The county title was won in a thriller reminding us how the West Midlands club retains the heart of first-class cricketWhen 22 players gather in huge stadiums built for full houses in midsummer, and rattle around in late season gloom to the applause of 20 hundred-weight of empty tip-up chairs and a crisp wrapper, County Championship cricket can feel a little soulless.But not at New Road, not last week. There in full view of the glorious cathedral, that has chimed the passing of so many seasons, Surrey clinched the County Championship for the first time since 2002. It couldn’t have happened in a more perfect setting. Related: County cricket talking points: Surrey's youngsters deserve their title Continue reading...
Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes give their first-hand experience of playing alongside India’s biggest starDue to GDPR, you may need to resubscribe to The SpinThe last time an incumbent captain of India joined an English county side was in 2000, when Sourav Ganguly pitched up at Lancashire. The story goes that early on, such was their overseas signing’s attitude that he handed his batting partner, one Mike Atherton, his sweater during a break in play with orders to run it back to the dressing room.It’s a great line but, sadly, one that is apocryphal, or has at least been spun to such an extent that Muttiah Muralitharan would have been be proud. Atherton did briefly find himself holding said cable-knit...
The Surrey and England spinner is not the first ‘clever bastard’ to jack in our all-consuming game and his decision to call it quits at 25 is probably very wiseIt is such a consuming, mesmerising game that the number of professional cricketers who have retired prematurely is remarkably small. Last week Zafar Ansari, five months after making his England debut, joined a select band, notable for players who are very bright or very rich or occasionally – and nauseatingly – both.Most professionals keep going until the evidence is overwhelming that they are beyond their peak. Until recently this determination to persevere was not so much for monetary gain but because this crazy sport has the capacity to get under the...
The 38-year-old has earned his place on the tour of Bangladesh by continuing to toil on the county circuit and while he is a short-term fix, like Fred Titmus and John Emburey, he is unlikely to see it that way himself“The day I stop wanting to be No1,” Gareth Batty once said, “is the day I retire.” That was 12 years ago, and even he wasn’t sure whether his ambition would last this long. Back then he was still burning about the fact that he was the man bowling to Brian Lara when he broke Matthew Hayden’s world record for the best Test score in Antigua earlier that same year. “Maybe in 10 to 15 years’ time, certainly when I’m...