Mike Holmans

Good luck England

Whatever happens in today's semi-final against the Lankans, England can go home feeling they've earned some respect and done themselves somewhere near justice.

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Back to live cricket

The only comfort to be taken from the youngsters' failures is that Robson was playing for Australia's U-19 team a couple of years ago and if he's representative of the cream of new Australian cricketers, England will be regaining and then holding the

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Not a natural neutral

To put it crudely, if my side is batting I want a boundary (or simple survival in the latter stages of a Test which needs saving), and if we're bowling, I want a wicket

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

A modest triumph

Bangladesh are no longer a hopeless joke team who should not be playing Test cricket, but a weak team who still need to do a lot of work, much like New Zealand in the 1930s.

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Working title

Ignoring the headline and looking at the text with the expectation that the author did not believe in a culture of failure, it reads to me as a fine debunking of the idea which has begun circulating among the backwoodsmen and newspapers of the Little

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Would you do it 'for your country'?

Questioning someone's selection simply because he doesn't wear Union Jack pyjamas to bed shows remarkably little understanding of professional sportsmen.

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Ntini: a national treasure

Ntini went out hunting for wickets and grabbed great bagfuls

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

To drop or not to drop?

For the future, the big question is how the Indian selectors are going to deal with the inevitable loss of Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Opportunity knocks

Even if England don't have any dramas and put their opponents to bed in an orderly fashion, there should be a fair amount of interest in the newcomers

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Better read than watched

This series for the D'Oliveira Trophy seems to have been written by John le Carre

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

How Broad bamboozled the South Africans

My theory is that Broad has somehow acquired the ability to make things temporarily invisible to specific people.

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

The return of the fingerspinner

When a spinner is on and there are four or five fielders crouched round the batsman, you can feel the steam building up in the pressure-cooker - and these last few weeks, we have had gratifyingly extended views of batsmen being boiled like sponge

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

The slowcoaches

The legacy of idolising Boycs is an enduring appreciation for the stonewaller in his various guises, though it has to be said that he does not always make for riveting viewing

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Goodbye and hello to Iain O'Brien

Thirty-three is a fair old age to be embarking on a gruelling county career playing more cricket than he has ever done in his life

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Can Strauss perform the impossible?

Because of Strauss's leadership, England are now playing optimistic one-day cricket: they have no idea whether they are going to win the next game but they will give it a decent shot because – at last – they believe in themselves.

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Wanted: More aggression from England

I want to see more England batsmen playing like Bangladeshis, hitting out as often as possible even if they get out while doing it

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Go well, workhorses

Ealham was not quite the ideal ODI allrounder, though he did a reasonable job in his 64 appearances

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Valete - I

These were substantial careers

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

What's the point of the Champions Trophy?

It is we, the fans and supporters, who confer prestige on tournaments and series

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

Why don't we like the Champions Trophy?

The Champions Trophy is the World Cup without the boring bits

25-Feb-2013•Mike Holmans

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