Cricket's Biggest International Prize! One Year to Go Celebrations

14 February 2014 marks one year to go until the first match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. To mark the occasion, public events will be held in all 14 World Cup Host Cities over two days.

To mark the occasion, public events will be held in all 14 World Cup Host Cities over two days. The events will include the unveiling of a city countdown clock, multicultural performances and junior cricket activities. Members of the public are welcome to all events.

Thursday 13 February
 

Host City	Event location	Start time
Auckland	Queen’s Wharf	6.30am
Hamilton	Garden Place, Victoria St	7.15am
Dunedin	The Octagon	10.30am
Wellington	Midland Park, Lambton Quay	12.00pm
Napier	Sound Shell, Marine Parade	12.00pm
Nelson	Trafalgar Square	12.00pm
Christchurch	Re:Start Mall, Cashel St	5.00pm

Friday 14 February
 

Host City	Event location	Start time
Sydney	Martin Place Stage	12.00p
Melbourne	Federation Square Stage	12.00pm
Adelaide	Rundle Mall	11.00am
Brisbane	Queen Street Mall Stage	12.45pm
Canberra	Canberra Centre	12.00pm
Hobart	PW1 forecourt (Princes Wharf 1)	12.30pm
Perth	Forrest Place	12.00pm

Also on 14 February, prior to the start of the New Zealand v India test match at the Basin Reserve, a press conference to announce how Government and tournament organisers will work together to maximise the legacy of the tournament.

There will also be a special visit from the members of New Zealand’s 1992 Cricket World Cup squad during the tea break on Day 2 of the test.

Find out more at http://www.icc-cricket.com/cricket-world-cup

England Eager to Avoid 'Worst in History' Tag

There are many contenders but by this time next week the unofficial title of England's most unsuccessful team may change hands. It will be bestowed on the 2013-14 vintage in Australia who are on a losing streak that shows no signs of abating.

Defeat on Friday – and the resignation in the air is darkening the clear Perth skies – and it will be nine internationals in a row on tour, 10 in all counting the loss in the final one-dayer at home last September. That is a record sequence matched only twice before in England's history.

To judge this group, which has comprised 24 players across all matches, as the worst in history may be harsh, but it is also a measure of how badly this expedition has gone. Anybody who has seen England in the one-day series will be astonished if they manage to prise one of the next two games from Australia's grasp. They are resting several players, including the captain Alastair Cook, from the fourth ODI.

The main hope now is that England will win at least one of the three Twenty20 matches which bring the tour to a close next week. But such is the one-sided nature of proceedings that everyone thinks 13-0 on tour is at least possible.

There was almost a plaintive note in the voice of the off-spinner, James Tredwell, the last player to join the motley band. "That's the Aussies," he said. "When they are going well they can batter you to a degree and, if we're honest, that's what they've done over the course of this winter and it's finding a way to push back against that. We've had periods when we've done that and if we can try and push them back a bit we've the skills to do the job. We have to believe, don't we? And if we don't we're just going to roll over again."

In 1993, England lost 10 Tests and ODIs before drawing a Test match at Nottingham against Australia. Eight years later at home, they lost 10 before beating the Australians in a Test at Leeds.

The difference this time is that all the defeats have been against the same opponents, who are relishing each day as it arrives. That much was evident when Mitchell Johnson came back home to Perth from Sydney, where on Monday night he received the Allan Border Medal for the Australian player of the year.

It was like the return of the conquering hero as he charmed an audience full of adulation at the airport. Johnson has put the frighteners on England for months and he traced the beginning of his ascendancy back to the one-day series in England late last summer. "It felt that there was something going on," he said. "I felt like everything was coming together – all the hard work and the change of my run-up, the lengthening of that through the IPL.

Mitchell Johnson was greeted in his hometown of Perth ahead of Friday’s ODI like a conquering hero (Getty)

"That was my first real sort of tournament after my injury. I felt good through that tournament, but not quite right. And then playing at international level again in the one-day series, I definitely felt something there. And it went on from there."

