5 November 2009. Cricket needs to move beyond its cosy cartel of countries, bring in more teams, and have two or more divisions. Ireland’s current application for Test status ought to be taken seriously. Indeed, it ought to be accepted, and that means convincing at least seven of the 10 established nations to give it […]
21 October 2009. The tenacity of the South Africans, the efficiency of the Australians, and the flair of the Caribbean players have made the event an unqualified success. Although sated locals seem to regard it as a flop, from further afield the Champions League Twenty20 has been thoroughly enjoyable. Indeed it has been the most […]
7 October 2009. Bowler, batsman, fielder, captain – none of Vettori’s roles fails to lift a side that badly needs inspiration. Daniel Vettori deserved better. Cricket has a wicked sense of humour. That a long-serving cricketer of high distinction and considerable merit, a player universally admired, a captain whose team has been recognised as the […]
23 September 2009. Our sport hardly has the concept of majors. It can start by making the Champions Trophy a destination, not a journey. Hard-pressed hosts have been trying to present the Champions Trophy as an eagerly awaited tournament and part of a great tradition. By rights it ought to be an easy sell. After […]
29 November 2009. Over the past three days Chris Gayle, Travis Dowlin and Adrian Barath, the hare, the tortoise and the colt, displayed the best and worst of West Indian cricket. Gayle once again betrayed his position and his talent with a craven and idle performance ill-befitting any Test batsman, let alone an opener and […]
10 September 2009. No version of the game that has produced so many outstanding feats ought lightly to be tossed away in favour of a format that does not offer the possibility of greatness. For an endangered species 50-over cricket appears to be in remarkably good health. Cast as the saviour of a supposedly moribund […]
26 August 2009. England have displayed fortitude, pride, skill and unity, but they need to confront some hard truths still. Andrew Strauss’s team deserved to win the Ashes. Only a churl could argue otherwise. Five matches lasting five days give every player and both sides an opportunity to prove their worth. Thanks to three stupendous […]
10 June 2011. Kieron Pollard is at once a struggling cricketer and hot property. It is a curious dichotomy born of T20. Suddenly money can be made not from the most demanding part of the game but from an amusing sideshow. In golfing terms the imposing West Indian is making his living not from the […]
15 May 2011. India and Australia have been especially lucky in their senior players. Never has the importance of senior players been more apparent. Teams can be undermined as much by jealousy and laziness as by incompetence. Captains are responsible for the performance of cricket teams but without proper backing from influential players, they walk […]
12 August 2009. This article first appeared on the eve of Flintoff’s final match, against Australia at The Oval in 2009. England’s totemic allrounder has been more about competence, stout-hearted service and some irresistible performances, rather than out-and-out greatness. Somewhat to the amusement of observers, England seems to dwell upon and to equate The Battle […]
29 July 2009. Often the game becomes a curse, as two Australians struggling in the Ashes can testify. Every cricketer knows the feeling. The game has become impossible, a curse, a blight, a torment, a tease, a provocation, a creation of the devil; goodness only knows why it was ever invented, or why poets write […]
1st July 2009. The characters may lack in stature as compared to some of their predecessors, but the script promises to be tight. Suddenly hearts are thumping. After an eternity of speculation and enough opinions to impress an army of lawyers, the cricketing outfits representing England and Australia are busy putting the finishing touches to […]
17 June 2009. The purists may sneer at it, but Twenty20’s most vital role will be in making cricket popular in places where it isn’t. Twenty-over cricket is working wonders for the game. Forget about the greasy palms displayed by a handful of top players (the world is full of such types, and some of […]
22 December 2009. Australia are enduring a devastating injury crisis. In a matter of weeks, the ranks of fast bowlers have been decimated. Almost an entire Ashes attack has been sidelined. Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, none of then were available for selection in Perth. State teams have been fielding second and […]
4th June 2009. The 20-over version has caught the popular imagination, and the quality of the game hasn’t been bad either. It reminds us that cricket is meant to be fun – and that that is an important quality for a sport. Englishmen have been playing 20-over cricket for yonks. As a youth, a hundred […]
21 May 2009. Symonds’ omission apart, the selectors have merely named their best players and left the rest to be sorted out on tour. Australia have chosen a pragmatic party for their defence of the Ashes. Disdaining clear-cut choices between the stuttering team fielded in India and retained for the home series against South Africa, […]
24 December 2009. Two splendid pieces of bowling by two fine prospects were the highlight of a hard-fought 50-over match between old rivals played on a helpful surface. Between them Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson took a stack of wickets and thereby gave heart to those worried that the pace bowling stocks are running low. […]
17th October 1998. Mark Taylor has joined Sir Donald Bradman as the highest scorer in a Test in the 115-year history of Australian cricket. They sit beside each other in the lists, a mountainous score bringing together two men with little in common save an innate determination to keep going. No-one, not Warwick Armstrong or […]
July 2005. A book could be written about Shane Warne’s first ball in Ashes cricket. Famously, it was the ball of the century, delivered with a rip of the fingers and snap of the wrist that sent the ball burning through the air and made it curl to leg before bouncing and turning prodigiously past […]
14 January 2010. Australian cricket has had another rewarding season. Certainly, the campaign has surpassed modest expectations. Everyone began with the sort of glum expression detected in lemon-tasters. Even marketeers with shiny faces were hard-pressed to muster any enthusiasm. Little was expected from visiting teams placed sixth and seventh in the rankings. Poor wretches, they […]
Australia has continued its slow dismantling of a fitful visiting team. Pakistan put up a fight on the third day, forming notable alliances for the fifth and 10th wickets and only between times suffering the sort of hot-headedness that has been its undoing. Accordingly the Australians were forced to work harder than expected to reinforce […]
Phillip Hughes emerged as a rare talent when he scored centuries against South Africa in both innings of his second Test in 2009. Durban: Phillip Hughes is a tough, pesky 20-year-old lefty from the sticks who bats and lives by his own lights. Australia’s new opening batsman scores an awful lot of runs in any […]
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