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If Andrew Strauss’s century was an innings that Australia had anticipated on the strength of his performances in England in 2009, then Alastair Cook’s personal epic crept up on them via the blind-side

Andrew Miller at the Gabba28-Nov-2010If Andrew Strauss’s century was an innings that Australia had anticipated on the strength of his performances in England in 2009, then Alastair Cook’s personal epic crept up on them via the blind-side. By the close of the fourth day’s play, however, a man who had begun the series being singled out as England’s weak link was just one run shy of a double-century match tally, having batted all told for almost 12 hours.Despite being the only one of England’s two openers to have previously made a century in Australia, Cook’s 116 at Perth back in December 2006 had come in the midst of a series in which his next highest score was 43. Back in England last summer, his 95 at Lord’s owed a considerable amount to Mitchell Johnson’s first-day largesse, and he did not pass 32 in eight further innings in that series, leaving his overall average in Ashes cricket – 498 runs at 26.21 – looking like that of an under-achiever.But with one day remaining of an absorbing Brisbane Test, Cook has the platform from which to produce something truly memorable – the chance to live up to the exhortations of his mentor Graham Gooch, by batting Australia out of the match with a “daddy”, and himself into a position from which no-one will dare to question his resolve at the highest level.If Australia under-estimated Cook’s resilience, then they weren’t the only ones. With his awkward, pokey technique, with his bat and gloves often dangling several feet from his front pad, it doesn’t require much for errors to creep into his game, and on the last Ashes tour in particular, he was tormented outside off stump by Glenn McGrath and Stuart Clark. But with Gooch as his sidekick, and through hours of deconstruction in the nets, he’s stripped his game down to its basics and equipped himself with the necessary tools for survival.”It was very satisfying,” said Cook at the close. “I said at the start of the tour I had a point to prove, because in my last two series against Australia I hadn’t done that well. But over the last 12 months I’ve had a bit of a tinker with my technique and tried to improve it. The results today, I’m very happy with.”That’s not to say that Cook will ever please the purists, or keep his detractors at arm’s length at all times. In the 2010 English summer, for instance, he scraped 106 runs in his first eight Test innings against Bangladesh and Pakistan, and was said to be playing for his place when he lived up to his dogged reputation with a defiant 110 at The Oval. For Cook, however, the traumas of that series have had a flip-side, for they have allowed him to accept the Gabba wicket for what it’s been all week – a relative batsman’s paradise on which application is sure to be rewarded.”Conditions at home were the toughest I’ve ever experienced as an opening batter,” he said. “It swung and was very tough for the top order. It reminds you, when you do get conditions that don’t swing as much, to cash in. In the first innings I worked really hard and got out for 60 – which was very frustrating. It took me another two-and-a-half hours to get my hundred, after Straussy. But when I got it, that noise made the hair at the back of my neck stand up.”The likelihood of England going into the Gabba Test without him was always next-to-nil, even when he began the Ashes tour with an ugly double-failure against Western Australia at Perth. The team simply values his mental fortitude above all else, and that trait was especially in evidence in Bangladesh back in the spring, when he was named as England captain while Strauss took a break.The decision to promote him was not universally welcomed, but Cook was mightily impressive in the role, as he willed himself to score a century in each of the two Tests at Chittagong and Dhaka, while also leading from the front in a rare foray into the one-day side. Of course, the pressures of those contests were not in the same league as the Ashes, and yet for Cook, as an untested captain in an environment where defeat was not an option, the lessons he learned were invaluable all the same.”Resilience is certainly one of Cookie’s greatest strengths,” said Strauss. “He is a very resilient character and he is able to do the hard yards as he demonstrated in this game. One of the things you have to do in Test cricket generally is not think too much about what has happened or what’s going to happen, you just stay in the present as much as possible. That is what Alastair and I managed to do today.”

