Jack Rule

95% cricket badger, 5% everything else | Former Rugby Ref | Cricket Umpire & Scorer | Lancashire & Melbourne Renegades supporter. All views are my own

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@callumh15306 Tbh yes I think they will be tougher and more competitive than playing WI.
Players will have to perform otherwise the person they are playing against will have there spot in the side.

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

Disappointing yes, but in reality we all knew it wasn’t going to happen.

A Test would have been nice but I can see the ECB pov here also, is a test against a side that is weak & doesn’t play long form cricket really the best practice for the Ashes imo no.

[Rosa Simkin | Rosa Talks Ball @rosatalksball]

🚨 BREAKING: England Women’s planned Test against West Indies in 2027 has been scrapped to prioritise preparations for the Ashes.

The West Indies tour will now consist of three T20Is and three ODIs.

#Cricket

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@RicFinlay Blame the broadcasters, they are the ones that don’t want to pay for it.

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

Just casually forgets to add the keep piece of information that there has only been 6 sessions of PMQs since Burnham became PM.

Attending global submits is part of the job moron.

[Gully Foyle @TerraOrBust]

This Wednesday, 11th November, our Prime Minister will yet again miss PMQs as he is on another jolly at COP31 in Turkey.

Since becoming PM in July, he has only been at PMQs five times.

Four months, five PMQs. Disgraceful. Will do anything to avoid any scrutiny.

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@BeckyBscorer They are so good, love doing them to just clear my head

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@BeckyBscorer What time should I arrive!?

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@a_thomas1958 Or maybe you just need to get over yourself.
I may not be a Surrey fan but to think they are somehow bending rules is just ridiculous

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@AzeemRafiq30 Simple
Don’t Cheat you won’t get punished

[BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight]

"It really is ridiculous"

Broadcaster Andrew Neil says a celebrity should not be able to "muzzle" news outlets from publishing allegations about him.

#Newsnight

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

This whole is getting ridiculous now.

It’s happened, it ain’t going to be changed, keep going round and round on it isn’t going to change that.

Move on now and move to the future.

[Lancashire County Cricket Members Group @LancsCCMG]

I can respect Farbrace's decision on cricket grounds even though I don't agree with it. The way it was done was inexcusable though.

This is a powerful opinion piece that will no doubt divide opinion

[John Atherton @JohnAtherton9]

@LancsCCMG In an interview with Marcus Harris weeks ago, he admiringly said he was amazed JA kept going held together with strappings and sticky tape (I paraphrase). It was crassly executed on a par with his England exit but perhaps the feeling was JA would not last the season. Who knows?

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@LancsCCMG @stuchastosh I still don’t trust that is 100% true.
It’s not someone leaking it is going to come out a week later and yeah I leaked it.

[mark anthony hilton @markanthonyhilt]

@LancsCCMG @ViewfromtheBpod I agree - ridiculous hyperbole. Fans wanted new regime. Fans got new regime. New regime has a new strategy. Move on. Lancs finished 2nd bottom with Anderson as skipper.

[ViewfromtheBridge @ViewfromtheBpod]

This is getting silly, now

I think it's a baffling decision, but at the end of the day it's a cricketer not being offered a new contract

It's not like they stuck him in a bomb squad or told him by WhatsApp

The idea this will shame Lancashire for decades to come is ridiculous

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

Scare mongering of the highest order.
Anyone would think Tesco and Sainsburys sales are down recently

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: Britain is on alert to protect Tesco and Sainsbury's fridges amid cyber attacks on similar fridges across Europe

Hackers are remotely accessing them and turning temperatures up to as high as 80C

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

@KingmakerScribe @BBCNews Given the quality of the presenters of BBC News America it’s a good thing.
They are terrible presenters and newscasters. Maybe they can learn a few things while he is there

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

Ash Gardner has beaten Hobart Hurricanes by 15 runs!!

#WBBL12

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

A century
3 wickets
Run out

Just needs a speccie catch for true all round performance from Ash
#WBBL12

[Weber Women's Big Bash League @WBBL]

Not only has Ash Gardner hit the Sixers' highest WBBL score of all time, but she's taken three wickets! #WBBL12

[Jack Rule @JackRuleLD]

Ash is on fire tonight

One of the great knocks from her.

[Weber Women's Big Bash League @WBBL]

Extraordinary 🤯

@SixersBBL skipper Ash Gardner brings up her second WBBL hundred off just 51 balls, after the side were 3-6. #WBBL12

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Jamie Carragher has now apologised to Aston Villa for comments this week which were disrespectful but hardly actionable. He was wrong about a proud, historic club. Villa said last night they would “initiate legal action” against Carragher for what they described as his “unacceptable insults about the Club and its fans” on his Stick To Football podcast. Carragher claimed Unai Emery would “fancy” joining Manchester United. This fed Villa’s belief/fear of institutional impediments embedded in the Premier League inhibiting their ambitions.

We live in a media age where views are news. Carragher is a pundit, paid to give opinions shaped by his many experiences as a player. It’s why he’s also employed by Sky Sports, which bankrolls much of football. You may not agree with some of his views expressed in the more informal, pub-vibe podland, but he’s allowed to say them, and discourse is at the heart of being a fan. That said, Carragher certainly shouldn’t be telling Villa fans objecting to his comments to “shut the f**k up” even “in jest”, a strange way of expanding an audience.

“My language this week was clumsy & wrong,” Carragher has now posted on X in his apology to Villa, the owners and fans. “I can assure Villa fans it was tongue in cheek but I can understand it’s not come across that way, so apologies. Good luck today UTV!” Whether this is from pure contrition or a reaction to the threat of legal action remains to be seen.

Carragher’s view on Emery deserved challenging but by Villa’s fans not by the club, which should have risen above it, and certainly not by lawyers. You don’t need to be a diehard Holte Ender to question why on earth Emery would leave Villa for United. Emery runs the football operations at Villa, organising and inspiring the squad and team, and overseeing the successful recruitment model. United are a managerial churn machine, a dysfunctional family, with tensions between fans and board, and a squad that needs a long-overdue overhaul.

Carragher also needed challenging - in a debate, not a court - about his view on a famous club who have contributed so much to the history of the game. Near the players’ entrance is the statue of William McGregor, founder of the Football League. Villa were founder members of the Premier League. Champions of England, champions of Europe, producer of talent like Brian Little, Gabby Agbonlahor, Gary Cahill and Jack Grealish, and a couple more in the pipeline. The Holte End is one of the great stands of football. Villa deserve more respect from Carragher which he now shows belatedly in today’s post.

But Carragher’s suggestion that there is a food chain in football is hardly a radical thought. It’s a view, the game is full of them, and if lawyers are scrambled, and views are censored, then the whole game is the poorer.