Ball-tampering is one of cricket’s great taboos, up there with throwing and match-fixing. Any doubt one might have had about this would have been resolved … Read More
The Beginning of the End?
In the space of a few days in February two players on the fringes of the England Test squad, Yorkshire’s leg-spinning all-rounder Adil Rashid, and … Read More
Country Cousins
England’s mildly catastrophic Ashes series is to be followed by a two-match Test series in New Zealand. On the face of it there is something … Read More
My Country Right or Left
Rangana Herath did something remarkable in Sri Lanka’s comfortable win over Bangladesh in the second Test at Mirpur. In taking his 415th Test wicket, in … Read More
Another Ashes Mismatch
It was yet another deeply disappointing Ashes series. It wasn’t just Australia’s crushing margin of victory. The fact is that there were no really interesting … Read More
More Pain for Sri Lanka as India Inflict Whitewash
The troubles that have afflicted Sri Lankan cricket ever since their home triumph against Australia in 2016 continued in the second half of 2017, culminating … Read More
The Ball of the Century
On BBC’s Test Match Special Michael Vaughan and Graeme Swann separately described the delivery from Mitchell Starc that dismissed James Vince in England’s second innings … Read More
King of the Jungle
Australia don’t normally “do” finger spin. For them it has traditionally been the wrist spinner who has held sway among the slow bowlers. From the … Read More
Five Men and a Test Match
The Brisbane Cricket Ground (the GABBA) All England supporters fear the worst before a Test match in Brisbane. There is the hype about the “Gabbatoir” … Read More
Everything is Broken
England have had a challenging – yes, we all know what that means – start to their tour of Australia and New Zealand. Even before … Read More
Building a Cricket Library
Is cricket the most literary of games? There is obviously no real answer to this question. For all I know there is a wealth of … Read More
How to Win in the UAE
The simple answer is one that was only ever available to one team and is no longer available to them: appoint Misbah-ul-haq as captain. In … Read More