I wanted this game to be good. Really, I did. I’ve played virtually every single cricket game I could ever get my hands on: ICC, Brian Lara, EA’s series – PlayStation, PC and Mega Drive… and every time there’s always been something missing.
Neil Pickup - ARTICLES
I’ve been fortunate enough to watch, coach and play more than a few cricket matches over the last couple of weeks. I’ve spent the day with my feet up, listening to Bob Willis and David Lloyd bemoaning West Indian fielding, flung myself across a sloping outfield in the name of cutting off another batch of legside wides, and prowled a boundary rope muttering curses towards LBW decisions and non-existent backing up.
The English season is two weeks old. The sun is shining, I’ve got myself a sunburn and a seam mark across my left instep, and Ian Bell has made a regulation century on a featherbed at Taunton. Three things that any soothsayer worth their salt would expect to find within their “Captain Obvious” section, right next to the visions of Chris Martin losing his middle stump.
The Fourth Test between the West Indies and England at the Kensington Oval will be remembered for a run feast and an umpiring farce. Why was the cricket so heavily overshadowed?
Cricket lies on the back burner for this week’s entry, as there’s only so much vitriole one person can bring himself to spew about Ian Bell’s incessant tendency to look a million dollars and then play a shot straight from a Closing Down Sale. So I’m saving myself from recycling any number of cliches about choirboys and headlights, and wondering about what, in general, contributes to skills either thriving or disintegrating under pressure.
I told you this week would be more interesting than last. Alright, I’ve still barely had the time to scribble this down around about a workload that I’m not going to whinge about on here, because I knew it would be like this when I signed the contract, but there’s a lot more cricket on, at least.