Category: England National Cricket

Gloucestershire fast bowler who was the first British-born black cricketer to play for England

David “Syd” Lawrence, the Gloucestershire and England cricketer who has died aged 61, a year after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, knew only one way to bowl. It was to charge up to the crease and hurl the ball down as fast as he could – whether it was eleven o’clock in the morning or six in the evening after a long day in the field. He became the first British-born black cricketer to play for England on his Test debut in 1988.

For Gloucestershire he united with Courtney Walsh, the great West Indian paceman, who would soon become a friend. They would also enjoy themselves as revellers at the St Paul’s carnival in Bristol each year. Together they formed a formidable, contrasting pair of opening bowlers. Walsh was the more calculating cricketer, bowling fast one day and relying on accuracy, cunning and late movement the next. Lawrence just kept racing in with abandon, a spectacular, uplifting sight unless you happened to be the batsman at the other end.

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• Lawrence took 18 wickets in five Tests for England

• He had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease

The former England bowler David “Syd” Lawrence has died aged 61, a year after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and only a week after he was awarded an MBE in the king’s birthday honours for his services to cricket.

Lawrence played five Tests between 1988 and 1992, taking 18 wickets and becoming the first British-born black player to be picked for England. His career in effect ended in February 1992 when, in an apparently innocuous incident while playing for England against New Zealand, he fractured his left kneecap. He managed only four more first-class matches before being forced into retirement, with his last appearance coming in 1997.

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• Test captain identifies weakness ahead of India series

• He reveals Jofra Archer is pestering him for a Test call

Ben Stokes may have described England’s recent lack of Test action as “a bit odd” but playing just one game in the past six months has given the side space to reconsider their approach before the series against India.

Stokes has won 23 of his 33 games in charge while losing 12 and insisted: “I don’t think it’s arrogant to say that we’ve been good over the last three years.” But with England’s next 10 Tests coming against either India – starting at Headingley on Friday – or ­Australia they have prepared for potential adversity.

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Mike Gatting took over from David Gower as captain before the Test at Headingley. It didn’t make much difference

By That 1980s Sports Blog

India will be hoping the Test at Headingley this week goes better than their last visit to the ground in 2021. Dismissed for 78 in the first innings, a defeat inevitably followed for the visitors. It was a far cry from their two previous visits – the victory in 2002 inspired by Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, and their first Test win at the ground in 1986.

England’s defeat at Headingley 39 years ago was a tough one for their fans. As the World Cup in Mexico grabbed the attention of the sporting public, and Boris Becker defended his Wimbledon crown, England’s Test team were plumbing new depths. The glory of the 1985 Ashes series seemed a lifetime ago. That victory had led some to believe that the winter series against the West Indies could be an evenly matched contest between two of the best teams in the world. File that under misplaced confidence. England were crushed 5-0, and the pressure on captain David Gower started to crank up.

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The Australia captain talks about leading the side against South Africa and not getting too big for his boots – but plays a dead bat regarding the Bairstow dismissal at Lord’s

As Pat Cummins opens up at the pavilion end, while gazing across the vast empty space of Lord’s a few days before Australia face South Africa in the World Test Championship final, it’s clear that the unexpected opponents this week have helped to frame his remarkable career.

On Wednesday morning, while towering a foot over Temba Bavuma, his 5ft 3in South African counterpart, Cummins will lead Australia for the 34th time, in his 68th Test. The fast bowler stands at the summit of world cricket, his grizzled matinee idol charm allied to the grit which has helped him to become such a successful captain. Australia have won almost everything during his tenure of three and a half years and they are expected to retain their Test title.

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The hosts took a decisive 2-0 lead in the T20 series by chasing down the West Indies total of 196

He’s got him first ball! A snorter of a yorker beats Lewis for pace and bangs him right in front. The batter reviews but it’s more in hope than anything. Maybe he thought he made contact with the ball as he attempted to dig it out, but there’s a gap between leather and willow. A stunning start for Wood and England.

The players are now geared up and ready to roll.

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Jacob Bethell’s pure talent puts him in high demand, but Shoaib Bashir is the real freelancer in cricket’s deeply confusing world

Bruised skies, sun through clouds, dualism, life in death. Welcome to the bloom of another England Test Match summer, the summer, this time around, of Bethell and Bashir. But of Bethell first because he’s the easy bit.

The battle for Jacob Bethell is of course just beginning. Everyone wants a piece of England’s most thrillingly talented young cricketer. The broadcasters are frothing. The papers want to know whose shirts he wears. Actually the papers don’t really care. Maybe the Daily Telegraph wants to know this at a push. But Bethell is still kind of perfect right now, a future-bomb, all promise and new things, in a sport that is always desperate for these.

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• Fast bowler back in second XI action for Sussex

• Woakes, Carse and Overton named in first-Test squad

Jofra Archer is being primed to make a comeback in the second Test against India at Edgbaston – his first appearance in whites for four years – with England’s stable of fast bowlers under strain before the start of this summer’s marquee series.

