I suppose you have to laugh. It’s still relatively early in the season and at a time when cricket is often lost, mostly due to wet weather and crummy light. So when the reverse happens, that is, cricket is lost because the weather is just too good, then it’s all a bit humourous. I’m talking about Yorkshire vs Derbyshire, being played at Derby in the Friends Provident limited overs tournament.
The only problem is that it’s not the first time this has happened (virtually one year ago to the day) and Derbyshire had even asked for special consideration, which the ECB …read more

Andrew Flintoff will have another operation on his ankle, which looks set to put him out for a considerable amount of time. Rumours have been floating around that he may even be forced to stop bowling and concentrate on a career as a batsman. Other rumours say that the earliest he’ll be back in action for England will be against India, some 2 months away. With Simon Jones also in the news recently for all the wrong reasons (his knee is swollen), Peter Moores isn’t have the luckiest start to his career as England coach.
Perhaps some time off will …read more

Test Match Special, or TMS, to those in the know, is 50 years old. I’m not sure if it’s a birthday or an anniversary, but it’s still a great event. The importance of TMS might be lost on non-English cricket fans, but TMS is the English equivalent of Richie Benaud.
Read a lovely TMS history here.

I had the opportunity to flex my cricketing know-how by appearing on the excellent “My Cricket World Cup” programme on BBC World. Now, it’s safe to say that whenever you hear a recorded version of yourself, you think you sound like a wally, but it’s true, in this case. I’m sure I’m not that posh.
I was put on the spot with each of the questions, so I don’t even entirely agree with my answers. (Especially as I sit here watching South Africa embarass England.)
But nevertheless, an opportunity for you to see your favourite cricket blogger in action. Hah. Or …read more

It’s looking increasingly likely that the final positions of the the Super 8’s and, importantly, the order in which they line up in the semi-finals will be decided by the net run rate (since several teams look likely to finish on the same number of points). According to the laws of cricket:
A team’s net run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team, the average runs per over scored against that team. In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its …read more

I got emailed by a lady at Fox Sports telling me about a guide to cricket they’ve put together.
Well, I’ll cut to the chase. It’s moderately amusing, so by all means have a little looksee yourself.

First things first: Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had an enjoyable festive season wherever you are or however you spent it. And it seems like that time of the year when everyone is rounding up the highlights of 2006. Well, as an England supporter, the year certainly didn’t end in the fashion I would have wanted. The loss of the Ashes in such disappointing fashion ended a year that was always good news bad news for England:
Good News: Victory against Pakistan
Bad News: Draws against India and Sri Lanka
Good News: The emergence of Monty Panesar as a top-class …read more

Will Luke, founder of immensely popular cricket blog The Corridor and staff editor for immensely popular and fountain of all cricket knowledge Cricinfo, managed to tear himself away from commentating on the Ashes for a few moments to answer a couple of ultra-searching questions…

Well those crazy kids over at b5, i.e., the peeps who made this blog what it is (actually, that was me, those guys just pay for the server and stuff, hah) said that all the sports blogs should get in a big circle and join hands and chant a bit, it being Christmas and all. And our chosen chant this year: Movies about your sport. Crikey. Now, I’m a bit of a movie geek and I’m finding it somewhat ironic that I’d never thought of writing about cricket in films before, BUT, as most cricket fans will know, cricket doesn’t …read more

Check out this video of Muttiah Muralitharan getting run out against New Zealand. The dozy twonk leaves his crease to congratulate Kumar Sangakarre on scoring a hundred whilst the ball is still live. Brendan McCullen was well within his rights and the umpire was correct to give him the finger. Captain Mahela Jaywardene protested the decision, saying the dismissal was not within the spirit of the game, but Stephen Fleming retorted saying that had the ball gone for overthrows then the Sri Lankans would have taken it. Personally I think Jayawardene’s protestations were not within the spirit of the game.
Two …read more