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Episode three of the Geras vs Massie cricketing showdown is underway. It's Norm's turn to pick first and, as I feared he might, he's exploiting his greater knowledge of South African cricket. Getting my excuses in early, I consider myself the underdog in this game. Anyway, the rules are the same as ever: only chaps who have played post-1945 are eligible for selection... You can follow the action here and, of course, at Norm's place too.
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Lovely story told by Simon Hoggart in his Guardian column at the weekend: The death of Simon Gray lets me reprise a favourite story. He was a close friend of Harold Pinter, a great cricket lover. Once Pinter wrote a poem about his hero Len Hutton. It read, in its entirety "I saw Hutton in his prime / Another time, another time." He sent it to several of his friends. Soon afterwards Pinter and Gray were at the same dinner party and Pinter asked what he thought of the poem. "I don't know, Harold," said Gray. "I'm afraid I haven't finished it yet.
From our UK edition
After the West Indian misfortune, in which my selection was, I'm afraid, bested by Norm's we move on to episode two of our series in which we select cricket teams, playground football style, from players who played at least some test cricket after 1945. This time I have first pick of country and player and, this being so, choose to play Australia. This being the case, it will not surprise you that with the first pick in the Australian draft, I select Sir Donald Bradman. Over to you Norm...
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Having come-off second-best in our West Indies game, I'm duty bound to suggest (gently) that I've had the better of Norm in the Australian leg of the series. In large part, of course, this reflects the luxury of being able to select Don Bradman with the first pick, just as Norm benefitted from choosing Gary Sobers first last time. In each case the player picking first has been able to acquire two players for the price of one. That's quite an advantage. Having Bradman in my side permitted me to pick Keith Miller second, to provide balance, and my two favourite Aussie fast bowlers with my third and fourth selections. After that, the bonus was remembering that Bill O'Reilly was eligible for selection, thanks to a solitary test in 1946.
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Readers awaiting the announcement of my M XI of test cricketers should fret not. It will appear. And soon. In the meantime the estimable Norm has challenged me to a game of fantasy cricket. As he explains, the idea is that we shall each select a side, playground style and then see how the XIs may match up against one another in a subsequent, enjoyably imaginary, series. You can follow - as I imagine you'll want to - the game here and at Norm's place.
From our UK edition
So, as expected, Kevin Pietersen will captain England against South Africa at the Oval. A dubious gamble in my view, given the potential for the captaincy to adversely impact impair (thanks mystery commenter!) his batting, just as it did Michael Vaughan. Then again the selectors ensured that they had very few options, thanks to their criteria. As Geoff Miller said today: "In choosing a new captain, we were keen to identify a player who could lead the team in all three forms of cricket and bring fresh enthusiasm and ideas to the role of captain." In other words slap and tickle 20/20 cricket helped determine the choice of a captain for the test match XI. Since Pietersen and Flintoff are the only players guaranteed a spot in 20/20, 50 over and five day cricket it had to be him.
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The test match at Edgbaston is bubbling up nicely. If they can snaffle Graham Smith's wicket England will be favoured to mop up the South African tail and claim a victory that looked unlikely after their careless batting displays. Hurrahs for Paul Collingwood and, with the ball, Freddie Flintoff. UPDATE: OK, so that didn't work out did it? But I'd have also been happy to have been at Headingly today where, in his 11th innings after he struck his 99th first-class century, Mark Ramprakash has made it to the top of the mountain. The 100 Century Club has a new member. What's more, Ramps' may be the last admitted to that exclusive gathering.
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Regular readers may not be surprised that I'm sceptical of the benefits of the new referral system being trialled in the Sri Lanka-India series. This morning's events at Edgbaston demonstrate why. Kevin Pietersen was given out caught in the gully off Jacques Kallis. Replays and the "Snickometer" suggested that he'd hit his pad, not the ball, before it spooned up to Prince. So far so good: refer this to the Third Umpire and he'll say that Pietersen is not out caught. But he might also mention that he looks as though he is out LBW. But the umpire in the middle can't really say to Pietersen, "OK, so you didn't hit it so you're out LBW instead". Result: muddle. Equally, all the technological aids available can't really help much in deciding whether Vaughan hit his first delivery or not.
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A dismal day at Edgbaston that took one back to the grim, hapless days of the late 1980s and almost the entire 1990s. Yes, England really were that bad. Batting first on a calm track they subsided to 231 all out. In reply, South Africa have ambled to 38-1. Now you may say that this is only the first day of five and, for sure, the situation is far from irretrievable. But unless England can bat and bowl with greater discipline than they have shown thus far this summer, then they look more likely to head to the Oval 2-0 down than with a chance to square, let alone actually win the series. For once David Lloyd is right. This has been, as he says, an "absolutely woeful" day. Ian Botham also gets it right: "We keep on hearing how great this top five are, well, it hasn't been for some time".
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Yes, I know I have posted this before, But, dang it, I'm sailing around Corfu.
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What is it about Ian Bell? By which I mean, why does the poor fellow arouse such animosity? No other player in the current England team sees his failures magnified and successes downplayed to such an extent. Even when he bats well, his critics use this as evidence that, damn it, he should be batting like this all the time. Perhaps today's splendid 199 against South Africa will quieten the critics. But if so, I suspect it will do so only temporarily. A friend suggests that Bell is the victim of the "Henman effect". That is to say, he's a nice, middle-class public schoolboy (Rugby in Bell's case) whose demeanour is the opposite of the swagger or blue-collar defiance that's more in vogue with the times.
