#Ashes on Twitter

In the 2009 Ashes, Twitter was starting to become a bit of a ‘hot topic’. David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd’s tweets were a constant discussion point in the commentary box, and Phillip Hughes infamously announced his dropping via the social networking medium…only for play to be delayed five hours. In the wake of England’s thumping victory over Australia in Adelaide, I decided to head over to the site to see what the tweeting part of the cricket community thought about the monumental triumph. Because we’re so kind here at Ashes HQ, I’ve decided to share a few.

The first place I looked had to be Shane Warne (warne888). All I’ve read all day is that he set for a comeback, possibly even as Australia’s captain! Would Warney have any massive revelations for us on Twitter?

“It’s so nice to hear from all my wonderful English friends that I have made over the last 20 years !!! And all at once , why?? Oh Xmas time”

Well, not quite what I was looking for. Good to hear is getting plenty of stick though. I hope he doesn’t come back…I’ve grown quite fond of him over the last four years but my hatred could quite easily return.

Speaking of top-class spinners, Graeme Swann’s (Swannyg66) tweets have become quite famous. In a rare moment of seriousness, Swann said, “Over the moon with how the cricket went this morning, but gutted for broady. He deserves better (as does Chris hughton).”

One thing that does often happen on twitter is imitation. Always be sure to look out for the verified symbol. Otherwise, you might find yourself believing that Xavier Doherty actually does post as xavierdoherty and that he said “Ricky Ponting is very angry in the dressing room…He threw his ABC book across the room! and said i bowl like a gay bear!”

Ashes legend Andrew Flintoff (flintoff11) has become something of a tweeting machine in the last few weeks; everytime I check my feed he is all over it. It was to my dismay that I found very little gloating after the England victory, as he seemed to do plenty when Cook batted for the duration of six Harry Potter films during the Brisbane Test. In fact, checking Freddie’s feed gives you a LOT of opinion on….Coronation Street and his battles to watch it over in Dubai. He did say “Great birthday night!” though, so I guess he enjoyed the game.

Michael Vaughan (VaughanCricket), on the other hand, really did enjoy sticking the boot in to the Aussies. He has been very active on twitter all day, discussing the rumoured spat between Ians Botham and Chappell, but during and immediately after play, he had the following to say for himself.

“Swann- Swann will tear you apart again.. Rings around the Oval.. Giggsy will like that.. ”

“Just to let all you Aussies know.. Bad light would have forced the players off now.. Rain coming as well… Never mind.”

I particularly like that last one; Vaughan has been regarded as a bit of a curmudgeon in some parts since his retirement, he will earn himself a rather different adjective with the Australian with comments like that.

Understandably, a search through the Australian players didn’t produce much post-match, although Michael Clarke (MClarke23) did tweet during the game to apologise for not walking at the close of day four. That was a nice touch from Clarke, you could see he looked embarassed waiting for the replays after being caught, but many players would have never mentioned it without being prompted. Off the field, Clarke may have many attributes that are more familiar with a Premier League footballer than your typical Australian cricketer (although the two do seem similar these days) but that was a little bit of class. Saying that, the cheating convict should have just walked in the first place!

It is quite tempting to keep scouring Twitter and find lots of comments…after all, as an Englishman, reading about the game is good fun. Regardless of your opinion on the social networking phenomenon, it is here to stay, and I imagine there will be an Twitter-related Ashes controversey before the year is out.