Part of the best Australian cricket team ever imo, led by Steve Waugh. I know it's difficult to choose between different eras, particularly when you didn't see the earlier ones, but as a team I believe they outshone even those involving Bradman.
I liked Virender Sehwag's comment: "the man who made spin cool".
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Day 1 in this Test Match looked even more ominous for England when Stokes was bowled by Seales at 115-5, leaving the West Indies well placed, but Bairstow with 109 not out (17 x 4), Foakes 42 and Woakes 24 not out put England back on an even keel, being 268-6 at close of play.
It's actually a good score now, which is why proper cricket trumps 16.4 cricket. You get a chance for the middle order to rebuild an innings, bowlers tire, the pitch changes, ball softens etc. Of course you need decent middle-order batsmen, and an opposition that lets them off the hook a bit.
I agree with you. I blame Brian Johnston (''Johnners'') on Test Match Special, a P.G.Wodehouse creation if ever there was one, aided and abetted for many years by Henry Blofeld (''Blowers''). Both had the supposed 'benefit' of an Eton education, which got Johnston to Oxford University, where he scraped a Third in History, and it was apparently Oxford and the public schools that largely fed into it where the -er ending derived from. Before this laziness, some quite relevant, even witty, nicknames were given to some players by their teammates, not always directly related to their names.
West Indies were eventually all out, but not before putting 411 runs on the scoreboard.
Yes it was almost certainly "Johnners" and "Blowers" who started it some years ago and it spread to other commentators, but that doesn't explain why players have the same habit. And it's not just a male habit as Isa Guha was also using these nicknames.
I agree with you! Absolute laziness, especially when I recall David Lloyd, in a rain break some years ago during the Sky commentary going through a series of original and quite funny nicknames of cricketers that he played with in the 1960's and 1970's. trouble is, I can't remember any! (I'll have to remind myself of some of the names and hope it will jog my memory)
Wasim Akram the Sultan of Swing, Terry Alderman the Smiling Assassin, Trevor Bailey was 'Barnacle Bailey' for his batting (guess Kyle Brathwaite should inherit that mantle.) Like you, I can't remember a lot of them now, but Lancashire and Kent teams seemed to have more and better examples than some other counties. Shoaib Akhtar was the Rawalpindi Express too - personally, I can't imagine a more frightening bowler to face, but Sylvester Clarke with a grudge would be up there too, possibly why West Indies were reluctant to play him.
I read somewhere that when he was at Kent Sam Northeast was nicknamed 'NorthBy', Matthew Fleming was 'Jazzer' - and, of course, R.C. Russell (Glos) was 'Jack'.
Another Russell called 'Jack' played as an opening bat for England in 1903(?), and apparently it wasn't his given name either! Speaking of Kent players, Derek Underwood was 'Deadly'. Other nicknames were Robin Smith ('Judge'), Shahid Afridi 'Boom Boom' and Lance Klusener 'Zulu.' One I particularly liked was 'Dizzy' for Jason Gillespie, which shows thought! I note Wagner and Elgar, amongst present test players, don't seem to attract anything musical. Is Dean Elgar an 'Enigma' I wonder?
Showing your age there, well so am I!
Like Geoff Arnold being "horse". His initials were G.G.
And Chris Old as Chilly.
Yes, Ramprakash was commonly known as Ramps in his playing days, or Bloodaxe, due to his short fuse.
93-8 nowEngland now 53-6. Move on, nothing to see here.
Ambrose skittling England for 46 occurred in their second innings, though, and with all due respect to the current W.I. fast bowlers even Roach, none of them could aspire to the performance Curtly put in. He was a man on a mission! England were in the driving seat for the first three and a half days too. Gooch was missing with a broken wrist and Ramprakash ran himself out. (!) Like Lees, Alec Stewart was the only batsman to show some fight.
