We'll Keep the White Flag Flying.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I saw a documentary about the D'Oliveira Affair. Well worth seeing. Proper conspiracy stuff.

[Arthur Crabtree]

15. England v Sri Lanka at the Oval, London. August, 1998.

Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets.

The late nineties really was an era when it was the hope that killed you. England competed thrillingly with the West Indies at times in this period. They went 1-0 up at Edgbaston in 1997 in a compelling opening Ashes Test, but conceded the prize long before the Oval. And in 1998, they beat South Africa at home in a spellbinding encounter, admittedly marred by controversial umpiring. Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart scored nearly 500 runs each and Angus Fraser and Darren Gough were devastating. Scheduled onto the end of that summer was a one-off Test against Sri Lanka.

England clearly had something going for them, especially when Gough and Fraser could be got onto the pitch. Questions remain about the appointments made to crucial positions by the ECB. Ray Illingworth appeared uncommitted and out of touch and was unable to unburden beleaguered skippers Mike Atherton and encumbered factotum Alec Stewart.Ted Dexter was plain strange. David Lloyd, in charge this summer, was a trier and no more. A generation of decent batters underachieved, like Hussain, Crawley, Hick, Ramprakash and Butcher, and the era now looks worse for the same squad subsequently being turned into a fine side by the saviour Duncan Fletcher. Some players, like Andy Caddick, Graham Thorpe and Phil Tufnell were left out for reportedly not being liked.

It seems remarkable that as late as 1998, England were still playing single Tests against Sri Lanka, this one a whole five years after their defeat in Colombo, two since their humbling to them in the 1996 World Cup. And what is also instructive is how quickly Muttiah Muralitharan got into their heads. This was their second Test against the controversial spinner. When England won in Sri Lanka in 2001 on a tour that came to be lauded as one of their greatest ever wins, it was not only their first ever series against Sri Lanka, it started with Murali's third Test against them.

It was the 1998 Oval Test that established the biscuit maker's son from Kandy's supremacy over England. The hosts were inserted by Sri Lanka, not because there was anything in a first day pitch for a pace attack of Pamodya Wickramasinghe (Test average 42) and Suresh Perera (average 180). Sri Lanka bowled, said the cunning, confrontational captain Arjuna Ranatunga, now unusually voluptuous for a sportsman, because they didn't want Murali to bowl two innings in succession!

England scored over 400 batting first and lost, which doesn't happen every day. Hick scored a ton and Crawley 156*, and Murali took seven wickets. On a flat, dry Oval pitch which some journalists described as subcontinental in nature, Aravinda de Silva responded with 152 and Sanath Jayasuriya with a double ton. In the second innings, England subsided to 181 on a blameless wicket, and Muralitharan walked off with figures of 54-27-65-9. England went into their bunker after deciding mystery spin was something they didn't understand, and that pitches should be prepared to suit traditional English strengths. David Lloyd was reprimanded by the ECB, after protests from Sri Lanka, for comments made about Murali's legitimacy...

At the end of a summer which had provided so much excitement and promise in the series against South Africa, England finished on a dispiriting low. They were defeated in the winter Ashes (of course), and the following summer lost at home to New Zealand after a depressing World Cup, to be ranked the world's worst side.



http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63809.html

[Arthur Crabtree]

I was going to keep these first ten short...

I edited a bit about Ian Salisbury being the England spinner to cut it down. and how often he got recalled and dropped.

[Dr Cricket]

Is it any surprise that Lloyd made those comments biggest moaner in the planet.
Absolutely hates Asian cricket and teams.

[alfie]

Is it any surprise that Lloyd made those comments biggest moaner in the planet.

Really ?

I'd have thought he'd have some competition

[Arthur Crabtree]

14. West Indies v England, Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad. March, 1994.

West Indies won by 147 runs.

In March 1989, Graham Gooch took his out of town undercard of sluggers, never-weres and punch drunk has-beens to Jamaica to face the West Indies, and won. Broken and bleeding, England ultimately went down in the fifth, in Antigua, and lost the series. But that win itself was such a fulfilment of a dream, it was scarcely believable. Hacks and fans alike held back a tear at the sight of this courageous, futile shot at the title. The eventual 2-1 defeat was one of the greatest of England performances. The West Indies were Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang... England had stared into the eye of the tiger, and the West Indies were never quite as intimidating to them again.

After Gooch and his proletarian grafters came back home, they slowly declined into hard times, no different from the profligacy of the optional-nets era of the fallen cricketing blue-bloods, David Gower and Ian Botham. But for a while, Gooch's work ethic bore some fruit and the batting form of the captain was outstanding. Eventually, the tour of India and Sri Lanka in 1993 damaged England, and they were baffled by their encounter with Shane Warne at home the following summer, and disorientated by the unwelcome emergence of Australia as a new superpower. Graham Gooch resigned and Mike Atherton was to take England to the Caribbean.

By the third Test in Port of Spain, England were 2-0 down and facing a series defeat. Playing his first Tests against England was Brian Lara. He scored 798 runs with a highest score of 375. But, at home in Trinidad, he only scored 55 of these runs. England appeared to have a chance in the game thanks to their pace attack of Andy Caddick, Chris Lewis and the lionhearted Angus Fraser. On an unreliable pitch, Graham Thorpe's first innings 86 and the team's 328, were commendable, and England's first innings lead of 76 astonishing.

