A Historical Rivalry Rooted in Cricketing Tradition
Cricket, typically referred to as a gentleman’s game, has produced some of the most ferocious and legendary rivalries in sports history. Among them is the timeless match between England and Australia, which serves as a tribute to the spirit of competitiveness and brotherhood between two cricketing powerhouses. With roots dating back to the nineteenth century, this exciting clash has become the iconic encounter that cricket fans all around the world look forward to.
The Ashes – A Symbol of Supremacy
The Ashes, a small but iconic urn, is at the core of the England-Australia rivalry. This little clay trophy represents cricketing supremacy and acts as a permanent reminder of the century-long cricketing rivalry. The Ashes series, which is held biennially in both countries, arouses emotion and national pride, leaving an enduring stamp on the sport’s legacy.
The Battles Down Under – Australia’s Dominance
When the Ashes arrive in Australia, the home team has a reputation for playing hard-hitting cricket. With the fast and bouncy pitches of the ‘Gabbas’ or the classic ‘MCG,’ Australian cricketers have routinely dominated their English opponents. The legendary battles have seen some incredible performances and memorable victories, etching unique chapters in cricketing history.
Fortress England – The Three Lions’ Roar
On home soil, the English cricket team, known as the Three Lions, has been a formidable force. From the iconic Oval to the historic Lord’s, English cricket grounds have witnessed epic battles, beautiful cricketing moments, and triumphs heard around the world. The raucous English crowd adds to the electric atmosphere, motivating the host team to elevate their game and fight defend their territory.
Fortress England – The Three Lions’ Roar
Throughout the Ashes’ history, a slew of renowned cricketers have emerged as either heroes or villains, depending on whose side of the rivalry they represented. The Ashes have seen cricketing superstars engrave their names in eternity, from Don Bradman’s peerless batting exploits to Ian Botham’s heroics with bat and ball, and from Shane Warne’s captivating spin wizardry to Andrew Flintoff’s all-round brilliance.
LONDON — “Better than the last guy” might not be quite the tagline every world leader hopes for. It could yet be Rishi Sunak’s winning formula.
The British prime minister, swept into office late last year by wave after wave of Tory psychodrama, has cleared several major hurdles in the space of the past month. His success has even sparked a shocking rumor in Westminster that — whisper it — he might actually be quite good at his job.
That was the murmur among hopeful Conservative MPs ahead of this week’s U.K. budget, anyway — many of them buoyed by the PM’s recent moves on two long-running sources of angst in Westminster.
First came an apparent resolution to the intractable problem of post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland. Sunak’s so-called Windsor Framework deal with Brussels landed to near-universal acclaim.
A week later, Sunak unveiled hard-hitting legislation to clamp down on illegal migration to the U.K., coupled with an expensive deal with France to increase patrols across the English Channel. Tory MPs were delighted. The Illegal Migration Bill sailed through parliament Monday night without a single vote of rebellion.
Then came Wednesday’s annual budget announcement, with Sunak hoping to complete an improbable hat trick.
It started well, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt making the big reveal that the U.K. is no longer expected to enter recession this year, as had been widely predicted.
But a series of jaw-droppers in the budget small print show the scale of the challenge ahead.
The U.K.’s overall tax take remains sky-high by historic standards — an ominous bone of contention for skeptical Tory MPs and right-wing newspapers alike. Meanwhile, millions of Britons’ living standards continue to fall, thanks to high fuel bills and raging inflation. U.K. growth forecasts remain sluggish for years to come.
“He’s chalking up some wins,” observed one former party adviser grimly, “because he’s going to need them.”
‘Workmanlike’
Among all but the bitterest of Sunak’s Tory opponents, there is a palpable sense of relief about the way he has approached his premiership so far.
“It doesn’t mean everything will suddenly turn to gold,” said Conservative MP Richard Graham, a longtime Sunak-backer. “But like Ben Stokes and England’s cricket team, his quiet self-confidence may change what the same team believes is possible.”
Nicky Morgan, a Conservative peer and former Treasury minister, praised a “workmanlike” budget that would reassure voters and the party there was a “firm hand on the tiller” after the “turmoil” of the preceding year with two prime ministers stepping down, Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss.
UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt meets children during a visit to Busy Bees Battersea Nursery in south London after delivering his Budget earlier in the day | Stefan Rousseau/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Most of Wednesday’s biggest announcements, including an extra £4 billion for childcare and a decision to lift the cap on pensions allowances, were either trailed or leaked in advance. This may have made for a predictable budget speech, but as Morgan put it: “I think that’s probably what businesses and the public need at the moment.”
An ex-minister who did not originally support Sunak for leader said that the general tone of the budget, together with the Northern Ireland deal and small boats legislation, meant that “increasingly it’s hard for hostile voices to pin real failure on Rishi.”
Others, however, fear key announcements could yet unravel. An expensive change to pension taxes was instantly savaged by critics as a “giveaway for the 1 percent.” Headline-grabbing back-to-work programs and an expansion of free childcare will take years to kick in.
Hiking corporation tax was the “biggest mistake of the budget,” Truss ally and former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg complained.
Doing the hard yards
Observers note that in the wake of the rolling chaos under Truss and Johnson, the bar for a successful government has been lowered.
“[Sunak] could stand at the podium and soil himself, and he’d be doing a better job than his predecessors,” noted one business group lobbyist on Wednesday evening, having watched budget day unfold.
