The Phantom Ram Story

[The Phantom Ram]

Hello all, this is my first attempt at a story so please let me have any comments.

My game is version 8.11 and I am on Normal level.

[The Phantom Ram]

Sky Sports News - 1 May 2008

Mike Wedderburn – '… Liverpool took one step closer to securing …
Alex Quinn – 'Mike, sorry Mike. I am going to interrupt you there. We are getting news of an emergency press conference organised by the ECB, the English Cricket Board, that is about to start now at Lords. I believe we can take you to the press room in Lords now where we have our man, Charles Colville. Charles… Charles?'
Mike Wedderburn – 'Alex, it looks like we have not got the link set up yet. This is quite unprecedented and our sources tell us that the news about to be confirmed will effect cricket as we know it in this country.'
Alex Quinn – 'That is right Mike, we believe what you are about to hear, live and exclusive on Sky Sports News could affect test cricket. Although we don't know what it is we know that Giles Clarke, the Chairman of the ECB, David Collier, the Chief Executive and the England coach Peter Moores will face the press. We expect Giles Clarke to read a hastily prepared statement and not take questions. Actually, I believe we can now speak to Charles Colville at Lords, the home of cricket. Charles?'
Charles Colville – 'Alex, yes I can hear you. Can I just say that the media room here is currently a scene of complete and utter chaos. We, the written, television and the radio media, were all here in anticipation of The Ashes tour fixtures for 2009 being announced this afternoon. This conference, which I believe will start in about three minutes, has come as a result of an emergency meeting between Giles Clarke, David Collier and David Morgan, the acting chairman of the ICC. A meeting between Clark, Collier and Peter Moores followed.'
Mike Wedderburn – 'Charles, it's Mike here.'
Charles Colville – 'Mike, good morning.'
Mike Wedderburn – 'Charles, what is the mood like there?'
Charles Colville – 'Mike, we are amid a state of absolute confusion. Everyone is trying to second guess what this is all about. Current suggested topics could be Zimbabwe's future in world cricket or the possible refusal by the ECB of Australia playing at Lords next year. I must say though that this is all just conjecture and my instinct tells me it is big. I think…'
Ray Peters (ECB Press Officer) – 'Ladies and gentlemen, can you please take your seats. Mr Giles Clarke will now read a statement but unfortunately will not take any of your questions at this point.'

[DonaldC]

Following with interest!

[The Phantom Ram]

ECB Statement

Giles Clarke - 'Thank you for bearing with us on this difficult day. I shall now read the prepared statement. It is with my uppermost regret that I need to inform you that the England Team Doctor, Dr Graham Williams, yesterday approached me and David Collier to confirm that during the entire period of his 12 year tenure with the England Cricket Team he supplied players with performance enhancing substances, along with their sanctioned vitamins. We fully believe that the players who have represented England during this 12 year period were fully unaware that they were taking these performance enhancing substances. The ECB also confirms the both Mr Peter Moores and the previous coach, Mr Duncan Fletcher were unaware of this wrong doing. Dr Williams employment with the ECB has been terminated with immediate effect and we, at the ECB, are currently speaking to our solicitors. After taking advice from the ICC we have also taken the decision not to select any player who has played for England, in either Test Matches or One Day Internationals, during this 12 year period - for England again. I want to emphasise we are not accusing players of deliberate wrong doing but feel we need to take this stance both for the future of International Cricket and the reputation of the ECB. I can confirm that Dr Williams has only ever had dealings with the full England team and therefore the players who will no longer be considered for selection are;

Chris Adams, Uzman Afzaal, Kabir Ali, Tim Ambrose, Jimmy Anderson, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, Ian Blackwell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Alistair Brown, Mark Butcher, Andrew Caddick, Glen Chapple, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, Alistair Cook, Dominic Cork, John Crawley, Robert Croft, Jamie Dalrymple, Richard Dawson, Mark Ealham, Andrew Flintoff, Jamie Foster, Paul Franks, Jason Gallian, Darren Gough, Steve Harmison, David Hemp, Graeme Hick, Matthew Hoggard, Geriant Jones, Simon Jones, Ed Joyce, Robert Key, James Kirtley, Chris Lewis, Jonathon Lewis, Mal Loye, Darren Maddy, Sajid Mahmood, Dmitri Mascarenhas, Anthony McGrath, Phil Mustard, Paul Nixon, Jimmy Ormand, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pieterson, Liam Plunkett, Matthew Prior, Mark Ramprakash, Chris Read, Martin Saggers, Iain Salisbury, Chris Schofield, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Chris Silverwood, Ed Smith, Jeremy Snape, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Jamie Troughton, Alex Tudor, Shaun Udal, Michael Vaughan, Alex Wharf, Craig White, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy.

