3 minute readSome pretty big news has broken since England (finally) touched down in India for their five-Test series. It’s not Virat Kohli missing the first two games for personal reasons. It’s not Harry Brook missing (probably, maybe) the whole series, also for personal reasons. It’s to do with Ben Stokes. We
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6 minute readShould we all be opening batters now? What’s the official line? Some changes of position are just too noteworthy to serve as suitable subject matter for small talk. An example from another sitcom: in Friends, when multimillionaire software genius Pete Becker outlines to Monica his plan to change direction. “Well
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4 minute readA Test tour of India feels like a bit of a free hit these days. England are supposed to lose… heavily. Captain and coach talk a good game and their ambitions and belief are genuine, but if the tourists emerge with anything less than a 5-0 defeat, those oh-so-familiar clichéd
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5 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. We don’t want to start all downbeat, but sometimes an exercise brings a particular situation into sharper focus. We all know
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3 minute readThe true greats are pretty much irreplaceable. It’s safe to say Australia aren’t going to find a pantomime villain like David Warner again any time soon. This puts them in a very difficult situation given that quite a lot of their current players are really quite agreeable people. How can
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< 1 minute readGraham Thorpe was a dynamite bowler in Brian Lara Cricket. Graham Thorpe was not a dynamite bowler in real life. The various mechanics and failings of Brian Lara Cricket (which was apparently called Shane Warne Cricket in Australia) resulted in some innovative strategies, back in the day. Sixes were about
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< 1 minute readIf you don’t know our approach to covering the Boxing Day Tests, it involves listing what matches are taking place, wishing everyone a happy Festivus and then buggering off. In previous years, you, the readership, have boldly stepped into the breach and highlighted all the interesting cricket in the comments
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< 1 minute readRoll up, roll up for the fifth and somehow not final Test of the 1981 Ridiculous Ashes. This one’s got Chris Tavaré in it, failing to keep pace with Geoff Boycott as the Yorkshireman tore along at just under two an over. It wasn’t just Boycott who outscored Tavaré in
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4 minute readIn our lower moments, we’ve all imagined-up some preposterously narrow niche within which we can consider ourselves the best in a bid to bolster our hollow confidence. Sympathy then for Phil Mustard, who can no longer consider himself the best wicketkeeper-batter called Phil Condiment to have opened the batting in
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4 minute readYou may have noticed from this website’s Patreon ‘benefits’ that we’re not big on paywalls. We’re therefore very excited to see that John Spellar MP wants to change the law so that England’s home Test matches would become ‘protected’ sports events and consequently broadcast on free-to-air TV. It’s a shame
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