#CricketWorldCupdates - Watch out for... No. 1: The Irish Invasion

Lift off! Kevin O'Brien celebrates his hundred against England in 2011

At their first World Cup in 2007, Ireland burst onto the scene snatching a dramatic tie with Zimbabwe before their famous win against Pakistan on St. Patrick’s Day. The Niall O’Brien inspired chase saw them through to the Super 8 stage where they added Bangladesh to their list of Caribbean scalps as they catapulted themselves into the cricketing limelight.

Four years later Ireland were at it again, this time it was Niall’s brother Kevin providing the heroics as they beat England in Bangalore. From 111/5, the target of 328 looked a mile away, but O’Brien’s 63-ball 113 saw them home with five balls to spare.

Ireland don’t play on St Patrick’s Day this year, but two days before it they play their final group game against Pakistan and I’m sure they’d happily start the celebrations a couple of days early if they repeat their 2007 heroics in Adelaide.

The class of 2015 looks set to give another good account of itself, with the O’Brien’s leading a core contingent within the squad playing in their third World Cup. Another of those is Ed Joyce who played for England in 2007 and he’ll be joined at the top of the order by Warwickshire’s William Porterfield, who played a key role in their domestic success in 2014. Boyd Rankin will be a big miss having followed in Eoin Morgan’s footsteps by making the switch to England, but much is hoped of Craig Young who has picked up 16 wickets in his first six ODIs.

Franchise cricket just isn’t very British…

Kevin Pietersen shows the flamboyance that makes him a Melbourne STAR

For a country that is known to have invented many of the most popular sports played across the globe, the British are not much of a trailblazing people these days.

We invent the basic premise, and then simply watch the World get better than us at these sports, adapt the format and leave us behind. We’re comfortable with that, so why change now.

Football went away, came home briefly in 1996, didn’t like what it saw, and hasn’t been seen since. This might look like a bad thing, but it gives us something to moan about…

The latest British-born genius to fly the nest is Twenty20 cricket, formed here in 2003, almost by accident; it is now the most marketable form of the game. When it left home it shortened its name to T20, because that’s much cooler; that was a sign of things to come.

While our format has changed slightly, it hasn’t seen a radical overhaul, and the T20 title won by Birmingham Bears in 2014 was still largely the same county competition won by Surrey in 2003. Despite the name of the winning side not being Warwickshire, it was Warwickshire.

The 2014 tournament was scheduled to be played primarily on Friday evenings, aiming to encourage large crowds through consistency of scheduling at a time that fans would readily be available for. The result was more criticism, and a tournament drawn out over more than four months that didn’t encourage the best players from around the planet to take part.

Having both taken part in the Semi-Finals of the Big Bash League in Australia over the weekend, comments by Kevin Pietersen and Michael Carberry have helped reignite the debate about England’s domestic tournament, and the way it compares poorly to the Big Bash, India’s IPL and other franchise models.

Unlike the county game in England, these franchise models allow teams to be formed solely for these competitions, and are centred at big grounds, in big cities, near a large fan-base. They are also condensed into a period that means the competition concerned is the only cricket being played by those players at that time.

The experiment with Friday night fixtures seems to have failed, so a more condensed tournament schedule has to be the way forward in England, but it has to be possible to revamp and reenergise English domestic T20 cricket without adopting the franchise model, because franchises aren’t very us.

Even without considering the question of how county teams will survive without the T20 income, and the fact that T20 franchise cricket is the global home for shameless advertising, there is still an argument against franchise cricket, and that is identity.

The county teams have a lot of history, so much so that even basic and unimaginative nicknames haven’t caught on in one-day cricket. A friend of mine once said “we don’t go in for that sort of thing in the west country” when I mentioned nicknames, and why should the good people of Gloucestershire be forced into supporting a very un-British franchise based over an hour away from them if they are to follow T20 cricket..?

The dynamism of the franchise names hits you hard in the face as soon as you look at them. Sydney Thunder, Adelaide Strikers and Perth Scorchers are all very Australian, by comparison the fact that Warwickshire kept Bears as the nickname for their revolutionary Birmingham side says a lot about our own mentality.

If we did employ a franchise system, the best we could do would be to try and invoke as much Britishness in the teams as possible to maintain our proud national identity. I have chosen the nine Test venues, and Canterbury (with its 15,000 capacity) as the homes of ten very British franchises, inspired by those from Australia and around the World.

