The Cricket Tweets Of The Week - Triumph And Tragedy

The Cricket Tweets Of The Week - Triumph And Tragedy

Mark Boucher's retirement was a hot topic on Twitter this week

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John Pryor highlights and discusses a range of the most entertaining and controversial tweets of the week by cricketers and cricket pundits.

Twitter was a place of both celebration and sorrow this week. The England men's and women's teams celebrated One-Day International (ODI) series victories. For the women it was a 3-2 series win versus India and team captain Charlotte Edwards (@Lottie2323), reported the victory with jubilation: "Love a series win..well done girls!! Congrats @Gelwiss on POS and MOM today!! #partytime."

We were then treated to an update about the night that followed: "£1.50 jäger bombs...oh go on then!! #serieswin." It sounds like it was a party not to be missed, #Ithoughtproathletesdidnotdrink.

The England men were in equally good spirits after a 4-0 series whitewash of Australia. The performances of Ravi Bopara in the final match and Ian Bell in the series were praised across Twitter, David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd (@BumbleCricket) tweeted, "Pleased for Bopara. Needs to understand he deserves to be in the team Fine player."

Steven Finn (@finnysteve) was full of praise for his colleagues: "Great series win. Well done @ravibopara for MOM and belly for MOS.’ In response Bopara (@ravibopara) modestly tweeted, "Great performance from the lads..congrats Belly on Player of the Series..big thank u to all the fans for supporting me and the team #blessed."

As with the England Women, the men could not contain their excitement for the celebrations to come, Finn tweeting, "Red Bull and champagne tipple of choice. Messy night ahead!"
 
Once again the cricket world was faced with tragedy this week when Mark Boucher suffered a career-ending injury in South Africa's warm up match versus Somerset. Twitter responded with well wishes and reflections on such a magnificent career. Bumble tweeted, "shocking injury to Mark Boucher...Won't seem the same without him....great pro."

Graeme Smith (@GraemeSmith49) expressed his emotions at the retirement of his friend and colleague: "Pretty surreal day! chilling in bus onroute (sic) to Kent pondering and dealing with a fair amount of emotion. Looking fward to that hotel bed...."

Towards the end of the week Boucher himself (@markb46) took to Twitter to thank his colleagues for contributing to his amazing career. "Retirement had 2 be called bit early. But thanks 2 EVERYONE 4 all the good times and tough times! U have all contributed and I’m truly blessed!"

Twitter also looked ahead to the forthcoming England-South Africa Test series. Michael Vaughan (@VaughanCricket) engaged in several heated debates with followers about team selection and the quartet of South African born players in the England squad. Having tweeted his first choice England team (Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Bopara, Prior, Bresnan, Broad, Swann and Anderson, he then defended his selection of Tim Bresnen over Steven Finn: "'@Scottftm: @VaughanCricket Finn in for Bres surely!' Bres ave 25 with the ball in Test cricket. Over 30 with the Bat. You do the Maths !!!"

He went on to poke fun at those who claimed that the England team is saturate with South Africans: '"@auldy27: @VaughanCricket only 4 imports in that side! Well done England #Cheats' We are gutted we missed out on Steyn.... Lol."

I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of the former England captain this week. 

Other stories to grace the Twitter stage this week were updates of Shane Warne’s progress at a charity poker event and Adam Hollioake’s career as a professional Boxer and cage fighter.

Warne (@warne888) tweeted, "Let's substitute 'Bowled Shane' with 'played Shane' hahahaahah....For those of you who are interested out there, I have had a good start = 185,000 in chips.... Thanks for support guys."

Hollioake (@adamhollioake) tweeted "Pleased 2 announce I have signed up to fight at @Combat8DominateIts a hybrid boxing MMA tournament on Sep 1st..time to get in da gym again." Though cage fighting and cricket do not have a lot in common it will be interesting to see whether Hollioake can translate his success in the middle to success in the ring.

John Pryor tweets at @johnnypryor and Cricket World are tweeting at @Cricket_World

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