Ashes 2009: Vodaphone Helped England Save the Cardiff Test?
Was this the wonder worked out by the in-the-boxing-ring training session with boxer James DeGale, organised by the official sponsor of the England cricket team Vodafone, for the England team members including captain Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and more importantly, Paul Collingwood? Can’t see a reason as well, to believe that the tail-enders, Swann, Anderson and Panesar had not received a few tips to endure some of the heaviest of jabs from the Olympic gold medal winning boxer at the latter’s local boxing gym. For, boy!! that was a close shave, which can be emphatically called ‘The Great Cardiff Escape’.
Although, the Cardiff wicket held on to the very last over of the test and the Oz bowling line up was deprived of the likes of Warne or McGrath to deliver that timely punch, the act of the English tailenders along with the mellowed Collingwood will not be robbed of its shine. Considering that this huge relief will be taken by the English players, for otherwise they would had been in a state that warrants at least a couple of wins in the remaining four tests to regain the Ashes. Equally lauded, should be a couple of cricket offerings from the UK broadband service provider cum mobile phone carrier Vodafone, called the ‘Nightwatchman’ and ‘Vodafone Street Sixes’.
The Vodafone Street Sixes is all about taking cricket off the grounds to the streets this summer. Here, a friends group or a team itself can sign up to participate and have a go. The competition will be held at five city centres; Cardiff, Birmingham, London, Leeds and Manchester, coinciding the dates of the tests. The team winning the caged competition on each night would have Ashes nPower tickets. The nights promise great festival feel with BBQs, live Djs, speed bowling tests and more. Meanwhile, ‘Nightwatchman’ has been introduced by Vodafone to help people understand the nuances of thew game, such as the umpire’s signals, rules and other jargons. The Nightwatchman realised by Dougie Anderson will also bring direct interviews from the nPower Ashes, and exclusive videos, besides all the action.
It is still a mystery what might have transpired at the Loughton LA Academy in Essex, where DeGale helped out the English team. However, it is also a fact that this time over, the English team did not have to face any grim sledging from the Oz players; lay aside the minor KP-Mitchel Johnson spat. But someone who was really put to test was none other than the Pakistani umpire Aleem Darr. The gentleman seemed picked out to be tried with a new sort of Ponting pressure tactic. Such tactics might be lacerating for a soft person like Darr, but if someone who doesn’t need to be coached to ward off pressure tactics, it is Vodafone. How gracefully the mobile broadband provider have emerged unscathed from all such tactics of the government regarding the 900 Mhz spectrum release.
Can this be called soft assassination? The way Ponting repeatedly pleaded with Darr for favourable leg before decisions was worth pondering over. Nevertheless, Darr emerged the final winner with his immediate head-flip gesture to tun down the optimistic appeals, and following them with a confident glare that seemed to be saying, “Need to hit the pad on the line of the offstump if a shot is offered, or the deviation of the ball should convince me of hitting the target, if the impact happens outside the line of the offstump and a shot is not offered to the ball.†Three cheers Darr.!! Seems you have an answer now for your critics that carp, you lack emotional intelligence at the level.
Coming back to the Houdini Act, it is undoubtedly vivid that Swann, Anderson and Monty had staged nothing lesser than that. However, the big question is how far can they shoulder the team’s batting duties in the series? Is it not high time that Cook, Flintoff and Strauss himself fired? What has Vodafone in its armoury to offer psychological steadiness to a team brimming with captains? Won’t KP and Freddy convert their fifties and sixties to further big scores for Strauss? How can Strauss equal the Ponting heroics on the field as a captain when he has a group of ego-centric brats around him? All depends on how quick the English think tank comes up with answers, otherwise it is simply going to be another six odd weeks of agony for the Barmy Army as well as Vodafone, who has been sposoring the team for twelve good years now.
