In the end, England were not able to produce a third great escape to win the Test series here in South Africa. But had they held on for a couple of extra hours at the Wanderers on Sunday they might have just managed to do it.

Johannesburg was hit by a huge thunderstorm in the afternoon which would have washed out any play after tea - and on Monday the city was hit by heavy rain and dark cloud which may have made conditions impossible on what would have been the scheduled final day.

Whether it would have been right for England to win the series is obviously highly debatable although this morning’s newspapers here in South Africa leave you in little doubt about what they think.

Stuart Hess, writing in the Johannesburg Star, states: “There are those who believe that England deserved to get something out of the Test series. They’d be wrong. The outcome was not a true reflection of the standard these two sides displayed, for South Africa were much the better team. England were resilient throughout, showed a lot of character, but even their own captain recognised they were the inferior team.”

Despite England’s rather disappointing capitulation yesterday morning it has overall been a gripping Test series. As England clung on to nail-biting draws at Centurion and Newlands we got a great picture through your e-mails and texts of how you were nervously listening to Test Match Special.

It was almost too much for TMS new boy Michael Vaughan at Newlands who turned to Jonathan Agnew during the final over to say “I’m sorry Aggers, I just can’t watch this”. Jonathan quickly replied: “I’m sorry you’ve got to. Remember how many times you put us through this sort of thing when you were captain.”

One of my favourite stories of people listening to the series came from Steve in Oxford who e-mailed us when England were taking important wickets one afternoon. He told us: “I am currently invigilating an exam and just jumped for joy at that wicket, disturbed everyone, but I Read more…

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To be candid I, for one, was not at all surprised by the report that Australian cricket bosses are aiming to cut the number of international fixtures to ease the heavy workload for players. ‘Too much cricket’ has been the refrain for some time now among players – both former and present – as well as the media. Administrators, however, do not seem to agree and with the backing of willing sponsors who are pumping in more and more money into the game, the schedule has become even more crammed.

The last straw has obviously been what the Aussie team just completing their seven-match tour of India has had to endure. They came without some key players thanks mainly to injuries. But their lot became quite unenviable on the tour when, after almost every match, a cricketer had to fly back home with some ailment or the other. Replacements were flown in as the bench strength was stretched to the limit and at one time the Aussies had just 12 fit men – clearly the result of an over congested international calendar. According to an Australian newspaper nearly 35 cricketers have represented Australia in the ODI squad during the current calendar year whereas only 25 players were listed on the central playing contracts. Indeed, on arriving in India captain Ricky Ponting and coach Tim Nielsen complained that seven matches were too much and five would have been ideal.

There is a limit to what the human body, however fit, can take. In the last couple of years, in particular, the advent – and raging popularity – of Twenty20 has seen tournaments mushroom. As it is, with the proliferation of Tests and ODIs during the 90s and into the new millennium, there was much talk of an overdose of cricket which could play havoc with players’ fitness levels. Even with the appointment of special coaches and fitness trainers there was no shortage of injured players. As Richard Hadlee said in a recent interview, the problem with the cricketers is that they continue playing with niggling injuries which could have severe long term implications. “Cricketers want to play all formats of the game because of the financial rewarded involved but that will result in wear and tear of the body and the mind. Players need rest to clear up injuries. My advice is to think long term and not short term. Young players are worried someone else will take their place if they miss a game but my view is that if you are a good enough player and decide to rest to recover from an injury the selectors will understand.” He advocated that the players Read more…

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GOOD

Geoff Boycott’s commentary: The man with one of the best nicknames going around - GLY - was on fire during the second one-dayer in Abu Dhabi. Tony Greig reported back to Boycs that he had been doing some research into the one-day career of Son of Rodney, and Redmond’s average and strike rate were commensurate with that of Boycott. A slight pause then an outraged Boycott retorted: “I’m a better blinking player than ‘im.” Greig took that on the chin and replied: “That’s what I wanted you to say.” To which Boycott ended the conversation: “Well you’re dead right too.” Wonderful stuff from the obstinate barnacle known as the Greatest Living Yorkshireman.

