Long live Anglo-Australian dissing
Marcus Trescothick's Murray Mints revelations ensured that Australians can still indulge in the atavistic pleasure of sledging the Poms, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian .
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Marcus Trescothick's Murray Mints revelations ensured that Australians can still indulge in the atavistic pleasure of sledging the Poms, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian.
Rupert Murdoch's Australian, which can always be relied on for sober and dispassionate coverage of cricket issues, laid it out with typical restraint: "The secret behind the devastating swing bowling that took England to its historic 2005 Ashes win has been revealed. They cheated." What a relief for the country to be confirmed in its most deeply embedded prejudices - that any English ascendancy, however brief, must be an outcome of trickery or luck.
You might imagine that a grown-up relationship between England and Australia would result in less puerile point-scoring; but it's precisely because the relationship is so mature that it permits such harmless silliness. In fact, in this era of instant umbrage, it seems an almost unseemly luxury to be able to diss any country, and an act of delicious fun to give it back.
In the same paper Mike Selvey writes that Pietersen and the new England ODI side's real test will come in India:
Here, on sluggish pitches, it is the spinners rather than wrecking balls such as Flintoff and Harmison who boss the middle overs, while the capacity of seamers to take the pace from the ball is also crucial ... Ultimately, success, particularly in one-day cricket, will come in the development of a squad capable of adapting to all conditions and circumstances. One size does not fit all.
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo