Q: What is the difference between an Australian batsman and Cinderella?
A: Cinderella knew when to leave the ball
From Simon Hughes’ blog at TWC.
I just could not resist posting it.
Mostly because England are losing from Australia like they did not trash them during the Ashes. Which they did, big time.
the Aussies should have 18 counties, 460 pros, loads of Kolpaks who will never play for their country, 160 Twenty20 games a season and travel the length of the country between games. That is clearly way to do it.
gin soak | Flickr | by-nc-nd
Paul Collingwood’s international career will be over very soon I’m afraid.
I hope he can keep playing for the ODI- and T20-sides for some time coming, but if he keeps batting like this, I do not see that happening.
And because of his poor batting form, we probably won’t miss him at all.
New players will come in, and Collingwood’s typical role as Brigadier Block is no longer in high demand for this England side. His grit seems to have rubbed of on his teammates and they can do without him.
His catching and bowling aided England in winning this series, but no batsman can keep his place in the side on just those qualities.
But even though I don’t believe England will miss him, I still feel sad, because he has been a great player to have around for England over the last few years.
Check out these posts from King Cricket and Edward Craig on what made him so good – and so likeable.
England retained the Ashes. But they haven’t won this series yet.
I know the Ashes are supposed to be all about who has possession of the little urn, but retaining them isn’t half as good as an series victory in Australia.
The Ashes are save, but the real price is up for grabs for this England side.
Here’s hoping they will make it happen.
There is a lot of interesting Test cricket to come before the World Cup 2011, but nevertheless, here’s a chance to get in the mood a bit.
Road to the World Cup is a documentary produced for the ICC and is fully available online.
Go check it out if you want, but take in account that it might be a bit propagandist as it was the ICC paying the bills.
Wisden Almanack, “exhaustive chronicler of the best-loved game”, opened an account on Twitter last week:
A humble 147-year-old takes its first tentative steps into the blogosphere. Any older Twitterers out there?—
Wisden Almanack (@WisdenAlmanack) December 17, 2010
Cricket’s bible will probably start including Twitter-stats as of next year: most followers, most tweets, average per day, most retweets, most replies, etcetera.
I’m guessing that Sachin Tendulkar could get his hands on a few of these records as well.