Ashley Giles says scheduling will be looked at for 2021 with a view to shifting priorities

George Dobell01-Nov-2019A change of heart at the ECB could see the County Championship – rather than the One-Day Cup – played at the same time as the Hundred from 2021.Next summer the domestic one-day competition is scheduled to be played at the same time as the Hundred, meaning England’s best limited-overs players will not be available for 50-over cricket. But Ashley Giles, the managing director of England men’s cricket, has suggested that decision could be reviewed after the 2020 season.While he insisted the 50-over competition would provide an opportunity for “young guys to get exposure” in 2020, he did admit that, ahead of the 2023 World Cup in India, the ECB may look to ensure the domestic competition is of as high a standard as possible and not hit by absences.”It definitely will be 50-over alongside the Hundred next summer, but this will be consistently reviewed,” Giles told in an interview in their November edition. “You could then move your 50-over back to the start of the year.”Fifty-over cricket remains really important. But we have to prioritise slightly differently over the next few years. We have two T20 World Cups ahead of the 2023 50-over World Cup. We’ll still play 50-over.”Can I sit here and say it’s the most important thing when it’s being playing alongside the Hundred – no, I can’t. You’d laugh at me. It’s actually a really good competition for some young guys to get exposure. Then in 2021 we might have a look at the scheduling again.”One option likely to be discussed by the ECB cricket committee now chaired by Andrew Strauss is the possibility of staging Championship games – perhaps offering half the points of matches at other stages of the season when all players are available – during the window designed to accommodate the Hundred. That will not be a universally popular option and may lead to suggestions that the ECB is compromising the integrity of the first-class game and, as a consequence, the development of the Test side.But Giles feels the benefits, not least playing more first-class in the prime weeks of the summer when conditions should encourage spin bowling, are worth further consideration.”People will say the integrity of the Championship would be in question,” Giles said. “But you could view it slightly differently:
play with a points system, and have a healthy mix of senior players who are not in the Hundred, alongside some 19 and 20-years-olds.”You could have four rounds of Championship cricket at the height of summer, on good pitches that might spin. A lot of county members like seeing the young players, at outgrounds. That would be great.”

Some Australia players added the stem guard – which will likely be made mandatory by CA in the next 12 months – to their helmets mid-way through the Lord’s Test

Daniel Brettig20-Aug-2019Of the many repercussions stemming from the awful blow suffered by Steven Smith during the Lord’s Test, one of the most visible was the arrival of a stem guard on the back of the helmet of Australia’s vice-captain Travis Head.Having tried the neck guards in the wake of his team-mate Phillip Hughes’ death in November 2014, Head had then elected not to use them for comfort reasons – much as Smith had done – but between innings of the Lord’s Test sought out the team doctor Richard Saw for a neck guard to clip on for extra protection.This meant that three of the Australian batsmen in the middle on day five – Head, Tim Paine and Pat Cummins – were wearing the neck guards, reflecting a shift from optional towards the mandatory standard that Cricket Australia is expecting to introduce in the next 12 months. Undoubtedly, the sight of Smith sprawled on the Lord’s turf will be a strong encouragement for others to add it to their games before they are compelled to do so.”I didn’t usually [wear one]. I guess with the conditions in Australia you can sway out the way, the bounce is quite true,” Head said. “I think what we have seen at Lord’s with the slope there was a lot of balls following batters and going down the slope. I wore it yesterday and probably will wear it for the rest of the series I guess. The wickets are a little bit slower and you can get some that do different things, so it is not as true bounce. I guess, as you’ve seen with Steve getting hit, you can get yourself into tricky positions.”So, I think it’ll become mandatory, it is becoming mandatory next year with CA so I may as well get used to it now and then start putting them on. It is something I have played around with. I thought they were going to come in earlier so I trialled them as one of those things. They probably weren’t as comfortable [but] I didn’t really feel the difference yesterday. It is one of those things as batters, things that are working and not working and I might have worn them and missed out a couple of times and they go back into the kit. But the doc carries them around, so there’s a box to whack them on and a few blokes did.”Asked whether there was any team rule about their use, Head said stem guards were currently in the same category as arm guards: something worn by some and not others. “It is each to their own. I guess it is like me with my arm guard,” he said. “There is no reason it came up but I can save myself a broken arm if I get hit.”So, again, there are a lot of guys wearing them; all of the bowlers are wearing them now, so it is the same thing: trying to protect yourself from injury. I want to play every single game I can. Anything that can help or that can stop something happening, I take it it into account. It is up to individuals.”In partnership with Marnus Labuschagne, Head was able to grind out the innings Australia required to escape Lord’s with a draw and a 1-0 Ashes series lead, but it was a match notable for testing him in numerous ways. He never looked comfortable in the first innings before being pinned lbw on the crease by Stuart Broad from around the wicket. And even in the second innings, Head might well have been out several times to Jack Leach’s left-arm spin, and was also dropped in the slips by Jason Roy with nearly 20 overs of the match still remaining.”Yeah, I didn’t start too well in the first innings,” Head said. “Credit to them, they bowled quite well. I was a little bit disappointed with the way that I got out but those are the things I am working on and haven’t [shown up] much in the last 12 months. Getting stuck on the crease now and then is disappointing, but I’ll learn from it. In the second innings it was a bit more like I was at Edgbaston and, hopefully, I can continue to produce that and be nice and positive.”I had the faith of JL [coach Justin Langer] and Painey to keep pushing the game and being positive and I think that’s the way I play best. When aiming for a draw I was still quite positive in moments when I shouldn’t have been but again, my best way to defend is sometimes to attack and sometimes it works and sometimes not. It’s about picking the right moments I think, and making sure I am doing what’s best for the team.”So it is about making sure I pick up length quickly and I am really sharp. I think the process is really good and I was able to show that with how I played [on day five].”Head reflected that the Australians were very much looking for victory when day five began, only to be frustrated into lowering their expectations by Ben Stokes’ century. “We were quite confident going into the day that we could win it,” he said. “But then Ben batted extremely well and put them into a fantastic position.”So, it was about getting out of the game and out of the day and we were able to do that. There are still a lot of positives to take from the week, which is nice. I think the mood around the group since that moment is better and better and stronger and stronger. We feel that the way we played at Edgbaston and most of the week this week, we can compete and play some really good cricket.”