London’s two venues, Lord’s and the Oval, could home a cross-capital rivalry to match the derbies in Melbourne and Sydney. Inspired by the Adelaide Strikers, a team whose name suggests an aggressive brand of cricket, the North London Leavers would be able to encompass a more English or British brand, favoured by the Lord’s faithful. Their rivals from south of the river, the South London Landslips have their own name inspired by the Hobart Hurricanes. A hurricane is another very un-British weather phenomenon, whereas a landslip is much more appropriate given the chance one might just delay some supporters on their train ride to the match.

Another great rivalry could be formed between the sides from Manchester and Leeds. The Perth Scorchers name is derived both from the impressive  temperatures that are reached in Western Australia and again from the brand of cricket that the side produce, Manchester Mild is equally appropriate. They will have endless (or that’s what it will feel like) battles with the team from across the Pennines, the Leeds Labradoodles. Named after the Dolphins, an exotic animal that gives its name to a T20 side in the equally exotic South Africa, the Labradoodles will be a fluffy and dependable member of the league.

The midlands is also known for sporting rivalries, and I’m sure one will form between the sides from Birmingham and Nottingham. Paying homage to the Sydney Sixers, named after big shots and excitement, the Nottingham Nurdlers will hit the gaps and run hard in the middle overs. Replacing the Birmingham Bears will be a team inspired by the outrageously named St Lucia Zouks. Until recently I had no idea what that means, but apparently Zouk is a popular Caribbean musical form, so the Birmingham Britpoppers will be in good company should they face their St Lucian counterparts in the Champions League at any stage.

The clouds gather at Edgbaston as the Birmingham Britpoppers prepare to welcome the Durham Drizzle

Even aside from the scorchers, weather is a popular analogy to make in the naming of Australian franchise teams, this is because their weather is as positive as the style of cricket they like to play. In the UK the weather matches our national modesty, so fans will flock to watch the Brisbane Heat-inspired Cardiff Chill and the Sydney Thunder-inspired Durham Drizzle.

It would be ludicrous to name all these British franchises without a nod to the IPL, and the Deccan Chargers provide the reasoning behind the Southampton Strollers. People from Southampton are much more likely to stroll than charge, they’re a pretty peaceful bunch, and we wouldn’t want to create the wrong impression.

One of my favourite franchise names in T20 cricket at the moment belongs to the Melbourne Renegades. T20 cricket is about being a renegade or a maverick, and the Australians always embrace this, the franchise from Kent however, would not. A more appropriate name for the tenth and final franchise would be the Canterbury Compliers, it’s more British just to accept the status quo.

Having come up with a very-British franchise model, that might just be accepted, it strikes me that the best players from around the World might still not be persuaded to come and take part.

Would you want to fly thousands of miles to play for the Leeds Labradoodles, any more than you would want to play for Yorkshire? I think I’d take Yorkshire if the scheduling was right…

Archive: Shinji Kagawa's Rooney Conundrum

Kagawa in his first spell at Borussia Dortmund

Shinji Kagawa’s role at Manchester United remains unclear. The club’s retention of Wayne Rooney this summer has widely been described as the most important bit of business conducted in David Moyes’ short period in charge. However, the Japanese international may be the one figure at Old Trafford who would have seen a potential departure for Rooney in a different light.

Keeping the best players is always as important as investing in new talent; the Arsenal fan’s response to the sales of Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie in the last few years prove this. Therefore keeping Wayne Rooney, and at the same time ensuring that Chelsea were unable to significantly improve their squad, is generally accepted as a victory for David Moyes in an otherwise turbulent first summer in charge at the Theatre of Dreams.

You only have to look back as far as October 2010 to see the potential unrest within a side that is seen to be stagnating or declining after the sale of a key player. On that occasion it was Rooney himself who stated a ‘lack of ambition’ when indicating that he would not sign a new contract, the season after United had sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. On that occasion, whether Rooney finally received the assurances he requested or not, a new contract was eventually signed.

Fast forward to 2013, with Rooney in dispute with outgoing manager Sir Alex Ferguson and later incoming manager Moyes, Chelsea signalled their intent to sign the ‘angered and confused’ player. However, Moyes continued to rebuff suggestions that the Liverpudlian would be leaving, and as the window closed and Rooney remained in red, positive messages began to pour from the club with encouraging words regarding the retention of the player and his role within the team.

However, one man who may not be so enamoured with United keeping Rooney is Shinji Kagawa. The Japanese international has cut a frustrated figure for much of his first year in Manchester, and during a first season curtailed by form and fitness issues, Kagawa also found himself in unfamiliar roles when selected. His second season at Old Trafford, under a new manager, could be seen to be another opportunity to establish himself in the side, but with Rooney remaining a key player, Kagawa may find himself marginalised once more.

During the 2011/12 season, Kagawa’s performances for Borussia Dortmund caught the eye of an international audience, and saw him voted the inaugural Bundesliga Football Player of the Year, and he was included in the league’s team of the year. Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp was at pains to attribute his considerable success to his central position, a key role he has not yet been afforded at United.

With 13 goals and 8 assists from his 31 Dortmund appearances in 2011/12, Kagawa’s importance to that team is clear, and the advanced role there saw him create 134 chances for teammates, whilst completing 55 key passes in the final third. Much of Kagawa’s frustration at United stems from the lack of responsibility afforded to him, and his selection on the left hand side. The statistics from his first season at Old Trafford show him taking a back seat to Rooney, the man denying him his preferred central position.

In his first season in Manchester, Kagawa was only able to complete an average of one key pass for each of his 20 matches, and only created 19 chances, making him a shadow of the creative force that terrorised Bundesliga defences the year before. Most revealingly though, Kagawa was only able to provide 3 assists during the 2012/13 season, a figure dwarfed by Wayne Rooney’s 10. The only statistical area of Kagawa’s game to see an improvement after his move to United is his percentage of completed passes, which rose from 83% to more than 89%, but this reflects his deeper role in the side and the back seat he has had to take to Rooney.

Having managed to retain Rooney’s services, David Moyes appears set to continue the trend of playing Rooney as the deeper of two forwards, in a ‘number 10’ role, and this means using Kagawa sparingly. During United’s recent Champions League fixture against Bayer Leverkusen the relative roles of Rooney and Kagawa were typified. Rooney shone in a central role, whilst Kagawa, selected on the left hand side, continued to drift inside as he struggled to impact the game from wide areas. It is this turn of events, and the impact on the Japanese international’s form and role, that may see him as the one man not to see Manchester United’s keeping of Rooney as a positive. 

This article was written for Sports Gazette in October 2013.

Kevin Pietersen: The World's most wronged man?

A man this cheerful cannot possibly have read the book...

The regular accusation of anyone who rubbishes Kevin Pietersen’s version of events, or indeed his book, is that they are part of the conspiracy against him.

Journalists have been accused of colluding with the ECB, with the BBC’s Jonathan Agnew taking the full brunt of the criticism, and anybody else has simply been accused of falling for the plot to find a scapegoat or finding it a convenient narrative.

I wouldn’t want to pretend to be party to the inner workings of an England dressing room, I can only base my conclusions on Kevin Pietersen based on word of mouth and what I saw when I watched him play for England.

After the Ashes humiliation I was critical of Pietersen, but would have had him in my team going forward, as I noted in my review of the campaign but that was based on what he was capable of on the pitch and not what he was like off it.

Whether you believe his version of events, or the alternative viewpoint of everyone else within the dressing room environment, the reality now is that Pietersen can never play for England again. The book makes sure of that.

Some books are referred to colloquially as unputdownable, KP’s was very nearly unpickupable.

After reading three chapters, and finding myself emotionally exhausted by the outpouring from his so obviously wounded soul, it felt almost cruel to go on. For me and for him.

I persevered though, and dived deeper into the thoughts and feelings of a truly distressed man; if nothing else, I hope getting this all out of his system and putting it on paper might help him find a bit of happiness.

Nobody has won in Pietersen’s on-going battle with the ECB, but he has definitely lost, though he achieved so much before the outcome was settled.

At an attempt at a deeper review, I’ll begin with the positives.

Rarely, when reading this book are you left wanting more. Some sports autobiographies feel guarded or too metronomic in style, but this one was similar to Bradley Wiggins’ in that it was almost repetitive in its attempt to tell the full story.

Not an author by trade, it seems natural that the sportsman might repeat himself or lose track of the story they are telling occasionally. It feels authentic.

A friend of mine regularly declares that his integrity is unquestionable, and I usually respond immediately by questioning, or ridiculing his integrity.

Fortunately Kevin Pietersen hasn’t gone down the Mike Tyson route of calling the truth in his book undisputed, because like my friends integrity, his truth has been questioned and analysed with almost forensic detailing, but unfortunately that’s about as positive as I’m able to get about this book.

As alluded to earlier, it is a very tough read. There are no positives, without the aim of including them being to take a swipe at something else.

Some of the things he discusses and the points that he gropes for are difficult to follow, particularly when discussing the IPL and the county game. He gallantly defends the former from an attack I’m not convinced it is facing, while highlighting the second as part of the ECBs systemic failing.

The most repetitive feature of the book is a man who can’t see where he might be in the wrong, and even when he acknowledges he might be, it just isn’t ever his fault.

