Author: Bill Ricquier

  • Old-fashioned Test cricket, and a decisive advantage

    17 July 2014
    On an attritional day of old- fashioned Test cricket South Africa put themselves in a position from which it is…
  • A fine hundred, but the hosts hold sway

    16 July 2014
    South Africa’s new Test captain, Hashim Amla has got the most important thing right on the first day of the…
  • A cherished ground prepares for battle

    14 July 2014
    The first between Sri Lanka and South Africa, which starts on Wednesday at the Galle International Stadium will be the…
  • The bespectacled cricketers of the past

    22 May 2014
    Watching Virender Sehwag bat in the Pepsi IPL wearing spectacles made one think of Test cricketers over the years who…
  • A drubbing recalled, three decades later

    19 May 2014
    After a five-nil drubbing at the hands of the best team in the world, England and its beleagured left handed…
  • Who really holds the power on the field?

    26 April 2014
    Image: Sri Lankan cricketer Lasith Malinga tosses a cricket ball during a practice session on October 2010 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. By paddynapper…
  • Form is temporary, class permanent - or is it?

    16 March 2014
    “Form is temporary, class is permanent” is an addled old cliche, but like many an addled old cliche, it has…
  • The many small pleasures of a drawn Test

    26 February 2014
    There were all sorts of good things about the drawn second Test between New Zealand and India at Wellington's Basin…
  • English county cricket's debt to overseas talent

    16 February 2014
    English county cricket owes a huge debt to its overseas players. Particularly since the qualification rules were liberalised in 1968,…
  • A roll-call of names, and England's gathering gloom

    24 January 2014
    David Gower, Ian Botham, Allan Lamb, Paul Downton, Brian Lara, Ridley Jacobs, Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell. What…