Hold Your Horses

I feel a bit fraudulent writing about the second astonishing denouement to a Cardiff Test inside two years: after paying scant attention, during a busy week for me, to a weather-affected match (nearly a day and a half lost to rain) that appeared to be petering out into a draw, I'd given up on the match by the end of Saturday; by yesterday evening, I'd basically forgotten it was still going on. (And it seemed like everyone other than Jonathan Trott had, too.)

It was only a couple of excited text messages, late this afternoon, that persuaded me to tune in again and witness the carnage. By that time, it was basically all over: Sri Lanka had lost 6 wickets in 39 balls for only 19 runs.

I did start listening in time to hear Ian Bell assume the Paul Collingwood Blinding Infield Catching mantle, to feel slightly sorry for both Tremlett and Swann that Broad came in at the end to clear up the tail and deny either a 5-for, and to hear a fairly unbelievable suggestion from the otherwise-quite-level-headed CMJ: was this performance a sign that England were about to take their rightful place as No. 1 Test side in world cricket?

Really, Christopher.

Firstly, there's the small matter of 2 further Tests to play against a Sri Lankan side who put together a not inconsiderable first-innings total of 400, not to mention a series against the current No. 1 side, India -- a team with 3 batsmen and 2 bowlers (fairly evenly matched against England's 2 and 3) in the ICC Player Rankings Top 10.

And secondly, it ignores the fact that, apart from extraordinary performances from Tremlett and Swann on the final day, the team effort so far has been no more than par for the course. (Switching sports, there -- as I did in the title of this post -- but it's a Bank Holiday, and I can't be bothered to come up with a better/less clichéd metaphor -- sorry...)

Ok, there were three centuries, but they were made under very little pressure. Of more concern to the England coaching set-up might be the mis-fires from the two mainstays of the batting line-up, Strauss and KP. (I admit that, having not followed the match particularly closely, this judgement may be unduly harsh on my part. Do statistics really lie, though?)

More worryingly, amid talk of 4-or-5-man bowling attacks, England went into the last innings with an attack of 3. (No, Trott and KP don't count.) If they'd faced opposition from a less rabbit-in-the-headlights batting line-up, there might have been rather more treatment along the lines of Tremlett's final over, which was deposited for 12 fairly easy runs by the 22-year-old debutant Thisara Perera.

So yes, this was a brilliant result; no, it's not time for the champagne yet. Here's my 3-point to do list for Team England before the Lord's Test gets underway later this week:


1. Balance the bowling attack: make sure that whoever comes in for the injured Jimmy Anderson provides an alternative to the options already available. (Sorry, Steve Finn.)

2. Consider adding a bowling option: it seems unfair to consign Eoin Morgan to the Test dustbin after scoring 14 not out; but then I wouldn't have picked him in the first place. Ravi Bopara provides a better 5th bowling option than the buffet fare of either Trott or KP, and his selection would also pay him back for his laudable decision to choose county cricket over the riches on offer in the IPL.

3. Have a chat with KP: shouldn't he be on a final warning by now? (Watch out for a match-winning 158* at Lord's, now...)

Lucky Number Nineteen

And so it's all over, bar the shouting.

Unless Blackburn pull out a surprising win over Manchester United on Saturday lunchtime (and it's over 5 years since United last failed to secure at least a point at Ewood Park), Sir Alex Ferguson will have guided United past Liverpool to a record 19th English league title.*

The expected 19-18 scoreline, however, is somewhat misleading. The first of Liverpool's 18 came in the 1900-01 season, and their most recent was in 1989-90, in the year after the Hillsborough disaster; United's started 7 years later than Pool's, in 1907-08, and their 18th was in 2008-09. While the chronological spread isn't so very different -- 89 years vs. (to date) 101 -- there is one fact that marks the two achievements as qualitatively different: United won 7 of their titles before the 1992 start of the English Premier League, and 11 have come since.

