England National Cricket News
Brainless moments, moral victories and tough lessons were abundant during a series that still provided plenty of drama
Player of the series Travis Head was the boxing kangaroo at the top of the Australia order. But this one goes to the other animal on the baggy green crest, Mitchell Starc bounding in like an emu, slicing through England during the live bit, and playing all five to finish with 31 wickets at 19 apiece. Elite.
Continue reading...Australia were there for the taking but Brendon McCullum’s tourists were so poor and ill-prepared they never got close
As far as endings go, it ended nicely. People streamed on to the Sydney Cricket Ground, wanting to get close to the trophy presentation and to have a canter on the turf. Nothing thrills an audience more than a chance to walk the stage. On a sun-kissed blue-heaven day, the match had finished early enough to leave plenty of afternoon to spare. Later Usman Khawaja soaked that up with his own crowd of family and friends, on his last day as a Test player.
These endings are supposed to signal the close of something momentous. Another Ashes wrapped up, another chapter in the rivalry written. Still, once it was done, the whole thing felt like it had been more hole than doughnut.
Continue reading...Ben Stokes, the England Test captain, has said the team 'need to go back to the drawing board' after losing the Ashes 4-1.
'When you come up against a team like Australia, who know how to play cricket out here and you are adding to your own downfall then you're going to end up losing the series 4-1 like we have done,' Stokes said.
'In the first couple of years, teams found it difficult to try and come up with anything to combat the way we played, but now teams are coming up with plans that are standing up to a certain style of cricket that we want to play.
'When a trend is happening on a consistent basis, that's when you do need to go back and look at the drawing board and make some adjustments.'
Continue reading...White-ball captain issues apology for October incident
Latest revelation just hours after abject Ashes reversal
Harry Brook has issued a public apology for becoming embroiled in a late-night incident in New Zealand just before the Ashes, admitting his actions “brought embarrassment to both myself and the England team”.
A matter of hours after the 4-1 series defeat by Australia was confirmed in Sydney and shortly after the England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive, Richard Gould, launched a formal review into the tour – including into the behaviour of players – the growing sense of crisis around the team deepened.
Continue reading...Documentary makers seeking funds to finish making film of an extraordinary man and his influence on the game
After a mere 100 years the Spin, always first with the news, is finally able to reveal the details of one of the more extraordinary secrets in the history of English cricket. The story comes from the private family archives of the former Surrey captain Percy Fender, which are being compiled into a fascinating new documentary film. It has always been a mystery that Fender, who was described by Wisden as “the shrewdest county captain of his generation” was never picked to lead England. After all these years, it now appears he was blackmailed out of the job by a corrupt cricket official.
In a private audio recording made shortly before his death in 1985, Fender explains that in May 1924 he was approached “by a gentleman who was very well known in the cricket world” who, during the course of a conversation over two half-bottles of champagne in Fender’s flat at the Adelphi, offered him the England captaincy for the 1924-25 Ashes tour. Fender was an amateur, and had a day job as wine merchant that meant he would need to arrange cover while he was away on the six-month tour. The “very well known” gentleman suggested he could do it for him.
Continue reading...Neil Harvey, 97, the last surviving Bradman Invincible, blasts the Bazball experiment from his La-Z-Boy armchair
Twenty five kilometres north of the SCG, the world’s oldest living Test cricketer is sitting in his La-Z-Boy armchair and watching the Test. Neil Harvey was once the youngest of Bradman’s Invincibles; now he’s 97, his old cricketing buddies gone. His body is a little worn around the edges, but mentally he’s astute.
Harvey was Australia’s sweetheart, the second youngest of six brothers, a dashing left-hander, who stalked the covers and a hunted at slip. During a 15-year Test career, he cut and shimmied to more than 6,000 runs at an average of 48, making his mark with 153 in his second Test. He was a regular at the SCG, attending every Test from 1949 up until four years ago, when, in the words of his son Bruce he “gave up public appearances” and he has very fond memories of the place.
Continue reading...Classic New Years Tests offer clues for how England and Australia can end this series on their terms at the SCG and set up for the next
If you’re an England cricket team, a Test in Sydney doesn’t look so bad. The last few weeks have merited constant updating of England’s horrible streak in Australia since January 1987, which last week’s Melbourne win improved only as far as 51 played, seven won, eight drawn, 36 lost. In Sydney over that time, the calculation is a little friendlier, at 10 played, four drawn, two won, only four lost.