Johnson took 37 wickets in the Ashes series and threatens to be a handful at his home ground, the Waca, on Friday, when he will probably bowl three short, rapid bursts.

England practised hard at the University of Western Australian campus. There is a desperation to get a win from somewhere, anywhere, a closing of the ranks round Cook. But all that cannot conceal the fact Australia are in swagger mode, playing irrepressible cricket that will, as Tredwell put it, ultimately batter England.

England on the run: Longest losing streaks

10 matches (Mar-June 1993)

Two ODIs in India

Two ODIs in Sri Lanka

One Test in Sri Lanka

Three ODIs vs Australia

Two Tests vs Australia

10 matches (May-Aug 2001)

One Test vs Pakistan

Three ODIs vs Pakistan

Three ODIs vs Australia

Three Tests vs Australia

The current run is 9 matches

Victorious Australia Bringing Same Squad to Perth for 3rd Ashes Test

Australia will take the same 12-man squad to Perth for the third Ashes test this week after humbling England by 218 runs to win the second match in Adelaide on Monday.

Selector John Inverarity said in a statement that uncapped fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile and 12-test paceman Doug Bollinger would also be in Perth on standby and would train with the squad for the test match "should they be required."

Australia fielded the same team in Adelaide that thrashed England by 381 runs in Brisbane, the first time in a year that the team has been unchanged for consecutive tests.

Coach Darren Lehmann was reluctant to mess with a winning formula for the WACA, where their pacemen will hope to wreak maximum damage against a shell-shocked England side on a bouncy wicket.

"At the moment, all good," Lehmann said of his bowlers' fitness for the third match starting on Friday.

"(If they're) 100 percent, they'll play. If not, they won't.

"From our point of view, we've just got to keep what we're doing now. Not change too much. Just make sure we adapt to Perth conditions. As you've seen, we adapted very well from Brisbane to here, and now we go back the other way."

Australia lead the five-test series 2-0 and can wrest the Ashes away from holders England with victory in Perth.

Australia squad: Chris Rogers, David Warner, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (captain), Steve Smith, George Bailey, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Nathan Lyon, James Faulkner

The Ashes 2014 - Will Tim Bresnan Make England's 2nd Test side?

Tim Bresnan (credit: ANDREW YATES/AFP/Getty Images)

Will Tim Bresnan make his return to Test cricket when England take on Australia in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide?

That seems to be the question on every English fan's lips - apart from the very obvious, who will replace Jonathon Trott? The reason is quite simply the lack of penetration that Chris Tremlett showed in the first Ashes Test at the Gabba because of which the pressure to pick up wickets was on James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

One of the chief reasons for the English success in Test cricket in recent times has been the relentlessness in their bowling. James Anderson has been at the batsmen with pace and late swing, Stuart Broad gets them to bounce and Graeme Swann has always troubled the opposition with his nagging offies.

To add to that, Anderson and Broad have mastered the art of reversing the ball well and even when the ball's gone soft, they have been able to extract movement to trouble the batsmen.

However, with the lack of reverse swing and Swann's obvious under-par record playing in Australia - he averages 47 with the ball in the country as compared to his 29 overall - England struggled to penetrate through the Australian batting in the Gabba Test. What added to their woes was a lack of viable third seamer with Tremlett bowling at speeds well below the 130 km/hr mark.

Tremlett is a well-built, 6 foot eight bowler, who has often troubled batsmen with his pace and bounce and on occasions when he's got the conditions right, even with the movement he's been able to get. What was on display at the Gabba was a pale shadow of his own self and while there's a chance he may improve, it's a risk England may not want to take with them going into the Adelaide Test.

