1st January 2011. Decades ago it was said of Neville Cardus that he “changed the course of the writing of cricket. He showed what could be done. He dignified and illuminated the task.” Cardus’s ability to combine music and cricket, his insights into character, his images and asides, the sheer quality of his prose, altered […]
9th July 2008. Graeme Smith embarks upon his second series in England as a more rounded character blessed with a more established game. Not that he did so badly last time. To the contrary his visit five years ago surpassed all expectations. Smith managed to turn a suspicious and fraught team containing a variety of […]
18 December 2010. India’s preparations for the match underway at Centurion were threadbare. No sooner had a one-day and Test series against New Zealand been completed than the players were packed onto a plane and sent to a distant continent full of hostile creatures, some of them able to aim cricket balls at their bodies […]
28 June 2008. At no point in the last 50 years has the country that invented the game stood at the top of the rankings. They have only themselves to blame. Kevin Pietersen’s nomination as captain of the England side confirms that the game in the land of its origin has come to a pretty […]
10 December 2010. Ponting’s dreams of recapturing the Ashes sit on the brink of ruin. India and South Africa will be playing for first place in the rankings when their series begins, but they need to listen for footsteps because England is on its way! Andrew Strauss and pals have the ability and ambition to […]
11 June 2008. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a self-made man and player, shaped by circumstances and will, his technique not so much odd as original. Shivnarine Chanderpaul provides a notable counterpoint to the contemporary game. At once he is inimitable and timeless – no more a product of his period than a kitchen clock, and yet […]
2 October 2010. As part of the deal whereby they secured an interest in the Champions League, the Australians promised to visit these shores once a year. Accordingly, Ricky Ponting has brought his team along for this curious little series. India and Australia need to take care not to turn an epic into a soap […]
11 September 2010. Thankfully cricket is back. Everyone has had enough of the scandals. Cricket is at the mercy of its players and administrators. It is a glorious game that can be spoilt only by its supposed stewards. Selfishness is the enemy. Cricket’s creed includes the notion that team and game come before the individual. […]
Graeme Hick, who celebrates his birthday on May 23, was a giant in county cricket, who struggled to transfer his talent to the biggest stage. In the 1999 edition of Wisden, Peter Roebuck reflected on his career. Upon the abandonment of the match in which he scored his 100th hundred, Graeme Hick walked across a damp […]
28 August 2010. Cricket is a game of skill. Observers can talk all they like about how the game has changed but in the end it all comes back to technique and temperament. Every generation thinks it has invented the wheel. Newspapers, films, telephones have been consigned to the rubbish dump but all remain intact. iPods […]
7 August 2010. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and comrades deserve commendation for their fightback in Colombo. It was a rotten toss to lose and the Indians might easily have dropped their heads. Instead they worked hard and looked sharper and it took a splendidly defiant ninth-wicket partnership to stop them romping to victory with a day […]
12 June, 2010. India’s decision not to send a team to the Asian Games soon to get underway in China is short-sighted. Here was a rare opportunity for the two great and growing powers of the sporting and wider world to join forces on a cricket field. And it was spurned. China worked hard, built […]
15 May 2010. India’s wretched performance in the Caribbean was a rude awakening. Defeat is part of any game but sometimes its manner is so telling that a strong response is required. For the second time in a few weeks, India has been forced to undergo a period of severe self scrutiny and for a […]
5 September, 2009. It was ridiculous to let a wet patch scuttle a match, writes Peter Roebuck Nothing has been more ridiculous in the last few weeks than the sight of highly paid cricketers solemnly prodding the ground at Old Trafford. Throughout they looked as serious as Colombo examining a crime scene. A packed house […]
May 1999. Brian Lara has played one of the greatest innings in the history of the game. Certainly his match-winning and mouth-watering 153 not out at Kensington Oval was the best innings of its type it has been my privilege to watch. Perhaps it was the best of any sort. Throughout a long, hot fifth […]
Upon Mike Atherton’s retirement, the 2002 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack carried this tribute by Peter Roebuck. Throughout the 1990s Michael Atherton was the face of English cricket. Head still, eyes wary, left elbow high and feet moving neatly into position, he dedicated himself to the tasks of scoring runs, resisting bowlers and protecting his team’s position. For […]
May 14, 2008. The IPL has shown that the shortest version provides as many insights, dramas and stories as any other form of the game. The IPL continues to provide rich revelation of character. Twenty20 continues to offer a hundred short stories in the space of a few hours. Like all sport it is about […]
May 1, 2008. The IPL has showcased a high standard of cricket, emphasised sportsmanship, fostered camaraderie, and treated spectators right. More power to it. Alhough still in its infancy, and therefore capable of experiencing a troubled adolescence and disappointing adulthood, the IPL has so far surpassed expectations. Reports indicate that India has been in a […]
16 April 2008. The mishandling of the Zimbabwe crisis is perhaps the most shameful chapter in the ICC’s history. Cricket has plunged into the darkest period in its history. Never can the game have so disgraced itself as it did at the most recent ICC meeting. Presented with an opportunity to confront the malign in […]
March 26, 2008. Not the least of Brett Lee’s achievements this summer has been how he has managed to keep his temper and dignity while all about him were losing theirs. Brett Lee deserved every plaudit that came his way in 2007-08. Everyone held him in high regard. From the first ball to the last, […]
March 12, 2008. Their tour of Australia showed that India’s time has come, both on the field and off it. Over the years India has been colonised, scorned and patronised. Inevitably, the hackles of its more abrasive citizens have periodically been raised. Always the struggle is between earnest reformers and rankled revolutionaries. It can happen […]
February 27, 2008. Batsmen in what should be their most prolific years are more prone to falling prey to the weight of expectations, and thereby being brought face to face with their limitations. As a breed, batsmen are haunted by the prospect of failure. It hardens them, tightens them, sometimes exhausts them. A centre-forward unable […]
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