The Surfer
English blood, Australian heart
Phil Jaques will hope that he doesn't have to do a Mike Hussey and wait till he turns 30 to be a regular in the Australian Test side
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Phil Jaques will hope that he doesn't have to do a Mike Hussey and wait till he turns 30 to be a regular in the Australian Test side. Meanwhile he could have opened against Australia in this Ashes... cept for that Australian heart of his.
Jaques, who travels on a British passport, scored 1409 runs for Northants in his debut season that year, more than enough you might imagine for the English selectors to sound him out. "It was pointed out to me I could become a part of the English system because of my British passport and because I was playing over there...
"Had I decided to go for it, I would've needed to sit out a four-year qualifying period to be allowed to play for them. That period would have lapsed at the end of last (season)."
Full postOne man, a dog and a sleeping bag
The opening day of the first-class cricket season is like stepping back 30 years to when towelling hats were de rigueur.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
The opening day of the first-class cricket season is like stepping back 30 years to when towelling hats were de rigueur.
A quick inventory read: thermos flasks, three; field glasses lovingly protected in leather cases, four; tartan blankets, eight; chilly bins, two; fold-out chairs, six (one in camouflage colours); cricketers on field, 13, (plus two umpires).
There's few under 40 here. It feels like a Stephen King novel where an unknown force has stolen the young and deposited them in a cornfield north of Rangiora.
No, it’s not a County Championship match in England in April, it’s a State Championship match in New Zealand in November. And, as Dylan Cleaver finds in The Herald on Sunday as he watches Canterbury take on Otago, it can be a chilly, isolated affair. But it’s not all bad:
Full postMistaken identity
The photographers amassed at Heathrow airport to try and snap a picture of Marcus Trescothick arriving back in England following his depature from the Ashes tour
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
The photographers amassed at Heathrow airport to try and snap a picture of Marcus Trescothick arriving back in England following his depature from the Ashes tour. They were looking for a man in a brown jacket with a blue shirt and sure enough he walked through the arrivals door and the flash blubs started going. Only, it wasn't the man they wanted. The Times has spoken to Justin O'Sullivan, the man who has had his 15 minutes of fame.
“Those pictures have gone around the world,” O’Sullivan said. “I got calls from Australia and even India. My family and friends have had a great time making fun of it. I realised they were taking pictures when I got off, but I thought they were of someone behind me.”
Meanwhile Mark Lathwell, the former Somerset opening batsman who played two Tests for England during the 1993 Ashes series, has spoken of his sympathy for Trescothick. The two started their careers together at Taunton before Lathwell retired in 2001.
Lathwell has lost touch with Trescothick, as he has with everybody in the first-class game — “there is no point in clinging on to something that is not yours” — but he will be contacting Somerset for Trescothick’s phone number to express his sympathy.
The Ashes bonanza
It isn't only the players and supporters who are eagerly awaiting the Ashes re-match, those in charge of the corporate side are in line for a huge windfall with unprecedented interest in the series leading to a big pay day for the host venues
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
It isn't only the players and supporters who are eagerly awaiting the Ashes re-match, those in charge of the corporate side are in line for a huge windfall with unprecedented interest in the series leading to a big pay day for the host venues. Lachlan Begg, the sales manager for Queensland Cricket, has been working flat out for more than a year as the Gabba prepares to host the opening clash. Read the piece from the Courier Mail.
Already, without a ball yet bowled, Queensland Cricket is guaranteed a cash bonanza. For Begg and other employees at QC's Albion headquarters, crossing the t's and dotting the i's before Thursday's series opener, it is like filling out a Lotto form knowing the winning numbers.
The taming of the shrewd
Ricky Ponting has overcome his immaturity to steadily grow into the Australian captaincy, writes Peter Roebuck in The Sydney Morning Herald .
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
Ricky Ponting has overcome his immaturity to steadily grow into the Australian captaincy, writes Peter Roebuck in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Full postWhy Watson is finally meeting the wait of expectation
After his early promise, Australia believe Shane Watson's Test career is ready to bloom , writes Trevor Marshallsea in The Age .
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
After his early promise, Australia believe Shane Watson's Test career is ready to bloom, writes Trevor Marshallsea in The Age.
When I won the Bradman young-cricketer-of-the-year award [in 2002], Richie Benaud said, 'People should give this kid some time to develop', because it does take a while to develop all aspects of an all-rounder's game," Watson said. "I didn't think too much of it but now I see he was dead right. I've just read Keith Miller's biography, and he took a while to develop, as well."
Tait bolts into view
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Malcolm Conn writes in The Australian how Shaun Tait is keeping both batsmen and selectors guessing.
The broad South Australian speedster was not in the frame for a Test recall until he demolished England with an inspired spell of fast bowling for the Prime Minister's XI a week ago at Manuka Oval. Now the selectors have taken the unusual step of choosing a 13-man squad for next week's first Test in Brisbane, in case Tait skittles England when he lines up for South Australia in a three-day match, beginning today in Adelaide.
Batting is no guessing game
A scientific study claims that top batsmen can predict the sort of ball a bowler is going to deliver before it even leaves his hand.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
A scientific study claims that top batsmen can predict the sort of ball a bowler is going to deliver before it even leaves his hand.
A report by Dr Sean Müller of RMIT University in the latest issue of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology states that the best batsman can predict how a ball will swing and where it will bounce well before it's airborne.
"[Experienced players] can pick up ... cues that the intermediate and novice players don't or aren't sensitive to."
Full postAshes poetry
Touring sides are increasingly bloated with personnel these days
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
Touring sides are increasingly bloated with personnel these days. For all the coaches, trainers – masseurs, even – that litter the dressing rooms, England can now add a resident poet, David Fine, from Bakewell in Derbyshire. Come January, batsmen's concerns might revolve around their stanzas, not their stance...
He will write 25 poems, one for each day’s play of the Ashes, following funding from Arts Council England.
"Wordsworth, Tennyson, Betjeman, Housman, Chesterton and Hughes have all gone out to bat for cricket, in verse.
"A line is a ball, a rhyme perhaps a wicket.
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