A prelude to summer arrived last week, and with it a noisy chorus of speculation over the future of cricket. A posh boy – Tonbridge and Peterhouse – with a faith in statistical analysis became the chief national selector of an unsettled England team. Cries of dismay greeted the revelation that the new inter-city competition will be based on yet another shortened form of the game, this one requiring each side to face a mere 100 balls in order to fit television schedules. And the BBC was outbid by a commercial rival for the radio rights to an overseas Test series.
Once again the most serene and timeless of games was being tossed and buffeted by those who cannot leave it alone. Or so it seemed. But perhaps the best way to put all this into some sort of context is to read a new dual biography of a pair of famous cricket writers and broadcasters whose views and voices became synonymous with the game in the second half of the 20th century. Under the title Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket, the historian David Kynaston and the journalist Stephen Fay demonstrate that most of these arguments have been going since anyone now alive was old enough to roll the dice in a game of Owzthat.
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