A message from The Bounce

And a tiny wee bit of cricket

It’s 29 days until the start of the Rugby World Cup and 55  days until the start of the Cricket World Cup. The two tournaments overlap for 24 days. It’s going to be… something. 

The Bounce is coming up on its second anniversary. To date, I have worked on the basis of one paywalled newsletter per week, while the rest have been accessible to non-paying subscribers. For the duration of the world cups, I’m flipping that ratio around.

There will be one free newsletter on Mondays, but the remaining newsletters will be placed behind the paywall.

I’ve had many emails and notes from subscribers apologising for staying on the free plan. I hope I’ve managed to reply to them all (occasionally they slip through the net) and that my message is consistent: there is nothing to be sorry about. We all have to make choices about discretionary spending.

If you enjoy The Bounce but cannot afford to, or just don’t want to pay for it, I still enjoy writing it for you. If you can afford it and want to, that’s great and I hope I continue to offer you value.

From September through to mid-November, I’m going to be burning midnight oil, midday oil, mid-evening oil and, should the need arise, primrose oil. The Bounce might not land in your inbox daily, but it won’t be far off.

Yes, a big part of it remains a labour of love, but it also has to make good business sense for me. 

The Bounce does not have a corporate sponsor, it doesn’t take commissions from sporting organisations to promote them or their events. It barely even does any social media.

It is independent and remains 100 percent reader-supported.

Closer to the RWC opening match there will be a special offer on annual subscriptions for The Bounce. The option to join on a monthly basis will remain at the usual rate.

Please don’t be offended if you see this message repeated. Not everybody opens up every email, so this will run intermittently until close to RWC kickoff.

In the meantime, please continue to share The Bounce with any friends, colleagues or family you think might be interested. I’m bloody hopeless at self promotion but there’s a nice organic, word-of-mouth thing happening that keeps the registrations rolling in.

Thanks for your support!

Dylan Cleaver

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I had the good fortune to be able to interview Matt Henry for the BYC (which is still free!).

Such a nice bloke, so much so that for a long time you had to wonder whether he was too nice for test cricket because his red-ball record never matched up with his obvious talent. But at 31 and new dad, everything is trending the right direction for Henry, who has been carving it up for Somerset as they won the Vitality Blast T20 competition.

Henry was described by a punter as the county’s best overseas signing since Viv Richards and when you consider they have hosted luminaries such as Joel Garner, Martin Crowe, Steve Waugh and peak Jimmy Cook, that’s not a bad endorsement.

He talks at length about being close witness to one of the great test series of all time, but remains too clever to say which team he wanted to win the Ashes.

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Gary Stead named the ODI squad for four ODIS in England and wales, starting September 8 at Cardiff.

The squad is a bit ‘newsy’, with the prodigal Trent Boult returning along with Kyle Jamieson. It is a very pace bowler-heavy squad and there are plenty of teams around the world who’d love to be able to choose a four-pronged pace attack out of Henry, Boult, Tim Southee, Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne.

Getty Images

Devon Conway is going to have to score a lot of runs in the top order though, and the absence of James Neesham and Mark Chapman also thins out the hitting power in the middle order.

The biggest story, however, is about the man who isn’t picked: Kane Williamson. The skipper will be in England and training with the squad and it’s looking more likely he will be included in the World Cup squad.

Per Stuff:

Even if Williamson had to miss the early games of the World Cup, Stead said they would strongly consider him for selection, if they knew he would be healthy.

New Zealand play nine group stage matches against the other sides before the semifinals, starting November 15.

“I think that’s something we are talking about at the moment. If it’s the knockout stages, I think that might be too late because you’re really saying something that you may or may not even be there, but if it was earlier in the World Cup we’d definitely be considering it.”

The team for the England ODIs is: Tom Latham (c), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Will Young.

T20 squad for the UAE and England is: Tim Southee (c), Finn Allen (England only), Aditya Ashok (UAE only), Chad Bowes (UAE), Mark Chapman, Dane Cleaver (UAE), Devon Conway (Eng), Lockie Ferguson (Eng), Dean Foxcroft (UAE), Matt Henry (Eng), Ben Lister (UAE), Kyle Jamieson, Cole McConchie (UAE), Adam Milne (Eng), Daryl Mitchell (Eng), Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips (Eng), Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi (Eng), Blair Tickner (UAE), Will Young (UAE).