In 1897, he was drunk when he took the field and compounded this indelicacy by urinating on the pitch before the aghast eyes of his captain, Lord Hawke. His Lordship banished Peel from Yorkshire cricket forever.Years later, Hawke said: “He bore me no malice,” as if that made it all right. It certainly did not make Peel a typical Yorkshireman, which is perhaps why he never made the flag.Animal crackersIf minds have been concentrating on history at the Fourth Test, the (fairly) new-style Headingley has been dominated by the future. The top of the West Stand is adorned by posters bearing the names Maxie, Shen, Widget and Little M.The denizens of the Stand, who are not much different from the oiks who used to inhabit the Western Terrace, have been prone to ask: “Are they playing in the Oval Test then?” The quartet are actually the Pride Side, a team of four heroic cartoon-character cricketers who play and look like lions and are designed to get kids involved with cricket. This is presumably on the grounds that what Hussain and his team cannot do, Maxie and his mates will.The ECB and the advertising firm they have hired for the purpose, Interfocus, are in it for the long haul They will stick with the Pride Side for as long as it takes. Maxie is the leader, a big-hitting fast bowler with a swagger.
His name, approved by a focus group of five- to 12-year-olds, is linked with bigness and strength. It may, of course, also have reminded the kids of Maximus, Russell Crowe’s Oscar-winning gladiator. Trouble with that is that Crowe is a New Zealander brought up in Australia.Then there is Shen. “One of our group of children suggested the name,” said the account director, Tom Huxtable of the cool, record-breaking batsman Shen rather conjures up a powerful, oriental mystic.
Widget represents gadgets and new technology, rather than a device which makes canned beer drinkable. As for Little M, she is based on Emily, the niece of the agency’s creative director, Mike Cox. The template was fine, said Huxtable, the name just needed to be a little bit more racy.The agency already have scripts for 30 five-minute television programmes The animation is as yet undone. “The idea is not that they play cricket all the time, but that cricket is what they are good at,” said Huxtable. “So it might be that Shen bowls a ball to stop a thief getting away.” Huxtable said that Maxie and team will be around for at least five years. By then it is intended that England will have the best side in the world and the characters will be, presumably, redundant.Ashes rest in peaceThe Ashes are not about to be exhumed. Predictably, the MCC have declined an offer from that other great British institution, the BBC, to run forensic tests on the contents of the old urn.
Lord Alexander, president of the MCC, has written to David Prest, producer of the Radio 4 programme Questions, Questions, politely but firmly turning down his request.His lordship makes the oft-repeated point that the concept of the Ashes is more important the content. But he also makes clear that it is more than 50 years since the cork was taken out of the urn and the dear old thing might not be up to it. (This would also do as a reason for the Aussies being unable to take the Ashes home with them).Prest isn’t giving up. Several academics in the microspectronomy department at Reading University are interested in examining the urn, and they are MCC members.. I did not bowl well in Australia’s first innings at Headingley There, I’ve said it.
Hands up, an admission, a concession to the critics, the truth. I know, although I didn’t hear personally, that there was something of an open season aimed at the manner of my bowling both on Thursday after England had lost the toss and on Friday when Australia’s innings continued. I did not bowl well in Australia’s first innings at Headingley There, I’ve said it. Hands up, an admission, a concession to the critics, the truth. I know, although I didn’t hear personally, that there was something of an open season aimed at the manner of my bowling both on Thursday after England had lost the toss and on Friday when Australia’s innings continued.
It’s probably always been the way. I’ve gone from hero to villain enough times in an international career stretching back eight years to know that the circle will always turn.