England / Sri Lanka

Talking points? Nah, let’s just go with a photo of the Moose Cup Powered by Daraz

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When we talk about how much players want to win a trophy such as the World Cup, what we’re really talking about is how much they want to win the competition for which the World Cup itself just happens to be the prize.

The Moose Cup, on the other hand – or the Moose Cup Powered by Daraz to give it its full name – is a cup that every player would surely want to win purely because they would want the trophy itself.

Behold its antlered majesty!

According to Wikipedia, antlers, “function primarily as objects of sexual attraction and as weapons in fights between males for control of harems,” so that’s a pretty full-on addition to an item of silverware.

The Moose Cup Powered by Daraz is also one of our all-time favourite names for a series, along with the Magellan Ashes (movement rate of all ships is increased by two).

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Similar deliveries:

Root’s Moose Cup Powered by Daraz | Mop-up of the day Five talking points after England’s fourth-ever Test win in Pakistan (and second in a fortnight) Seven incredibly-well-researched team talking points for the Sri Lanka v England Test

17 comments

  2. I see Root now has a batting average (49.39) higher than his bowling average (47.19).

    Who needs Stokes, eh?

    1. Those figures are for Tests (as per Cricinfo), but the same is true for T20 Internationals, and for First Class and T20s as a whole. Not for ODIs/List A though.

      Can Kane Williamson or Donald Bradman claim that? Well, er, yes, both of them can for Tests and Williamson can for limited overs internationals as well….

    2. The problem with Root is he only gets huge hundreds or fails, rather consistent fifties.

  4. It was fascinating to watch Root and Chandimal lock horns over the trophy. One cannot help but feel that the one who commanded a longer tail had the advantage.

  5. How do they get it home? It’s like some of that stuff you see in airport gift shops that you think, yeh lovely, but how is that going in the overhead lockers? It’s just another reason why the Ashes is the best competition ever. The people who did that trophy knew their airline protocols.

    1. I think they should do away with this trophy nonsense completely. If you win a series away from home, you should be allowed to bring back a player from the opposing team and keep him with you for a whole year to carry drinks for your team. This is properly medieval and yet humane. Imagine if someone had won a test series against Sri Lanka in early 1996 and went back home with Jayasuriya. The trajectory of world cricket might well have been different.

      1. I love the idea of bonded labour being medieval yet humane.

        In this era of Covid, the “medieval but humane” theme could be enhanced, by blaming the plague on the unfortunate bonded labourer (and his entire tribe of course) who could then be subjected to medieval but humane persecution and/or expulsion.

        It would certainly add some extra frisson to tight test series.

        As a thought experiment, DC, which Aussie player would you have taken to India for such purpose?

      2. We don’t call it bonded labour Ged, we call it Elite Cultural Exchange (assuming Australia is involved). This sort of naming should avoid most, if not all, legal issues.

        Mark Waugh of course. He tormented India quite a bit, followed by Ponting.

      3. But I don’t believe that India won a test series against the Aussies in Oz until a couple of years ago.

        Sorry DC, but under your own set of rules you have to choose one of this horrible recent lot of Aussies. The horrible lot of Aussies from the 1990s and 2000s are not available to you for bonded labour… sorry, I mean “elite cultural exchange”.

    2. ‘What have you got there, Mr Root?
      ‘A moose trophy.’
      ‘Would you mind coming with us please sir.’

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