced more changes for 2010.

There will be 16 points for a win (compared to 14 last year) and three for a draw (four last year). Bonus points stay the same (five batting, three bowling), but teams will have 110 first-innings overs to scoop them up (10 fewer than in 2009). Quite obviously, this encourages positive cricket, and, as such, the changes should be applauded.

Read the rest of this entry »

The County Championship points system will be reviewed for next season, the ECB has announced.

About time. Obviously this could just be an excuse for a working group to meet up at Starbucks for a natter and nothing will get changed but it is at least an acknowledgment by the board that there could be a better way of allocating points. As it stands, a team receives 14 points for a win, four points for draw and up to eight bonus points from their first-innings performances. Read the rest of this entry »

During last night’s raucous and exhilarating game between Trinidad and Tobago and Cape Cobras, the most sustained cheer wasn’t for a Dwayne Bravo six or Kieron Pollard’s inhuman fielding but for Lalit Modi.

The IPL commissioner and CLT20 organiser, who 82% of Indians think is the saviour of Indian cricket according to a television poll, had gone for a meet-and-greet in the stands, pursued by cameramen and fans. They love him. They chant his name, try to touch him, he signs autographs and has his picture taken.

Read the rest of this entry »

The McGrath Foundation are releasing their annual calendar of Australian cricket hunks. Not to be outdone, the ECB have unveiled plans for their own series of pin-ups…

Read the rest of this entry »