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That's the wicket-keeper not the misanthropic terrier. In the light of my defence of Ian Bell, a reader asks if I could write something about Gloucestershire's Jack Russell. Certainly! Jack Russell was a blazing beacon of excellence. He was, in his pomp, the best wicket-keeper in the world. Obviously, he was traduced by England and the people who claimed to know what was best. For neither the first, nor the last, time they were wrong. In a better, more seinsible world Jack Russell would have spent a decade being the first name on an England team-sheet. For quite some part of that time - an uncomfortably large part in fact - he could reasonably have been considered England's sole realistic entry for a Pick Your World XI contest. (Adam Gilchrest would change this, of course.
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It's that time again folks so here is the M XI, to follow those led by Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter, Edrich, Fry, Gower, Hutton, Imran , Jardine, Kapil. and Lloyd 1. Arthur Morris (AUS) 2. Vijay Merchant (IND)3. Charles Macartney (AUS)4. PBH May (ENG) (Capt)5. Stan McCabe (AUS)6. Keith Miller (AUS)7. 8. Rod Marsh (AUS) (Wkt) 9. Malcolm Marshall (WI)10. Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)11. Glenn McGrath (AUS) Country representation so far [before the M XI is counted!!!!!!!!!]: England 45, Australia 27, West Indies 17, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 11, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1, USA 1. If Neville Cardus were selecting this side, Archie Maclaren would be the first name on the team-sheet.
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One of the sadder constants in international sport is that any major decision made by the International Cricket Council will, more probably than not, damage the long-term best interests of the game. That sorry streak continues today: The result of the controversial 2006 Oval Test between England and Pakistan is to be changed, the BBC understands. The match was awarded to England when the Pakistan team refused to come out onto the field after tea after being accused of ball-tampering. But the International Cricket Council is expected to change the result to a draw at its meeting in Dubai. BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said the move would open up "an absolutely enormous can of worms".
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It's Clive Lloyd's turn to lead a side in this series. So here is the L XI, to follow those led by Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter, Edrich, Fry, Gower, Hutton, Imran and Jardine and Kapil. 1. Bill Lawry (AUS)2. Justin Langer (AUS)3. Brian Lara (WI)4. Maurice Leyland (ENG)5. Clive Lloyd (WI) (Capt)6. Denis Lindsay (SA) (Wkt)7. Ray Lindwall (AUS)8. Harold Larwood (ENG)9. Jim Laker (ENG)10. George Lohmann (ENG)11. Dennis Lillee (AUS) Country representation so far: England 45, Australia 27, West Indies 17, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 11, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1, USA 1.
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The ICC (that's the International Cricket Council) and the authorities in England keep banging on about how they want to ensure that test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game. Then they keep announcing additional one day and 20/20 competitions. You tell me how that adds up. Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire backer of the new England vs West Indies 20/20 challenge matches (for $5m each game) says he finds test cricket "boring". Virgil was right: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes... Stanford sees 20/20 as a way to "crack" the American market. Now I think he is almost certainly mistaken in thinking this is possible but I'm not prepared to even wish him luck in his endeavours.
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Apologies for the delay in publishing this latest installment in our marathon series. Still, here it is at last. So far we have has featured teams skippered by: Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter, Edrich, Fry, Gower, Hutton, Imran and Jardine. Now it is Kapil Dev's turn. 1. Gary Kirsten (SA)2. Rohan Kanhai (WI)3. Vinod Kambli (IND)4. Jacques Kallis (SA)5. Alvin Kallicharran (WI)6. Alan Kippax (AUS) 7. Kapil Dev (IND) (Capt) 8. Alan Knott (ENG) (Wkt)9. Anil Kumble (IND)10. Khan Mohammed (PAK)11. Bart King (USA) Country representation in the series: England 41, Australia 23, West Indies 15, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 10, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1, USA 1. Lower those eyebrows. Un-drop your jaw. Cease your incredulous blinking.
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It is not, right now, saying much to observe that Kevin Pietersen is England's best batsman. His century against New Zealand today has not been the stuff of legends but it has at least rescued England from the perilous position they had put themselves into at 86/5. But if Pietersen is England's best batsman, we must hope that he is also be their most ignorant. How else to explain his prediction that Monty Panesar "will be the best finger-spinner the world has ever seen"? Of course there's no reason to suppose that test cricketers might also have some appreciation for the the game's history.
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So, to no-one's great surprise, the first test between England and New Zealand ended in a draw. Commendations are due Daniel Vettori for his bowling and Jacob Oram for the century that ensured England would have no chance to snatch an improbable victory. England's pusillanimous tactics made achieving victory, however, very much more improbable than it needed to have been.
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Apologies for the (unconscionable?) delay in posting this latest installment. I know this has disappointed some of you. What can I say? Well, the truth is that Firefox ate this post and this set me back a few days as it was some time before I could muster the energy or enthusiasm to write a new version. Still, you can't discount indolence as a factor either. Anyway, here we are at last. This series has featured teams skippered by: Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter, Edrich, Fry, Gower, Hutton and Imran. There are some tough cookies in that list, you'll agree, but none sterner than the man leading the J XI onto the field: Douglas Robert Jardine. THE J XI 1. Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) 2. Archie Jackson (AUS) 3. Mahela Jayawardene (SL)4. FS Jackson (ENG)5.