It’s no secret that the position of English wicket-keeper has in the last couple of years become almost farcical. But what isn’t clear is quite how it descended in to started plumbing the depths that it has. Chris Read and Geraint Jones are the two most high-profile casualties of the scandal, but considering neither made a serious claim for the job when given the opportunity, it’s no wonder that they were both dropped in favour of Paul Nixon for the World Cup. His selection was met with some serious finger-waving – mostly due to his age, as at 37 he …read more

The World Cup was today treated to a great game of cricket in the Super 8’s. Following on from Ireland and Zimbabwe’s tie, and Sri Lanka’s narrow loss after 4 wickets in 4 balls from Malinga to South Africa, the World Cup finally got interesting with a real edge-of-the-seat affair. Ironically, it was a situation that should have never occurred, for either side, and I suppose that’s the joy of cricket.
England came in to the game knowing that anything other than a win was likely to signal the end of their World Cup. We were once again treated to the …read more

England successfully navigated their must-win match against Canada in the group stages of the World Cup. Having lost to New Zealand in game 1, a defeat here would have sealed a similar fate to that of Pakistan. Luckily, it didn’t happen, albeit under inauspicious circumstances. For starters, the team was without Andrew Flintoff, who was sidelined for a “breach of discipline”. Ravi Bopara replaced him. After being inserted, England started well, with both Joyce and Vaughan playing fluently. Vaughan got yet another start, but failed to make a big score, but he did at least manage to progress out of …read more