The Surfer
Press slam "Perthetic" England
The Ashes series was all but decided after the Adelaide Test, so the British press had plenty of time to come up with their back-page headlines when the urn was finally lost
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
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Sorry England surrendered The Ashes in record time yesterday. Freddie Flintoff’s Perth flops handed back the urn to Australia after just 15 days of Test cricket Down Under - the shortest defence in history.
Geoff Boycott, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said the lost series should spell the end for Duncan Fletcher.
My view is that after the Ashes series has finished, the men in suits should talk to Duncan Fletcher. They should recommend that he takes the team through the triangular and the World Cup, and then retires. And they should start looking for a new coach for the beginning of the English summer. There is no question of sacking him now – he's done some good things. But all good things come to an end.
Australia's success bad for Test cricket
While most Australians celebrate the return of the Ashes, Chloe Saltau in the Age sounds a warning that Australia’s renewed dominance is a bad thing for the long-term future of Test cricket
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
While most Australians celebrate the return of the Ashes, Chloe Saltau in the Age sounds a warning that Australia’s renewed dominance is a bad thing for the long-term future of Test cricket. And the paper is clear that the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the ICC and the incompetent way it continues to handle world cricket.
Hold the champagne, if only for a moment. As the frail Ashes urn is escorted across the country to Melbourne, and Australia's cricketers wake rather dustily from their richly deserved series victory celebrations, it is worth considering what it means for world cricket if the second-best team in the world can be so comprehensively slaughtered by the best, as England have been by Australia in 15 days of cricket.
Australia wanted the Ashes more
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Australia’s newspapers have no doubt why the Ashes series has been such a one-sided affair. As Robert Craddock explains in the Herald Sun, the perception is that Australia were more desperate to win.
Justice has been done ... the Ashes have gone to the team that wanted them the most. Winning the Ashes means everything to this Australian team. They've been saying it for a while but it's not until you see Matthew Hayden shedding a tear or other players simply delirious in celebration that you realise it had become their life's obsession.
Sree 'Elvis Pelvis' Santh
Following one of Andre Nel's spectacular bursts of sledging against Sreesanth, on the third day at Johannesburg, he replied in similarly emphatic fashion...and just check out that celebration.
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
Following one of Andre Nel's spectacular bursts of sledging against Sreesanth, on the third day at Johannesburg, he replied in similarly emphatic fashion...and just check out that celebration.
Click here if you can't see the video above.
Full postMarsh picks it
Rod Marsh has come out with some interesting comments about English cricket over the last few weeks, but his ability to spot a talented player has never been in doubt
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
Rod Marsh has come out with some interesting comments about English cricket over the last few weeks, but his ability to spot a talented player has never been in doubt. This piece in The Observer was written the day before Alastair Cook made 116 at Perth.
Cook will probably captain England before he is 30 and will probably average over 50 in Test cricket. I'm not concerned that he is not yet in the England one-day set-up. As he matures he will find his way into that team and he will work hard enough on his athleticism and general fielding to do a more than adequate job in the field.
Stranded away from the Ashes
The attendance for the Perth Test has broken WACA records, but the crowd is missing one man who'd hope to make it via a slightly different mode of transport
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
The attendance for the Perth Test has broken WACA records, but the crowd is missing one man who'd hope to make it via a slightly different mode of transport. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston set sail from Bilbao in late October and aimed to reach Fremantle in time to collect tickets to the third Test. Alas, a lack of wind in the has left him stranded in the ocean. Read an interview he did with The Observer.
Tragedy it is, then. While the first two boats in the race have been in Australia for several days - their Swiss and Japanese skippers oblivious to the fact that there is a cricket match going on - Sir Robin is in the middle of nowhere and does not expect to reach Australia until 27 December. Alone, alone, all all alone, alone on a wide, wide sea, as someone once wrote.
It's Sourav Ganguly's Test already
South Africa had a horrid second day at Johannesburg
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
South Africa had a horrid second day at Johannesburg. Their batsmen collapsed for 84 and their bowlers allowed India to stretch their lead to 311 with five wickets in hand. One of the reasons for "South Africa's dismal batting performance and considerably below par bowling effort, Shaun Pollock excepted" is the lack of first-class cricket played by the national squad, writes Neil Manthorp on supercricket.co.za.
"If India win, it will be a fascinating human drama that Rahul Dravid’s team will owe so much to that inspirational knock from Ganguly, a man who had been given up for lost by them," writes Kadambari Murali in The Hindustan Times.
Greg Chappll said that India needed just one innings to turn their fortunes around, Bobilli Vijay Kumar says that "it's just so ironical that it had to come from Ganguly's blade".
Full postWho picks the England team?
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
Duncan Fletcher faced the media yesterday evening after England had been flayed around Perth by Adam Gilchrist. Selections issues were high on the agenda for the press and he continued to defend his treatment of Monty Panesar. But that isn't the only decision that has left people scratching their heads, with Michael Atherton in The Daily Telegraph asking why Sajid Mahmood was used so little by Andrew Flintoff.
Not that Mahmood was the only one who was puzzled. Rumours in the press box abounded. Maybe Flintoff was making a point of his very own. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt, and Flintoff, a fellow Lancastrian, was not particularly enamoured with Mahmood's selection in the first place. Lots of maybes and lots of rumours, which has been the case with England's selections ever since Duncan Fletcher let it be known that he and the captain did not necessarily agree on the team who took the field for the second Test.
In The Guardian, Vic Marks says that Flintoff's problems on this tour have been increased by his lack of cricket leading into the series and the England selectors have some tough decisions to make.
Full postKnives sharpen against Fletcher
As Australia move closer to regaining the Ashes the knives are being sharpened against Duncan Fletcher, the man many in the media feel is to blame for England's problems
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
As Australia move closer to regaining the Ashes the knives are being sharpened against Duncan Fletcher, the man many in the media feel is to blame for England's problems. The earlier omission of Monty Panesar is still fuelling the criticism and James Lawton, in The Independent says Fletcher has out-thought and out-planned.
Panesar didn't only represent the possibility of a striking new weapon in England's attack. He also promised a fresh state of mind, optimistic, attacking, filled with a belief in his own ability to make a difference.
In the Guardian, Richard Williams writes pessimistically about Flintoff's chances of playing the next Ashes. The bowler, Williams feels, has been hurried into service with an ankle yet to heal fully.
Full postMonty's moment
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
The papers, both in England and Australia, are paying tribute to the efforts of Monty Panesar for breathing life back into the Ashes series with his five-wicket haul on the opening day at the WACA.
In The Age Peter Roebuck talks about the efforts Panesar has put in to make the most of his talents.
Full post