If the Stanford Twenty20 had continued if it would have made a difference in WI cricket. There was a very different approach – truly professional, by the Stanford T20 board, and players had to comply with strict regulations and had to work hard and it showed. The players initially found it difficult, but it was take it or leave it. It gave the young players on the islands something to be excited about and what happened was a shame, but now we have to move forward and attract other investment.

To continue reading this blog click here.

Richie Richardson was writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

The confidence of the West Indies batsmen in the Durham Test was low but they didn’t apply themselves as they could have. Take Chris Gayle’s 54 from 43 balls on Sunday evening: I don’t like it when a batsman plays like that in that situation in a Test. If I was the opposition I would have been happy – it was just a matter of time before he got out.

Read the rest of Richie Richardson’s blog here .

Richie Richardson is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

We asked for an England win against West Indies, and we got one. A 2-0 win in fact, as comfortable as you like, by margins of 10 wickets and an innings and 83 runs. But, with just 50 days until the Ashes, did thrashing a team lacking in preparation, desire to be playing cricket and handwarmers actually tell us anything about England’s chances in the main event?

Our panel have their say below. Read the rest of this entry »

Seeing Andrew Strauss throw Graham Swann the new ball last week reminded me of a Test match I played against Australia at the Oval (in August 1997, Malcolm’s final Test). We were up against it – Phil Tufnell had taken seven wickets in the Australia first innings but they only needed 118 in the second – a tiny score to chase. Earlier Mike Atherton said to me on the balcony while we were batting, “Dev, if we’ve got a small total to bowl at, you won’t be bowling. I’m going to open the bowling with Tufnell”.

To continue reading Devon’s blog click here.

Devon Malcolm is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

As far as Test cricket is concerned, Chris Gayle is obviously a bit tired of it and has had enough of captaincy. Initially he didn’t want the job – he’s a pretty laid back guy and likes to take it easy, and the pressure of being captain, not necessarily on the field but all of the other things off it is one of his major concerns. He obviously needs a lot of time for himself, which he doesn’t get as captain. I can attest to that. My batting deteriorated after I became captain, and one of the reasons was that I didn’t have enough time to focus on my game or put in the type of personal practice and training that I was accustomed to. I empathise with him a little where that is concerned, but he’s got to look at himself as well, and if he’s not comfortable with the job, then there is nothing wrong in expressing that and people have got to respect that.

Read the rest of Richie Richardson’s blog here.

Richie Richardson is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

I’m depressed. This hotel room is freezing. My hotel room in South Africa was a perfect temperature.

I look at my watch: 2.30pm. No rest for the wicked. I managed to snatch a quick 14 hours sleep but I’m still worn out.

God it’s cold in here. I call Fidel, get him to come and fix the heating. He says he just has to cook everyone’s breakfast, make up the beds, regrout a bathroom, carry Shiv to the jacuzzi – he doesn’t like to waste energy when he’s not batting – and then he’ll be up as soon as he can.

I bet Viv Richards didn’t have to put up with this. I take a nap while I wait, to try and keep my strength up. Eventually Fidel arrives, passes me my breakfast tray. I drop it. He runs downstairs to get another one. I take a quick nap.

He comes back, looks at the heater.

“You just have to turn this dial here to ‘ON’, skipper,” he says. “See? Now it’s on.”

It’s typical. The constant demands, the pressure, having to take responsibility for everything. All eyes on you. I wish I could practice turning the heater on and off but I don’t have time. But when I need to turn it on, I’ll be ready. If I’m not too tired through no fault of my own.

In South Africa, the heaters were brilliant. In fact, they don’t even have heaters there. They have air-conditioning. And there’s none of this long, drawn-out business of turning a dial. You just flick a switch and – boom – it’s the perfect temperature. Maybe in the future all hotel rooms will be like that. To be honest, I wouldn’t care. I don’t need a heater. Maybe Andrew Strauss does, but that’s his problem if he can’t figure out how the hotel room of the future will be temperature-controlled. He should mind his own business and not be talking about me when he should be talking about him.

I try and have a rest, but I can’t. I’m thinking about Andrew Strauss thinking about me when he’s trying to sleep, and then I start thinking about Andrew Strauss thinking about me thinking about him when I should be trying to sleep.

I wake up a few hours later, hardly rested at all, and soon it’ll be time for bed, before the whole exhausting treadmill starts again tomorrow.

By Alan Tyers

So then. Seven wickets on Test debut for Graham Onions. Here at TWC, we’re way above the obvious, so we’ll just quote Simon Barnes instead, “Onions ran rings round the West Indies batsmen. Onions sizzled at Lord’s yesterday. It’s hard cheese and Onions for West Indies. West Indies found Onions unpalatable. Strauss knows his Onions. West Indies got a stuffing with Onions. Onions put West Indies in a pickle. Onions cut West Indies off at source.”

