The Indian Ambassador is expected to be summoned to the Foreign Office amid a growing row over Phil “The Cat” Tufnell’s shock exclusion from the Indian Premier League.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
When England are experiencing bad times, such as the current bloodbath in Johannesburg, your correspondent finds it very, very tough to keep listening to the radio commentary. This might hold equally true for television; we can’t comment on that since we follow our cricket on the radio. But for the last couple of days the radio has been off.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
“An off-air comment made by Geoffrey Boycott in a live broadcast was heard by some listeners which we apologised for as soon as we realised it had been audible” – the BBC has to say sorry after Sir Geoffrey is heard to shout “Fucking tosser!” in the background of TMS after England took a sixth South African wicket. The first draft of history does not record who he meant.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
“While nibbling on a chocolate brownie, he announced that ‘my wife is a brilliant cake maker… she’s not a professional but she makes cakes for all sorts of people’. It was at that moment I knew Michael Vaughan and TMS would be a match made in heaven!” – Adam Mountford explains why the former England skipper has been recruited to the box.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
“He was probably the worst batsman I have ever seen. And he was probably the toughest human being I have ever had to captain – the best to have a drink with, but the worst to captain. I remember here at Lord’s a few years ago, Tufnell just left the field at one point and then returned a few minutes later smelling of cigarette smoke. He said ’sorry skipper – I just had to have a fag’… he was a nightmare” – what the Langer dossier would have to say about his former Middlesex team-mate Phil Tufnell.
“I am attempting a 101-mile walk towards the end of August in aid of the Dame Vera Lynn Trust for children with Cerebral Palsy, based at Billingshurst, a few miles from my home. They do great work for the children and for their parents and, with no public money available to them, need all the help that they can get. I have left it a little late but people who know me will not be entirely surprised by that” – CMJ on his post-Ashes charity bid.
“The fans had come knowing that in the years to come they would be able to tell their grandchildren that they watched Flintoff’s last Test at Lord’s. The cherry on the trifle, of course, was that their hero was providing the man-of-the-match performance in England’s first win against Australia at headquarters since 1934, and only their second since 1896″ – Oliver Brett, TMS blog.
“It is true that low-scoring matches can be very exciting – and last night’s narrow win for England over Middlesex was an enjoyable encounter – but we really need a better surface if this week is really to be hailed a success” – Adam Mountford, TMS blog.
“I hate listening to myself on the radio, I always think I sound like such an ungovernably pompous prat” – the many fans of Henry Blofeld would disagree, as he steps out from behind the mike for a one-man show at London’s Shaw Theatre.
“Maybe the attendances in Bangalore were simply a blip or has the grip of Twenty20 taken its first hold on Test cricket?” – Phil Long, writing in the TMS blog.
Cricket Blips: England feed