These players, all currently contacted to their counties are not banned, just not considered for England selection. They will still be available to their counties. Peter Moores has also confirmed that he will step down as England Coach with immediate effect. This resignation has been accepted by the ECB, albeit with regret, but again we want to emphasise we fully believe that Peter Moores is guilty of no wrong doing. After much deliberation we have decided that Steven Wild, current coach of Derbyshire CCC, will be appointed the new England Coach. This appointment has been made because Steven Wild has recently entered the English game and has not come into contact with the people at the heart of this scandal. It will be his job to take us through the summer fixtures against New Zealand and South Africa and beyond. Steven Wild will not continue with his role at Derbyshire along side his role with the English cricket team. I understand that this news will leave you wanting to ask many questions but due to our legal position I can confirm I am not currently in a position to answer them.

[Themer]

Oh no no Shaun Udal but he had so many years for England in him :P
Good Start could be interesting

[The Phantom Ram]

Back to Sky Sports News

Alex Quinn – 'So Mike, massive news there. First of all while we consider the news, what do we know about Steven Wild? Well. Steven Wild has only spent 3 months in charge at Derbyshire and in that time has not won a game in the county championship but he has been credited with transforming the fortunes and the future of the under achieving county. Prior to this season he has worked with the counties age teams having never played professional cricket. Mike, he'll have his work cut out won't he?
Mike Wedderburn – 'I really don't know what to say, this news, and the action the ECB have taken shocks and saddens me in equal measures. He, Steven Wild I mean, is on a hiding to nothing though. He is thrown into a job that even he would probably admit he isn't qualified for. To make it worse he does it without the likes of Freddie, Kevin Pieterson and the best captain in the world, Michael Vaughan. It is madness, absolute madness, and it will set the cricket in England back 30 years. I think we can go to Angus Fraser of the Independent newspaper and veteran of 46 test for England over at Lords. Angus hello.'
Angus Fraser – 'Mike, Alex.'
Alex Quinn – 'Angus, you have had 10 minutes to digest what you have heard. What do you make of the statement read out by Giles Clarke?'
Angus Fraser – 'Alex, first of all I probably need to be careful what I say here. I last played for England in 1998, during Dr Williams' time at Lords. Am I being called a drug cheat? I don't know at the moment.'
Mike Wedderburn – 'Angus I can see that this affects you personally and I can understand you are upset with what you have heard. Where does English cricket go from here?'
Angus Fraser – ‘Mike, I honestly don’t know. We will go into the test match with New Zealand on 15 May with eleven players making their debuts, it is a no win situation. We are currently ranked 3rd in the test rankings but I can see us dropping like a stone.’

[Sureshot]

How fantastically different!

[The Phantom Ram]

Talk Sport -2 May 2008

Alan Brazil – ‘Ronnie, I can now go over to Jack Bannister on the line. Jack, morning. How are you?
Jack Bannister – ‘Alan, Ronnie, good morning. Alan, I can tell you I am still in a state of total shock. What happened yesterday, for me, is the biggest news in Cricket, ever. Ronnie, how do you feel about this?’
Ronnie Irani – ‘Jack obviously I have got to be careful. My solicitor is looking into this for me, but for the game it is massive. We now have a coach who has coached in 3 first class games and will have 11 guys, god knows who, making their debuts in a fortnight.’
Alan Brazil – ‘Jack, Ronnie, if this is true and the Doctor guy has been feeding the boys pills, have the ECB done the right thing?’
Jack Bannister – ‘Catagorically yes. It is unfortunate on the boys involved, especially the young players like Broad, Anderson and Bopra who will have had long careers ahead of them. But if they have received an advantage through drugs then this is the only answer, for me anyway.’
Ronnie Irani - ‘But Jack we had no idea. No idea we were taking anything other than vitamins. No idea at all.’
Alan Brazil – ‘Well Jack we are going to a break now but thanks for joining us. We are getting texts in from our listeners Ronnie wondering how bad you would have been, without these!’
Ronnie Irani – ‘That’s well below the belt.’

