I AM still under the age of 30, so forgive me if my sample size is small, but the performance of the England men’s team in Australia this winter was the most abject and demoralising display of professional Test cricket I have seen in my lifetime.
It wasn’t just the 4–0 defeat, but the manner of said defeat. It was Ollie Robinson bowling off-spin in sunglasses in a match they lost by 275 runs. It was the stout refusal to score more than 300 runs in a single innings. It was getting bowled out for 68 in the third Test. It was an amateur display that rightly cost Chris Silverwood, Graham Thorpe and Ashley Giles their jobs and it was even more embarrassing considering the bluster of the past two years about how ‘the Ashes was the main focus of the side’. Here is your reminder that England only avoided a 5–0 whitewash by one wicket. There are myriad reasons why this happened and there are myriad ways it might be fixed. However, as long as Tom Harrison, the England and Wales Cricket Board CEO, is allowed to mark his own homework, it is unlikely that much will change. The institution is rotten and its leadership needs replacing.
The only positive England could take away from the tour down under was the bowling. So, naturally, they have dropped James Anderson and Stuart Broad for the upcoming three Test tour of the West Indies. This winter, Anderson had the lowest average of the bowling side of about 23 and Broad was England’s second-highest wicket-taker, despite missing two games. We shall look on with interest to find out how, exactly, it was their fault that England cannot bat.
Denne historien er fra March 02, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 02, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
