• One-County Man

    Some Cricketers

    The former England batsman Ian Bell has announced his retirement from first-class cricket at the end of this slightly unreal…

  • Why Manchester Mattered

    England

    What should we make of the first (unsponsored) Test between England and Pakistan at Old Trafford? Of course the first…

    Bill Pavilion End, Bill Ricquier's Cricket Views
  • England v Pakistan – a Magical Mystery Tour

    England

     The relationship between England and Pakistan as cricketing nations has always been “interesting”.  Things started to go wrong almost as…

  • When the Numbers Don’t Matter

    Some Cricketers

    Is Sam Curran in your best England Test eleven? Well all right, twelve? Er, thirteen? Selection is a strange business…

  • The Triple Effervescence

    Hail and Farewell

    With the passing of Sir Everton Weekes in early July, cricket lost the last survivor of perhaps its greatest and…

  • The Lord’s Test

    About the Game

    There it is, in the diary: Thursday 25 June, Lord’s. I had two tickets for each of the first four…

    Lord's at dusk
  • Opening Up

    Batting

    Opening batsmen are different; there are no two ways about it. It is obvious why they are different. Opening the…

  • Many a Slip

    Some Cricketers

    This is not a history of close fielding; that will have to come later. This is more in the nature…

    Bill Pavilion End, Bill Ricquier's Cricket Views
  • The Smack of Firm Government

    Some Cricketers

    A number of friends – some not even cricketing friends really – alerted me to the passing, a couple of…

  • Here Comes the Sun

    Some Cricket Matches

    We’re now in mid-May, and, if all was right in the world, the West Indians ought to be arriving in…

  • Dean Park, Bournemouth, 3 May 1970

    Some Cricket Matches

    Wisden arrived this week. Of course one always has to wait a little while for it in Singapore, but wherever…

  • Vinoo Mankad

    Some Cricketers

    This is a chapter from The Indian Masters, published originally in 2015 The 2004 edition of Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack has…