Cricket is profoundly and uniquely loveable – the Hundred’s organisers must retain their confidence in its magnificenceAll sports develop idiosyncratic lexicons, word games that allow us to understand their peculiarities and particularities. But there is more to it than that: once we understand the various terms, we join a global community and eternal continuum which makes us feel spoken to and seen. Joining such fellowship is one of the great, nourishing moments of childhood, and passing it on one of the great, nourishing moments of adulthood, the real-life equivalent of “seeing it big”.In this aspect, no sport is as arcane as cricket, its vernacular describing not just a fun pastime but a moral project. The game has long been equated...
Lure of T20 franchise leagues is greater than ever in the time of Covid-19 with coaches like Trent Woodhill leading the wayJust after eight o’clock on Thursday night, with the Hobart sky powder blue above the lights, umpire Paul Wilson began to whirl his right arm in the familiar PowerPlay gesture, before abruptly switching to three full rotations of his left, stern-faced but still jaunty, like a policeman forced to dance at the Notting Hill carnival.In that moment history was made. This was cricket’s first Power Surge. Related: Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes rested for England's Test tour of Sri Lanka Related: Big Bash League 2020 season opener: Hobart Hurricanes beat Sydney Sixers – as it happened Continue reading...
Two books emphasise how extraordinary it is that the ECB is alienating the people who love the game and targeting those who don’tI sometimes think cricket clubs should charge admittance by the hour, since they’re providing therapy for the dyspeptic and shelter for the eremitic. The sport ought to be considered one of the lesser key-worker services, essential to the mood and temper of households across the country. The season finally gets under way on Wednesday, when the first Test between England and West Indies starts in Southampton. County cricket is three weeks behind it. Things will run easier now, with Sky Sports on in the corner or Test Match Special playing in the background, the over-by-over up on the...
When the short form was conceived in 2002 the cricket calendar was not so crowded and the format was one club players had been enjoying for yearsA common refrain to those of us who are not hanging out the bunting at the news the Hundred will be on our screens and in our Test grounds in 2021 is that all the curmudgeons were just as negative about the advent of Twenty20 cricket in 2003.This is an easy parallel to draw and a simplistic one. Let me try to correct it. The proposal to introduce T20 cricket 18 years ago was truly radical; the ECB was introducing a new format for professional cricketers (though club players had been enjoying a similar...
There will be only three rounds of matches next year in the three months that constitute high summer, offering few chances for those seeking to break into Joe Roots teamOne day after a numbing, naive innings defeat against New Zealand the impetus for England to become as effective with a red ball as they are with a white one is surely redoubled. Joe Roots team were ultimately thrashed on a true, hard, unyielding pitch upon which the Kookaburra ball seldom deviated.Often the conditions in New Zealand are likened to those in this country but that no longer seems to apply. The announcement of the first-class fixtures for the 2020 domestic season in England offers little encouragement that our Test team...