Cricket

It’s true you know, Barack Obama does want to un-make the United States of America. First he takes a quick cricket lesson from Brian Lara, now he’s reading Joseph O’Neill’s (splendid) Netherland – a novel that is, at least in part, about cricket in New York City. Could anything be more un-American? Of course not. Except, of course, cricket has a long and proud history in the United States and, for a while, it seemed as likely that cricket would become the national pastime as baseball. Indeed, the world’s first international cricket match was contested by teams representing the United States and Canada. Personally, I blame the decision to move

The cricket season has begun which is, as usual, a cause for celebration and an occasion to lament the guarantee that the first month of the new innings will be ruined by rain. Commercial considerations – that is, the need to stuff the calendar with as many limited overs fixtures as possible during the prime summer months – demand the further marginalisation of the venerable County Championship. Nearly a quarter of the fixtures will be played by the end of May, with others just as liable to be afflicted by poor weather as the season staggers to a close at the end of September. Times change, of course, and even

Courtesy of the Scotsman: Boycott rigged poll, says Al-Qaeda chief This would surely come as no surprise to many of the great man’s former team-mates, but still, what can this mean? Has Sir Geoffrey been stuffing ballot boxes in some Greatest Yorkshireman contest or something? And why should Al-Qaeda care about that? Has Boycott offended them too? Alas, no, seems it’s something to do with the Algerian elections. More important, perhaps, but less mysterious or intriguing.

The news that England hope to host the IPL  is as unsurprising as it is depressing. After all, what better way to start an Ashes summer than with the distracting influence of a cricketing circus? Never underestimate the greed of those charged with looking after the game, howver. As soon as the Indian government declined to offer satisfactory security guarantees it was inevitable that English cricket administrators, dazzled as always by the prospect of raking in more cash, would prostitute themselves in a mad dash to grab a piece of the action. It is hard to see any advantage in this. Better by far if the circus were taking place

In the grander scheme of matters, a West Indian series victory which left England thinking they should really have won the series 2-1 was not a bad result. England can argue that they were the better side for most the series and  only just failed to turn their superiority into victory. For the West Indies, the importance of a first series victory in five years cannot be over-stated. Caribbean cricket desperately needed this and so what if they remain just half a team and should, by rights, have been beaten by a pretty ordinary England team. In other circumstances the West Indians’ decision not to even try and win the

Apart from being England wicket-keepers what do Matt Prior and Godfrey Evans have in common? Congratulations if you answered that they’re the only keepers in the history of test cricket to have twice conceded 25 or more byes in an innings. Of course, Evans’s “achievement” came in 91 tests; Prior has done it in just 15. In fact, at the time of writing Prior has the misfortune to rank 3rd and 4th in the list of “most byes conceded in an innings”. The 34 he’s conceded (so far!) in the current test goes along with the 33 he let through against India at the Oval in 2007. In one sense

Test match cricket is something else, isn’t it? Patrick Kidd has a splendid line making the point that test cricket is terrific because it is “a game in which it is much more exciting when something almost happens than when it happens all the time.” Granted, cricket’s detractors might cite this as evidence to support their prejudices, but who cares about them? Kidd is right. This was a great test match, conjured from the most unlikely circumstances. Full credit to the groundstaff at the ARG and, of course, to both teams who produced a match that vindicated the idea and reality of test cricket even as one of its greatest

There’s some good stuff in Michael Henderson’s column on the so-called Stanford debacle* today, even if he indulges himself with a rather rosy,soft-focus view of cricket’s past. The ideal of the village green bathed in evening sunlight with the vicar standing as umpire and children playing by the boundary and all that is a powerful, enduring image for sure but this English arcadia is only one thread running through the game’s history. A history that has been tougher, more scandalous and, often, meaner, than Henderson’s cosy view would have one believe. That’s to say, the sport’s history is well-stocked with cads and frauds and bounders and Allen Stanford is but

It’s an ill-wind that fails to blow in any silver-lined clouds and the current financial difficulties are no exception. It seems that Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan financier determined to “crack” the American “market” with Twenty20 cricket may be in a spot of bother himself. I’m going to guess that having people suggest you could be a kind of Caribbean Bernie Madoff is, even if completely untrue, not Good News. It wasn’t the money involved in the Stanford Twenty20 challenge match between his all-stars and England that was objectionable. After all, there’s a long history of big-money challenge matches and cricket’s known worse rogues than Stanford in the past. True,

