Righto, short and soggy. I’m off to put a belligerent toddler in the bath and then make a warming curry. The OBO will return and the sun will shine again. Thanks and goodnight!
Ali also has the latest from the England camp (before this match was kiboshed)
I thought the below was particularly interesting - Jos Buttler admitting England’s pride was dented by their damp squib of a 50 over World Cup last year. All eyes will be on the Mott-Buttler white ball coach and captain partnership over the coming weeks.
And yet memories of last winter’s borderline no-show in India still linger; that collective loss of form and identity which led to six defeats from their first seven group games. Rob Key, the team director, tried to absorb much of the blame by the end, choosing to offer Buttler and Matthew Mott another chance to show they have the requisite chemistry as captain and coach.
Mott signed off from India unwilling to publicly share any lessons, such was the grizzly nature of events and the Australian’s mood at the time. But Buttler, not always the most forthcoming, offered a couple of areas for improvement on Tuesday as his side geared up for this initial warm-up against Pakistan.
“There’s no extra pressure but that pride was obviously dented [by that World Cup] and it was a really disappointing competition,” said Buttler. “It’s a real honour to go to another World Cup as defending champions again. But it also feels like a new time, a new chapter.”
Asked what he had personally learned from last year, Buttler replied: “Making sure the communication is good. I think sometimes, by trying to give people freedom, you can hold back too much and [fail to] make sure that people are clear in their roles or have clarity.
“The easy question to ask yourself is ‘what’s best for the team?’ and then make sure you act on it. Sometimes when results don’t go your way, it’s easy as an individual or a group to go a bit internal. So we have to keep putting the team first every time and making our decisions based around that.”
Updated
It’s now absolutely pongoing it down here in South London.
‘Ne’er cast a clout till May’s out’ as my old man might say.
“I’m watching the IPL” my older brother in LeedsLeedsLeeds texts. Bet England’s players are glad they had to fly back for the start of this series. Ahem.
If you have a cricket shaped hole in your life this evening then you could do a lot worse than listen to this new podcast helmed by Surrey’s redoubtable Jon Surtees and The Rest is History’s Tom Holland.
Tales from The Oval, my new podcast with @holland_tom is out today!
— Jon Surtees (@JonnySurtees) May 22, 2024
Ep 1 is on the pre history of The Oval. It gives us The Black Prince, Chartists, Jacobites, Charles I, Jerry Abershaw and William Badger in just half an hour!https://t.co/jTQwJwKnFW pic.twitter.com/DA2er4zKUU
Flick the TV on to see Ian Ward, Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad riffing whilst the apocalypse closes in behind them:
Stuart Broad reflects on winning the T20 World Cup in Barbados 😍✨ pic.twitter.com/NtgWafgz44
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) May 22, 2024
Oh. Yas bringing us all back down to earth. Early call on the result too…
tbf, Starmer will the fifth PM of Ollie Pope's Test career
— Yas Rana (@Yas_Wisden) May 22, 2024
Jimmy’s seen off eight PMs! EIGHT. Name ‘em…
Farewell clash avoided. Raises the prospect of Jimmy's career spanning eight different PMs. https://t.co/Uo1ASiifRS
— Stephan Shemilt (@stephanshemilt) May 22, 2024
Zain Malik emails in, in short – he wants a roof. Somebody build Zain a cricket stadium in the UK with a lid on it. Ok? Done.
“Isn’t it just classic cricket that we still let a bit of rain ruin everything? I mean, it’s 2024, and we’re still acting like it’s the 1800s with rain delays and abandoned matches. You’d think the ECB would have realised by now that fans and teams can’t take any more of these washouts. It’s like waiting for England to win a World Cup – oh wait, that did happen in 2019, or did it? Miracles can happen!
Covering cricket in North America, where sports happen rain or shine, it does feel a bit like we’re stuck in the past. In England, the rain is practically a team member, always ready to step in and take the match away. We’ve all seen the brilliant spectacle of The Docklands in Australia, right? Sure, it’s had its quirks and flaws in the BBL, but at least it gives cricket a fighting chance against the weather. Imagine that in England – a roof over Lord’s, turning it from a soggy mess into a plush, climate-controlled paradise.
Picture it: a cricket stadium that’s the Rolls Royce Dawn of venues. The rain can pour all it wants outside, but inside, it’s all plush seats, perfect lighting, and uninterrupted cricket. Who wouldn’t want that?
So ECB, if you’re listening, it’s time to get with the program. Stop letting the rain win! Give us a cricket stadium where the only thing getting soaked is the pitch in champagne after another glorious game of the beautiful sport.”
This is a four match T20I series with the second game due to take place at Edgbaston on Saturday. I’ve just fired up a few weather websites and the forecast is much better for that one and into next week.
Both sides of course are tuning up for next month’s T20I World Cup in the Caribbean and AMERICA. A shame not to see the return of Jofra Archer for his first bowl in international cricket in 14 months and his first run out in an England shirt of any kind on English soil since the Ashes Oval Test of 2019.
Ali Martin has the latest on his return below – Archer was going to be in the starting XI today. Bloody rain!
Match abandoned #EngvPak #Cricket pic.twitter.com/nqvbWcol6n
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) May 22, 2024
Updated
As the sounds of D:Ream drown (!) out the election announcement outside Number 10… another seemingly forgotten musical act are featured in this week’s Spin newsletter by Ben Bloom – United Colours of Sound – anyone?
In one incredibly low-resolution image of the band that exists in the far reaches of the internet there appears to be 10 members; in grainy YouTube footage of them performing England’s official 2003 Rugby World Cup song at Twickenham alongside UB40 there seems to only be five. But none of that quintet is the radio presenter and TV talent show vocal coach Carrie Grant, who was definitely part of the group at some point. Or was she?
The answers to such questions are secondary, really – at least for the purposes of The Spin this week – to the mystery of how, at a London rooftop bar, on 8 May 2003, two of United Colours of Sound’s innumerable members found their hands resting on the unlikely shoulders of John Crawley and Chris Adams, while another wielded a budget bat in front of county cricket royalty. Throw in the addition of laughably bad Elvis Presley and Austin Powers “lookalikes” – a misnomer of epic proportions – and it is an image that failed to stand the test of time five minutes after the photographer first hit the shutter release as much as it does now, 21 years after it was taken to promote the inaugural ECB Twenty20 Cup campaign.”
This is very much the vibe at Headingley:
Our first IT20 against Pakistan has been abandoned ❌
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 22, 2024
See you at Edgbaston, England fans 👋 pic.twitter.com/luw2mcUR4c
And this…
— Balderdash (@notDcfcBoss) May 22, 2024
Preamble
Hello and a soggy welcome to Headingley and the OBO of the first T20I between England and Pakistan. Or not as the case seems to be. Just as I type the officials have seen fit to abandon the match. The puddles on the Yorkshire outfield looking deeper than the ones on Rishi Sunak’s suit shoulders … it’s election on and cricket off. Things can only get wetter.
I’m going to hang around for a bit to see if there’s any flutterings of news out of Headingley, please do drop me a line if you are out there and fancy keeping me company for the next hour or so?