But can he help us beat the Aussies, or the latest in a line of bowlers (Ed Giddins, James Kirtley, Richard Johnson please stand up) who have proved no more than an international flash-in-the-pan?! Dammit. We asked our panel. Read the rest of this entry »

In the first of his weekly blogs for thewisdencricketer.com the former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm has a look at the England bowling attack.

To bowl fast you need to have confidence and good rhythm. I don’t believe Steve Harmison has a problem with rhythm. It’s something in his mind. Pace comes with confidence. If you have a confident mind and you are fit, you will bowl fast. If you’ve got a little something in the back of your mind it will slow you down.

Read on here.

In the first of his weekly blogs for thewisdencricketer.com the former West Indies captain Richie Richardson reviews their start to the tour

We obviously prefer the sunshine in the Caribbean so coming to play a Test match so early in the season in England is not easy. I remember that most times I played here at Lord’s it was cold and damp – the cold would have an effect on the team and maybe that’s why so many catches were dropped by the West Indies. It takes a lot of adjusting and a lot of the current players don’t have much experience in English conditions.

Read on here.

Andrew Strauss’s decision to entrust the new ball to Graham Swann in the West Indies’ first innings yesterday divided opinion among the watching public, but the majority of the press box seemed to agree with Ian Botham’s bafflement on the box – the England captain was being too smart for his own good.

Mike Atherton in particular laid into Strauss, describing the ploy as “crass, smart-arse, look-at-me captaincy”.

Below is how the rest of the media reviewed Strauss’s tactic.

Mike Atherton in The Times

Strauss will point to Swann’s success and his continued dominance over Smith, whom he dismissed three times in the winter, as justification for giving the off spinner the new ball in West Indies’ first innings. Anderson may have still been smarting from a vicious blow to the head from Edwards, but he would have been hurting more as he watched Swann take the cherry in plum conditions.
This was crass, smart-arse, look-at-me captaincy when what was required was simple adherence to the basics. England’s seamers had pined all winter for the kind of conditions that presented themselves yesterday. They did not waste them.

Mike Selvey in The Guardian
But here is the quirk: for when, after the initial surprise of Broad rather than James Anderson taking the opening over, Chris Gayle and Devon Smith faced up to the second over of the innings, they found not Anderson (designated leader of the pack now) nor either of the debutant seamers, but Graeme Swann with his off-breaks. It invoked memories of Kiwi tactics in the 1992 World Cup, or something familiar that Gayle might have encountered in the Indian Premier League. If it was playing on Gayle’s ego (a “mind the windows, Tino” moment ), then he failed diligently to take the bait but Swann got one to turn nonetheless before being brought off after two overs. It might, of course, have been Strauss being a smart-arse.

Derek Pringle in The Daily Telegraph
Swann is one of those who defy expectations in everything they do. A batsman who previously looked flaky against pace, he creamed the 90mph Edwards all round Lord’s before hooking Baker for six to bring up his fifty.
With a captain to indulge him, rather than suppress him as Duncan Fletcher did, he even got to open the bowling, a decision that looked too clever by half despite stats that say the left-handed opener Smith is vulnerable to spin.
Quite what James Anderson, already grouchy after being sconned by an Edwards thunderbolt when he batted, thought about being overlooked is probably not printable, though the pace bowler eventually made his point by removing Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the second innings.

Jonathan Agnew on the BBC.co.uk
Strauss showed great ingenuity in giving Swann the new ball – almost unheard of these days – because of the hold England’s spinners held over Smith in the Caribbean.

Richard Williams in The Guardian
The decision to open the innings with Broad’s pace at the Nursery end and Swann’s off-spin at the Pavilion end provoked some scratching of heads, but a sensible degree of adventurous originality is a welcome sight in an England cricket team and when Swann’s first three overs yielded no reward against Gayle and Smith, the captain was flexible and firm enough not to let things drift but to introduce Jimmy Anderson.

Andrew Miller on CricInfo.com
The idea of entrusting the new ball to a spinner was, according to Onions, a tactic planned far in advance, although in reality, the ebullience of Swann’s earlier batting, coupled with his natural bravado, probably meant he walked straight up to his captain and swiped the cherry before anyone could intervene. With Ravi Bopara showing the way on Wednesday, cockiness has been an unexpectedly welcome trait in this new-look England dressing-room. It certainly beats the jaded complacency of old.

Sam Collins is website editor of thewisdencricketer.com