What he said:
“In the past five or six years we’ve just done it like a Chinese parliament.”
Tim Bresnan, former England seamer, reacts to his appointment as vice-captain of Yorkshire’s country cricket side.
Yorkshire have not had a deputy leader for a few seasons now.
Former captain, Andrew Gale, is the current coach and Gary Ballance the newly appointed skipper.
Bresnan said:
“Gary phoned me and said, ‘I’ve got to ask you something, mate, would you be vice-captain for me?’
And I was like, ‘Yes, I’m over the moon’.
It was a bit of a shock because we haven’t really named one over the past few years; it just came out of the blue.
I never even thought that Gaz would be having one.
It does make sense, though, if he gets called up for internationals.
I’m immensely proud, and it will be great to work with him and Galey. I’ll just do whatever is required of me.
Pretty much everyone in the team is in the senior leadership group as it is.
In the past five or six years, we’ve basically just done it like a Chinese parliament.
We’ve talked through anything that was going wrong and how we were going to improve as a collective, and we’ve done everything as a group really.
There’s never been any sort of group within that which has sat down separately to discuss things.”
What he really meant:
“Yes, we ran the side based on consensual authority with collective responsibility. That’s how Parliament works, doesn’t it? And we had no real opposition, hence, we’re obviously Chinese.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“I guess I’m Mike Pence to Yorkshire’s Ballance. That Trumps it all, doesn’t it?”
“India looked like Bangladesh in disguise.”
Geoffrey Boycott is scathing in his criticism of the Indian cricket team. “Their ground fielding was atrocious, their bowling was wayward and lacking thought.” says the Yorkshire great.
What he really meant:
“I’m sure Bangladesh would have put up a better fight. England beat Sri Lanka 1-0 in three Tests, and yet the No.1 side are down 0-2 in two. Yeah, I forget, they won’t be No.1 after this series.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“Duncan, you can go home now. I’d like to coach this Indian side.”