"Vive la revolution!"

Episode 8 of "The Blackford Book Club" is also the fourth part of 5 from my self-published book of May 2023 entitled "Ashes to Ashes".

Here's the video for a chapter I penned entitled "Vive la revolution!" as England ended their 2022 tour of Pakistan with an unprecedented 3-0 away series victory. A link to the self published paperback book follows together with a brief excerpt from the chapter itself:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C5Z3FVYC

"When you also include the staggering statistic of 9 Test Match wins out of 10 since the teaming of McCullum the coach and Stokes his able skipper, it would seem their cricketing revolution is spinning in an otherworldly direction.

I’ve penned a phrase in these daily cricketing diaries that goes something like I’ve watched Test Match cricket my entire life and I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I haven’t. Nor have I seen an England cricket team so exciting to watch since perhaps the glorious Ashes winners of that ridiculous summer of 2005.

They now have a wealth of opening batsmen options to partner Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope is “Mr Number 3”, legendary ex skipper Joe Root a mainstay at 4, Harry Brook must’ve guaranteed the number 5 batting slot before captain Ben Stokes at 6 and then they have three, arguably four wicket keepers vying constantly for a place in the starting XI including Jonny Bairstow who lest we forget, was England’s star man throughout their touring defeats of Australia and the West Indies. For so many years it seemed as though the vaunted “Number 1 spinner” of the team was a somewhat poisoned chalice and so it’s somewhat beautifully ironic that a self proclaimed and nicknamed “Nutter” would drink from this cricketing vessel and under the laughter and smiles of captain Ben Stokes, Jack Leach has blossomed and bloomed into a thing of wonder. Fitness and age permitting, Leach is brilliantly in bloom and set for a course direction from cult hero to something much, much more. He has competition, and a possible heir, but Rehan Ahmed is a mere teenager, but with Stokes and McCullum in his corner, he has the perfect kidlike cheerleaders that will allow his sporting talent to thrive".

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