“…Anderson and Broad declined to pitch the ball up.” This is from Lawrence Booth’s match report of the second Test between Australia and England at … Read More
The Honourable Member: Tim Paine, and a Story for Our Times
With English cricket still reeling from the shame and embarrassment of the Azeem Rafiq saga, and with actual cricket not being a possibility because of … Read More
Today Yorkshire: Tomorrow…?
In all of English cricket’s long history, there have been few more chilling, more harrowing, days than 16 November 2021. At the same time it … Read More
The Fight for The Ashes 2021-22
Had this preview been written earlier, it would have been very different. The sudden and unexpected announcement that the England all-rounder Ben Stokes had been … Read More
Take Your Pick
“It is not the strongest squad England have taken to Australia – nor is it the weakest.” This was Mike Atherton’s decidedly non-committal verdict, published … Read More
Pragmatism or Betrayal? The West and Pakistan
It is impossible for a genuine cricket follower to feel anything other than sadness and dismay at the sudden cancellation of first New Zealand’s and … Read More
England: The New Pakistan
In the bad old days overseas teams especially from the so-called new Commonwealth – not Australia, South Africa and New Zealand – could be summarised … Read More
A Turning Point
It looks as though The Hundred might actually work. I haven’t actually watched any of it myself, for the various reasons associated with being in … Read More
Watching Paint Dry
Is cricket too boring? It may seem a strange question to ask but it isn’t really. Writing this on the afternoon of Sunday 11 July … Read More
On Top of the World
There cannot be many genuine cricket followers, even in the subcontinent, who weren’t, if only subconsciously , happy at the outcome of the inaugural World … Read More
Education, Education, Education
It’s not difficult to see why New Zealand are in the World Test Championship (WTC) final and England aren’t, on the evidence of the two-match … Read More
Out of Africa
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that being a cricket person in Singapore is fine because these days so much cricket is available on … Read More