Well actually, not so much. But the rumours that were rife that Australian legend and current Hampshire Captain Shane Warne was about to relinquish his Australian citizenship in favour of bratwurst and lederhosen have been scotched. The intended trick was to get around next season’s “only 1 International player per side”* regulations, since as a German national he would have qualified as a local and Hampshire could legitimately employ a(nother) bona fide overseas player.
But no, Warney is fair dinkum Aussie through-and-through and will take a plate of shrimps and a couple of cold ones before any phallic-shaped pork substances.
And why …read more

You do have to feel for some of the West Indians at the moment. Take, for example, Darren Ganga. Captain and opening batsman of a fairly lacklustre West Indian side, that currently is getting rather used to losing. They’ve already lost this series and have one more game to play. Accordingly, the game doesn’t mean a lot, so it’s a chance for everyone to just enjoy themselves a bit. Unfortunately, the rain comes, and everyone is forced to sit around for a day and a half. The covers finally come off after lunch on day 2 and after Vaughan won …read more

Sir Ian Botham. What is the world coming to?
Actually, it’s very well deserved.

This is why we love Freddie so much. Embroiled in a “row” over Fredalogate following comments from Michael Vaughan, we were all waiting to hear what Fred had to say about it all. Stoic as ever, Fred shrugged it all off. After meeting Vaughan for lunch, Fred’s outlook on the whole issue was, for want of a better expression, “Am I bovvered?”. The answer, was ‘no’.

“We’ve known each other for a long time,” he added. “There is a lot of history there, and something like this, which is a storm in a teacup, isn’t going to affect that. I’ve …read more

West Indies have finished Day 2 of the number 2 test match of this England West Indies series on, wait for it…
“chu for twenny-chu”. Marvellous effort.
Here for a head’s up.

Australian prime minister John Howard has insisted to Cricket Australia that the proposed tour of Zimbabwe not go ahead on account of the political situation in Zimbabwe under the regime of Robert Mugabe.
However you feel about what is happening in Zimbabwe, it is absolutely right for this decision to be made by a government and not by the sporting body and will hopefully set a precedent for all International sides in the future. This is by no means the first discussion of cancelling tours over concerns about the situation in the host country, but it is the first example I …read more

Well hurrah for this. As if the recent World Cup and particularly its final was not farcical enough already, it has just taken a turn for the bizarre. After Australia won the World Cup final, not necessarily due to being a better side, but because they could just see in the dark, Adam Gilchrist, who scored a remarkable 149 off 102 balls, admitted to “using a squash ball”. Yep. Ball tampering at its finest – Adam Gilchrist had stuffed a regular squash ball in to one of his batting gloves which he admitted to giving him better control over his …read more

After Marcus Trecothick’s epic departure from the Ashes, which was the catalyst for the England top order’s abject failure to score anything like a decent total ever since, he’s put the cat amongst the pigeons once again by showing us exactly what we’re missing in the side at the moment. After surgery for a double-hernia and presumably a recovery from the mystery stress-related illness that kept him out of the Champions Trophy as well as the Ashes, Tresco’s first outing for Somerset wasn’t a gentle run about in the park – it was a brutal annihilation who was foolhardy enough …read more

I’m not so sure that any of the people involved with the Bangladeshi squad read this site, but either way, Bangladesh have done a spectacular job in making me look very silly. No sooner had I said that Bangladesh were running out of steam and they’ve pulled their socks up and caused yet another “upset” in beating world number 1 South Africa. I’m not sure why “it” is an upset, since, as a Bangladeshi, you’re presumably not at all upset. Maybe if you’re South African. I’m English, and I’m definitely not upset. Except maybe at the state of the headlines …read more

It has been a long time coming but perhaps it is finally here for Pakistan. Things have been going wrong in the Pakistan camp for some time now and the latest controversies and problems will hopefully be the end of the line for the existing Pakistani set-up.
Recent problems, such as Shahid Afridi’s ban, Shoaib and Asif’s bans / injuries and the failure to get through to the group stages of the World Cup have led to a shambolic state of affairs, which have been finished off by the resignation of captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, not to mention most of the PCB.