English cricket recently lost one of its great performers in the left-arm spinner Derek Underwood. No England spinner took more than his 297 Test wickets. … Read More
Bazball Hits the Buffers
India’s four-One victory over England can hardly be described as a shock, still less a surprise. Before going any further, a few simple facts. First, … Read More
Joy Unconfined: Test Cricket at its Best
At close of play on an action-packed first day of the first Test at Hyderabad, India were 119 for one off 23 overs in response … Read More
A Review of Men’s International Cricket in 2023
This article was originally published in Scoreline magazine. You can download a PDF version here. Men’s international cricket had plenty to celebrate in 2023 but … Read More
Tales of the Unexpected
Is COVID the explanation for everything that has happened since? Time is a curious and mysterious concept and the pandemic definitely made it seem more … Read More
There’s a Hole in my Bucket: Equipment Malfunction and the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023
The game between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Delhi, the 38th game of the tournament, was not without interest to the impartial observer – particularly … Read More
Kuldeep Yadav: “A Genuine Leg-Spinner”
The Men’s Cricket World Cup has been great fun to watch. I say this despite having made some public predictions that were almost laughably wide … Read More
Bishan Singh Bedi
Of the Indians who have played county cricket since the easing of the qualification rules in 1968, only Farokh Engineer has made a greater impact … Read More
Crisis? What crisis?
“ Litotes?”, a friend said in response to my WhatsApp message that my prediction regarding the Men’s Cricket World Cup – that England were a … Read More
How are the mighty fallen?
[External link] Empires come and go. Sporting ascendancy is equally, and inevitably, ephemeral. Few sporting giants, however, can have been brought back down to earth as completely and precipitously, as the West Indies cricket team.
Ashes 2023 Autopsy
The 2023 Ashes was an outstanding series, providing the sort of ever-changing narrative that limited-overs cricket simply cannot deliver. Four of the Tests resulted in … Read More
Spirit of the Age
Jonny Bairstow faced up to the final ball of Cameron Green’s eighth over. It was predictably short and Bairstow ducked under it. He then made … Read More