[The Phantom Ram]

Press Conference (Lords) - 8 May 2008

Steven Wild (England Coach) – ‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Obviously you are all keen to hear the England squad for the game against New Zealand next week so I will get straight in and name my twelve.

Firstly my captain will be Scott Newman of Surrey, the rest of the squad will be Grant Hodnett (Gloucs), James Hildreth (Somerset), Joe Denly (Kent), Billy Godleman (Middlesex), Steve Davies (Worcestershire), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), James Harris (Glamorgan), Adam Shantry (Glamorgan), Naqqah Taqir (Warwickshire), Mark Davies (Durham).

They’ll be a few names that are maybe new to you but these are all quality players who would have test futures anyway. What we do need to remember is that some of these boys have come into this position – through no fault of their own – a lot earlier than we would have liked. We have got 7 test matches this summer and obviously we need the public and the press to re adjust their expectations.’

[DonaldC]

liked the TalkSport bit... Interesting squad, I've never heard of Grant Hodnett, but the rest are all obviously decent players. Not sure about Godleman. When ever I've seen him, he looks a bit dodgy. Still, he's only 19, so fingers crossed.

[The Phantom Ram]

Daily Mail - 9 May 2008

Here is your handy guide to the 12 players who hold the very future of English cricket in their young hands

Scott Newman (Surrey) – 28 years old, 0 caps – Surrey opener who at 28 will be the oldest player playing for England. Has scored 152 runs at 30.40 this season.
Grant Hodnett (Gloucs) – 25, 0 – Gloucestershire opener who impressed new coach Steven Wild on the opening day of the season with his innings of 159. Has scored 273 runs at 68.25 this season.
James Hildreth (Somerset) – 23, 0 – Cultured middle order batsmen from Somerset with a top score of 105 this season. Has scored 220 runs at 55.00 this season.
Joe Denly (Kent) – 22, 0 – Hard hitting opener who has a big future in the test side. Has scored 257 runs at 32.12 this season.
Billy Godleman (Middlesex) – 19, 0 – Middle order batsman who has struggled for form this season. Has scored 135 runs at 33.75 this season.
Steve Davies (Worcestershire) – 21, 0 – Young wicketkeeper who can also open, but could have a long term future in the test side at 6. Has scored 320 runs at 53.33 this season.
Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire) – 23, 0 – All-rounder who bowls slow left arm. Has 86 runs at 43.00 and only 1 wicket at 36.00 this season.
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire) – 20, 0 – Another spinning all-rounder who bowls leg spin. Has 117 runs at 39.00 and 3 wickets at 19.67 this season.
James Harris (Glamorgan) – 18, 0 – The youngest member of the squad. The fast-medium bowling all rounder has 24 runs at 12.00 and 6 wickets at 34.67 this season.
Adam Shantry (Glamorgan) – 25, 0 – Left arm fast medium bowler who has 16 wickets at 16.87 this season.
Naqqah Taqir (Warwickshire) – 24, 0 – Fast medium bowler who has 28 wickets at 19.86 this season.
Mark Davies (Durham) – 27, 0 – Injury prone fat medium bowler who has 9 wickets at 25.22 this season.

[The Phantom Ram]

liked the TalkSport bit... Interesting squad, I've never heard of Grant Hodnett, but the rest are all obviously decent players. Not sure about Godleman. When ever I've seen him, he looks a bit dodgy. Still, he's only 19, so fingers crossed.

Glad you are enjoying it. This is the first game I have played so any tips of players or things you would like to see in the story, let me know.

[acook]

What about Paul Horton, Michael Carberry, Varun Chopra, Dawid Malan, Luke Sutton, Peter Trego, Graham Napier, Saqluain Mushtaq and Nayan Doshi?

[acook]

Enjoying this story a lot. Keep up the good work.

[Themer]

Nice start everyone on the list has masses of potential. Patel is a brilliant lower order batsman.