Bresnan was an unsung hero from the previous Ashes series - at least as far as the common fan is concerned - but his team holds him in high stead. He did not have an exceptional time with the ball in that previous Ashes, and yet picked up 10 wickets at 29.6. To go with that, he could be called upon to bowl long spells, and get bounce and reverse to trouble the opposition.

Another key aspect of Bresnan's bowling is that he has that tendency to pick up wickets at crucial junctures - sometimes when things aren't going in favour of the fielding team or on other occasions when the tail has to be cleaned up.

Unfortunately for England he injured his back before the last Ashes Test at the Oval in his home series and wasn't fit enough to play in the first game in Australia. Now, it seems like he will be a part of a warm-up game that the English Performance Squad will play against the Queensland XI, which will lead to the answer to two questions - will he be fit to replace Tremlett and if so, will he be battle-hardened enough for what's turning out to be a gruelling Ashes series for the visitors.

The second Ashes Test starts from December 5th.

Source: http://www.crunchsports.com/category/Cricket/Ashes-2013-14-2nd-Test-live-Will-Tim-Bresnan-make-it-to-the-playing-11-201311260009/

Barmy Army: England Cricket Supporters Hit Brisbane, Head Straight to the Pub

THEY'RE loud, they're proud and they threaten to drown out the Gabba crowd.

For the second time this year, Brisbane has gone barmy with the arrival of thousands of English cricket tragics ahead of tomorrow's first Ashes Test of the summer.

It follows the midyear rugby tour of the British and Irish Lions which injected millions of dollars in to the state's economy.

The Barmy Army have made Brisbane's Pig N Whistle their unofficial capital over the past two days as they warm up for another summer of chanting, sledging and drinking under the hot Aussie sun.

They were met there by former Aussie paceman Jeff Thomson, who knows a thing or two about terrorising English batsmen.

Barmy Army co-founder Paul Burnham said Queensland-raised Aussie paceman Mitchell Johnson was already in their crosshairs for some good-natured sledging in a bid to shake his confidence.

"Mitchell Johnson copped a lot of stick last time," he said.

"We think he is pretty fragile so we will target him with some of the chants we used last time and a few new ones as well.

"We'll probably give Michael Clarke a bit of a go as well, but mostly it will be about getting behind our team and being as loud and supportive as we can."

During the Lions tour, Aussie rugby fans were often drowned out by the cheers of the Brits, but Fanatics tour manager David McClatchey said Australian sports fans were slowly catching up.

"The singing and chanting is great for atmosphere, but it's always been a British or European thing that a lot of Aussie sports fans haven't really bought in to until pretty recently," he said.

A bunch of Barmy Army invaders met Jeff Thomson at the Pig and Whistle in the Brisbane CBD. Thousands of English cricket fabns have descended on brisbane for the first Ashes Test. Source: News Corp Australia

"But we're seeing in the A-League (soccer) there's plenty of singing now so the tide is turning."

Cricket Australia expects up to 50,000 British tourists during the series, with almost 10,000 packages booked through official tour channels.

Thousands more will travel independently.

Almost all of Brisbane's 10,000 hotel rooms are booked solid for the next six days, giving the city's tourism industry its biggest week in years.

Donna Rodios from leading travel agency wotif.com said bookings were up 22 per cent on Brisbane's last Ashes Test three years ago.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said the Ashes clash would deliver huge benefit to the city.

"It's a multi-day event for a start and it stretches in to the weekend which is great when you want to fill hotels in the city," he said.

"And there is such keen interest in this contest throughout the cricket-playing world and when you think of Britain and India, they are two of our biggest markets."

Ashes 2013-14: Brisbane Ground Guide, History and Statistics

"The Harmison ball". Three words that still strike fear into any England supporter

Its official name is the Brisbane Cricket Ground, but the famous stadium on Vulture Street in the suburb of Woolloongabba is universally known as the Gabba.

Handed Test status in 1931, the modern Gabba is not quite the "bear pit" of old, and is now capable of holding 42,000 fans in the vast stands encircling the arena in a manner not dissimilar to Melbourne's MCG.

