Clear humiliation for India and Dhoni
In the Telegraph, Derek Pringle calls James Anderson's not-guilty verdict a "clear humiliation" for India
ESPNcricinfo staff
02-Aug-2014
In the Telegraph, Derek Pringle calls James Anderson's not-guilty verdict a "clear humiliation" for India, whose "players have long thought Anderson's boorish sledging to be unacceptable and their admission probably weakened their case here which smacked of opportunism to get the bowler for past misdemeanours."
Dhoni's persistence with the charge, after the two boards had instructed the players to sort it out, made it look like a personal crusade for which Duncan Fletcher, India's coach, in a rare misjudgment, backed him. You cannot hope to get a player banned (the intended outcome once India had lodged a level three complaint) for being annoying, that is a separate matter, and with no independent witnesses and no video evidence for the alleged spat in the Trent Bridge pavilion (which India claimed to have) Lewis clearly found there was no case to answer.
Also in the Telegraph, Scyld Berry says Anderson needs to "channel his energies better."
He is second in England's all-time list of Test wicket-takers, after Sir Ian Botham and ahead of Bob Willis and Fred Trueman. But Anderson is now in a class of one among England's all-time greats when it comes to sledging. He used not to say boo to a goose. Then he said boo to batsmen with a hand in front of his mouth, and in mid-pitch so the stump microphones would not pick him up. Now it is an overt torrent of abuse for all to see, and it is ugly.
In the Guardian, Mike Selvey is of the opinion that England may bring back Ben Stokes for Chris Jordan at Old Trafford.
There could be a case for Ben Stokes returning in place of Jordan, who, as has been commented on here a while since, needs work not just on his run (watch how athletically he moves when chasing the ball in the field) but more importantly on his grip. A fundamental you might think but one with which it is mightily difficult to tinker, so personal can it be. In essence,though, he grips the ball as if he were a life model for the claw feet of a Regency commode, and a bowler cannot get control or fluidity of wrist action from that. The best bowlers caress the ball not strangle it.
Stokes's problem has been two fold, one is physical (his left foot has been such a mess that he is said to have been getting through boots by the dozen in order to ease the discomfort) and the other is to do with his batting, which has been dismal and without which it is hard to argue that he should play simply as one of the four best seam bowlers in the land.