Just in case you had any doubts that cricket is the worst-run sport in the world, further proof comes from today’s farce in Antigua. Even by cricket’s lofty standards this is a disgraceful shambles. England were embarrassed in Jamaica; the entire sport is embarrassed by this nonsense. Ian Botham has just recommended moving the game to the Recreation Ground, arguing, quite correctly, that “you can’t ignore the paying public”. Except of course, ignoring the paying public is the game’s administrators’ standard operating procedure.  UPDATE: As ToryLion says, if the pitch is unsafe it’s unsafe. Fair enough. But they have had weeks, if not months to sort this out. And it’s

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person who ever defends Ian Bell. Not that this will do him much good since it seems probable that he’ll be dropped for the second test against the West Indies tomorrow. An odd consensus appears to have emerged that Bell is especially culpable for England’s failures in the first test and that, accordingly, his is the head that must roll. Mike Selvey fires his Katyushas at Bell today: Last Saturday, before lunch on what was to prove the final day of the first Test at Sabina Park, Ian Bell played a stroke of such staggering ineptitude that it alone should be reason enough

Apologies for the radio silence. I’m still struggling to comes to terms with England’s Jamaican debacle. Matters were scarcely improved by an ill-considered trip to Murrayfield yesterday. Back to the drawing board then. Still, while there was a certain grimness to Scotland’s sluggish performance against Wales, at least it didn’t plumb the depths of England’s cricketing fiasco against the West Indies. When the tourists stumbled to 15/3 I suggested, jokingly, that they might lose by an innings. But I didn’t actually expect them to go ahead and do it. Right now the Ashes look as though they will be contested by two pretty mediocre sides (though Australia should, alas, still

English cricket in shambolic farce. It’s like Scottish football, except more important.

In general, I suppose I don’t have too much against the idea of a cricket Hall of Fame though given that we’ve managed to get along fine without one for centuries there doesn’t seem any pressing need for one. But if you are going to have such a Hall, then for god’s sake include the right people. Via Patrick Kidd, I see that the ICC’s new venture has found room for an initial class of 55 inductees that, bewilderingly, fails to include Victor Trumper. While it’s fine to ignore players who only retired in the last ten or so years the lack of recognition of chaps from the Golden Age

As a member of the English cricket team’s supporters club (vital for snaring Ashes tickets next summer) I was pleased to receive this email from the ECB today: ‘Tests are best’ say fans – We received a fantastic nearly 3,000 responses to the recent online TwelfthMan survey where, amongst many other things, you indicated that although you love the razzmatazz and big-hitting of the Twenty20 game, Test cricket still gets the majority vote – a staggering 94% of you in fact. Full survey results will be with you in the new year. Thanks to all who took part as it really does help us at ECB understand the game from

Accounts of cricket in the United States are always endearing, generally on account of the enthusiasm of the converts to the greatest game and the manner in which the poor old journalist charged with scribbling this account labours to explain the game to a generally uncomprehending audience. This piece from the Baltimore Sun about a school in Charm City that has taken up cricket, is an excellent example. Best bit? A former pitcher, Cardinal Gibbons senior Will Foy says the national pastime simply can’t compare with the age-old sport of cricket. “It’s pretty much baseball, minus the boring parts,” he said. Despite its mainstream popularity in dozens of countries, cricket

Regular readers may have noticed – but not necessarily been disheartened by – the absence of much cricket-related commentary here. There are a couple of reasons for its absence. First, I’ve been reading a lot in preparation for what I hope may become a longer-term project. Secondly, so much of the news these days is sufficiently depressing as to make one think that the game – that is to say, the game one knows and loves – is scarcely worth the candle. And yet, despite this, there are occasional sparks of light. Consider the comments of Darren Ganga, for instance. The West Indian is no-one’s idea of a titan, but

Like Norm, I am entirely unsurprised by this: The Phrase “it’s not cricket” is reverberating again around state school classrooms. Good old-fashioned cricketing values have prompted an improvement in behaviour in schools, according to the evaluation of a project to promote the sport in schools to be published later this week. The “Chance to Shine” scheme, designed to promote cricket in state schools by sending in club coaches to teach the game, has had a spin off beyond PE lessons. According to researchers at Loughborough University, schools which have taken part in the scheme report improved behaviour in school generally as a result of participating in it. Admittedly even cricket