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Mark Mitchener - BBC Sport

Listed below are comments made by Mark Mitchener - BBC Sport between Friday, 20th February 2009 and Sunday, 22nd November 2009.

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Resourceful Colly reaches landmark 11:32pm on 22 Nov 2009 Whenever I hear people questioning Colly, I always think - who would do best for England in a crisis?
I was in Napier, New Zealand, for the third Test in March 2008 when a number of England batsmen had reason to be concerned for their places. On the first morning, Vaughan, Strauss and Cook all fell cheaply to leave England 4-3, and Bell fell soon after at 36-4.
KP got the headlines that day for hitting 129 (when he wasn't feeling well either), but Colly came in at 36-4 to join him, and he scored the most gritty, invaluable 30 (off 82 balls) I've ever seen. (This was the same match where Strauss saved his career with 177 in the second innings)
Who (of the current England batsmen) would you want at the crease if you're four or five down and really under the cosh? I'd take Colly every time.
My Japanese Grand Prix predictions 1:29pm on 09 Oct 2009 You can read the latest from - in which he reflects on the turmoil at his beloved Chester City FC - here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chester/8299012.stm
Charmed by the planet's fastest man 11:30pm on 17 Aug 2009 Thanks for your comments - Sonja meant to write that it was the Prime Minister of Jamaica, not the President, to whom Bolt spoke after his victory.
England's women eye Ashes treble 1:00pm on 10 Jul 2009 FYI, you can follow Alison on Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/bbctms

She's currently reporting on the men's Ashes Test at Cardiff, and is concerned that the women's Test may be over before the men's!

Aussies were 28-5 but have now recovered to 69-5.
England player ratings 3:55pm on 18 May 2009 Hi, thanks for your comments so far. Let's keep the debate animated but constructive.

When giving these marks, I normally work under the assumption that the "star man" (in this case Anderson) should get a higher mark than anyone else - if Cook had gone on to get 200, he might well have rivalled Anderson for man of the match (and so might have been in the market for a 9).

The context in which runs and wickets are obtained is also all-important - if you're going to give marks purely based on statistics, you may just as well repeat the scorecard.

And is anyone worth a 10? Possibly for an incredible one-off performance of world-class heroics (Jim Laker's 19 wickets, Lara's 400 or Botham at Headingley in 1981).

If Bopara scores a backs-against-the-wall double hundred against Brett Lee that wins England the Ashes, I'd be thrilled to give him 10!
Friday the 13th hits Antigua 2:58pm on 20 Feb 2009 Thanks for all your comments - at least we saw some cricket in the end (and the ARG was great - a real "proper" cricket ground), although my tour group had to leave at the lunch interval on the fifth day, as we couldn't move our flights which were already pre-booked for that afternoon.

So, I was sat at Antigua airport (just a stone's throw from Stanford's ground) following Paul Fletcher's live text commentary on my mobile phone and a fellow tourist's Ipod as the drama unfolded.

As our plane landed in St Lucia, I heard the words "for nine" and a large collective sigh from several rows in front of me - which informed me the match had finished as a draw.

Still, I was one of the lucky ones - many others on our flight are still waiting for their suitcases to materialise!

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Mark Mitchener - BBC Sport