Mitchell Johnson will take the rare step of returning to club cricket this weekend, as he aims to regain his touch in the lead-up to the Ashes

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2010Mitchell Johnson will take the rare step of returning to club cricket this weekend, as he aims to regain his touch in the lead-up to the Ashes. Johnson has struggled for form since returning early from the series in India, and as a player for whom time off can be a hindrance more than a blessing, he is keen to get as much on-field action as possible before the Gabba Test.Having recently played his first game for Western Australia, despite moving there two years ago, Johnson will on Saturday line up for the Perth club side Wanneroo. He will then rejoin the Warriors for their Sheffield Shield match against Victoria, which begins at the MCG next Wednesday, before getting ready for the first Test starting on November 25.”I’m not getting the results I would probably like in the wicket column,” Johnson told reporters in Perth. “But I don’t feel like I’m out of form. I guess you look at the last game against Sri Lanka on Sunday and I felt really good. I was speaking to Brad Haddin, we normally talk to each other about how things are going for each other, and he just said go out there and bowl fast, and that’s what I did and he said I looked really good.”I don’t feel like I’m out of form, I just feel a little bit off the mark. Hopefully I’ve got it right for the Ashes. The last time I played grade cricket, I was in Brisbane maybe four years ago. I remember it quite well. I was at our home ground. It was actually a nice, fast week so it was quite exciting for me. [I’m] looking forward to this weekend. Get a bit more bowling in before a big Ashes series.”Johnson was wayward in the ODI series against Sri Lanka this month, when he collected 1 for 128 across the three matches. However, he did show some signs of improvement in the final match at the Gabba, although Mitchell Starc and Clint McKay reaped the rewards.

West Brom have identified a new name as a potential replacement for Sam Allardyce this summer, according to reports…

What’s the word?

The Sun on Sunday (18/04, p67) claim the Baggies will target Barnsley boss Valerien Ismael should they fail in their attempts to keep hold of the 66-year-old past the end of the current campaign.

It’s suggested that the Midlands outfit would like Big Sam to remain in charge but he won’t make a decision until he knows what his potential transfer budget would be ahead of the summer window.

Ismael’s stock has risen this season after guiding the Tykes to the cusp of a playoff position having narrowly avoided relegation last season. The 45-year-old has also been linked to Crystal Palace, where ex-Albion boss Roy Hodgson is out of contract.

