It happens every time the Prince of Wales gets married. In 1981, within weeks of Charles’ wedding to Diana, a young tearaway called Ian Botham marked the occasion by leading England to a stunning set of victories over Australia at cricket.
- Matthew Engel, Financial Times, 19.8.05
Proof that even Matthew Engel can talk bollocks sometimes. Or does he?
I've done some research: Prince of Wales' weddings - impact on Ashes series 1882-1979:
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cricket/comment/0,10070,1552951,00.html
Thought-provoking opinion piece in today's Guardian by former New Statesman editor Peter Wilby on the controversy over English Test cricket TV rights. Wilby argues that Government intervention to keep Test cricket on free-to-air television would be inappropriate. "But sport is just entertainment, for heaven's sake."
When I heard that SBS would be televising the Ashes this year, I wondered how they would reconcile cricket with the multicultural requirements of their charter.
The Ogg Vorbis version of the second edition of my cricket podcast The Net Sessions is now available.
In this edition, we recap the events of the last fortnight in Test cricket, one-day cricket, the ICC Intercontinental Cup and women's Test cricket. And we talk Ashes and Indian cricket with Wisden CricInfo assistant editor Anand Vasu in Mumbai.
Future editions of The Net Sessions depend on your response. Please let me know what you think, even if you consider it a complete waste of time.
The second edition of my cricket podcast The Net Sessions is now available.
In this edition, we recap the events of the last fortnight in Test cricket, one-day cricket, the ICC Intercontinental Cup and women's Test cricket. And we talk Ashes and Indian cricket with Wisden CricInfo assistant editor Anand Vasu in Mumbai.
Future editions of The Net Sessions depend on your response. Please let me know what you think, even if you consider it a complete waste of time.
One of the best radio talk programs about sport is ABC Radio National's The Sports Factor, which goes to air every Friday and is live online on RN's audio webcast. For about a month now it has been podcast as well.
If it finishes with a winning margin of two runs then it must be The Greatest Game Ever. Right? Wrong.
It's a Wednesday in the middle of winter in Centurion. So why aren't the South African fans thronging in their thousands to see the latest figment of Jagmohan Dalmiya's cash register... er, imagination?
The ever-diligent Rajneesh Gupta notes that Australia has now had more sixes struck against them in the current Test series than in any previous series. And that with two matches to play.
England has clobbered 26 sixes over the ropes thus far in the 2005 Ashes, beating the 23 struck by the South Africans of 1966-67 at higher altitudes.