Naming a 14-man squad for the first Test at Headingley that starts on 20 June, Luke Wright, who is part of the selection panel, confirmed Gus Atkinson is ruled out with a hamstring injury. In come Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Jamie Overton, likewise Jacob Bethell to offer competition among the batting spots.

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White-ball captain brought fresh impetus against West Indies as he tries to ‘get a little bit funky’

It is just three games, one series, played at home against one of the few major teams ranked even lower than them. But if it would be unwise to get carried away with England’s clean sweep of West Indies there was no mistaking what we witnessed along the way: green shoots, tender and fragile but undeniable, desperately needed signs of renewal after a period of atrophy. The genesis of a new team, under fresh leadership, with fresh emphases and impetus.

It has been overdue. From the miseries of the last World Cup to the indignity of the Champions Trophy this year, England’s recent 50‑over record is dire. Between the start of that World Cup and this summer they played 26 games and won seven, along the way playing bilateral series against West Indies, Australia, West Indies again and India and losing them all.

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England talisman’s majestic innings against West Indies shows he still has worlds he wants to conquer

The winning moment is perfect. Perfect in concept, in balance, in execution, in placement, in flourish. The ball disappears through mid-on, and before it has even reached the boundary the lid is off and the smile is unsheathed, and for some reason it matters a great deal that the stroke to complete a towering one-day chase of 309 is not a wallop or a swipe, but an artful on-drive for four.

But then for all his brilliance, there has always been a pleasingly jarring quality to Root in limited‑overs cricket, even a kind of quiet defiance. His match‑winning 166 against the West Indies on Sunday was perhaps his greatest white-ball innings, but above all it was simply a Joe Root innings, all gentle nudges and classical drives, timing over power, manoeuvrability over muscularity, a triumph of pure talent.

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The team’s latest big hitter opens up after his incendiary innings against the West Indies this week

Fresh off a plane from India and straight into a player-of-the-match performance for England on his home ground, Jacob Bethell’s world is a pretty hectic one these days. But the only complaint about a jetsetting lifestyle that has him rubbing shoulders with Virat Kohli and tipped for superstardom is the hotel beds.

“A lot of them are way too soft,” says Bethell after the first one-day international against West Indies, his incendiary 82 having helped Harry Brook to a winning start as England captain. “I’ve got a bad back and I’m only 21, so we need to sort that out. I might have to walk around with some memory foam. But no, I’m enjoying it.”

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The Lancashire bowler, 43 in July, talks about life on and off the pitch, and why cricket was never about money for him

Sir Jimmy Anderson is running late, five, then 10 minutes past 10 before he arrives in front of his computer. He is dishevelled, like he is just up and into his T-shirt and jeans. He finished his first match since July the previous evening, Lancashire against Derbyshire in the County Championship, on a flat pitch at Old Trafford, and is still feeling it.

The fourth day had been hard going: 16 overs, eight maidens, two for 25, in a thwarted attempt to force victory against a Derbyshire team hell-bent on securing a draw. Lancashire finished two wickets short. “I’ve woken up feeling like absolute death,” Anderson says. “It was a bit of a wake-up call.”

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Batter relaxed about Jacob Bethell’s potential return after century against Zimbabwe with India and Australia to come

A Test match that began with England saying they wanted to be better at media interactions and show a touch more humility ended with the captain growling about his words being twisted. And they say a week is a long time in politics …

It was my question that sparked all this, as it happens. The day before the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, I asked Ben Stokes about Jacob Bethell, the conversations that surrounded his absence to play in the Indian Premier League, and whether, as the “incumbent No 3” who made such an impression in New Zealand, he would be “straight back in” for the series against India.

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One-off Zimbabwe Test at Trent Bridge the launchpad for a decisive summer for England and their abstemious captain

So where are we up to right now? Still Bazball 2.0? The start of Bazball 3.0? Given Ben Stokes has knocked the grog on the head this year, perhaps it should be Bazball 0.0% ABV.

Although, jokes aside, that recent revelation on one of those man-chat podcasts said a fair bit about Stokes’s nature. Not only has he temporarily paused drinking during his recovery from hamstring surgery but, so taken by this, he has even bought shares in an alcohol-free spirits company. England’s Test captain is someone who, when he sets his mind on something, sees it through to the extreme. Even abstinence.

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• Ashes rivals Australia sit above England in ICC table
• Zimbabwe Test is captain’s first action since December

England under Ben Stokes have never lacked ambition, but they go into a defining period of Test cricket with one in particular in mind: to become the first England side in 15 years to take top spot in the International Cricket Council’s rankings – officially the best in the world.

“If we win what we’ve got coming up, the likelihood is that we will be at the top of that leaderboard,” Stokes said. “There’s no doubt in my mind we have the ability to be that team.”

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