Rugby and Cricket News
Living With The Lions Sports Travel

We are very pleased to announce that Living With The Lions Sports Travel has become one of the official licensed travel operators for the 3 mobile Ashes Tour to Australia in 2010/11. For more information, please see the cricket section on our website where we will soon be releasing travel packages which will of course include official tickets. With England performing so well in South Africa in this test match, excitement will only build over the next twelve months as the possibility of England retaining the Ashes and winning overseas increases.

We are very excited to be heading to South Africa for the Living With The Lions cricket tour. Our tours go to Durban and Cape Town and are going to be great fun. We are delighted to have The Evening Standard’s sports journalist Neal Collins on tour with us. Neal is covering the cricket in South Africa at the moment - very lucky, and will join up with the Living With The Lions group on the 24th December. He has just today published his book called “A Game Apart”

NEAL COLLINS
“A GAME APART is based largely on what I witnessed myself as a student, footballer and very junior sports journalist from 1979 to 1985. I only major incident I did not witness is the Trojan Horse incident - but a similar atrocity is well documented as having taken place in Athlone, near Cape Town in 1985.

Since leaving the country – as a conscientious objector, I received a hand-written call up to attend National Service for June 1985 despite my British citizenship - I have made numerous return visits to South Africa to cover the Lions rugby tour (1997), the cricket World  Cup (2003) as well as a three-month England cricket tour (1999/2000). My father still lives there and we visit, as a family, at least once a year, travelling widely and without fear other than when we come across big cats and rogue elephants in the game parks.

These frequent trips have, I hope, given me a special insight into a fascinating nation, so unique in Africa… and the world, when you consider how quickly it has changed.

In all my years resident there from 1970 to 1985, and on over two dozen subsequent visits, I never been mugged or car-jacked, or even rudely spoken to by a black man, though my university days were marked by constant conflict with the police, which reflects itself in what you find below.

The events detailed in the book are largely factual, but condensed… names and places have been altered, some may feel they recognise themselves in certain of the characters, but in truth the characters are a compilation of the people I have met, the life I experienced. I judge nobody who lived in South Africa at that time, where so many were forced into certain roles by the incredible pressures of a violent, divisive society.

A lot of the publicity surrounding the upcoming World Cup has been negative, with the focus on crime and corruption in South Africa since democracy arrived in 1993. My perception is very different to that… I believe the country has changed massively for the better in 16 short years. I’ve waited all that time to let my memories loose, and the World Cup seems an appropriate time to produce a novel which will help people to remember exactly what the Rainbow Nation has been through in the last 20 years. My memories, my distortions in terms of time and emphasis, will annoy some, please others. All I ask is that the reader recognizes this is how a young Englishman might have viewed the South Africa I grew up in. A strange but beautiful country riven by cruelty and mistrust and headed for a bloody revolution… until the release of a certain Nelson Mandela in 1990. That South Africa is now in a position to bid for a major sports event, let alone host an operation of this scale, is little short of a miracle given what I lived through there. And that really is the point. For those who visit the country, for those who view it on a television screen, for those who read about it in the newspapers, I hope to offer some perspective. Apartheid, like the Holocaust, should never be forgotten, swept under the carpet. Otherwise somebody will simply repeat the process. And that must never be allowed to happen.”

http://www.nealcollins.co.uk/

Looking forward to South Africa!

On the back of their amazing Ashes victory, England has once again come up triumphs against South Africa in the ICC Champions Trophy.

England beat South Africa to reach the competition’s semi finals by 22 runs in the game that was played yesterday at The SuperSport Park, Centurion in front of an almost at capacity crowd. Owais Shah made 98, Paul Collingwood 82 and Eoin Morgan 67 as England hit 12 sixes in 323-8 to set up a 22-run win. England played well throughout the game, giving South Africa little room for manoeuvre.