But even Sunak’s fiercest critics praise his work rate and attention to detail, in sharp contrast to Johnson. Most accept — grudgingly — he has set up an effective Downing Street operation.
Having returned from his Paris summit last Friday evening, the PM kicked off budget week with a whirlwind trip to the west coast of California to launch a defense pact with the U.S. and Australia, arranging a bank bailout along the way. He landed back in the U.K. less than 24 hours before Hunt unveiled the annual spending plan.
“It turns out working like an absolute maniac and being forensic is quite useful,” one of his ministers said.
Another Tory MP added: “He’s got the brainpower and will do the hours. He’s not good at barnstorming politics or old school dividing lines — but he is good for the politics we have right now.”
There has also been a clear effort to run a tighter ship behind the scenes at No. 10. One veteran of Johnson’s Downing Street said the atmosphere seemed “calm” in comparison.
There are tentative signs that voters are starting to notice.
James Johnson, who ran a recent poll by JL Partners which showed Sunak’s personal ratings are on the up, said the PM’s growing reputation as a “fixer” seems to be behind his recent rally, and that the biggest increase on his polling scorecard was on his ability to “get things done.”
It remains to be seen if this will shift the dial on the Tory Party’s own disastrous ratings, however, which languish some 25 points behind the opposition Labour Party. “Voters have clearly lost trust in the Tories,” Johnson said. “But if government can deliver … I would expect it to feed through.”
Anthony Browne, a Tory MP elected in 2019, expressed hope that Sunak had begun “changing the narrative” which in turn “could restore our right to be heard.”
Trouble ahead?
Sunak will be well aware that plenty of recent budgets — not least Truss’ spectacular failure last September — have unraveled in the 72 hours after being announced.
And while expanding free childcare, incentivizing business investment and ending the lifetime pensions allowance were all crowd-pleasers for his own MPs, they were not enough to conceal worrying subheadings.
The tax take is predicted to reach a post-war high of 37.7 percent in the next five years, while disposable incomes are hit by fiscal drag pulling 3.2 million people into higher tax bands. Right-wing Tories are not impressed.
Ranil Jayawardena, founder of the Conservative Growth Group of backbench MPs, described it in a statement as “an effective income tax rise,” which will be “a concern to many.”
Net migration is set to rise to 245,000 a year by 2026-27, and will add more people to the labor force than all the measures intended to make it a “back to work” budget, according to the Whitehall’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The message is not one Conservative MPs want to hear.
Already singled out by Labour’s Keir Starmer as a “huge giveaway to the wealthiest,” scrapping the lifetime allowance on pensions will cost £835 million a year by 2027-28 while benefiting less than 4 percent of workers. Conservative MPs reply that NHS doctors are one of the main groups to benefit.
Perhaps most worrying of all, the government’s own budget expects living standards to fall by 6 percent this year and next — less than the 7 percent fall predicted in November but still the largest two-year fall since records began in the 1950s.
There are some problems that can’t be solved by pulling an all-nighter. Ironically for Sunak, whose career was made in the Treasury, his may prove to be the state of the U.K. economy.
Rosa Prince, Stefan Boscia and Dan Bloom contributed reporting.
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#Rishi #Sunak #picks #budget #minefield
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Birmingham: There was no end to P V Sindhu’s poor run as the star Indian shuttler made a first round exit from the All England Championships after losing to Zhang Yi Man of China in straight games here on Wednesday.
The world number nine Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, lost 17-21 11-21 in the 39-minute women’s singles contest.
This is the third time that Sindhu has lost her first round match this year.
She had lost to Carolina Marin of Spain in Malaysia Open in January before exiting the Indian Open at the same stage in the same month.
She had recently parted ways with her coach Park Tae-sang of Korea, under whose guidance she won a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Sindhu was rusty and subdued throughout the match with her world number 17 opponent showing more agility and attacking intent.
There was not much to differentiate initially between the two who had 1-1 head-to-head record before Wednesday’s match.
Sindhu led 6-5 and then made it 16-13. But the Chinese shuttler won seven straight points to lead 20-16 before taking the first game in 21 minutes.
In the second game, the two players were tied 5-5 but Sindhu committed a few unforced errors and was soon down 5-10.
Sindhu recovered a bit to trail 7-11 but was soon down 9-16 before losing the second game and the match.
Earlier during the day, India’s women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela stunned seventh seeded Thailand duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18 21-14 in a 46-minute first round match.
The Indian duo will meet the Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the pre-quarterfinals.
On Tuesday, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy had won their respective men’s singles first round matches.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday became upset when a farmer used English words during a presentation at a farmers’ meet.
Nitish Kumar was the chief guest at an event organised by Bihar agriculture ministry to discuss the implementation of fourth agriculture road map in Bapu Sabhagar.
When the farmer was presenting his suggestions from the dais, the Chief Minister interrupted him and said: “What happened to you … you are using English words in your speech. Are you living in England? It is not England but it is Bihar. You should speak in the language of your own state. The farmers are common people who do not know English. So, the words you are using in English are not right.”
“I am seeing people using mobile phones more since Corona. All of them are forgetting their old language. You should speak in the right way and in the language of your own state. The points you are raising are right but describing it in English is not right. There is not only one language in the world. You are speaking the language of those who have ruled on our country. So you should concentrate on these points,” Kumar said to that farmer.
Bihar agriculture department organised the ‘farmer Samagam’ in Patna on Tuesday to take the points of farmers before implementing the fourth agriculture roadmap in the state. The department has invited over 4,700 farmers who were assembled at Bapu Sabhagar in Patna.
During the event two farmers from every district put their suggestions before the Chief Minister. A suggestion box has also been established at the venue where farmers can drop their views and suggestions.
LONDON — Domestic abusers face stricter monitoring under a clampdown unveiled by Rishi Sunak Monday.
The U.K. prime minister kicks off the week with a package of planned reforms aimed at cutting down on the “appalling” crimes, including new duties on a host of public bodies to keep track of and manage convicted offenders.
The government is promising that those handed a year or more in prison or given a suspended sentence for “controlling or coercive behavior” will now be put on a par with offenders convicted of physical violence. It means they will be actively “managed” by the police, prison and probation services, who will have a legal duty to work together.
Meanwhile, a new, small-scale trial program of “Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders” is being set up in parts of Wales, Manchester and London, imposing fresh requirements on perpetrators including potential electronic tagging and a requirement to tell police about name and address changes. Breaches will be treated as a fresh criminal offense.
The U.K. government is also promising to beef up a nationwide scheme known as “Ask for ANI,” which already sees staff in pharmacies across the country trained to discreetly assist victims who approach shop counters and give the “ANI” codeword. The program will now be trialed in 18 social security offices in the U.K., with a dedicated postcode-checker allowing people affected to find nearest support sites.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is also ordering police forces to treat violence against women and girls as a “national threat” for the first time.
In comments released overnight by No. 10, Sunak said: “No woman or girl should ever have to feel unsafe in her home or community and I am determined to stamp out these appalling crimes.”
Sunak’s government last year unveiled £257 million in fresh funding over two years to help local councils provide refuges and shelters for those fleeing domestic abuse.
But campaign group Women’s Aid warned that more than £800 million would be needed to “sustainability fund all specialist domestic abuse services in England,” and said some services were struggling to stay afloat amid soaring energy costs.
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#Rishi #Sunak #vows #closer #tracking #controlling #coercive #domestic #abusers
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
42nd over: New Zealand 133-5 (Conway 72, Blundell 16) Root, who has the confidence – and, if we’re being brutal, probably the ability – to take pace returns from the other end. But when he drops short, Conway skips backwards and carves four through backward point then flicks two to midwicket, raising the fifty partnership in the process.
41st over: New Zealand 127-5 (Conway 66, Blundell 16) Leach returns from Root’s end, and in his defence, the pitch is offering almost nothing, which reminds me that Graeme Swann’s real thing was the ability to take first-innings wickets. Leach, meanwhile, is sending down darts that mean he’s likely to miss any spin that there is, trying not to get clattered, but this over is a maiden.
41st over: New Zealand 127-5 (Conway 66, Blundell 16) Nice from Conway, tucking three to midwicket; Anderson chases, dives and scoops off the fence, exactly as Robinson opted not to earlier, and they run three thereby averting the follow-on. A single follows, and with 12 minutes until the break, this is drifting.
“Love the OBO!” begins Keith Johnson in Irvington NY. Re the Root football manoeuvre … is it possible that they had the wrong stump mics for the review? Did anyone see a replay where there was ANY noise? Why not let the the replay keep going until we hear A noise, so, ya know, we know we have the correct sound we are examining? There wasn’t enough time for Nixon’s plumbers to ‘tweak’ things, all conspiracy theorists need not apply!”
It didn’t look like Root got a touch from any angle we saw, so I think we’re all good.
40th over: New Zealand 123-5 (Conway 63, Blundell 15) More Root, who sends down five dots, then Conway punches a single to mid off. Stokes won’t want to bowl, but it feels like it’s time and has for 20 minutes.
39th over: New Zealand 122-5 (Conway 62, Blundell 15) Four dots, then Blundell turns to midwicket for two, and he’s settled in nicely; now conditions are pleasant – it’s a lovely day in The Mount – I wonder if England are missing a quick.
38th over: New Zealand 120-5 (Conway 62, Blundell 13) …and we can’t get a decent angle because Conway’s follow-through is blocking the camera from behind the batter. Rod Tucker, veery chatty today, wants ultra-edge because the ball seems to go under Root’s boot, which is to say if it didn’t graze any of it, it was damn close. He concludes it didn’t nevertheless, then Conway skips down and hoists high over long off for six, so Root tosses up another, so slowly, looking to grip, but he finds nothing, then Conway drills two to cover.
38th over: New Zealand 112-5 (Conway 54, Blundell 7) Conway wallops Root’s second delivery straight back down the ground, breaking the stumps, and we have an umpire’s review to see whether Root got boot on ball. If he did it’s gone, but it looks like he didn’t…
37th over: New Zealand 112-5 (Conway 54, Blundell 13) Robinson returns at t’other end as we take a tour of the ground, some people lying on the grass, others sat at tables. There’s something about reclining while watching sport, but it also feels like constant search for illusory comfort, the ground being hard and all that; some kind of lilo feels in order. Maiden, the second in a row, and Andy Flower will be pleased.
36th over: New Zealand 112-5 (Conway 54, Blundell 13) But instead it’s Root who, I feel bad saying, might well be a better bowler than Leach. And, shonuff, he beats Conway out of the rough, then a drive almost carries to extra, that was by far the most threatening over of spin so far today. Maiden.
35th over: New Zealand 112-5 (Conway 54, Blundell 13) Leach is struggling here, Blundell cracking his first delivery for four through point, then helping himself to two more into the covers. That’s 0-19 off four, and it might be time for the strawberry-blonde arm of the skipper to get a go.
34th over: New Zealand 106-5 (Conway 54, Blundell 7) Two slips and short leg for Conway, three and one for Blundell, and a leg side single to each.
“It’s exactly six months since I last emailed you, on the subject of abbreviated names,” says Brian Withington, “and that was a case of mistaken identity! (I think Daniel Gallan was on OBO duty at time.) Anyway, hope you have wintered well and are enjoying the latest instalment of this astonishing reinvention of Test cricket. Can it ever become the brave new normal or is it doomed to be remembered as a final hurrah for the format, raging with a grin against the dying of the light?”
It’s hard to know isn’t it? It’s hopefully popular enough in enough places to sustain, but the schedule over the next few years isn’t nourishing outside of England, India and Australia. And yes, I wintered very nicely thanks, two-and-a-bit weeks in Ghana which yielded the following after some extremely early mornings.
33rd over: New Zealand 104-5 (Conway 53, Blundell 6) Conway takes one to backward square, the only run from the over, and I wonder what Stokes is thinking, because we’ve reached a crucial stage of the game and England’s best bowlers are grazing. I’m not sure he’ll allow too many more overs of drift – and, paradoxically, lack of it – from Leach.
32nd over: New Zealand 103-5 (Conway 52, Blundell 6) Conway looks comfy now, a drive into the covers yielding three, and that’s his 50; he’s a player. And Blundell isn’t bad either, turning two off the hip, and for the first time in this innings, the batters look in relative control.
31st over: New Zealand 98-5 (Conway 49, Blundell 4) Leach tosses one up, so Conway creams him through cover for what feels like the first off-side boundary of the morning. And another off-drive follows, not middled like the previous one so they’ve to make do with three, and NZ aren’t going to let England’s tweaker just tweak – if they do, from where are their runs coming? – Blundell pressing forward then springing back to cut four more. That’s a lovely shot, especially to get off the mark, and makes it 11 off the over.
30th over: New Zealand 87-5 (Conway 42, Blundell 0) Conway shovels two to fine leg, then shortly afterwards England bring Pope in under the lid at short leg; immediately, Robinson comes around, Conway glances of fthe pads, not far from the new man at all, and they run one then see out another dot. That’s drinks, and England are bang in charge here.
Oh Mitchell… 😅
Ollie Robinson joins the wickets this morning with one that cuts back perfectly 🔙
29th over: New Zealand 84-5 (Conway 39, Blundell 0) While the going’s good, Stokes tosses Jack Leach the sphere. I’m sure New Zealand would like to get after him, but they just don’t have the rope and do, presumably, want England to start their second innings under lights, which will require another couple of hours’ batting. In the meantime, though, this is a decent start from the all-rounder, Conway pulling a single, the only run from the over.
28th over: New Zealand 83-5 (Conway 38, Blundell 0) But Blundell can bat, as England know, and he’s going to have to. If he can’t, though, what’s the correct Bazball call as regards the follow-on? My guess is to enforce, and as Ali notes in commentary, the relentless accuracy of England’s seamers is brutal to face.
WICKET! Mitchell lbw b Robinson 0 (New Zealand 83-5)
That’s why he didn’t chase that four-ball! Robinson sends down a beauty, pitching outside off and jagging back a long way. Mitchell looks surprised by it, offering no shot and allowing the ball to crump his pad, and when he beseeches Conway about a review, he’s sent on his bike. New Zealand are in all sorts!
28th over: New Zealand 83-4 (Conway 38, Mitchell 0) Robinson replaces Anderson and Conway pulls his loosener to the leg side for one…
27th over: New Zealand 82-4 (Conway 37, Mitchell 0) Three slips and a leg slip as Broad runs in again, and I daresay we see Robinson pretty soon. England don’t have proper pace for this match – if they don’t get 20 wickets, I wonder if wee see Pope keep in the second Test – which makes me wonder how on earth they get Bairstow in in the summer. Another maiden.
tbf, Jimmy Anderson and Alastair Cook shared 524 Test wickets in matches together (523/1) #NZvEng
26th over: New Zealand 82-4 (Conway 37, Mitchell 0) Anderson’s bowled tightly this morning, but hasn’t looked as threatening as Broad, and Conway comes down to his fourth delivery, looking to mess with his line by shimmying towards the bowler. Maiden, the first of the day.
25th over: New Zealand 82-4 (Conway 37, Mitchell 0) This partnership may well decide whether or not we get a contest here, and England immediately stick in three slips to the new man, who wears his second delivery on the pad. There’s a strangulated appeal, but it’s matter-of-principle, muscle-memory stuff, so no review.
WICKET! Wagner c Robinson b Broad 27 (New Zealand 82-3)
Back in your bin, dirty nappies! After those brief pyrotechnics, Wagner tamely taps a dolly to midwicket and Robinson, his energy conserved are not bousting after that drive earlier, manages to lift hands and catch. That’s 1000 for Branderson!
25th over: New Zealand 82-3 (Conway 37, Wagner 27) Nice from Wagner, who flicks the first ball of Broad’s latest over past Foakes’ dive for four to finest leg … then swats the second, banged in short, over square leg for six … and clouts the third via top-edge over wide fine leg for six more! Suddenly those dirty nappies look appealing! The Bazballers are getting momentarily bazballed! Oh, and that mention of Foakes reminds me of some nice news: a mate of mine sat beside Sam Billings on the way to watch Man United in Barcelona today, and reports he’s exactly the to bloke he appears to be.
24th over: New Zealand 66-3 (Conway 37, Wagner 11) Conway shows Anderson the full face and he doesn’t really time it, but Robinson, giving chase, allows it to run to the fence. I guess he’ll have ball in hand soon and it does go quickly down the hill, but I don’t imagine his senior men approve – though both are whippier and more natural athletes than he.
23rd over: New Zealand 62-3 (Conway 33, Wagner 11) Conway clips Broad for two, then takes a single to midwicket. Then Wagner swipes around the corner and picks out Leach, who has four goes at taking the catch before he finally snaffles, then just as England are pulling out the George Peppard cigars to love it when a plan comes together, out comes the umpire’s right hand to signal no ball. Naturally, Broad absolutely doubles over with laughter; he loves this kind of thing.
Photograph: Nbc/Allstar
22nd over: New Zealand 58-3 (Conway 30, Wagner 11) Conway gets his feet moving, coming down the track, but his flick goes straight to Broad’s sunhat at mid-on. I’ve never been able to decide whether, when I make my d’boo, I’ll wear a cap because it’s traditional, or a sunhat like SJ, because Warne and the West Indians of my childhood did. I’m relaying on the fact that when the tim comes, I’ll make the right call, but in the meantime, Conway again picks out Broad, who makes a terrific stop as they run one, then gets up gingerly strawberry blondely, rubbing his side.
“Gday Danny,” begins Niall Allen, who doesn’t know that I went through a phase, aged about eight, telling people to call me that and now I’m 43, my mates still like calling me it to remind me of my behaviour. “Watching the match while pulling handles in the local for the tradies finishing up for the day in the mount. Ran into a barmy army bloke at Mount Hot pools today about to walk up the mount before the Test, if you’re reading this, i hope you made it up and down and found the beer van to hydrate after your tramp! From a Black Caps fan/barman to the hordes of Barmy Army after the match.”
21st over: New Zealand 57-3 (Conway 29, Wagner 11) “Oh no!” laments Wagner as he swipes uppishly, but he has Robinson lumbering around the rope to save two, then he takes two more also into the on side. Broad, of course, responds with a decent globule that snaps away off the seam, then another, full of length, that moves away and is just too good for a batter of Wagner’s calibre.
20th over: New Zealand 53-3 (Conway 29, Wagner 7) Looking again, that was very close indeed. No matter, Wagner shoves a single to leg and this is shaping up.
“I realise it’s hardly the point you were making,” says Matt Dony, “but on a holiday in Spain a few years ago, I got vaguely obsessed with Boca Bits. They were basically plain Quavers. Which sounds dull, but they were amazing. Incredibly, unhealthily more-ish. Sadly under-stocked in west Wales. Trying to find away to apply them to your metaphor, but this is not the hour for that kind of focussed thinking. I don’t envy you this shift…”
And that’s before you hear that I went to use the facilities just before play started, left the door of the office open, and my wife got out of bed to shut my noise. But nah, having an excuse to sit up and discuss crisps on the internet is a blessing, even if I’m done at 4.20, up at eight to do radio, then enjoying the final day of half-term while cooking for Shabbat.
REVIEW! NOT OUT!
Yup, it pitched just outside and swung away, but it was a fine delivery and was clattering the timber.
20th over: New Zealand 52-3 (Conway 29, Wagner 6) Heeeeeere’s Jimmy! And his loosener goes for runs too, an inside-edge running down to Leach; they run one as a no-ball is called. So Anderson grooves in again, hits the pad, there’s an appeal … and it’s rejected so England review! Did it pitch outside leg, because it looked a fair shout…
19th over: New Zealand 49-3 (Conway 29, Wagner 4) Broad begins from around and piece of filth on the pads; Conway helps it around the corner, past the dive of Leach – in a catching position at shortish fine leg – for four. A dot follows, then a great delivery that beats the bat … then one that doesn’t, that’s fenced to the fence – past Leach again. An eventful opening over, which I type before it’s final ball is driven for four to long-on.
“We’ve got another grassy oval here,” says Keith Shackleton. “Check out Hagley Oval in Christchurch. None more grassy (except for the Mount).”
Here we go! Broad has the ball…
“So looking forward to this,” emails Dean Kinsella. “Hope I can last the night! I’m wondering what are the chances of the pitch taking spin in the fourth innings. Seems quite a likely position for England to get to in this match. Trouble is i’ts likely to be only about the third day at this rate.”
Gower reckons it won’t become a raging bunsen but will dry out, so even if it doesn’t do loads, it might do enough – and if the pressure’s on, we know what can happen. But England might find bowling harder this morning, with an older ball and without lights.
Tangentially, I can’t say I didn’t muffle a titter thinking about Broad getting woken 17 times in the night to deal with nappies and such, while his mates were carting it all over Pakistan, telling himself he was having the better time. We’ve all been there (without the carting it all round Pakistan FOMO). But mazal tov old mate, wishing you and Molly much naches.
Stuart Broad is chatting to BT and he thinks it’ll be a wobble-seam day, so we probably won’t see his new delivery coming from a new angle with a different body-twizzle, aimed at taking the ball away from the right-handers. It’s a funny thing really, I remember Alex Ferguson saying towards the end of his career that when you’d been around as long as he had, there was always a record on the horizon, and Branderson are on 999 combined Test wickets, two behind the 1001 set by McGrwarne.
“Bay Oval looks such a chilled out place to be a spectator,” tweets Andrew Benton. “There can’t be many other grounds as grassy, can there?”
It does look lovely. On balance, probably lovelier than a box-room in norf Lahndan.
To keep myself company, I went to the newsagent and bought a silly quantity of munch; naturally I guzzled most of it before I even started blogging and now feel slightly peculiar, but I’m going to push through and dive into my Maltesers. If England are going to play this kind of cricket, the least I can do is support them with requisite calorie-consumption.
David Ivon reckons the weather will hold for us and that thepitch will be alright to bat on today. But he notes that “it’s grass and turf, there will be natural variations”, and given England have SB Pressure in their attack, you never know how things will play, however nice the track is.
“A good watch even at three o’clock in the morning,” says Alastair Cook of the Testvangelists. “I dread to think what people used to say when I was batting a three o’clock in the morning.”
On which point, how would Bazball work if England had him and Jonathan Trott in the top three?
Preamble
I ate some salt n’ vinegar Quavers the other day. Not an interesting piece of information, I know, but stick with me for the tortured analogy shall surely follow. Anyhow, they were pretty good, now that you ask, but they were also wrong – Quavers are meant to taste of cheese. End of. Fact. This. And other cringe-inducing internet vernacular and punctuation.
That is roughly how I feel about England being good at limited-overs cricket. OK, I have at times also felt ecstatic, but in the main, it’s something that is true and tastes good, but that also feels inherently incongruous and unnatural.
England playing the longer-form like this though, is of an entirely different order, because it’s so … beyond. It’s like being told the Quavers aren’t Quavers, they’re manna, and they don’t taste of salt n’ vinegar, they taste of anything you want them to, which is the best flavour ever, that you haven’t had yet, that makes you see the world with different eyes and experience it with different soul whenever you’re lucky enough to see it cooking. I don’t know, I really don’t.
So yeah, yesterday was another silly day of testvangelism for the Testvangelists, defined by an unexpected decision that made perfect sense – compare it to that time England inserted Australia at the start of the pink-ball match at Adelaide in 2017. Instead they were their usual aggressive selves yesterday, then forced that home with a confrontational declaration, meaning New Zealand have a lot to do today to stay in the contest.
They’ve got a decent chance, obviously – Devon Conway is still in, while Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell are to come – but England’s seamers will fancy they’ve got one too. At the end of a preamble, I often find myself writing “this should be good”, a writer’s compulsion kind of thing when I’m refusing to finish without a line that feels like a closer. Today, though, I feel able to say “this is going to be good” … because England are playing?! Goodness me, people. Goodness me.
Play: 2pm local, 1pm GMT
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Warren Gatland has said he would not support his Wales players should they carry out a threat of strike action when England are due to visit Cardiff in the Six Nations a week on Saturday.
A dispute between the players and the governing body intensified on Tuesday when the Welsh Rugby Players’ Association (WRPA) raised the possibility of an unprecedented strike in protest at the proposed six-year deal between the regions and the Welsh Rugby Union.
The new contractual arrangement would mean players’ basic wages being reduced and the introduction of a new bonus structure, but the players are determined not to accept the terms. On Wednesday the Professional Rugby Board (PRB) said there is no room for negotiation, prompting an angry response from the WRPA.
A deadline of 28 February – three days after the encounter against England – has been set for the deal to be finalised. But after the players accepted a 20% wage reduction during the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems unlikely they will agree to a further cut.
Asked if he would support a player strike, Gatland said: “No. I completely support the stance they are taking, in terms of wanting to get some resolution about the issues they have. But there is a lot more involved, a lot of things at stake, in terms of ensuring that that fixture does take place … I am supportive of the players and the things they are trying to do. My role is just trying to prepare the team for next week.”
Sitting alongside the head coach at the team’s base near Cardiff, the former Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones said a strike was “the very last option” but that players feel “boxed in” by the proposal and restrictions that come with it. Regulations state that players who sign for clubs outside Wales are eligible for national selection only if they have won more than 60 caps, which significantly limits options for younger players.
“This was supposed to be sorted a long time ago,” he said. “It is disappointing that we are 20 years into regional rugby and it’s the same things that have come around again.”
On the possibility of a player strike, he said: “It’s hard to deny, but it’s the very last option. Ultimately, if you treat people badly for long enough, you get to where we find ourselves. We realise what we do, and how fortunate we are to do it, but if this was any other line of work or any other industry … you’d get the same reaction.”
On whether he feels regret and sadness at the situation having deteriorated to such an extent, he said: “Very much so. But you don’t want to see players in their early 20s not knowing where their career is going to go. You’re almost boxed in as a player with no option, which isn’t ideal for anyone.”
The pressure is on to resolve the dispute before next week’s Six Nations match, particularly in view of the revenue generated for the union. On how a strike may be averted, Jones said: “We want a voice as well and a discussion about scrapping the 60-cap rule. We are well aware there are rebalances that need to be made financially, but again, it comes down to players being boxed in.”
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Tadhg Beirne out of Six Nations with ankle injury
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Ireland lock Tadhg Beirne will miss the remainder of the Six Nations after being ruled out for up to 12 weeks with an ankle injury.
The 31-year-old Munster player was due to undergo surgery on Thursday, having been forced off early in the second half of Saturday’s 32-19 win over France in Dublin.
British and Irish Lion Beirne, who has started his country’s last 14 Tests, left the Aviva Stadium on crutches, with his forthcoming absence a major blow for Andy Farrell’s team.
Grand Slam-chasing Ireland sit top of the championship table on the back of bonus-point wins over Wales and France ahead of a round-three trip to Italy on February 25.
Ulster captain Iain Henderson replaced Beirne on Saturday and is the obvious choice to come into the second row to partner James Ryan in Rome.
Leinster pair Ryan Baird and Joe McCarthy and Connacht’s Cian Prendergast are the other options available to Farrell. PA Media
Gatland, who rejoined Wales as head coach in December after the dismissal of Wayne Pivac with less than a year to prepare for the World Cup in France, said: “The players have been great in the last few days. They have got a separate issue they want sorted, but when it’s come to the rugby they have been fantastic, the way they have prepared.
“It’s a little disingenuous to say the players are being paid too much. I don’t see how it’s a fault of theirs. We’ve been overspending in Wales for a number of years and some of the regions are in financial difficulty.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
LONDON — Public sector workers on strike, the cost-of-living climbing, and a government on the ropes.
“It’s hard to miss the parallels” between the infamous ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1978-79 and Britain in 2023, says Robert Saunders, historian of modern Britain at Queen Mary, University of London.
Admittedly, the comparison only goes so far. In the 1970s it was a Labour government facing down staunchly socialist trade unions in a wave of strikes affecting everything from food deliveries to grave-digging, while Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives sat in opposition and awaited their chance.
But a mass walkout fixed for Wednesday could yet mark a staging post in the downward trajectory of Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, just as it did for Callaghan’s Labour.
Britain is braced for widespread strike action tomorrow, as an estimated 100,000 civil servants from government departments, ports, airports and driving test centers walk out alongside hundreds of thousands of teachers across England and Wales, train drivers from 14 national operators and staff at 150 U.K. universities.
It follows rolling action by train and postal workers, ambulance drivers, paramedics, and nurses in recent months. In a further headache for Sunak, firefighters on Monday night voted to walk out for the first time in two decades.
While each sector has its own reasons for taking action, many of those on strike are united by the common cause of stagnant pay, with inflation still stubbornly high. And that makes it harder for Sunak to pin the blame on the usual suspects within the trade union movement.
Mr Reasonable
Industrial action has in the past been wielded as a political weapon by the Conservative Party, which could count on a significant number of ordinary voters being infuriated by the withdrawal of public services.
Tories have consequently often used strikes as a stick with which to beat their Labour opponents, branding the left-wing party as beholden to its trade union donors.
But public sympathies have shifted this time round, and it’s no longer so simple to blame the union bogeymen.
Sunak has so far attempted to cast himself as Mr Reasonable, stressing that his “door is always open” to workers but warning that the right to strike must be “balanced” with the provision of services. To this end, he is pressing ahead with long-promised legislation to enforce minimum service standards in sectors hit by industrial action.
Sunak has made tackling inflation the raison d’etre of his government, and his backbenchers are reasonably content to rally behind that banner | POOL photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Unions are enraged by the anti-strike legislation, yet Sunak’s soft-ish rhetoric is still in sharp relief to the famously bellicose Thatcher, who pledged during the 1979 strikes that “if someone is confronting our essential liberties … then, by God, I will confront them.”
Sunak’s careful approach is chosen at least in part because the political ground has shifted beneath him since the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020.
Public sympathy for frontline medical staff, consistently high in the U.K., has been further embedded by the extreme demands placed upon nurses and other hospital staff during the pandemic. And inflation is hitting workers across the economy — not just in the public sector — helping to create a broader reservoir of sympathy for strikers than has often been found in the past.
James Frayne, a former government adviser who co-founded polling consultancy Public First, observes: “Because of the cost-of-living crisis, what you [as prime minister] can’t do, as you might be able to do in the past, is just portray this as being an ideologically-driven strike.”
Starmer’s sleight of hand
At the same time, strikes are not the political headache for the opposition Labour Party they once were.
Thatcher was able to portray Callaghan as weak when he resisted the use of emergency powers against the unions. David Cameron was never happier than when inviting then-Labour leader Ed Miliband to disown his “union paymasters,” particularly during the last mass public sector strike in 2011.
Crucially, trade union votes had played a key role in Miliband’s election as party leader — something the Tories would never let him forget. But when Sunak attempts to reprise Cameron’s refrains against Miliband, few seem convinced.
QMUL’s Saunders argues that the Conservatives are trying to rerun “a 1980s-style campaign” depicting Labour MPs as being in the pocket of the unions. But “I just don’t think this resonates with the public,” he added.
Labour’s current leader, Keir Starmer, has actively sought to weaken the left’s influence in the party, attracting criticism from senior trade unionists. Most eye-catchingly, Starmer sacked one of his own shadow ministers, Sam Tarry, after he defied an order last summer that the Labour front bench should not appear on picket lines.
Starmer has been “given cover,” as one shadow minister put it, by Sunak’s decision to push ahead with the minimum-service legislation. It means Labour MPs can please trade unionists by fighting the new restrictions in parliament — without having to actually stand on the picket line.
