Cricket

An excellent ESPNcricinfo piece with an Osman Saimuddin by-line headlined “What the luck! New Zealand and the randomness of life” has this to say: You can analyse events down to their minutest detail. This happened because he did this and he did that and next time he did this and …

Yeah, I take the piss out of it all the time. I think I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet. If any of my mates ask on the phone, “What are you up to?” I just say “I’m hanging around, waiting for a bit of luck, mate.”  He …

Which of the ten teams in the World Cup tournament that England won yesterday had the most players with surnames beginning with the letter A? And which one had the most players who have the same initial for first name and surname? Do you know? Do you care? My boyhood …

A yard and a half! Arguably already influenced by a fine, World Cup 2019’s finest hour was finally settled by that fine a margin at Lord’s yesterday; in fact, the official margin of victory was calculated on the countback of England’s 26 boundaries to Kane Williamson’s New Zealand’s 17. On …

Between the end of the World Cup in the Caribbean and Ricky Skerritt’s welcome ouster of Dave Cameron in March, I have rarely got excited about the outcome of a West Indies cricket match. I did get genuinely worked up about Darren Sammy’s side’s 2012 T20 World Cup victory and …

Eight cricketers named Mohammad or Mohammed played in the round robin stage of the 2019 World Cup; none will be in the final. Two Jasons played in the group stage; one will play in Sunday’s Lord’s grand finale. The US$64,000 question is this: should he have been allowed to? At …

Call it arrogance if you like; I really could not care less. Whether or not Phil Simmons, Michael “Whispering Death” Holding or anyone else agrees with me, I re-affirm that Jason Holder is not the man to lead West Indies out of the ODI doldrums. I have long been very …

In a letter to the Wired868 editor last week, AJ writes that “the problems go way beyond the on-the-field representatives.” Hard to disagree, no? “Surely,” he ends, “those responsible for developing the strategy and hand-picking the players that produced these excruciating displays must also take responsibility for the resulting pain …

Lord’s, Tuesday 25 June. Knowing that his team simply cannot afford another slip-up, England captain Eoin Morgan called on his men to “front up for the next game.” The last game was on Friday 21 June at Trent Bridge against Dimuth Karunaratne’s unfancied Sri Lankans. Here is how it, no, …

“World Cup front-runners like England and New Zealand have counterbalanced their explosive hitters, Jos Buttler and Martin Guptill, for example, with conventional, steady-headed players like Joe Root and Kane Williamson. They know that batting out the full 50 overs is key to victory. “The West Indies team management does not. …

MS Dhoni had advanced so far down the wicket to attack Fabian Allen that Shai Hope had two chances to stump him. He missed both—as well as the stumps at the bowler’s end as the batsmen tried successfully to steal a single! From 154 for 4 at that point in …

I have never been a great believer in the occult. After Wednesday, however, that may change. And if Pakistan win the 2019 World Cup, that will change. Ah telling allyuh, it could only be obeah! Listen up. There are only a handful of things I know for certain about the …