The Pakistani fans’ penchant for dressing up: They don’t have many fancy dress shops in Abu Dhabi (unlike Headingley and Wellington, for example) so the fans are like the Macgyvers of dress-up: they just make do with whatever they can find. Cardboard, scissors, coloured pens, sheets, office paper, stuffed toys and they are away.

Half-time entertainment: Both the at-game entertainment, and the Sky coverage were spot on. At the game, punters were treated to a kids’ cricket match. Perfect - all the marketing bollocks in the world can’t hide the fact that people at a cricket game like seeing cricket played. Little kids running each other out, dropping catches, bursting into tears, and smashing the ball to all parts of the oval is a sure-fire recipe for success. Meanwhile, back in the lounge, it was The Crowd Goes Wild or as we call it The Mull Show. Sometimes, Sky does some weird things here and puts on drag racing, plane flying, waterskiing or some other non-sport drivel that doesn’t even have a ball involved. TCGW is a much more appropriate and less sleep-inducing option.

Brendon McCullum: His mighty 131 from 129 balls was a brilliant innings, reminiscent of the Nathan Astle method of compiling a one-day hundred. Ends a sequence of scores of 1, 18, 26, 41, 0, 43, 36, 33, 2, 0, 71, 77, 2, 14, 3, 44, 46, 48, 17, 0 and 21 so far this year. I don’t subscribe to the view of Craig Cumming that eight failures is OK if he wins us one or two games out Read more…

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James Anderson is “gutted” not to be Andrew Strauss’s vice-captain for England’s tour to Australia this winter. The reason he was not given the responsibility, apparently, is because he is a bowler and from the North.

I suspect that Anderson was speaking with a wry smile, rather than a chip on his shoulder, but he has a point, although it is the bowler bit, rather than coming from the North, that really counts against him.

England have had only three captains in the past 60 years who were fast bowlers. Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham found the extra responsibility too much. Only Bob Willis (seven wins and six draws in 18 Tests) had much joy. You then have to go back to Gubby Allen to find a fast bowler who captained England - and he lost the 1936 Ashes after leading 2-0. Fast bowlers simply do not make good England captains.

The world was, of course, a happier place when England’s captains were all batsmen and gentlemen amateurs from the Home Counties who could rock up on the morning of a Test after a quick hour’s work shuffling their share portfolios in the City, introduce themselves to the collection of miners who had been dragged away from the pitface to form the England bowling attack and order them into battle.

We may not have won that often, but that was hardly as important as having the right sort of chap to introduce the players to the King during the luncheon interval. You could hardly trust a bowler - especially a northern one - with that sort of responsibility.

The “anti-Northern” argument is less credible now. Sixty-two of England’s past 92 Tests were led by men from the North (Vaughan and Flintoff). Mike Atherton had 54 Tests in charge from 1993-2001. Chuck in Paul Collingwood and his 25 ODIs as captain and the North has Read more…

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After Ashes glory, England’s fresh-faced new poster boy says that it is not his job to fill the boots of Andrew Flintoff, Patrick Kidd writes

Stuart Broad may be the latest national hero, with women swooning over his boyish looks, men wanting to slap him on the back and buy him a pint and agents crawling out of the woodwork to offer multimillion-pound deals, but what the modest Nottinghamshire all-rounder really wants is to spend a night in his own bed and maybe hang a shelf or two.

“I bought a house six months ago and I’ve only spent about 20 nights there,” he said yesterday. “When we have finished with these one-day games and the Champions Trophy, all I’m looking forward to is two or three weeks at home and a bit of decorating before we go to South Africa.”

Andrew Flintoff is reportedly having 6ft mosaics of the Ashes urn installed in the swimming pools (yes, plural) of his £4 million mansion, but Broad’s ambition extends no farther than a couple of buckets of paint.

Nor does he plan to decorate his body, Flintoff-style. “My mum would never let me in the house again if I had a tattoo,” he said. In fact, he would rather if everyone stopped these comparisons to Flintoff altogether.

“No one can replace Fred,” Broad said. “It is important that I focus on my qualities and don’t try to be someone I’m not.”

He is not even that keen on taking Flintoff’s place at No 7 in the Test XI. Despite making five fifties in his 22-Test career — two of them in the Ashes — and having a respectable batting Read more…

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