Archives for October 2007

I have known Duncan Fletcher for a long time.

Obviously anything written about Andrew Flintoff and his drinking is going to hit the headlines.

But I really don’t think it was a cynical ploy by Fletcher to sell more copies of his book.

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Welcome to Ask Bearders, where Test Match Special statistician Bill "The Bearded Wonder" Frindall answers your questions on all things cricket.

Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.

Bill isn't able to answer all of your questions, however. BBC Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.

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Picking up where Alex left off in his last post, apologies for the inconvenience caused by the closure of the blog for longer than predicted. This was due to some unforeseen technical issues that arose while we were carrying out the changes.

We will be bringing back the archive over the coming weeks as we sign off the various bits of work required on it. There are also a few new tricks which we hope to be able to show you in the coming weeks as well.

As a result of the work done so far we hope you will now be able to enjoy an improved blog experience. If you do spot anything that we may have missed then please contact us so that we can fix it.

Hello everyone - I just wanted to flag up the fact that the TMS blog will be closed until Monday 29 October.

This is so that we can give it an overdue face-lift that should improve the experience for all users.

Apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience caused. We hope to be back in business on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

Alex Trickett
Blog Editor

The dropping of Andrew Strauss for the first time in his 43- match Test career was the main talking point of the latest England squad announcement.

He was recently awarded a central contract for the next 12 months, but he has paid the price for a really disappointing year in which he averaged only 27 and failed to score a century.

Even on the rare occasion that he managed to pass 50 he looked unconvincing and the feeling of the selectors is that he needs a rest, and more time to work on one or two technical issues.

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There was no obvious let-up from England, especially in the field, but they did succumb tamely in the fifth and final one-day international once Sri Lanka's pace bowlers had got on top on another tricky surface.

The size of the defeat took some of the sheen off England's series victory and left them seventh in the ODI rankings. A win would have propelled them into fourth place.

Overall though they have made significant progress during the last two months when the focus has been solely on the shorter game.

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England’s third one-day series victory of the year was their most impressive.

When they won in Australia in February they were not quite sure how they managed it, and it was followed by a wretched showing in the World Cup. Victory against India was a positive step, but it was achieved in familiar conditions.

To triumph in Sri Lanka, albeit against a team without Muttiah Muralitharan, hints at a promising future for this emerging, inexperienced team.

After years of underachievement, England appear to be developing a one-day team that is capable of executing pre-game plans on a more consistent basis. Accurate, testing bowling and aggressive fielding set up their most comfortable victory of the series.

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Welcome to Ask Bearders, where Test Match Special statistician Bill "The Bearded Wonder" Frindall answers your questions on all things cricket.

Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.

Bill isn’t able to answer all of your questions, however. BBC Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.

Read the rest of this entry

Those who are convinced the fifty over game has had its day will not be won over by this tense, slow motion struggle, but it demonstrated that ball flogging is not essential for excitement.

Low and slow scoring have their place if the two teams involved are evenly matched and compete remorselessly for control.

The game finished at quarter past eleven with a dropped catch yielding two runs and two batsmen in residence who did not know the game was over. Unsurprisingly, no one in a packed crowd left early.

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There is a bit of an animal theme developing on the Dambulla leg of this Sri Lanka tour: bats flitting around the hotel corridors, monkeys stealing fruit from the players rooms, cobras lurking in the undergrowth and dogs invading the outfield.

The dogs probably feel quite at home though, knowing the England team is captained by a Colly!

It is a fascinating location for an international cricket stadium. The backdrop is a lush, dense jungle, with Dambulla lake flanking the ground on one side and Dambulla rock rising majestically in the distance on the other.

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The importance of the toss will analysed and argued over, but this was a more disciplined display by England.

The game mirrored Monday’s first match. This time it was England who dug out a competitive total and then applied pressure under the lights.

Paul Collingwood refused, rightly, to attribute to England’s defeat in the opening match to batting second - it never pays to make excuses - but there is clearly some benefit to winning the toss. The key is to make use of it.

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The ease with which England were brushed aside by Sri Lanka in the opening one-day international in Dambulla does not bode well for their chances in the rest of this series.

Even without the injured Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka are an accomplished side, especially in their own country.

They have made few changes since reaching the World Cup final and England’s inexperienced team will need to adapt quickly to avoid the sort of embarrassment they suffered at home against the same side last year.

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