So while the trophy is gone, a strong showing in this match could offer optimism that it might be a springboard for the future. Sydney has a history of involvement in Ashes comebacks, whether within a match, within a series, or in the longer term.
Continue reading...Wicketkeeper-batter left out after difficult Ashes series
Injured fast bowler Archer included along with Tongue
Jamie Smith has been dropped from England’s T20 World Cup squad, but the injured Jofra Archer and uncapped fast bowler Josh Tongue have both been included.
Test performances in Australia are hardly the most obvious metric for a short-form tournament taking place in Sri Lanka and India in February, but Smith’s dramatic loss of form in the Ashes may be a factor in his omission.
Continue reading...Wicketkeeper-batter left out after difficult Ashes series
Injured fast bowler Archer included along with Tongue
Jamie Smith has been dropped from England’s T20 World Cup squad, but the injured Jofra Archer and uncapped fast bowler Josh Tongue have both been included.
Test performances in Australia are hardly the most obvious metric for a short-form tournament taking place in Sri Lanka and India in February, but Smith’s dramatic loss of form in the Ashes may be a factor in his omission.
Continue reading...More moments to savour, following reviews of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024
Peter Moores grew up in Macclesfield, a northern town that would not feel out of place in Surrey. Maybe that upbringing bred his ability to fit in, find a way to communicate and always be of one’s place, regardless of where that place may be.
Continue reading...The old rivals have clashed in eight of the 27 Tests to finish inside two days – these are the tales behind the six matches played before the current series
To put in context the surprise that greeted the two-day Boxing Day Test just gone, consider the rarity by arithmetic. The match in Melbourne was Test number 2,615, and was two-day Test number 27. You don’t need a calculator to see that’s roughly 1%. And yet we’ve had two such matches in the current Ashes series, plus another in Australia three years earlier. We’ve had half a dozen two-day Tests worldwide since 2021. What gives?
Nine two-day Tests – fully one-third of the total – happened in the 1800s, when pitches could become swamps or shooting galleries. The next few mostly involved weak teams in their early years of development. Australia and England each dished one out to South Africa in the tri-series of 1912, and the South African team was little stronger when ripped up by Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O’Reilly in 1936. Australia also bashed up a new West Indies team in 1932 and New Zealand in 1946.
Continue reading...Morris was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2022
Glamorgan lead tributes to ‘fine human being’
Hugh Morris, the former England and Glamorgan batter who went on to hold senior positions with country and county, has died at the age of 62.
Born in Cardiff in 1963, Morris became Glamorgan’s youngest ever captain at the age of 22 before returning to the role later in his career, leading them to the Sunday League title in 1993, their first trophy in 24 years.
Continue reading...Australian backs Ashes rival over video controversy
‘I reached out to Ducky to see if he was going alright’
Travis Head has revealed he sent a message of support to his Ashes rival Ben Duckett after the England batter found himself on the end of a social media backlash.
Unverified footage appearing to show an intoxicated Duckett in a tetchy late-night conversation with a fan during the team’s mid-series break in Noosa placed an unwanted spotlight on the opener.
Continue reading...Packed MCG finished with three full days to spare
Ground curator Matthew Page at centre of the storm
England’s two-day win in the Boxing Day Test is set to deliver a huge financial hit to Australian cricket that could reach a reported $10m (£5m). That is the expected loss in revenue after the match on an excessively bowler-friendly surface at a packed MCG finished with three full days to spare.
A sell-out crowd of more than 90,000 was due for day three, including a travelling English contingent of up to 20,000, and the lack of play on Sunday will lead to an avalanche of refunds as well as lost sales in merchandise, food and drinks.
Continue reading...England team on tour are unlikely to mirror comeback orchestrated by legendary batter in the 1936-37 series
By the time you read this, day one of the third Test will have gently unfolded/catastrophically unspooled. You will already have some inkling of how (un)likely it is that England will be able to haul in Australia’s 2-0 lead and claw back the urn.
As you also probably know, only one side has overcome a 2-0 deficit to win a series, and that side was Australia, and that Australia included Don Bradman.
This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Continue reading...