While all the off-pitch chaos was going on, Kevin Pietersen was scoring thousands of international runs, but they don’t feel central to his story, and they really ought to be.

If you achieve what Pietersen has, and at the end of it your book doesn’t celebrate that, then it isn’t just those around you that need to take a long hard look at themselves. He also manages to cram meeting, and marrying, his wife into less than two rushed pages.

Would I recommend this book? Probably not.

Do I think everyone would hate it? No.

It’s a difficult read, particularly if you are trying to make your mind up about who is telling the truth, but as this is the truth from Kevin Pietersen’s point of view, it is a story worth telling.

I would like to make one final point, the criticisms and borderline character assassination above is based purely on the book. While Kevin Pietersen has always led a controversial existence he is not all bad. He is as generous with his time as he is hard working, and he often speaks well. Unfortunately the voice in the book is not the personable Kevin Pietersen, but a man on a point-making mission.

Counting Chickens, Abrasive Spice and why I don’t miss regular rail commutes

Kei Nishikori: Andy Murray's misfortune was to this man's delight

I’m a great believer in, and regular user of, the phrase “if I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.”

This rather neatly sums up my cup half-empty view of the world and my expectations that things are never far from taking a turn for the worse.

However, it turns out I can be lulled into a false sense of security, because last week I thought I’d had a stroke of luck.

About nine months ago I bought tickets for the ATP World Tour Finals tennis at the O2, not knowing who had qualified or which of the top eight players I would then get to see.

It isn’t a complete shot in the dark though; whatever happens you get to see two of the top eight ranked players, and you can usually take for granted the appearance of four or five certainties.

This year though, the race to London was a particularly topsy-turvy affair with two surprise Grand Slam winners and other players emerging as real threats, while top five stalwarts, David Ferrer and Britain’s Andy Murray, struggled to hold on to their rankings.

For a while it didn’t look like Murray would make The O2, but a great six-week run, that saw him capture three titles, made sure he got the job done.

Not only did Murray make it to London, he just happened to get drawn to play in the match I had tickets for… a real stroke of luck?

For a few days leading up to the game I thought so, but as soon as Murray dropped serve with two double faults in the first set, I started to have my doubts.

As it turned out, we were treated to the Brit’s worst performance in about three months as he had no answer to Kei Nishikori’s dynamic game, and as it turned out, I had counted that particular ‘lucky’ chicken before the egg had hatched. Nishikori was good though…

On this Saturday’s X Factor show Louis Walsh called Mel B Old Spice, quick-witted humour that I didn’t expect from the man who claps like a giddy seal and recycles his comments and critiques with an intense environmental enthusiasm.

That name served its purpose on Saturday, but I think a more suitable alteration from Scary Spice would be Abrasive Spice.

Added to the judging panel this year, she must have been given the task of shaking things up a bit and being the mean judge now Simon Cowell has been ‘mellowed’ by parenthood.

This has essentially resulted in the most detestable behaviour being dressed up as straight, blunt, or worst of all, ‘real’ talking.

This rudeness culminated in her reaction after the sing-off Sunday night.

Her act Paul out-sung Simon’s act Jay, but compared to some of the sing-offs in the series, they were both very impressive.

When electing to save his own act, Simon praised both singers and said it boiled down to backing his act, as it always does.

Rather than doing the same, yet again Mel decided to be rude.

“Based on that it’s an absolute no brainer… it’s obvious, the person I’m sending home is Jay.”

Praise for her act, but nothing at all for the other contestant, who was by no means the weakest left in the competition, nor was he poor in the sing-off.

The reaction of Mel and her act Paul once it had been sent to deadlock, and the public vote sent him home, was also hard to watch.

In that position you can’t expect him not to be disappointed, but his reaction was not disappointment, it was disgust and disbelief, and that’s unacceptably arrogant.

However good a singer you are, you need more to win that show, and I can’t be the only person who thinks he lacks that bit more, because he came bottom of the public vote.

A small aside from tennis and talent shows, I also had the unpleasant experience of travelling on a busy train over the weekend, one I don’t miss tackling regularly.

The standard gripe of the commuter is people refusing to move down the carriage, but on top of that I had to combat two of the lesser discussed, but equally annoying issues: people who sit in the doorway, and people who can’t stand still.

Getting on to a busy train is enough of a struggle without people setting up camp in the door way and making no effort to not be in the way.

Similarly, while you have to accept your personal space is going to be invaded on a busy train, it’s 1000 times worse if that person is continually fidgeting and brushing against you trying to see out of the window into the darkness.

You couldn’t see anything when you looked out 15 seconds ago, what makes you think you will this time..?