Posts tagged with ‘England’

South Africa scored a mammoth 240 in the 2nd Twenty20 International, yet England’s batsmen are being asked to answer for the failure of the bowlers

South Africa are just about the best team in the world right now. England are hopeful, but in reality they have got their work cut out. Here’s what they have to do to overcome the odds.

Jonathan Trott has played for England, but he is a South African. So why is so much fuss being made of Michael Vaughan’s comments about him celebrating a South African victory?

James Anderson has ambitions. One of them is to captain England someday. Those of you in the know, and some of you who aren’t are by now rolling around on the floor. That’s right, a fast bowler couldn’t possibly be the Captain of England.

If Twenty20 is too sedate for you, try the upcoming Hong Kong Sixes. A Six-a-side, 5 over tournament played over two days at the Kowloon Cricket Club on the 31st October/1st November.

Craig Kieswetter has been touted as not only England’s next wicketkeeper-batsman, but also as the new Kevin Pietersen.  He qualifies for England in February and is eager to earn the abuse of South Africans everywhere.
But he didn’t perform well at the Champions League Twenty20, and has admitted as much in an interview with Cricinfo:
I put [...]

You may have noticed the name of Boyd Rankin featuring in the recently announced England Performance Programme. Rankin has already played international cricket for Ireland, and could become the next of their players to be poached across the Irish Sea, after Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan. Understandably, Cricket Ireland are not best pleased particularly as it will result in Rankin missing cricket for them whilst he is at the ECB’s training camps.

Shane Warne has a habit of saying things in the press that English cricket does not want to hear and that come back to bite us. Remember what he said about Ravi Bopara before the Ashes? Five months after becoming England’s latest pre-ordained Ashes hero, RavBop didn’t even make it into the Performance Programme.

So when Warne writes in his Times column that England will ruin Stuart Broad, now a bona-fide Ashes hero, we should start to worry. A lot.

The ECB has announced it’s new England Performance Programme, with a new category system that tells everyone who is next in line for a place in the senior side.

Three categories – imaginatively named A, B and C – include those closest to selection (A), those “one to three years away” from selection (B) and those younger players who might make the jump in the future (C). So, here’s the list.

I have been trying to figure out what I make of the “revelation” that Andrew Strauss might not be going to Bangladesh. On the one hand you think “ok, he deserves a break, the Ashes aren’t so far away, give him a rest and keep him fresh”. On the other you think “England should send their best side, and show Bangladesh some respect, come what may”. I’m still not sure.