England v India News and Tour Preview

England take on India, the number 1 ranked Test team in a 4 match Test Series. They will also play one Twenty20 and 5 ODI matches. Who will come out on top?

Tour Schedule

Thursday July 21st – First Test at Lord’sThursday July 29th – Second Test at Trent BridgeWednesday August 10th – Third Test at EdgbastonThursday August 18th – Fourth Test at the Kia OvalWednesday August 31st – NatWest International Twenty20 Match at Old Trafford ManchesterSaturday September 3rd – NatWest One Day Series, Match 1 at Emirates DurhamTuesday September 6th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 2 at The Rose Bowl SouthamptonFriday September 9th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 3 at The Kia Oval LondonSunday September 11th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 4 at Lord’s LondonFriday September 16th – NatWest One Day Series, Match 5 at The Swalec Stadium Cardiff

The first Test at Lord’s will be quite an historic event as this will be the 2000th Test Match in history, it will also be the 100th Test Match between England and India. Another piece of history that might be made will be concerning Sachin Tendulkar who has hit 99 centuries in his career but has yet to have one at the home of cricket.

England Squad

There are no surprises in England’s squad for the first Test. Strauss and Cook will open with Trott coming in at number 3, the next four batsmen will be Pieterson, Bell and Morgan. Matt Prior is the Test wicket keeper and the four bowlers will be Swann, Anderson, Tremlett and the selectors have a straight choice between Broad and Bresnan.

Swann and Anderson are ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively in the ICC bowling Test rankings, while Trott and Cook are ranked 4th and 5th in the ICC batting Test rankings.

India Squad

India have brought a 17 man squad over to England for the four match Test series, it includes the three batsmen who are in the top ten ICC rankings, Tendulkar (2nd), Laxman (6th) and Sehwag (8th). India also have three bowlers in ICC’s top ten and they are Sharma (8th), Singh (7th) and Khan (6th).

If you add players like wicket keeper and captain Dhoni, Yuvraj, Dravid and Gambhir you can understand why this Indian team are currently the top ranked Test team in the World.

Preview

After England’s 1-0 series win over Sri Lanka they now face sterner opposition in India who are currently World Champions in One Day cricket and the number one ranked Test team in the World. England’s bowlers will have to perform better than they did against Sri Lanka to take the necessary 20 wickets to win.

One thing that may well go against India is the lack of match practice for some of their squad. In their one warm up game against Somerset their top named batsmen and bowlers looked distinctly out of touch and will have to settle in at Lord’s very quickly.

If England can beat India by either 2-0 or 3-1 they will leapfrog over both South Africa and India to take ICC’s number one ranking in the world, however I believe this series will be a close one and may well end up as a draw.

In the 5 One Day matches it all points to an Indian victory, they have an extremely well balanced side, score runs quickly and usually bowl and field well. England will have to play at their very best to win and I can see India winning comfortably.

Source

Bbc/cricket – 07/20/2011

Harriet Mordaunt Paid Heavily for Her Royal Dalliance

England's Victorian aristocracy was shocked by a scandal that saw a high royal personage threatened with court action over an affair.

The Prince of Wales, later to be Edward VII, was a man of massive appetites. As Spartacus Educational reports, he ate “five large meals a day. These meals often consisted of ten or more courses. By the time he was middle-aged he had a waist of forty-eight inches. Edward also smoked twelve large cigars and twenty cigarettes a day.”

In addition, he had an unquenchable thirst for the ladies. In his 2007 book , Anthony John Camp claims to have identified 55 mistresses of the Prince of Wales. He certainly seems to have been a very busy man in the boudoir having also fathered six children with his wife Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

Harriet Sarah Moncreiffe Marries Sir Charles Mordaunt

In 1866, Harriet Moncreiffe, the daughter of a Scottish baronet, married a man 12 years her senior. Her husband, Sir Charles Mordaunt, was a wealthy member of the English landed gentry with a fondness for hunting and fishing; occupations not enjoyed by his spirited and beautiful young wife.

So, while Sir Charles was off killing wildlife Harriet was whiling away the time with a series of lovers. Roger Wilkes writes in that, “it was only when she gave birth to a blind baby daughter, Violet, in February 1870 that she confessed that he was not the father, and blamed the infant’s affliction on a venereal disease.”

She told her husband that among her lovers were Viscount Cole, Sir Frederic Johnstone, and the Prince of Wales.

Sir Charles Petitions for Divorce

Sir Charles was furious and set in motion a process to divorce his wife. An obituary of one of his descendants in notes that, “The subsequent divorce case lasted for several years, with the public treated to further titillation by the Prince’s appearance in the witness-box to deny any impropriety.”

Roger Wilkes suggests the problem was solved by a bribe from the Prince of Wales to induce Viscount Cole to take the fall and admit to adultery with Lady Mordaunt. But, Harriet’s defence was that she was insane and unable to understand the consequences of her actions. The jury agreed with the defence and found her to be suffering from post-partum psychosis. Sir Charles continued to pursue a divorce, which was finally granted in 1875.

Aftermath of Scandalous Affair

Lady Mordaunt was declared to be mad and spent the remaining 35 years of her life in a lunatic asylum.

Biographers disagree on whether or not Lady Mordaunt was insane. Diana Souhami leans to the conclusion that the finding of madness was a convenient way of punishing Harriet and keeping the real details of her extra-marital life under wraps. However, Royce Ryton and Michael Havers in writing about another scandal involving the Prince of Wales assert that Harriet was clearly deranged.

The Prince of Wales suffered no punishment other than a scolding from his mother, Queen Victoria, and was content to carry on his libertine lifestyle.

In an interesting postscript, one of the prince’s later mistresses was Alice Keppel. Her great-granddaughter, Camilla Parker Bowles, became the mistress and, later, wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, the current heir to the throne of England.

Sources

“Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction, 1714–1936.” Anthony John Camp, self published, Sept, 2007.“Sex Mad - and off to the Asylum to Prove it.” Roger Wilkes, , January 16, 2002.“Sir Richard Hamilton, Bt.” Obituary, , October 3, 2001.“Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter.” Diana Souhami, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998.“The Royal Baccarat Scandal.” Royce Ryton and Michael Havers, Samuel French Ltd., 1990.