Big Sam successor?

West Brom are still likely to be relegated from the Premier League despite recording back-to-back wins as they still remain nine points adrift of safety, with only five games left to play.

The Championship is not a division that Allardyce has managed in nearly a decade and things have vastly changed since then – it’s certainly going to be tougher to get back up now.

And whilst he’s certainly turned around their form, the football on offer at times is still pretty drab and that’s something West Ham fans know all too well about, even when gaining promotion from the second-flight in 2012.

Ismael would bring an attacking brand of football to the Hawthorns and one that is certainly paying dividends in the Championship. He’s recorded a win rate of 61% since arriving at Oakwell in October 2020.

His stint in Austria, where he challenged for the league title with LASK Linz, earned the praise of them being the “second-best pressing team in the world” whilst his feat there has been dubbed “outstanding,” too.

With fans set to return to stadiums by the time next season gets underway, Luke Dowling could do no wrong by employing Ismael as their next manager. He’d certainly bring entertainment back to the west Midlands, and that could well be need post-relegation.

AND in other news, “Ruthless” £30k-p/w outcast in danger of becoming the Hawthorns’ next big flop …

Leeds United are reportedly interested in signing Sampdoria centre-back Omar Colley this summer.

Marcelo Bielsa is seemingly set to delve into the transfer market when it reopens, allowing him to add more quality to an already talented squad.

Leeds may have European aspirations in 2021/22, following an excellent first year back in the Premier League, but top class additions will be needed for that to come to fruition.

The Whites are relatively well-stocked in defence at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped a fresh rumour from doing the rounds.

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Leeds keen on signing Colley

According to ClubDoria46, Leeds are eyeing up a move for Sampdoria centre-back Colley, as are several other Premier League clubs.

The 28-year-old, who earns £30,000 per week in Italy, has won 25 caps for The Gambia since making his international debut back in 2012.

Colley’s current Sampdoria deal doesn’t expire until 2025, however, meaning the Serie A club are in a strong position, but the report claims they would only be looking for around €10-15million (£8.7-13million) for their 6 foot 3 ‘power plant’.

Transfer Tavern take

In truth, there is no great need for Leeds to be signing a player of Colley’s ilk, even if he is Sampdoria’s highest-rated player this season (Whoscored), with other areas of the pitch more important to improve in.

In Liam Cooper and Diego Llorente, Bielsa has an experienced centre-back pairing already, with Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk also reliable options for the future.

Should Leeds manage to negotiate a good price for Colley it may be worth it, but if not, their funds should be spent elsewhere, such as left-back, considering Ezgjan Alioski looks likely to move on.

In other news, Leeds are reportedly keen on signing an exciting young talent. Read more here.

Former West Ham striker Brian Deane has told Football FanCast in an exclusive interview that £40m is a cheap price for Issa Diop.

According to Claret and Hugh, West Ham are not looking to sell Diop this summer. However, should a £40m bid come in for the 24-year-old central defender, the Hammers could reconsider their stance.

Having been on the fringes earlier this season, Diop has become a mainstay in West Ham’s defence, so he is a player that David Moyes will probably be wanting to keep hold of going into the 2021/22 campaign.

At that reported £40m valuation, though, Deane believes that could be tricky. Speaking exclusively to FFC on the subject, the retired Premier League footballer said:

“It’s cheap money. So if I was a club, I’d be looking to snap him up, personally. But it just depends on what West Ham want to do. If they’re saying that ‘we don’t want him to leave but it will cost £40m’ then that’s not really saying [he’s not for sale].

“So I don’t know the dynamics of what’s going on, but he’s well within reach of a lot of teams at that money.”

Manchester United have been credited with an interest in the player before, so if David Gold and David Sullivan do decide to sell for £40m, perhaps the Red Devils will make a move given that they are a club that could easily pay that fee.

In an exclusive interview with The Transfer Tavern, Steve Howey, who made 157 appearances for Newcastle United, has revealed that he wanted the Magpies to sign Danny Ings when Steve McClaren was the manager.

Ings moved to Liverpool in 2015 when his contract expired, however, after several injuries over the years he managed just 25 appearances for the Reds and was eventually sold to Southampton for £20 million.

