'Fainthearts' find courage
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
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What Harmison and Flintoff have done in the end is what all lovers of English cricket hoped they would do from the start. They have responded, at a difficult time, to the responsibilities that come along with fame and its various rewards. James Lawton in the Independent believes whatever lies behind England's decision to return to India, it is the right choice and restores respect.
For this the players, who were described as fainthearts on one famously august editorial page when they returned home for their week-long agonising about what to do, deserve a word of gratitude, if not garlands of flowers in streets of the troubled land they vacated so sharply.
The other hope, of course, is that the woeful lack of competitiveness displayed in the truncated 5-0 one-day series defeat, will not descend into new levels of disaster.
Amjad Khan, the latest addition to English cricket's vibrant multi-cultural tradition, has been very much on England's radar since he was awarded British citizenship two years ago. And his selection is entirely justified in cricketing terms and yet perhaps it also has the advantage of underlining a subliminal message, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.
In the Times, Patrick Kidd studies the mood of the England camp during the course of the two-hour briefing.
Another half an hour passed and Harmison came out from the lift with Sean Morris and went over to the desk to sign his bill. Harmison’s face was grim. “He looks p***ed off,” one journalist said. “Must be going [to India], then” another added. And so it proved.
Off the beaten track, Kidd reveals in his Line and Length blog for the same paper how technology ditched him for more than a few anxious moments in his hotel room - any journalist's nightmare.
I got into my room, unpacked my bag and pressed the on button on the computer. That was when my rather temperamental laptop went on strike. One press, nothing. Pressed it again, a slight whirr and then nothing. I kept on trying, fiddling with the cable in the back of it, all the time being aware of the passing minutes and the fact that I had a lot to write in not much time.