I don't like Cricket

The day I loved Phil Tufnell

OK, not strictly an Ashes post. But when one of your female friends comes up with that statement over dinner it is surely worth noting down.

Tufnell is definitely a legend. But quite why a 16 year old (as she was at the time) would set up a television screen in the garden to watch his one-legged run up even though she hates cricket is quite beyond me.

I guess we can all sympathise with this part of his Cricinfo biography: "His batting was more straightforward, and consisted of the shuffle to square leg when facing the fast bowlers or the optimistic waft outside off stump". Well I've been there, even if you haven't.

And bringing it back to the Ashes (as we must on this site), let's not forget that he exposed Ricky Ponting as the highly strung, thin-skinned weak link in the Aussie team that we know he is with this video message at a recent awards ceremony: "Warney ... just because you're a mate of Kevin Pietersen's, it didn't mean on that last day at The Oval you had to drop him," Tufnell teased. "Do you wake up in the middle of the night thinking you might have dropped the Ashes? I have got Herschelle Gibbs' phone number here if you want some counseling."

So on reflection, I guess I can see why even a non-cricket loving northern woman can fall in love with Phil Tufnell, eh Ricky?

posted by wes @ 1:28 am