Rooting Around For Hope: The Cricket Blog

Ben Stokes has just found out that he's going to play in the IPL - and when he does, he'll be getting £1.7 million for around seven weeks' work. The England player will go to Rising Pune Supergiants after the team won a fierce bidding war for his services - which have thus far been unproven at IPL level. Stokes doesn't only bring a strong bat to the league - he's also a bowler that - to use the aged-old phrase - can't be kept down. Sure, he was smashed out of the yard by Carlos Brathwaite in the World T20 in April 2016, but he bounced back pretty well. Stokes averaged 23.00 in the T20 series against India with 3 fours and 2 sixes, and had an economy rate of 8.18 - which actually doesn't look too bad at T20 level (at Test level he would never bowl again!). Ironically, Stokes may not play all the games for the Supergiants due to international commitments for England - he's only recently been made vice-captain. Englishmen also getting good dough...

I have loved cricket for 30 years, even though, historically I have been crap at it. Favourite moments of (my own) cricket career - in order include: Spending all afternoon of one day of Game 6 of Horris Hill in 1989 blocking everything and anything that came to me with my 'Slazenger V Carribean', ending up with 11 not out, and pissing out of just about everybody. Managing 2 in a season. That's right.....TWO. And that was off a leg glance. I celebrated like I'd just scored a century off West Indian fast-bowling. Getting a chap called Reda Said, who the day before had scored 83 in a stunning effort the first XI, caught behind off his glove while he was trying to smash my spin to Kingdom Come. To be fair, he would have succeeded, but the ball bounced a bit.  Spending most weekends for cricket teams at Horris Hill (prep school) and St Edward's School, Oxford, with a scorebook and scoring the game. And in the latter days, getting paid in cigarettes, booz...