Traditions, as a collection of essays published in 2000 asserts, are invented. In other words, as much as the word 'tradition' conjures up ideas of age-old practices and dusty tomes, a 'tradition' is often a remarkably recent construction.

Nowhere is this more evident than in sport. The most recent example of this, in cricket, is the Indian Premier League, a competition that has brought together cricketing superstars -- often, as I commented last week, in the twilight of their careers -- to compete in a supercharged, low-attention-span, fizzy-drink form of the game.** Although the 20-over form of the game was in fact introduced into the English county game in 2003, it was the 2008 inauguration of the IPL -- with all the commercial perks of advertising, sponsorship, and astronomical signing fees -- that marked the beginning of the youngest of sporting traditions.

This commercial aspect is significant. To return to my initial topic: the tradition of football's English Premier League, 16 years its similarly named cricketing cousin's junior, saw an explosion in advertising, sponsorship, attendance, and merchandising revenue for the 22 (reduced to 20 in 1995) clubs in the English top flight. The link with BSkyB, who were granted exclusive broadcasting rights at the inception of the league, is a particularly contentious one. This particular tradition, then, as well as being heavily constructed, has been -- from the beginning -- a heavily commercial one.

My point, then, is this: while I do not mean to suggest that United's 18 (well, ok, 19) titles are in some way inferior to Liverpool's, having been achieved in the main (11/12 out of 18/19) with the help of the significant commercial backing that has arisen through the tradition of the BSkyB-backed Premiership, they should be seen as undoubtedly different.

But congratulations, United, on another success. And extra congratulations to the alcoholic-nosed, gum-chomping septuagenarian cyborg; will SAF ever retire?

*If United don't leave Ewood Park as champions, it'll be the first time in 9 years -- when Arsenal's 2-0 victory over Chelsea on May the 4th 2002 preceded the Gunners' clinching of the title four days later -- that the destination of FA Cup trophy has been decided earlier than the Premiership title.

**I'm aware this sounds like I have a fairly grumpy view of the IPL; this isn't in fact true, and this sentence was mainly included for the purposes of a cheap laugh along it's-just-not-cricket lines. Sorry about that.

Cricketing Digest

I feel I've neglected the initial focus of this blog in the not-so-glamorous cricketing months, so in a short post tonight I thought I'd do a quick run-down of recent news in the world of leather on willow. (I haven't been following it for a couple of weeks, so it may be that the new Lalit Modi has decided that playing the game with a metal post and a ball of rubber bands is a better crowd-puller than a leather ball and a wooden bat, and therefore that that particular figure of speech is even more outmoded than usual. [They don't still use willow, do they? I'm way out of my depth.])

Broadly Speaking

(That was just an excuse to use that pun; I'd have done so even if I didn't have anything to say about the England captaincy.) So Alastair Cook, who's played 3 ODIs in the past two and a half years, is the new England captain. Right. And Stuart Broad, 9 months after being fined 50% of his match fee for an act of borderline ABH, has got the T20 job. Hmmm.

Here's a thought: why not pick someone to do both jobs who's in both teams? And who doesn't have a yearly tantrum?

Warne Again? No

(That one was even worse. Sorry about that.) So Shane Warne is to retire from cricket at the end of the season. Who even knew he was still playing?? I'm surprised he can bear to prise himself away from his nice little earner in the commentary box. Or maybe he's started combining the two? Now that I'd pay to watch -- get on it, Sky.

KP's Back

(Yes, I gave up.) Coming in second on our list of 'talented yet incredibly arrogant cricketers whom you thought had long ago decided to concentrate on the more commercial sides of their careers rather than spend any time actually on the pitch' is the delightful Sir Kev, who's preparing for his come-back from injury.

Given that a middle order of Trott, Bopara, and Morgan made 73% of England's runs in their last game, thought, you have to ask: do we really need him?

Well that was a lazy post. Apologies. More of the same, or better (you never know), next week -- I'm off to bed. Live the Friday night dream, people! :)