I could, of course, write someting about Darrell Hair, ball tampering, the ICC and the like. Easy targets though, and there's nobody who won't be saying something about all the fun at the Oval today.
I could have also used the words Gerrard, flagrant dive, hypocrite, and cheat in the same sentence, but that's not worth the effort either.
Instead, I think I'll make mention of two remarkable cricketing records achieved in the last fortnight, one of which I hinted at previously, and one of which has gone by completely unnoticed. Kudos to the great folk at CricketArchive who have the only complete online database of all First Class and List A cricket. Sadly, CricInfo doesn't even come close in terms of comprehensiveness, despite the vision that some of us once had for it. Once CricketArchive get their front end top-notch, we could have a fascinating battle for Internet dominance on our hands.
The first record involves a bloke by the name of Mark Ramprakash. I may have mentioned him once or twice before. It turns out that his feat of scoring in excess of 150 in five consecutive first class matches breaks a record (four) that was held for 65 years by Vijay Merchant. Several batsman have done it three matches in a row - though while the names of Bradman (thrice), Ponsford (twice), Lara, Boycott and Dravid will surprise nobody, those of Steve Tikolo and Azmat Rana (brother of the more, err, celebrated Shakoor) certainly floored me.
No less an achievement, however, was that of Cameron White, the Aussie all-rounder captaining Somerset against Derbyshire a couple of weeks back. Chasing 579 to win, he came in at 75-3, and was still at the crease some 85 overs later when the last wicket fell, standing tall on an unbeaten 260. Somerset may have lost by 80 runs, but White claimed the record for the highest ever individual fourth innings score. Anywhere. Ever.
Interesting to me of course, was the fact that one GS Blewett is on both the lists! Long live the great cover-drivers. Patsy Hendren and CB Fry are the only others on both lists. Clearly, these men could bat a bit.
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I take umbrage at you calling Cameron White an all rounder.
Once he learns what leg spin is, then maybe the tag might fit. Maybe.
I hope he takes his batting more seriously though this coming Shield season. Let him bat at 4 or 5 for Victoria, it may do him a lot more good than batting at 6 or 7, bowling a few overs each game and then being a virtual passenger.
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