Ashes 2013
The Nervous Peace
July 7th
So, yesterday England declared their Ashes battle formation.
There is not much of a story there, so the newsmen are going around the players
trying to find quotes… any kind of newsworthy quote. The bookmakers have
responded to the squad announcement by slightly shortening the odds on an
England win to 6-5 On (hardly generous) and, with a good weather forecast, have
lengthened the odds on the draw to 3-1, the same as the odds of an Australian
win. Even the bookmakers seem to have been infected with the idea that this
Australian side should not bother England. It sounds alarmingly like the
over-confidence of 1989 again, or the typical Australian confidence of the
1990s and early 2000s.
One good sign is that neither camp is giving the press
anything really newsworthy to print. No injury scares. No silly quotes (“Oh
Yea! It’s gonna be 5-0! Ain’t it?”) No players getting into the papers after
late-night shenanigans. Nothing! Maybe we are going to have a series where both
sides decide to let the cricket do the talking. Or maybe there is so much
attention on the events at Wimbledon that anything else is irrelevant today.
And with Andy Murray becoming the first British singles champion
at Wimbledon since 1977 and the first British Mens Singles Champion since 1936,
today who cares about cricket?
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