The £75,000 per week striker has been linked with a move to Manchester City, who are looking for someone to replace Sergio Aguero with the striker set to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Speaking on why he wanted Newcastle to sign Danny Ings and how much he was telling them to pay for the striker, Howey told The Transfer Tavern:

“I’ve always liked him. I said when McClaren was manager to buy him and I think it was £10 million they wanted, and then it went up to £15 million, but I was still saying buy him.

“I think the club thought that was too much but he’s been in devastating form the last few seasons so it doesn’t surprise me that he’s been linked with Man City.”

Ings has suffered more injuries this season with his latest one seeing the 28-year old come off against Tottenham Hotspur after scoring earlier in the game.

Southampton enjoyed a great first half of the season which saw them sit top of the table, however after another 9-0 defeat safety ended up being the priority.

With Aston Villa enjoying a remarkable Premier League season thus far, Dean Smith will no doubt be incredibly proud of the work he and his players have done.

The Villans lie just outside of the top ten in the table, but have a game in hand on both Leeds and Arsenal above them, with a win being enough to seeing them leapfrog the two into ninth place.

But while Smith has done a fantastic job in turning things around so impressively since last season – Villa, of course, only managed to avoid relegation back to the Championship on the final day of the campaign – there is one major criticism that should be levelled at him.

A report conducted by CIES Football Observatory collated data from clubs all across the Premier League, to find out the “percentage of domestic league minutes by footballers who had not yet turned 21 at the time of the matches played this season”.

In it, Villa have the eighth-worst record in terms of giving minutes to it’s U21 players, with just 1.4% being taken up by those who fit that criteria – in comparison, Wolves, who have the best record in the division, have handed out a whopping 16.2% of their minutes to U21s.

It’s a report that exposes a worrying trend at Villa, and one that should have Smith ashamed given the incredible number of young talents coming through at the club via the academy system.

You only have to look at how Villa’s youngsters captured the imagination in their FA Cup third round defeat to Liverpool to see that the club have got a real golden generation coming through, while the side are also competing in the latter stages of the FA Youth Cup this season.

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The likes of Louie Barry, Aaron Ramsey and Kaine Kesler to name but a few have surely shown that they are worth bringing into the first-team fold and being handed minutes here and there.

With the modern game seeing more and more British-based youngsters heading abroad to seek out first-team opportunities – the likes of Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham at Borussia Dortmund spring to mind – Villa desperately need to start mapping out a better plan for their crop of talented youngsters.

Meanwhile, Villa must regret their howler over this “frightening” star…

Marcelo Bielsa has provided an important injury update on Adam Forshaw, Raphinha and Rodrigo ahead of Leeds United’s clash with Liverpool.

The Whites are back in action on Monday night, looking to add another famous victory to their collection, following their 2-1 win at Manchester City last time around.

Leeds welcome reigning Premier League champions Liverpool to Elland Road, in what looks set to be an entertaining game on paper.

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Bielsa gives injury update on Leeds trio

Bielsa has a number of injury concerns going into the game, however, and on Thursday, he provided an update on the current situation.

In what was the most positive news of the day, the Leeds manager confirmed (via Phil Hay) that Forshaw will play for the Under-23s against Aston Villa on Friday, as he continues to recovery from a long-term hip problem.

Meanwhile, Raphinha is still considered a doubt for the Liverpool clash and Rodrigo looks set to miss out, with a muscular issue keeping the latter sidelined.

Transfer Tavern take

The Forshaw news is heartwarming, considering the 29-year-old hasn’t featured for Leeds since the early months of the 2019/20 season.

There is clearly no chance of him playing against Liverpool, but it would be a wonderful moment to see him play for the first team again before the campaign finishes.

Raphinha’s potential absence is a big blow for the Whites though, with his trickery and end product – six goals and assists apiece in the league this season – capable of causing a makeshift Reds defence problems.

His fellow Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior caused the Reds lots of problems for Real Madrid in the Champions League, and Raphinha boasts a similar ability to drive at players one on one and make things happen out of nothing. Losing that would definitely harm Bielsa’s chances of getting a result.

In other news, a huge name has left the door open regarding a move to Leeds this summer. Read more here.