MediaNews

Piers Morgan – from chat show host to cricket punchbag

As the global ad industry continues its post-Christmas, pre-New Year slumber there’s an onus on us to bring you some diversion – and this contest between CNN chat show host (and former Daily Mirror editor) Piers Morgan and Aussie pace bowler Brett Lee (retired) is certainly that.

For those of you who don’t get cricket (and it takes a while) the England team is being slaughtered by the Aussies in the current Ashes series down under (four down with one of five to play).

Morgan, who fancies himself as a club cricketer, has tweeted his contempt for the English batsmen’s lack of spirit against the Aussie bowlers, especially the once-derided but currently fearsome Mitchell Johnson. So bravely (and foolishly it turns out) decided to take on an over (six balls) from Lee.

And a right hash he makes of it.

It should have been obvious from about ball two that backing away to the leg side gave Lee a temptingly large target to aim at. If Morgan had stayed in front of his stumps (protecting those is the first priority of a batsman, after all) he could have moved inside the line and watched Lee’s thunderbolts pass (relatively) harmlessly down the leg side.

Never mind – at least he fronted up. He might acknowledge, though, that facing a potentially lethal leather missile travelling at 90 miles an hour is not quite so easy after all, even for test batsmen.

Back to top button