http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs Just another Wisdencricketer.com weblog Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:57:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Michael Clarke has unexpectedly left Australia’s tour of New Zealand to fly home. Is his girlfriend about to give birth? Did a close family member receive some bad news? Is he mentally exhausted? No. He’s flying back because his partner, the model Lara Bingle, is pursuing legal action over publication ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/09/daniel-brigham-michael-clarkes-wrong-decision/ What, for an England fan, do these two Tests against Bangladesh hold? What will get us up at 3am on Friday? A preview of Alastair Cook’s captaincy? Two Tests against Bangladesh will offer crumbs at best. A chance to see England’s stand-ins in the case of injury over the next 12 months? ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/09/benj-moorehead-bangladesh-v-england-anyone/ After an Ashes year perhaps it shouldn't have been a great surprise but cricket and cricket writing won big last night at the British Sports Journalism Awards. Of the 25 awards on offer, nine were won by cricket writers, broadcasters and photographers. The big winner was Mike Atherton, who was named Columnist ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/09/john-stern-atherton-wins-again/ With England's top four pace bowlers all carrying injuries at present, we're likely to get a chance to evaluate the strength in depth of England's fast bowling. In the last year or so, it's often been said that England are blessed with a deep pool of talent, but to me ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/08/alex-bowden-englands-worthy-back-up-bowlers/ “When you do crap, it's definitely crap and there is no excuse.” Nope, not Gordon Brown but Chris Gayle, after his West Indies side lost an ODI to Zimbabwe yesterday. For a long time I couldn’t decide how the result made me feel. On the one hand it was great for ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/05/daniel-brigham-no-recovery-for-west-indies/ Are we witnessing the resurgence of Zimbabwe? It isn’t just their two wins in the West Indies over the last week. Things have been going on behind the scenes for some time. Last August Heath Streak set aside his many differences with the Zimbabwe board to become their bowling coach. It seemed ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/05/benj-moorehead-zimbabwe-resurgence/ With the start of the IPL just over a week away, it seemed to me a good time to start banging the drum about how it is a distant irrelevance, poorly reported (in this part of the world), broadcast only on pay-TV, contested by teams with no history ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/04/alan-gardner-itv-brings-ipl-to-the-unconverted/ Mates. Firstly, I’d just like to say that I’m as happy as dingo with two babies that I’ve been asked to head up this esteemed council. Truly, we are living in exciting times. Who could have predicted, 25 years ago, that Jim Robinson would be a major Hollywood actor? Or that ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/04/aussies-john-howard-addresses-the-icc/ In his thoroughly researched biography of Imran Khan, the author Christopher Sandford quotes his subject’s despairing views of the captaincy of Mushtaq Mohammad, who led Pakistan for a while in the late 1970s. According to Imran, “Mushtaq would use the phraseology of English team captains about ‘pitching the ball up ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/03/lawrence-booth-shakib-al-hasan-puts-england-in-their-place/ The ICC needs a political grandee like it needs another seven-week World Cup tournament. John Howard, the former Aussie PM nominated as its next president, likes his cricket and his politics but it is hard to see him as the radical visionary to shake ICC out of its torpor. We all know ... http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/03/03/john-stern-what-will-be-howards-way/