England dismissed West Indies for 269 in their second innings, after Andy Caddick cut down the top order. It was too many to concede on such a pitch. At 143-5 (67 ahead) on day four, West Indies were notionally there for the taking, but two dropped catches by Graeme Hick allowed Shivnarine Chanderpaul to make fifty, and Winston Benjamin 35 in support. The reality was England were left 194 runs to win.

That target of 194 to win is worth some consideration. On the pitch in question it was a lot of runs, though significantly fewer than the West Indies had just made. But being 194 runs away from victory against West Indies, in the West Indies, in Trinidad, where England had won three times in seventy years... It both felt like too many, and yet... tantalisingly close. And yet... the closest England were ever likely to get. If not now... when? It was the classic Michael Frayn scenario again of the hope, killing you.

And of course England were bowled out for 46, one run better than the lowest total in their history. Curtly Ambrose (6-24) and Courtney Walsh (3-16) were carried from the field aloft on the shoulders of their legendary batters. Panic had spread like a virus from man to man in the dressing room. As you knew it would. After the heroics of 1989, England were once again in the Caribbean, and 3-0 down with two to play.


http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63639.html

[Arthur Crabtree]

13. West Indies v England at Sabina Park, Kingston. February, 2009.

West Indies won by an innings and 23 runs.

If politics is showbiz for ugly people, maybe we can extend that to sport being politics for jocks?

After England's 2005 Ashes Mean Machine drove over the sheer cliff-face of Australia's single-minded 5-0 reprisal, Duncan Fletcher made way and results continued to decline under Peter Moores, considered the best English born candidate available. England lost at home to India and Michael Vaughan became the latest England captain to fail to survive an encounter with the astute Graeme Smith. But not the last. Kevin Pietersen became captain, and lost in India.

Pietersen and a faction of senior England players went to the ECB with their misgivings about the coaching methods of Moores. The ECB listened to their testimony, and asked the South African born captain to put his concerns in writing. His co-conspirators took a step back, and the ECB filed the report and sacked Pietersen. It wasn't exactly a page from the Reign of Terror. But it was brutal. Moores had to make way and England went to West Indies with a temporary coach, the Zimbabwean Andy Flower, and a new captain in Andrew Strauss.

A year earlier England had been in the Caribbean for the Stanford Super Series. In an attempt to keep their players from being distracted by the financial lure of the IPL, Giles Clarke had arranged with rich American Allen Stanford to play a $20m winner takes all game of T20 with the Stanford Superstars in the Stanford Stadium, Antigua. ECB employees, stakeholders and invited members of the press had applauded a helicopterful of money onto the outfield at Lord's as the jamboree was announced. Inaugural winners, the Stanford Superstars remain holders in perpetuity, as the patron was shortly banged up in prison for the rest of his life for defrauding ordinary people out of millions of dollars. In the Caribbean, Clarke revealed his faux pas to Jonathan Agnew on TMS. It wasn't Frost v Nixon and Clarke is still claiming expenses from the ECB to this day.

Pietersen took the field as player only, top scoring with 97 in England's 318. The West Indies got a useful lead as Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan posted hundreds. There were echoes of the Port of Spain in 2004 in England's second innings collapse, all out for 51. Only this time it wasn't all time great bowlers of the equal of Curtly and Courtney that scattered the visiting batters like pigeons. It was Jerome Taylor (5-11) and Sulieman Benn. Only Andrew Flintoff offered any resistance, with an eighty minute 24. Last out was Steve Harmison, five years on from bowling West Indies out for 47 on the same ground.

The result was bad enough, and England wouldn't be allowed to make up for their humiliation on a number of very flat pitches around the Caribbean, and West Indies, deep into their own decline, won the series 1-0. Then lost their next series at home to Bangladesh. But it was the antagonists off the pitch that proved the source of a deeper, lasting discontent. The ECB. No matter how results have fluctuated in the years since, this disaffection has proved stubborn to conceal, and proved a more permanent legacy of the time than the sacking of Peter Moores.


http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/352661.html

[rich1uk]

i might have mentioned Strauss's cautious declarations as a contributing factor in your last para AC but another good read

[Arthur Crabtree]

Thanks! Back to the nineties next time, and our first entry from an encounter with South Africa.

[braveneutral]

Thanks! Back to the nineties next time, and our first entry from an encounter with South Africa.

Boo hiss.

It feels customary to boo and hiss at Sa in regards to English cricketing encounters.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Could probably name a pretty strong all time XI of players who have been knobbled by SA, in various way.

[braveneutral]

And an all time XI that came from SA.

[braveneutral]

I shan't try as I may fail. Also would distract from this enchanting thread.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I feel a bit guilty getting away with (more) negative comments on SA just because there are no SAn posters, so best leave it there! But in my next choice it's an England player at fault, but predictably, he comes a cropper!

[Arthur Crabtree]

I shan't try as I may fail. Also would distract from this enchanting thread.

Charmer!