Good afternoon sports fans, I hope I find you well! Continuing my theme on strange blogging locations, I’m writing this while sat in Huddersfield A&E minor injuries unit, don’t worry I’m ok……..I think!
There has been all sorts of exciting developments this week in the world of cricket so let’s get into it!
England’s Test Tzar Brendon McCullum has been named white ball coach for the Three Lions men. McCullum, who had no coaching experience prior to the England Test job, has been given the role after his success with the ‘Baz Ball’ approach with the test team. Baz, with his no nonsense kiwi style has said that England white ball captain Jos Butler has been too miserable lately and his first job is to make Jos and the rest of the team feel 10 foot tall and bulletproof.
Jos and Baz are old pals so I’m sure there was an amount of tongue in cheek in McCullum’s comments. Whatever the case, England’s white ball team, having been built from nothing by former skipper Eoin Morgan into a proud cricketing dynasty, has been abysmal lately. England under Joss Buttler failed to defend their ODI and T20i world titles in the space of just 9 month…….something needed shaking up!
Baz doesn’t take the white ball reins until early next year with the management chair being kept warm by Marcus Trescothick for the upcoming T20i and ODI series against Australia. Jos Buttler will not be in his place as skipper for the Aussies either while he recovers from a calf injury, Vice Captain Phil Salt will be stepping up to lead the team.
Come the new year, when all the players are back on the board, If Baz can cheer Joss up and get the team playing, I’m all for it!
On the other side of England cricket the Women are gearing up for the T20 World Cup being hosted by Bangladesh in the UAE……..confusing!
England’s women are warming up with a 3 match ODI series followed by a 2 match T20i series against Ireland Women on the Island of Ireland. England will be skippered on the 2 series tour by seamer and Northern Supercharger Kate Cross in her first international captaincy role. Kate, also known as the Universe Cross, is coming off the back of her best ever list A figures after taking 6 wickets for 40 runs for Lancashire Lightning.
The first match of the series starts at 10.45am, Saturday 7th September at the Civil Service Cricket Ground in Belfast, we at All The Cricket would love to have gone and brought you live coverage from the Emerald Isle but unfortunately things didn’t pan out. We wish England Woman and the Universe Boss a great tour!
Australia are currently up in Scotland for a 3 match T20i series at the home of Scottish cricket, The Grange. As an English cricket fan, when you see the mortal enemy take on the oldest enemy you’ve got to worry there’s some kind of stitch up going on, indeed, this series was announced while the Scots and Aussies were conspiring to get England out of the T20 World Cup……..we didn’t need any help with that. I’ve been trying to work out who to root for in this series and although it’s no easy decision, I can’t bring myself cheer for Australia, come on Scotland!
Unfortunately, all too familiarly, Australia absolutely spanked Scotland in the first game. Scotland batted first and got a not disgraceful score of 154 for 9 but without any one in the Scott’s ranks getting into the 30’s. When the Aussies came out to reply Scotland may have felt a flutter of hope in their Caledonian hearts as Jake Fraser-McGurk was out for a 4 ball duck. However, Travis head looking professionally Australian with his daft moustache smashed 80 runs off just 25 balls. Scotland, loosing control of the game completely, at one point had a string of 16 deliveries hit for boundaries. Australia, with the help of a bit of technical cheating from Josh Inglis, knocked the runs off with 9 overs to spare. The next game is today (Friday 6th September), let’s see if Scotland can put up a better stand.
Late last month England and Yorkshire batter Dawid Malan announced his retirement from international cricket. Since Malan’s England debut in 2017 he was played in all 3 international formats. His achievements include being 1 of only 2 England players to have scored centuries in Test, ODI and T20i cricket, he was part of the England squad that won the 2022 T20 world cup and was the number 1 ranked T20 player in the world between September 2020 and November 2021. Dawid is carrying on with his domestic career for now so let’s hope he continues to score big hundreds for Yorkshire for many years to come and on behalf of the England fans, Thank you Mala!
Over in Malaysia the Asia qualifiers for the 2025 Men’s T20 World Cup are being played. Mongolia, one of the newest associate members of the ICC took on a much more established Singapore. Unfortunately for Mongolia they now share the record for the lowest T20i score in history after being bowled out for 10 runs! As I mentioned Mongolia have company at the bottom of the pile after The Isle of Mann fell to the same fate against Spain last year. Mongolia’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup are looking slim after loosing 4 from 4 in their campaign so far but as it stands they’re in the record books for good or ill and as you know, we love an underdog. World Cup 2027? Let’s hope so!
In a previous life I was a joiner making fire doors in a joiners shop. At the end of the day when it came to cleaning down, me and my colleagues would stand in a row with our sweeping brushes and sweep the sawdust forward toward the doors. As part of my current day job, whist weighing out hops to go into delicious, delicious Mallinsons beer some hops will inevitably end up on the floor and need sweeping up. Similarly to the 18 year joinery Nick, the 37 year old brewer Nick will sweep the hops in a forward motion into a pile. For along time I didn’t question this, however, my great mate and colleague Elaine is disgusted by my sweeping action and that isn’t too strong a word! According to my esteemed brewing colleague a brushing motion should always be backwards and side ways and she provided internet based evidence to prove it. Now I’m happy to be wrong and since I have no intention to change, I’m contented to be sweeping incorrectly, but in the interest of science I decided to read up on how a cricket groundsman brushes his pitch as the laws of cricket give the framework to the laws of life. After much research and analysis I can confirm that a cricket pitch should be swept in straight lines and forward! So that’s that settled then!
Bit of a long one this week but I hope interesting and entertaining and for those of you who are wondering, I have a small fracture in my elbow, thank you too Huddersfield HRI for looking after me.
So until next time I’ll take a pain killer and say goodbye.
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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