Michael Atherton Quotations

Concentration is sometimes mistaken for grumpiness.

The only positive benefit of the injury to Flintoff may be the end of his captaincy ambitions

The archives recall not one single incriminating incident, not one drunken escapade, not one reported affair, not one spat with a team-mate or reporter - As Matthew Parris wondered of Barack Obama in these pages recently, is he human?

Ray Jennings was to orthodoxy what King Herod was to child-minding.

He (Modi) says that his television stations would be in profit after the first year of a four year deal and that 'side-deals', as he puts it, were an integral part of the negotiating process.

If the England team don't want to experience another hellish week like the one that lies ahead of them now, with only pride at stake, they had better get used to the idea.

You don't enjoy it when he gets you out and makes you look a monkey. But if you get runs against him, you enjoy that because you know you've certainly earned them.

He's a very smart bowler, and he plays to the gallery as well which adds to the whole picture,

I can't imagine he would have stayed up so late the night before a Test match.

It's the amount of spin and drift that he gets, plus his accuracy. That's what sets him apart,