Pretty sure Rob Key won’t be dropping anyone for failing a fitness test

What’s all this obsession with fitness tests for players who are clearly of high international standard? Even world-class ones? First Lizelle Lee, now Dane van Niekerk. I know the Indian men’s team sticks to a rigid testing regime too. When Jonty Rhodes was coaching the (amateur!) internationals of Sweden – who to be fair after a lot of Afghan refugee migration are now better than you might think, including a win over the more traditional cricketing side of Denmark- he apparently caused a lot of turmoil by forcing them to score sufficiently well on fitness tests before they could be eligible for selection, regardless of international record or current club form.

It’s a worrying trend if it’s already seeping down to those levels. Whither Dwayne Leverock? Will we see the likes of Samit Patel or Ian Blackwell again?

I reckon it’s “Essential Waitrose” as in ’tis the very essence of Waitrose. It is just a shorter way of writing that it’s “Quintessential Waitrose”.

It’s just missing a word, I think. Essential FOR Waitrose range. That makes perfect sense.

The Essential Waitrose range includes products such as Parmigiano Reggiano. Now don’t get me wrong – I love the stuff. So does Daisy. But “essential”?

I suppose, if the bold Ashes battles are a delightful large pasta dish for two, topped with tasty flakes of Essential Waitrose Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, the italicised Hundred is a brace of Essential Waitrose Tiramisu tubs: https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/essential-tiramisu/014992-7199-7200

One of the main justifications for The Hundred was the notion that August was a gap in the international television schedules for cricket that was not met to that audience’s satisfaction by tests in England. They want sweets, not substantial meals, apparently.

Optimism? That sounds a bit too Australian for my liking.

With a bit of optimism, you could have merely commented, “Hey, there’s a bit of formatting in that calendar of yours…” in the hope that we might then have added the word “Update” at the start of that subheading in a bid to pass it off as a response to a genuine comment.

Whoa, wait a moment, that’s not fair. You can’t go round asking yourself your own questions and then answering them. That’s like cheating and everything. And also, it’s a thorough lack of trust in your commenters that they won’t ask sufficiently good questions.

I feel… diminished. I was all ready to ask that question. But no, it seems that we’re not needed round here any more. You just want a conversation with yourself. Well go right ahead, ignore us. See if we care.