Televised cricket received a shot in the arm when Channel 4 won the rights to show England’s home test matches and select one-day internationals. Adding to existing technologies (such as stump-cam and stump-mic) snickometer, hawk-eye and super-slow-mo action replays, have all helped to increase fans’ enjoyment of the sport. In addition, these developments have made cricket more appealing […]

The Italians were immense, forcing the German midfield to start taking longshots and the full backs to launch crosses from further and further back.  But despite having the best of the middle-third exchanges, Italy only really troubled Jens Lehmann in extra-time. They were happy to build steady attacks with lots of links and exchanges, draining […]

Before the tournament there was a prevailing consensus that Owen Hargreaves was one of the worst players ever to pull on an England shirt. WCH posted an article when the England squad was announced querying whether the widespread vilification of Hargreaves was perhaps a touch misplaced. His performances in the pre-World Cup games were disappointing, however, and fuelled […]

World Cup Hippo compiled ratings for four of the five matches that featured England at this year’s tournament. Featured below are the England players’ average ratings. I’ve only included those who received ratings for two or more matches. I didn’t report on the Trinidad and Tobago fixture, so Aaron Lennon doesn’t qualify for a rating […]

…from Herr Colin.

England may have crashed out of World Cup 2006, but WCH has a message of hope for its English readers! Herr Hippo has access to a cyber-wormhole which enables him to access World Cup Hippo articles from future years. Presented below is an article that he has retrieved which is set to be written in […]

England’s lacklustre 2006 World Cup is over, but at least there was a glimpse of excitement before the end! The first-half did not deviate from the pattern established in the previous four games: players with a defensive brief looked in command, but our attack-minded players were yet again shackled by uncertainty and a lack of […]