I wrote about Darren Stevens a few years ago (The Old Fox, July 2018: I think it still holds up). Since then his career has … Read More
One Size Fits – Almost – All
When did (male) professional cricketers start to look the same? Of course I don’t mean that literally. Notwithstanding the panoply of helmets, pads and other … Read More
On the Road
I had an email from an old friend this week, asking if we would be able to catch up in our customary meeting place in … Read More
Cricket in the Time of COVID: the IPL and The Hundred
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) must have been dreaming that people would come to compare its controversial new gamble, The Hundred, with the … Read More
Fever Pitch
My wife, Anita, has a theory about life during the wretched pandemic, which has now been with us for roughly a year. Her view is … Read More
Three of a Kind
Joe Root did something very special at the first Test between India and England at Chennai. He scored a century in his hundredth Test. In … Read More
Two’s Company
It is a truism that cricket is all about partnerships. The record books are full of statistics about batting partnerships. This is an inevitable result … Read More
Miracle on Vulture Street
Even the game’s administrators might at last begin to realise what every genuine cricket person has always known: that there is no sporting contest so … Read More
Courage Under Fire: John Edrich
Cricket people love debating whether a particular player is great or simply very good. “Great” tends to be over-used but people engaged in this sort … Read More
House of Cards
There could hardly have been a more appropriate way of bringing the weird and often wonderful international cricket calendar year of 2020 to a close … Read More
The Sly Old Fox: Clarrie Grimmett
I made (at least) two misstatements in my piece on John Reid. The first was that New Zealand’s Tests against England in 1949 were played … Read More
The Strong Man
John Reid, the former New Zealand captain, who died last week at the age of 92, was one of the outstanding all-round cricketers of his … Read More