New Zealand and Otago great Brendon McCullum has transformed the England test side from a snappy corgi into an angry rottweiler.
Baz-ball is more of a revolution than an evolution.
England does not play test cricket — it plays in a five-day T20 festival.
Honestly, some of the statistics from its 74-run win against Pakistan at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium earlier this week are astonishing.
There were 1768 runs scored, which was the third-most runs in the history of the game.
England faced 691 fewer deliveries than Pakistan but still came out on top.
And it declared with the second-lowest lead in history with at least four sessions remaining.
No-one would play that kind of cricket without bold and inspiring leadership.
If only McCullum would return home and take charge of the Black Caps, who are just lacking a few ideas following a long stint at the top of their game.
It is not often someone takes the time to write a letter to the editor about domestic cricket, but Duncan Gibson broke the mould this week.
"Your cricket correspondent ... mentions the struggling [Otago] top order, and how the ‘decision to leave out Dean Foxcroft would have raised eyebrows’.
What raises my hackles is the exclusion of another young man, Thorn Parkes, Otago's top run scorer in this season's Plunket Shield.
Could your correspondent offer some illumination to this oversight?"
The question is probably best addressed to the Volts but I think they see Parkes as a red-ball player for now.
Albion logged a complaint with the Otago Cricket Association following its game against North East Valley at Tonga Park No 2 having to be abandoned last weekend.
Club stalwart Tony Buchanan said there was a leak in the covers and ground staff had not taken enough care removing them, which resulted in a lot of water being tipped off near the edge of pitch.
The teams waited a couple of hours for the surface to dry, but the game had to be called off.
"This is the third time in the last four years this has happened to us at the same ground,’’ he said.
"It was p... poor, to be perfectly frank."
Albion was hoping the game could be replayed, but it was cancelled and the points shared.
Otago Cricket told the Notes From Slip there is no provision for replaying the game in the playing conditions.
We had planned to run a feature on PlayHQ this week but have put back the publication date until next week — hopefully.
We have not had the space to run it and I might have written a bit too much.
adrian.seconi@odt.co.nz
