7 minute readIt was a hell of a year. Probably. Who can honestly remember 12 months’ worth of stuff, let alone assign it some sort of value by which the year as a whole can be compared to previous ones? Here’s a bunch of cricket things that happened in 2024 anyway –
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Lord Megachief of Gold 2024
4 minute readOur annual Lord Megachief of Gold award is the highest honour in cricket. The title is recognition of performance over the previous calendar year. Here are all the winners. No point being all coy about this and postponing the opening of the envelope for dramatic effort. Heck, why even insert
Continue readingAre we already watching peak Harry Brook?
6 minute readBrooks aren’t ordinarily associated with peaks – they tend to run beneath them – but Harry Brook might already be at one. We’ll tell you what stops a brook in its tracks though: a dam – or perhaps in this case, the giving of damns. You may or may not
Continue readingSuffering centuries: Six bowlers who conceded extraordinary Test hundreds
6 minute readThere were eight centurions in England’s gargantuan 823-7 against Pakistan in October 2024. Harry Brook (317) and Joe Root (262) attracted most of the headlines, but there was also Shaheen Shah Afridi (120), Naseem Shah (157), Abrar Ahmed (174), Aamer Jamal (126), Salman Ali Agha (118) and Saim Ayub (101).
Continue readingHats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills
5 minute readThis Multan pitch is flatter than a pancake that’s gone under a Looney Tunes steamroller. That doesn’t mean you can score infinite runs on it though. Even Harry Brook had to settle for a mere 317 – and he’s so far made a hundred in every Test he’s played in
Continue readingLet’s pick the All-Time Greatest Middle-Aged XI
8 minute readThe summer just gone brought the retirement of James Anderson at the age of 41. He took 47 Test wickets in his 40s – more than twice as many as anyone else this century. Extending that a little further, he took 224 wickets after the age of 35. In this
Continue readingLess than the sum of their parts: Six Test batting partnerships that invariably disappointed
7 minute readThe most successful Test partnerships of all time are easy enough to identify. For one thing, they’ll regularly crop up in conversation-fuelling TV graphics whenever a wicket is hard to come by. For another thing, if they happened during your lifetime, you’ll no doubt have lots of memories of the
Continue readingFive Graham Thorpe innings that were equal parts silly, brilliant and vital
8 minute readWe don’t know whether Graham Thorpe was underappreciated exactly, because it seems like every England supporter who watched him play in fact valued him immensely. We do feel that Thorpe has been under-written-about though… so we’ve written about him. If you want a sense of what Thorpe meant to England
Continue readingShow me the money. Inattention and monetisation in Major League Cricket, The Hundred and Test cricket
7 minute readWhat did you do just then? Did you just glance at a TV when some cricket was on? Did you invest 10 seconds setting the on-screen player names alongside the three-letter initialisms in the hope of working out what competition it was? That’s enough. You’re a viewer now – a
Continue readingThe James Anderson Rubbish Team-Mates XI
4 minute readLoads of people have been picked for England since James Anderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May 2003. This XI comprises some of the least successful – plus Jimmy himself. Just imagine the exasperated head shaking! 1. Adam Lyth – 265 Test runs at 20.38 Surprisingly few of
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