AuthorBilly Crawford

There are few tours that stir the passions in quite the same way as a visit by the South Africans. For those of us of a certain vintage, over 30 perhaps, only the Ashes gets the pulses racing more than a visit from the Proteas. With the exception of a largely forgettable series in 2017, every tour by the rainbow nation since readmission has been intense, enthralling and usually quite bruising for England and its captains in particular. Mike Atherton was caught with dirt in his pocket at Lords...

It has been a tough week for Leicestershire CCC. The two-point penalty incurred for disciplinary breaches in their previous T20 Blast match against Northamptonshire rendered their winner takes all game against Yorkshire at a packed out Grace Road a meaningless encounter. The White Rose side would be guaranteed to go through regardless of the result. At first glance the penalty does appear to be very harsh. It is undeniable that Leicestershire had a poor disciplinary record in the 2020 and 2021...

I had this article written in my head as the Test Match progressed. “Bazball faces its first setback” was the working title. I was going to talk about how this new England still needed improvement to compete against the truly great Test teams as India moved seemingly unstoppably towards victory in this oddly rearranged match. However, this England team continue to defy the expectations of those of us who are waiting for the bubble to burst. This isn’t supposed to be how you play Test cricket...

Well, that was short lived, wasn’t it? For a few brief hours yesterday morning England’s bowlers seemed unplayable, their fielders leapt like salmon in a fresh stream, New Zealand’s wickets tumbled and all seemed rosy in the garden of English cricket. It was possible even to forget, for a short while, the extortionate ticket prices that had blighted this Lords Test and led to many fans being simply unable to afford to attend. After skittling New Zealand for 132 England’s batsmen sparkled in the...

The statistics make for grim reading. One win in the last seventeen Test matches, none in the last nine and five series defeats in a row. This is now surely the lowest depths English cricket has ever sunk to and, by conclusion, we must now admit we are witnessing the worst England team of all time. The side which reached the bottom of the world rankings in 1999 contained three world class batters in Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart and arguably a fourth in Graham Thorpe. It also...