England need a fight before the Ashes
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
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As a preparation for the series against Australia, this Test match has been as much use as a polar expedition ahead of desert warfare. England’s team bonding has been worthwhile, but the terrain and the enemy have been too alien to make it a proper rehearsal, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.
For England’s batsmen there has been no similarity at all between playing West Indies and Australia, except when Edwards has been steaming in, and in this second Test he has only done so at Anderson as the two have wound each other up. A celebration featuring a pelvic thrust was Edwards’s reaction to dismissing England’s nightwatchman, but thereafter the tourists’ strike bowler dedicated himself to chastity, and it was Anderson who had the final words with his three evening wickets.
Cook played really well for his ninth Test century in only his 43rd match. No doubt one of the most important aspects of his innings was simply its length, writes Mike Brearley in the Observer.
Cook is an interesting batsman. He is assured at the crease. His balance, physical and mental, is excellent, and he is exceptionally strong off the back foot for so tall a batsman; he is a fine puller, hooker and cutter. He scores with equal fluency on either side of the wicket. He rarely misses out when the ball is on his legs. He has the left-hander's facility, at his best, of making the bowler feel he has very little licence in line. If the ball is straight, Cook will score through mid-wicket; if a bit wide of off-stump then his range of off-side strokes comes into play. His one area of weakness is the full-ish ball just outside off stump, which he can at times poke at without conviction or proper footwork. In his 160 he played some fluent cover drives, but here he gives the bowling side some chance.
Having previously dispatched Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and West Indies at the ground, they assembled a huge total quickly on the third day and then Jimmy Anderson exposed West Indies' frailties against the swinging ball. How Anderson must have despaired of ever seeing a surface like this again as he flogged himself round the subcontinent and the Caribbean last winter. How the game needs to give bowlers something to work with, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday.
England, or so we thought, was the one country in which Test cricket would continue to thrive in the Twenty20 era, but while yesterday’s attendance was not great, it at least allowed the Sky cameramen to make their customary trawl around the ground for crowd shots. The search is usually concentrated on cleavage, but all they got on Thursday were rows of empty seats and a couple of old boys in duffle coats, writes Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times.
There have been Test matches in May since 2000, when the seven-Test summer was instigated in England. The Future Tours Programme, the increase in the number of Test-playing nations and the desire, legitimate enough, to make more money were the justification for the extra match. Now we should grab the chance of a rethink, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.
This summer – the Great Exhibition – pans out, the follies of May should not be submerged in the Riverside outfield. The events of the past week have provided an important lesson. It is a lesson about scheduling, about marketing and about how to leave 'em wanting more. It is about the survival of Test cricket. This was brought into stark focus by Chris Gayle, the captain of West Indies, who said he would not be sad if Test cricket died, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday.
Doubtless he will jump soon enough, but Chris Gayle should be pushed this week. He should be sacked as captain of the West Indies Test team, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.
Gayle has finally revealed he is no leader. Sometimes young rascals can unexpectedly be transformed into reliable leaders – Shakespeare told us of Hal, Henry V, doing as much – but clearly not in this instance. We have been duped. Benefit of the doubt can no longer be given. We should have known when Gayle sat impassively and insouciantly behind John Dyson in Guyana last winter as the coach misread the Duckworth/Lewis chart and cost the West Indies the match. Any captain worth his salt would have wanted to check. Not Gayle.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo