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Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
These matches will determine how history remembers Ben Stokes' England - they will stretch the side to the limit but they must make sure they don't slip up against Zimbabwe first, writes LAWRENCE BOOTH
The recent update of the Test rankings might normally have been ignored by an England team obsessed with the here and now. But the elevation of Ben Stokes 's side to second place has provided a rallying cry at the start of 11 matches that will determine how history remembers his captaincy. The cry came in the form of a WhatsApp from Stokes to head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key. And it was as matter of fact as it was ambitious: 'We've got one more place to go.' If that sounds like the kind of message that irks opponents fed up of hearing about Bazball and its ambitions, Stokes explained the logic by way of a golfing metaphor: 'If we win what we've got coming up, the likelihood is we'll be at the top of that leaderboard. There's no doubt in my mind we have the ability to be that team.' 'One more place to go' sounds simple, but it involves beating India at home and Australia away, both in gruelling five-match series that will stretch England to the limit, mentally and physically. It also assumes they don't slip up in the four-day game against Zimbabwe, which starts on Thursday in Nottingham. But if Stokes's team do reach the summit this winter, they will be breathing rarefied air. Not since 2012 under Andrew Strauss have England topped the Test rankings – as distinct from the deeply flawed World Test Championship, which has been compromised by a messy structure and draconian over-rate penalties, and drew widely mocked grumbles from Stokes during the tour of New Zealand. Before that, according to the ICC's retrospective calculations, England had not been No 1 since the late 1970s, when other sides were weakened by defections to Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. And while Stokes does not like to get ahead of himself, there is no doubt that England plan to use the idea as a goal, just as Strauss and head coach Andy Flower did when they joined forces in 2009 – two years before whitewashing India to claim top spot. Stokes and McCullum are entering the fourth summer of a compelling alliance that has brought them six series wins out of 10 and only two defeats – a record that explains why only Australia now lie ahead of them in the rankings. 'Baz uses this phrase a lot: we're starting from a place of strength,' said Stokes. 'So for us to be able to build on that – and everyone knows we have got improvement to do – it's very exciting. We've definitely got another level to go to.' England's first Test against Zimbabwe since 2003 is not entirely a red herring, but Stokes's insistence that Jacob Bethell – who is missing this game because of IPL duties – will resume his career against India at Headingley on June 20 could render vice-captain Ollie Pope's output this week irrelevant. Stokes and McCullum were so taken with Bethell's debut series in New Zealand before Christmas that he has been earmarked for the No 3 position ever since. Pope's only consolation is that two scenarios other than his own dropping could conceivably play out. The first is that England lose patience with Zak Crawley, who survived a horror tour of New Zealand because of past deeds against India and Australia. Since his routinely early dismissal meant Bethell was effectively playing as an opener, an official promotion to that role ought not to faze him. The second involves the spin of Shoaib Bashir, who Stokes conceded is still 'learning on the job' and this summer has managed two championship wickets at 152 each while on loan from Somerset to Glamorgan. If England lose their nerve in what has looked dangerously close to a pet project, Bethell's left-arm spin could yet squeeze out Bashir's off-breaks, while deepening the batting and electrifying the fielding. For now, all Pope can do is cloud the selectors' thinking with a big score against a Zimbabwe side who have warmed up with a 138-run defeat by a modest First-Class Counties Select XI at Leicester. If he can forestall his demise with a match-winning innings, he will not be the only one raising a glass. After abstaining from alcohol since January 2 as part of his recovery from hamstring surgery, Stokes will celebrate in familiar fashion if Nottingham provides the Bazballers with a 23rd win from their 36 Tests. 'When I got injured I thought, right, I'm not going to have a drink until my rehab's done or I'm back on the field,' he said. 'It was just a decision I made to myself and something I'm being a bit more mindful of when it comes to my preparation and recovery, especially this summer with everything that's coming up. If we win, I'll have a drink – definitely.' If England keep toasting their success all the way to the top of the rankings, their cup really will run over. Archer injured again Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the one-day series against West Indies, starting at Edgbaston next week, after injuring his right thumb. Lancashire quick Luke Wood has been added to the squad.
The Guardian
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Twenty years later: how 2005 Ashes marked end of cricket as we knew it
How are you planning to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2005 men's Ashes? Is it finally time to get that Kevin Pietersen skunk cut? Gather your friends for a drunken knees-up around Trafalgar Square? Realistically, a quiet afternoon on YouTube will do, with Simon Jones's reverse-swinger to Michael Clarke on repeat, off-stump gone like a popped cork. That rabbit hole should end up taking you to Pietersen's 2014 appearance on the Graham Norton Show in which he discusses his strained relationship with Andrew Strauss while perched next to Taylor Swift. Yes, that actually happened. Or you could dig into the Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee report published in February 2006 titled 'Ashes to Ashes – the death knell for live Test match cricket on free-to-air TV?' You know you want to. It's not a thriller but worth your time if you're curious to know how a sport has its breakout moment – the series attracted a peak audience on Channel 4 in excess of 8 million – before going into hiding. The report examined the England and Wales Cricket Board's decision to sell its live TV rights exclusively to Sky, ending Channel 4's coverage of Test cricket after that golden summer and placing the game behind a paywall. The question mark in the report's title was unnecessary. The parliamentarians didn't restrict their wrath to the ECB, which had rejected a Channel 4 bid for a portion of Tests in favour of a new £220m rights package agreed in late 2004, running from 2006 to 2009. The BBC and ITV were criticised for not bidding, despite both explaining the pain of scheduling a five-day game. 'Had the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 all made bids, the ECB could have insisted that they were not prepared to agree an exclusive deal with anyone,' the report said. It also examined a 'gentleman's agreement' between Lord MacLaurin, chair of the ECB, and Lord Smith, the culture secretary, in 1998, when Test cricket in England was removed from the 'crown jewels' list of protected sporting events. While delisting meant the ECB could attract the hefty cheques of pay TV, the pair agreed that Test cricket would not be withdrawn completely from terrestrial view, prompting Channel 4 and Sky to share the rights from 1999 to 2005. But old-world handshakes didn't fit in the new century; both men had vacated their positions long before the exclusive Sky deal. The committee expressed its 'profound disappointment with the ECB and the DCMS for failing to honour their commitments, albeit not legally binding ones'. The ECB provided its reasons to the committee, the governing body's chief executive, David Collier, claiming that rejecting the extra Sky cash would 'decimate' the grassroots game; Channel 4's bid was restricted by losses of £16m a year from broadcasting cricket. A campaign group called Keep Cricket Free argued that the vast reduction in exposure would affect sponsorship revenues. One committee member asked whether the deal was about propping up counties heavily reliant on broadcasting income. At the centre of the sale was Giles Clarke, the chair of the ECB's marketing committee – and of Somerset. Many have their anecdotes to argue what has been lost. 'All that buzz about the 2005 Ashes, you could see it in the summer holidays, people playing cricket in the park,' says Simon Hughes, the commentator who was part of Channel 4's coverage. 'And I hadn't seen that for years. That went on for about another year and then it just died off. 'I feel sorry for the great cricketers that England have produced since like Joe Root and Alastair Cook. They're unknown figures to a huge generation.' Hughes's animosity is reserved for the ECB regime at the time. 'It was a massive mistake. I don't blame Sky for this. I think they do a great job. And the money was obviously very valuable to the game, but not as valuable as exposure. What [the ECB] should have done was a shared arrangement where they got more money but also retained the opportunity to deliver it to the nation. 'I wasn't fearful about the coverage changing. I just knew that it wouldn't be part of the national conversation any more.' Cricket's move away from free‑to-air TV has often been mentioned alongside declining figures in recreational participation, but the game is not only enjoyed through play. There's pleasure from just taking it in, the discussions that follow, the writing it prompts, all of that limited if an audience shrinks. That desire of every sport – to be part of the national conversation – has been a challenge. While the final day at the Oval in 2005 brought a high of 7.4 million viewers, the corresponding figure four years later dropped to 1.92 million. The 2023 men's Ashes was the best since the greatest, sold plenty of bucket hats and surely inspired many, but its influence had constraints. The first Test at Edgbaston, a genuine classic won by a nerveless Pat Cummins, attracted a peak TV audience of 2.12 million on Sky. Paul Smith is an academic at De Montfort University who has written extensively on sports media rights. He says that cricket has become a 'niche' sport that is 'increasingly focused on private schools'. Smith adds: 'Whilst free-to-air television coverage is not a panacea to those problems, it certainly helps with exposure of the game to those kids and other parts of the population that are not exposed to the game through private schools, clubs or family connections.' In 2017 the ECB revealed a new broadcast deal that would return live international cricket to the BBC from 2020, an acknowledgment that the sport had become too insular. Alongside coverage of the Hundred, the BBC went on to show a handful of England men's and women's Twenty20 internationals, not radical but still of vital significance; England Women had not played live on UK free-to-air TV since the 1993 World Cup final. While the BBC's TV coverage of the Hundred and international highlights will continue this summer, those T20 internationals are expected to move to Channel 5, as reported by the Telegraph. Test cricket in England has not returned. In 2009 an independent review led by David Davies recommended that home Ashes Tests go on the 'crown jewels' list. Clarke, by then the chair of the ECB, retaliated, warning that the fall in broadcasting revenue would be 'disastrous' for grassroots funding. Ten years later, Colin Graves, Clarke's successor, claimed that public broadcasters were not interested in Tests due to production costs and the difficulties in scheduling. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion The reality remains that once the goods were sold a little more than 20 years ago there was no going back to a similar arrangement. 'There's certainly a case that if public service media couldn't provide the necessary rights fees back in 2005, they're certainly in an even less favourable position now,' says Smith. 'Not only because the competition for those rights is higher, with the potential of competition for Sky from TNT or streaming services. 'But public service media have also had their revenue streams undermined over the past decade or so, particularly the BBC with the freezing of the licence fee. Even for commercially funded public service media, like Channel 4, the ability to bid for live rights has been undermined by the erosion of advertising revenue as its audience share has fallen.' Is there room for a little bit of red-ball action? One idea put forward on these pages by Ali Martin in 2018 was for a Lord's Test every year to be shared by Sky and the BBC, turning it into a festive affair. Smith also suggests using the ground to create 'event television'. He says there is pragmatism in the ECB convincing Sky to share the men's Ashes Test at Lord's with a free-to-air partner, alongside a Women's Ashes counterpart, either the solitary Test or the Lord's white-ball game (the venue has yet to be allocated a Women's Ashes Test). The move would echo how the 2019 men's World Cup final was shared with Channel 4, 15.4 million in the UK tuning in across channels on that giddy day. 'You're going to have to negotiate a rights reduction,' says Smith. 'So it may well mean that the ECB lose some money. But given the relatively minor eroding of Sky's overall exclusivity, if I was in the ECB, I would be trying to convince Sky that this is a huge promotion for its more extensive subscription coverage. 'Pay-TV broadcasters and subscription services are keen to avoid the negative publicity that sometimes goes their way when they have exclusive rights to certain sports events. The token gestures of allowing those big events to be shared with free-to-air, like the 2019 Cricket World Cup final, they speak to a desire for pay-TV operators to stop a wider public call for a revisiting of the listed events system.' But there's this, too: the way we consume cricket has changed. England highlights have become an easy find on YouTube, the gen Z heartland, where pay-TV operators have shared live broadcasts; Sky has done so with the Hundred. Smith also points to the value of the BBC's rights for match clips on its website. There's a path to fandom here, even if it involves doomscrolling through an England collapse. Pay TV gets the word out, too, with Sky's coverage undoubtedly excellent, their funds having helped orchestrate England's World Cup wins and more. The media research firm Enders Analysis reported last year that 'young viewers now consume nearly half of their sports through Sky … which refutes the widely held view that young people don't watch sport behind a paywall'. But those moments of communion at home remain restricted. Two decades on, that series remains extraordinary: for the tussle that took place – and the instant retreat to seclusion that followed.
The Sun
27-04-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
What is the London Marathon women's record?
THE London Marathon is expected to headline this weekend in the capital. Even with two FA Cup semi-finals set to be contested at Wembley Stadium, thousands will run through London for fame and good causes as the world's best compete in the legendary marathon. The race route begins in Greenwich and leads participants past some of the city's most renowned monuments, such as the Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the London Eye, and Big Ben, before concluding on the famed Mall near Buckingham Palace The event has always drawn big stars, and according to The Runnel Channel, this year is no exception. Sir Jason Kenny, the country's most successful Olympian, is completing his first marathon alongside Sir Andrew Strauss and Sir Alastair Cook, two England cricket giants, racing for the Ruth Strauss Foundation. However, with records on the line, it's the very elite that viewers will look towards to see who stars. The women's race will include world record holder Ruth Chepngetich, Olympic winner Sifan Hassan, and silver medallist Tigst Assefa, the three fastest women in history. What is the London Marathon women's record? The London Marathon has seen the marathon world record smashed seven times. In theory, British great Paula Radcliffe, who just made an amazing comeback to the marathon distance in Tokyo, holds the women's race record at the London Marathon. Her 2:15:25 time has remained consistent since 2003. However, that was in a 'mixed' race, meaning men and women began at the exact same time. So there's another record for the 'women-only' race London Marathon. In recent times, the schedule has been adjusted such that elite women begin the race before elite men and the general public. Peres Jepchirchir established the current world record in a women's-only field in 2024 when she ran 2:16:16. 2 Jepchirchir won't defend her title this year after withdrawing with an ankle injury.
Times
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Times
Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook: from opening batting to London Marathon
England's greatest opening partnership, Sir Andrew Strauss, 48, a veteran of two previous London Marathons, and Sir Alastair Cook, 40, are both running on Sunday to raise money for the Ruth Strauss Foundation set up in memory of Andrew's wife, who died in 2018 from a rare form of lung cancer. Sir Alastair Cook The training has been really enjoyable but also quite strange. Some days you absolutely fly. You do a lot of plodding stuff and then you have effort days where you run shorter distances but quicker. Some days doing that you are cruising and some days it's a real effort. On Wednesday night I did a final run of 7km and I felt terrible. It was meant to be an easy run