Despite its redevelopment, the "Gabbatoir" remains an intimidating venue, where the Barmy Army trumpeter was ejected in 2006, and four years later even fans carrying bags with multiple zips  fell foul of the entry regulations.

England's poor record in the Queensland heat - only two wins in their last 17 Test visits, in 1978 and 1986 - has cemented Brisbane's place as the traditional first Test venue for each Ashes series.

Ashes Tests: 19 (Australia won 10, England won four, with five draws)

First Ashes Test: 10-16 February 1933 - a timeless Test, the fourth of the notorious "Bodyline" series. England's hero Eddie Paynter was suffering with tonsillitis when he rose from his hospital bed to make 83 in the first innings, before hitting a six to win the match and regain the Ashes in the second innings.

Highest Ashes total: 645 all out by Australia in November 1946, in the first Ashes Test after World War II. Don Bradman made 187, adding 276 with Lindsay Hassett (128).

Lowest Ashes total: 58 all out by Australia in December 1936. Needing 381 to win, they were skittled in 12.3 overs by England captain Gubby Allen (5-36) and Bill Voce (4-16).

Highest individual Ashes score: 235 not out by England's Alastair Cook on their last visit in November 2010. His match-saving innings lasted 625 minutes and 428 balls.

Most Ashes runs: 464 by ex-Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, who made two centuries and two fifties on four visits between 1998 and 2010, averaging 92.80.

Best Ashes bowling (innings): 8-71 by legendary Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne in November 1994, when he spun them to a 184-run victory and returned match figures of 11-110.

Most Ashes wickets: 22 by Aussie seamer Glenn McGrath, who collected six-wicket hauls in 1998 and 2006.

Ashes runs scored: 10,500, for the loss of 271 wickets at an average of 38.75 runs per wicket.

Ashes boundaries: 1,073 (1,041 fours, 32 sixes)

Venue: The Gabba, Brisbane

 

Date: 21-25 November

 

Start time: 00:00 GMT

Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave and via the BBC iPlayer Radio app, BBC Sport website & BBC Sport app; updates on BBC Radio 5 live; live text commentary on BBC Sport website, app & mobile devices

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Under-Strength Australia Face World Champions in Brisbane

Joe Burns might make his international debut for Australia (Getty Images)

Three years ago, Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland suggested that Twenty20 was such a specialist game that the day might come when Australia could have completely separate Test and T20 teams playing on opposite sides of the globe at the same time. Effectively, that day has arrived, although this one-off occurrence is not quite what Sutherland had in mind.

Australia's Test players have now flown to Chennai to prepare for the first Test against India, unquestionably the correct priority. But the packed schedule means they still need to put out a national team for this T20 against West Indies at the Gabba, without David Warner, Shane Watson, Matthew Wade, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty, to name but a few.

Apart from the captain George Bailey, it is hard to say for certain how many members of the squad for this match would be part of Australia's first-choice T20 side. Shaun Marsh, perhaps. James Faulkner might soon get to that point, and so might Aaron Finch. And that's about it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although the fans buying tickets for the Brisbane match might disagree.

A year out from the next World Twenty20, it gives the selectors a chance to have a look at some men who could push their cases. There is the uncapped quartet of Ben Rohrer, Joe Burns, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile, there is Faulkner, Ben Cutting, Ben Laughlin and Clint McKay, all jostling to become regular members of the T20 attack, while the batsmen Adam Voges and Aaron Finch hope to make the most of their last opportunity of the international summer.

For West Indies, this is a chance to finish on a high after a miserable five-match ODI series. They are the reigning world champions in the Twenty20 format and there is no question that the short matches suit their dynamic style. But after such a lacklustre display in the 50-over games, can they switch on for their last outing of the tour?

See this Article and keep track of the score at Cricinfo.com