The South African captain Graeme Smith batted superbly to put his side in with a chance of the victory. They needed a victory against England to stay in the competition which is being hosted in their home country. However this was not to be, with England playing so strongly. Stuart Broad ended the opener’s outstanding innings on 141, with South Africa on 274-9; England’s victory was effectively sealed.

South African captain commented after the match that England played well and were positive throughout. England had clearly set a standard which South Africa couldn’t beat. England will now face New Zealand on Tuesday.

The man so long referred to as England’s talisman, has turned down the offer of an incremental contract with the national side in favour of seeing out the rest of his career as a freelance cricketer.

When he returns from injury, Flintoff will appear for Lancashire; IPL side, Chennai Super Kings; and England - if selected. His agent, Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler adds that there may also be additional contracts for Twenty20 sides around the world.

It is thought that the combined salaries from these various domestic sides would outweigh earnings from the England contract that was on offer, although, England wouldn’t actually have any say over where and when Flintoff would play under such a deal, so the decision is slightly odd.

One possible and unexpected explanation comes from Chandler, who says that the England deal contained a clause forbidding participation in extreme sports. He says that Flintoff is considering participating in a TV show in which he may do some bungee jumping.

The upshot of Flintoff’s new freelance status is that technically speaking he can pick and choose what matches he wishes to play for England, perhaps spurning England’s cricket tour of Bangladesh later in the year, for example. The reality, however, is that such behaviour would not be tolerated by England team director, Andy Flower, who has long considered Flintoff’s presence in a side merely a bonus and who would have no qualms about leaving him out of the team, if he felt the all-rounder was not fully committed.

England’s current one-day opener, Ravi Bopara, has spoken about his ambitions to play a bigger part for the national side in the coming years.

Bopara had a dynamic start to the summer, completing a sequence of three successive hundreds in three Test innings. All were against the West Indies, the second and third in the UK, while the first was during England’s cricket tour earlier in the year.

However, reality hit hard in the Ashes, where he managed a top score of only 35 before being dropped for the final Test. Despite scoring a double hundred on his return to county cricket, he’s continued to struggle against the Aussies in the one-day series.

Bopara is rarely short of confidence though and says there is a lot more to come from him.

“Personally, I want to go out and get a big one and win games for England. I don’t want to get scores that just do enough to give England a chance to win, I want to go out and seal the win.”

England would certainly welcome a significant contribution from one of the batting line-up in one of the remaining four one-day matches against Australia. In the absence of Kevin Pietersen, no-one has stepped forward and all of England’s scores so far have been under par.

The third one day international at the Rose Bowl, Hampshire will start later today with England desperate to remedy their losing start to this seven match one day series. England have been unconvincing in the first two games of the series, and have in fact dropped to 6th place in the world rankings in 50-over cricket due to their recent dismal performances.

After England’s amazing Ashes victory it seems an enigma as to why the players seem so unconvincing at the 50 over game. With the limited overs game drawing great crowds and offering something different to the 5 day tests, England need to improve to cement their new fan base gained from the Ashes victory.

Stuart Broad will miss the game today because of a neck injury but should be back for the forth game in the series on Saturday. And, with all-rounder Andrew Flintoff sidelined because of his much overdue knee surgery, the bowlers will have to step up to the crease if England don’t want to be on the brink of a series loss after today’s game. Graham Onions is in the squad and Adil Rashid may be called upon to provide leg-spin after he was left out of the last game.

Whatever happens, England will have to start performing or the Ashes victory celebrations may get forgotten prematurely.

Ricky Ponting is keen to continue leading Australia, despite his record of being the first captain, either English or Australian, to lose the Ashes twice. While others have lost more than one Ashes series, no-one other than him has lost twice where their side has entered both series as the holders.

It has also been over 100 years since an Aussie captain lost two away series against the old enemy, but despite this, perhaps because of it, Ponting is hoping to stay on in the job.

“I still think I’ve got a lot to offer the team, as a batsman and as a captain and as a leader,” said Ponting.

