Infuriating meat-munching tropes obscure the real secrets behind the Proteas conveyor belt of fast-bowling talentSome time during the second one-day international between England and South Africa, while Anrich Nortje was unleashing thunderbolts in the Manchester gloom, the BBC’s lead commentator, Jonathan Agnew, wondered why the Proteas possess a seemingly endless supply of fast-bowling talent. A number of variables were mentioned but one in particular was cited as the primary reason: “Raw meat-eating Afrikaners.”Agnew then reached for a collective noun for these brutish seamers who feast on biltong from the time they can chew. The Beeb’s statistician, Andy Zaltzman, whose father is South African, offered the term “herd”. Continue reading...
England bowler was suspended after his debut against New Zealand but his comeback showed he had not lost his sparkHalf an hour before lunch on the second day, Joe Root took a strategic time out. That’s not what’s it officially called in Test matches, of course – there was no official signal from the umpire, no countdown clock appearing on the big screen. Still, the England captain took a moment to draw aside his two chief gunners, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson, for a council of war. Chins were pulled, brows furrowed, plans relaid. England’s bowling team had pursued a perfect length for the conditions, but the two batsmen just weren’t getting themselves out. What do we do now, chaps?It...
For the past five years Harmer has been a luminescent walking wonder and wicket threat in county cricketSimon Harmer plonks down on a plastic seat at Edgbaston’s Birmingham end, Essex’s home for the length of their Championship game against Warwickshire. It’s lunch on the third day and there are 20 minutes before play restarts.For the past five years Harmer has been a luminescent walking wonder in county cricket, causing panic through the opposition as he strides into bowl, sunglasses on, jumper worn long over his bottom. In his first season for Essex in 2017, he took 72 wickets at 19.19; in 2018, 57 at 24.45; in 2019, 83 at 18.28; in 2020, 38 at 15.06 (in six games of the...
Norway-born spinner lost an eye, was shot in both knees and had a bitty career, but on his day could master the greats“My father never once talked about his cricket career,” Christopher Nupen, the Bafta award-winning documentary-maker, tells me. Which is a particular tragedy because his father had one of the most extraordinary of all cricketing careers. Nupen Junior – if that is an appropriate way to refer to someone who recently celebrated his 86th birthday – became perhaps the foremost producer of documentaries about classical music, best known for those capturing his friend Jacqueline Du Pré. His father, Eiulf Peter Nupen – popularly known as Buster – was born in Norway, lost an eye in a childhood hammer-bashing accident...
The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted problems faced by players who have felt alienated by teammatesBack in July the South African fast bowler Lungi Ngidi answered a question about the Black Lives Matter movement: “It’s something we will be addressing as a team,” he said, “and if we are not, it’s something I will bring up.” It was a tiny spark, but it started a fire that has burned through the South African winter, as more and more black players have started to open up about their unhappy experiences playing for the national team. In the end, Cricket South Africa launched a Social Justice and Nation Building project, to investigate whether it ought to pay reparations to players who...