The Golden Strawberry

Norman Geras has 74; Tim Rice (the lucky beggar) has all 145 of them. I have 64, but then the other two have a few years' head start on me.

I am talking about Wisden Cricketer's Almanacs. The 2008 edition has recently been published, and the new editor Scyld Berry appears to want to focus on the threat, as he sees it, posed by the Indian Cricket League. I will probably post something of that in due course, but for this instance I want to focus on Wisdens.

It seems to non-cricketing fanatics that Wisden is typical of the game's curiosities. In a recent chat with my girlfriend, she asked why there was a need for them to come out every year. After all, not much could have changed in a year, could it? Well, yes and no.

But Wisden is more than just a chronicle of statistics. The best bit about last Christmas was just being immersed in Wisden with a glass of wine. Reading Mike Atherton on Shane Warne, and the notes by the editor, the blow-by-blow account of the county season, finding out that Victor Trumper was out for a duck in his first Test in 1899. I'm a freak, it can't be denied. But then, in this crazy world, cricket is the nearest thing I have to a religion. Which means reading a Wisden is an almost spiritual occasion. This is all pretentious bollocks, of course, but finding solace in a cricket book is cheaper, and better for you, than finding solace in whisky. Or Catholicism.

Cory

“Cricket civilizes people and creates good gentlemen. I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen”. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said this in 1984. These words now sound hollow – Zimbabwe both as a nation and a cricket team is in dire straits. Since 1999 Mugabe’s “land reforms” involved seizing land owned by white farmers without paying any compensation. This caused food production to plummet, thought to be the chief cause of hyperinflation. Inflation in Zimbabwe is estimated at 5000%. Men’s life expectancy has declined from 60 in 1990 to just 37 years in 2006. Women’s life expectancy is even lower, at 34 years. What was Mugabe’s reaction to this? To build a £2 million museum, the size of a football pitch, dedicated to his life and achievements.

Zimbabwe’s best cricketers have left the country, and many now play in the English domestic league. Their replacements are youngsters, only about the standard of average club cricketers. They are due to tour England next in 2009, and the British government may ban the team from touring because of hostility to Mugabe’s regime. This is not the first time this has happened. In the 2003 World Cup England refused to play in Zimbabwe because of “safety fears”, after much dithering from the Labour government and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Zimbabwe have not played Test cricket since 2005, but still play in international one-day tournaments. Some feel that their involvement in international cricket legitimises Mugabe’s rule. It is to be hoped that Brown takes a more forceful role on the Zimbabwe question than his predecessor. For all Tony Blair’s talk of “liberal interventionism”, his government’s spineless attitude to Zimbabwe was another foreign policy disaster. Firm action is needed to help a nation in crisis, and that requires far more than merely banning its cricket team.

Cory

Hot Ginger and Dynamite has some pictures from a recent Middle East rally which are amusing in a disturbing way.

Norm has details of an Engage meeting: Rally Against the Boycott, which is in London on July 11th. The speakers include Jonathan Freedland.

Andrew Miller from Cricinfo on Beefy's much-deserved knighthood.

I might not post on the Middle East for a while, but why not read this marvellous Amer Tahiri article in the Times.

That's enough to keep you lot busy for now, I think!

Cory

Oh dear. I'm wrecking my degree and my body clock by keeping up to date with the Ashes score, at 2.30am. No doubt I'll be up for another hour or two. Though God knows why...

The only positive I can think of, is that it's like being back at primary school again! The good old days...Australia 602-9 declared, England 118-5 at lunch. Sigh.

Cory

Marcus Trescothick is now out of the Ashes series, with a recurrence of a stress-related illness. Well, good luck to him I say. Losing Banger is a big miss. Yes, he doesn't have a great record against the Aussies, and yes, there is adequate cover (Cook, Bell and whoever the selectors call up in his absence - Robert Key maybe?) but the simple fact is that England are a poorer side without him. Here's hoping that Marcus Trescothick can take off the time he needs (however long that may be) and come back refreshed and ready. I don't care if he misses the World Cup; the important thing is that he is able to get over his problem.

Cory

PS - in the meantime, nice to see Freddie and KP in among the runs.

The disturbing news that Geraint Jones, not Chris Read, will be England's wicket-keeper for the Ashes.

I'm getting pretty sick at the way the English selectors - and Duncan Fletcher in particular - keep shafting Chris Read in favour of Mr Jones. He's quite clearly the better wicket-keeper of the two, and the treatment he gets is shocking. He batted well when he finally got another chance against Pakistan in the summer. OK, he only got six runs in the Champion's Trophy, in three innings, but so what?! One-day cricket has virtually no influence on your performance in the Test arena. England themselves prove that - a great record in Test cricket over the last two and a half years, whereas in one-dayers drawing a series is considered an achievement.

The simple fact is, Jones earned his right to be dropped, after hardly scoring a run all summer. Reid had earned a call up, performed well, and still gets dropped. God, it makes me angry.

Cory

I'm not sure I'll ever get bored looking at this photo. Ah, the hilarity.

For those not in the know, England won their first Test series at home against Pakistan since 1982. Very impressively. Although Pakistan folded a little in their second innings.

The chap falling over in the photo is Inzamam Ul-Haq, the Pakistan skipper. Although you cannot see his head, since it's obscured by his not inconsiderable backside. He is falling onto Chris Read, the English-wicketkeeper-cum-Frodo-lookalike.

Good to see Chris Read and Monty Panesar playing well too. Anyone with a passing interest in cricket has to be pleased at the inclusion of a keeper for his keeping (!) ability. Whilst Monty is already a legend after nine Tests. Bring on Australia. Do you want some?

-posted by Roy

One of the greatest fast bowlers EVER. His tally of 307 Test wickets is remarkable, considering that far fewer Tests were played then than today. Not a bad average either. Although he could irritate in the commentary box - firmly in the "In My Day" school of cricket commentary - as a fast bowler he was peerless. Rest In Peace "Fiery Fred".

-posted by Roy

...For the first year at least. It doesn't feel the year is over, so it is a slightly surreal feeling knowing I'll never sleep in my halls again. Spooky.

This is a quite marvellous post by Norman Geras on the Marxist view of Murali's action. Offering you this tasty morsel will have to do for now, until I find something to annoy me. Off to read today's Niall Ferguson column.........

-posted by Roy

I won't bother posting about Roys cricket obsession. I enjoy the odd session with the willow and the seam, but Roy takes things too far.

Tish and pish Adam. I'm going to carry on regardless.....

Unfortunately, the only cricket news I have is bad. Stonkingly bad. Gives Plunkett more of a chance I suppose, which is a good thing. But we NEED him. If there is a God, he is an Australian Tory.

-posted by Roy