I saw an intriguing picture the other day while leafing through a book called Cricket – The Golden Age by Duncan Steer. You will see the image … Read More
Catch Me if You Can
Records are made to be broken. That is certainly true of sport. In some ways it is almost the point of sport. Feats that appear … Read More
Clash of the Titans
Who was the greater bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan or Shane Warne? Such questions are almost impossible to answer. This is obviously the case with cricketers from … Read More
Going Viral
On Friday 14 March 2020 COVID-19 made its first impact on international cricket, and we had our first, decidedly untantalising taste of the immediate and … Read More
Series Triumph Hints at New Dawn for Root’s England
Rarely can an England Test side have enjoyed such dominance in an away Test series against major opposition as they did in the recently concluded … Read More
Mismatch at Mount Maunganui
Should we be surprised that New Zealand are ranked number two in the ICC’s Men’s Test rankings? Hardly. They have won ten successive series at … Read More
All Square: The Ashes Classics of 1972 and 2019
England and Australia achieved something very rare at The Kia Oval on Sunday. An Ashes series was drawn two-all for only the second time since … Read More
Joy for Paine as Root Licks His Wounds
This has been the best Ashes series for some time, probably since 2009. In 2015 England won 3-2, which makes it sound close, but none … Read More
Abdul Qadir
The great Pakistan leg-spinner Abdul Qadir died last week. This article about him first appeared in my book, The Pakistani Masters. “Mummy, I want to … Read More
The Legend of Headingley – 2019
It’s not supposed to happen. You don’t win Test matches after being bowled out for 67, at least not in the twenty first (or twentieth) … Read More
The Apotheosis of Steven Smith
Whatever happens in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston – England are slightly ahead on points, as it were, as I write this before the … Read More
Time Machine Cricket
Come on everyone! It’s England v Ireland at Lord’s! And we’re going back to the nineteenth century! It really did seem like that in this … Read More