Many have questioned whether he could even be stood down from the job, questioning whether the side’s best batsman would want to continue playing under another captain. Ponting begs to differ.

“If it gets to the point I’m not the captain, my hunger and determination to keep playing are as good as ever.”

Ponting has come in for a lot of criticism from an Aussie media accustomed to victory, but having previously been lucky enough to captain a side chock full of all-time great players, he is now being forced to manage with more meagre resources.

Players like Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are irreplaceable and as well as his bowlers have performed at different times, there is still a good deal of inconsistency from the bowlers. Mitchell Johnson, heralded as the best fast bowler in the world upon his arrival in England, is the prime example, folding under the spotlight in the first few Tests, before fighting back to show better form towards the end of this Ashes cricket tour.

These players will become more consistent with experience, which explains why Ponting is considering returning to England one more time.

It was a statistical quirk of the 2009 Ashes series that almost all of the top run-scorers were Australian and top three wicket-takers were also members of the touring side. The one exception was England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, who led by example in scoring more runs than any batsman on either side.

“When we were bad we were very bad and when we were good we managed to be good enough,” he said and that was really the story of the series. England won the crucial passages of play. One thinks back to Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar batting out 40 minutes in the first Test to save the game as being a prime example of this.

Australia captain, Ricky Ponting, seemed to agree, saying that when his side had had a bad session, it had inevitably been a very bad session. Several batting collapses put them in vulnerable positions throughout the series and conceding first innings deficits put them on the back foot in three of the matches.

The series also saw the final Test appearance of Andrew Flintoff, who will only play the shorter formats when he returns from his latest operation.

“This one is going to take some time to sink in,” he said. “Walking round the ground seeing family, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s a really special moment.”

A see-saw 2009 Ashes series was decided yesterday at the Brit Oval, with England taking the Ashes by two Tests to one.

Having beaten Australia at Lord’s for the first time in 75 years, England had given their lead away in the penultimate Test at Headingley, where they were beaten by an innings by an Australian side which seemed to have shaken off the uncharacteristic inconsistency that had plagued its tour.

Coming into the final Test, with England’s middle order looking fragile and Australia seemingly dominant once again, few would have given the home side much of a chance of emerging victorious. That feeling persisted after they made just 332 after winning the toss and choosing to bat.

The pitch had shown signs of very early deterioration as well as signs of taking spin on that first day, but the total still seemed a number of runs short at a ground where high scores are commonplace. When Australia reached 73-0, England supporters were pessimistic.

At that point, the entire series spun on its axis thanks to England’s new all-rounder, Stuart Broad. England’s talisman, Andrew Flintoff, might have been playing his final Test, but the spotlight belonged to the man who might prove to be his replacement. In a breathtaking spell of bowling, Broad destroyed Australia’s top order, taking 5-37 and from that point on, England were suddenly favourites.

The man so often referred to as England’s talisman, Andrew Flintoff, is set to play his final Test for England this week at the Oval.

Quite apart from it being Flintoff’s farewell appearance in white clothing – he is still available for one-day internationals and Twenty20 – it is also an Ashes decider, so there is no bigger stage for the Lancashire all-rounder to bow out on.

With the series at 1-1, England must win to regain the Ashes as Australia are the holders following their 5-0 victory in 2006-07. As ever, the presence of Flintoff is vital for the team, if only because his all-round abilities allow them to play five bowlers without having too long a tail.

Speaking about his chances of playing, Flintoff said:

“I’ve been working with (physio) Dave Roberts, had some batting over the weekend, and bowled on Tuesday. I’m confident I’ll come through. I’m probably in a better state than I was going into the third Test at Edgbaston. I think I’m more or less there, I just have to prove it.”

After an innings defeat at Headingley, where Flintoff didn’t play, England will be hoping he will return. Fairy stories are rare in top level sport, but would anyone bet against a man who, like Botham, seems to have his own personal scriptwriter drawing out his career?