So far it seems to be working. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, an umbrella group representing millions of U.K. trade unionists, told POLITICO: “Frankly, I’m less concerned about Labour frontbenchers standing up on picket lines for selfies than I am about the stuff that really matters to our union” — namely the government’s intention to “further restrict the right to strike.”
The TUC is planning a day of action against the new legislation on Wednesday, coinciding with the latest wave of strikes.
Sticking to their guns
For now, Sunak’s approach appears to be hitting the right notes with his famously restless pack of Conservative MPs.
Sunak has made tackling inflation the raison d’etre of his government, and his backbenchers are reasonably content to rally behind that banner.
As one Tory MP for an economically-deprived marginal seat put it: “We have to hold our nerve. There’s a strong sense of the corner (just about) being turned on inflation rising, so we need to be as tough as possible … We can’t now enable wage increases that feed inflation.”
Another agreed: “Rishi should hold his ground. My guess is that eventually people will get fed up with the strikers — especially rail workers.”
Furthermore, Public First’s Frayne says his polling has picked up the first signs of an erosion of support for strikes since they kicked off last summer, particularly among working-class voters.
“We’re at the point now where people are feeling like ‘well, I haven’t had a pay rise, and I’m not going to get a pay rise, and can we all just accept that it’s tough for everybody and we’ve got to get on with it,’” he said.
More than half (59 percent) of people back strike action by nurses, according to new research by Public First, while for teachers the figure is 43 percent, postal workers 41 percent and rail workers 36 percent.
‘Everything is broken’
But the broader concern for Sunak’s Conservatives is that, regardless of whatever individual pay deals are eventually hammered out, the wave of strikes could tap into a deeper sense of malaise in the U.K.
Inflation remains high, and the government’s independent forecaster predicted in December that the U.K. will fall into a recession lasting more than a year.
More than half (59 percent) of people back strike action by nurses, according to new research by Public First, while for teachers the figure is 43 percent, postal workers 41 percent and rail workers 36 percent | Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images
Strikes by ambulance workers only drew more attention to an ongoing crisis in the National Health Service, with patients suffering heart attacks and strokes already facing waits of more than 90 minutes at the end of 2022.
Moving around the country has been made difficult not only by strikes, but by multiple failures by rail providers on key routes.
One long-serving Conservative MP said they feared a sense of fatalism was setting in among the public — “the idea that everything is broken and there’s no point asking this government to fix it.”
A former Cabinet minister said the most pressing issue in their constituency is the state of public services, and strike action signaled political danger for the government. They cautioned that the public are not blaming striking workers, but ministers, for the disruption.
Those at the top of government are aware of the risk of such a narrative taking hold, with the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, taking aim at “declinism about Britain” in a keynote speech Friday.
Whether the government can do much to change the story, however, is less clear.
Saunders harks back to Callaghan’s example, noting that public sector workers were initially willing to give the Labour government the benefit of the doubt, but that by 1979 the mood had fatally hardened.
This is because strikes are not only about falling living standards, he argues. “It’s also driven by a loss of faith in government that things are going to get better.”
With an election looming next year, Rishi Sunak is running out of time to turn the public mood around.
Annabelle Dickson and Graham Lanktree contributed reporting.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
The hottest day on record last summer resulted in 638 more deaths in England than normal, according to official figures, which experts said show the danger that extreme heat and climate change pose to human life.
The following day, when temperatures remained almost as high, 496 more people died than would usually be expected.
The sudden spike in deaths on 19 and 20 July 2022, when temperatures rose above 40C (104F) for the first time on record, was revealed by the Office for National Statistics in data detailing daily deaths.
The extra death toll is higher than had been predicted by experts at the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine (LSTHM). With temperatures barely dropping below 27C at night, doctors warned that dehydration, overheating, heat exhaustion and heatstroke could be fatal, particularly for infants, old people, the homeless, outdoor workers and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Over the two days, there were 3,805 deaths across England from all causes, up 42% on the five-year average of 2,671. At least six people died getting into trouble in water, but the largest number of deaths was expected to be among the elderly, particularly those aged 85 and over.
The UK Health and Security Agency has previously estimated that a later prolonged heatwave from 8 to 17 August saw an estimated 1,458 excess deaths, excluding Covid-19, in those over 65.
Age UK said the figures should be “a wake-up call for all of us”. Caroline Abrahams, the charity’s director, said: “As we get older, our bodies find it harder to manage extremes of heat as well as cold, so as the planet warms and we seek to adapt our lifestyles, as well as reduce carbon emissions, this is something that planners, builders and the NHS all need to take increasingly into account.”
Hundreds of firefighters battled blazes across England as temperatures recorded at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire surged to a high of 40.3C – a full 1.6C higher than the previous high, set in 2019.
“There is an absolutely huge spike on each of these two days,” said Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, chair of the Winton centre for risk and evidence communication at the University of Cambridge. “Deaths due to cold tend to be much more diffuse over time. Heat can kill more suddenly. These excess deaths are just because of the heat because the spike is so clear. It is rare to get a spike like that unless there is a massive accident. It is extraordinary data and shows the harm of extreme heat.”
The environment and health modelling lab at LSTHM had estimated the excess deaths would total 966 over four days. The government declared a level 4 heat alert, meaning “Illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups”.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
