The final of the pointless thrilling Championship kicks off tomorrow between the two worthy teams – Australia and the West Indies. Australia saw off India in their semi-final, West Indies doing the same to South Africa in theirs. It’ll be an interesting game – Australia looking to win the trophy for the first time and the West Indies looking to retain the trophy. It’ll be made all the more interesting seeing as West Indies defeated Australia in the group stages. Can Australia come back from defeat? Can West Indies inflict the pain again? Can I ask more questions? Does anybody …read more

England were effectively knocked out of the ICC Champions Trophy last night when the West Indies beat India, even with a game in hand. England still have to face West Indies in their last match of the group stages, despite the result being totally meaningless. It should be expected for England to win the match – not because they’re a better side or deserve to win it – rather, because they have a habit of winning lost-cause matches. (I’ve lost count of the number of series where the series result has ended up masking a pitiful performance.)
England’s losses to India …read more

If it helps you to do the Baldrick voice when reading the above title, then please, feel free. In fact, you can just imagine it now:
“What are we going to do about winning the Ashes?”
“I have a cunning plan, m’Lord”
“Oh, do you?”
“Yes, and it’s so cunning you could brush your teeth with it.”
“OK, let’s hear it.”
“Well, m’Lord. We all know that Australia are a better side than us. The only way we’re going to win the Ashes is by getting knocked out of the Champions Trophy, so that we have lots and lots of rest, whereas they continue to tire …read more

Well, well, well. The ICC Champions Trophy just got interesting. After England got stuffed against India earlier this week, things were beginning to look a bit hopeless ahead of the Ashes warmup on Saturday. But goshdarnit if the group wasn’t just blown wide open as West Indies didn’t just pull down the Aussies’ pyjamas and spank Wipeout all over their bare naked tooshie.

So the first chapter in the new England side had a distinctly bitter ending. Was it really a new chapter in England’s history? I was hoping so. Flintoff was back. Andersen was back. It was the first cricket after the fateful Pakistan series. The ICC Champions Trophy is the final prelude to the Ashes. And England started their campaign by losing to India. And not just losing, they got absolutely stuffed. Bowled out for 125, the Indians knocked the runs off with 4 wickets to spare. A few positives will have been taken, but on the whole it was a …read more

The Windies continued their winning run in the ICC Champions Trophy by spanking the Bangladesh Tigers by 10 wickets. The holders of the cup look in good form, something they’re surely not used to, and a win in the qualification stages will see them progress to Group B.
I’m really trying to be as positive as possible about this trophy, but it’s really only something that needs to get done before the Ashes can start. Huzzah.

Ever since Ovalgate, Pakistan has spiralled down an unstoppable slope of farce. What a slope of farce is, is anyone’s guess, but nevertheless, you can’t go a day at the moment without some sort of story about the Pakistani’s. And it’s usually deleterious, and from what I can tell, it’s largely self-induced.

Sri Lanka have moreorless assured themselves a place in the Group stages after successfully seeing off Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. West Indies look good to join them, after giving Zimbabwe a thorough stuffing. A win against Bangladesh today would assure them a place, with the result of the decider between Sri Lanka and the Windies deciding first place in the group. Which could be instrumental – as both teams will be vying for a place in the Group B (South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand), the evidently weaker of the two groups (Group A consists of Australia, England and India). England don’t …read more