Cricket

Sport News 24/7 By David de Winter - Sports Editor @davidjdewinter  @TLE_Sport Much has been written about England’s approach to one-day cricket.  Since reaching the World Cup final in 1992 they have consistently failed to achieve anything of note in the limited overs format, save for a couple of Champions Trophy final appearances on home soil.  After the debacle at the World Cup it was clear something had to change.  Having installed Trevor Bayliss as coach (a slightly left-field choice...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor What a difference a week makes. In the run up to the first test match against New Zealand at Lord's the public vibe was almost unanimously negative. After a hugely disappointing World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, cricket fans in England could be forgiven for feeling a tad anxious about the arrival of the 2015 host nations on home soil. Andrew Strauss, seen as a conservative appointment as Director of Cricket, was facing heavy...

Sport News 24/7 By David de Winter - Sports Editor @davidjdewinter  @TLE_Sport Well, what a busy couple of days it has been at the ECB headquarters.  I say busy but given the soap opera-esque goings-on at the ECB for the past two years it just seems like another day at the office.  First they sack the coach, Peter Moores, and then, having seemingly offered exiled star batsman Kevin Pietersen a possible route back into the national team (and who scored...

Sport News 24/7 By David de Winter - Sports Editor @davidjdewinter  @TLE_Sport With England’s failure to win the first Test in Antigua last week, the debate over Kevin Pietersen’s return to the international fold has taken on even greater significance.  Never one to shirk the limelight, Pietersen announced in March that he was eschewing his IPL contract with the Sunrisers Hyderbad in favour of playing a full county season with Surrey in an attempt to force his way back into...

Sport News 24/7 By Rob McHugh  @mchughr  @TLE_Sport The scene was set, and the script was written.  On his 35th birthday, Steven Gerrard would lift the FA Cup as captain of his boyhood club, before riding off into the sunset for one last payday in the MLS with LA Galaxy.  It was to provide a fitting end to the career of one of the defining figures in English football.  But as the ball looped into the arms of Steven Gerrard...

Sport News 24/7 By Rob McHugh  @mchughr  @TLE_Sport Despite all of the problems of the winter, it was a huge relief to see England back in white shirts playing test cricket again.  The series against the West Indies offers the whole team the opportunity to start a new chapter and leave behind the litany of problems they faced in a winter of discontent. To a certain extent, England had a strong start to their prolonged run of test cricket by...

Sport News 24/7 By David de Winter - Sports Editor @davidjdewinter  @TLE_Sport Tomorrow sees the conclusion of the mammoth six week-long Cricket World Cup with a 'local derby' final between Antipodean rivals Australia and New Zealand.  The tournament has been an absolute festival of runs, punctuated by a seemingly endless supply of superlative individual innings: two double hundreds, the fastest 150 in history, a batsman scoring four centuries in a row - the list is endless.  So can New Zealand...

Sport News 24/7 By David de Winter - Sports Editor @davidjdewinter  @TLE_Sport The England cricket team returned this week from their calamitous performance at the 2015 Cricket World Cup with their tails firmly between their legs.  One can only hope that such a debacle perpetuates a seismic shift in the team’s selection and approach to one-day cricket.  Everyone from the management to the players needs to take a long hard look at themselves and evaluate what went wrong.  I’m here...

Sport News 24/7 By Richard de Winter  @rgdewinter  @TLE_Sport Test cricket is all that really matters.  ODIs are just a Disneyfied version of the real thing, designed for people who want things now, people who measure excitement in terms of boundaries and cartwheeling stumps, people who don’t appreciate the beauty of a game that can last for five days without anyone winning. That, at least, is what I’ve been telling myself over the last few weeks as England’s ODI team...