AuthorBilly Crawford

Cricket is a wonderful game, at least it is supposed to be. However, there has never been a more joyless bunch of cricketers than this current England team. There was a moment during the Sydney Test in the Ashes where it really struck me that I had never seen a team that looked less keen to play cricket than England’s Test side. The contrast with the Australian side was clear. The hosts were laughing and sharing private jokes as the anthems were played, looking to all the world as if they were...

I gave my own (rather simple) plan to revive our domestic game a couple of days ago. Today, it’s the turn of Billy Crawford. Does his comprehensive plan have legs? Let us know in the comments. Cheers. Ashes series in Australia usually end in humiliation. My childhood was defined by late nights listening to England batting collapses on the portable radio under my duvet. This one feels different, however. It is not another pasting that we will bounce back from with runs and wickets in the...

The other day I reached up to the top of my bookshelf and brought down a large yellow book The book was The Essential Wisden, a collection of essays and match reports from 140 years of our game. I did this to remind myself why I love cricket for there has been precious little in the sport lately to love. The Yorkshire racism scandal, Tom Harrison and the ECB board’s massive bonuses, the divisive arguments about the Hundred; these are just a few of the many things...

“Climb for it, you f***ing monkey”. Those words should send a chill down the spine of anyone who loves our game. They were uttered by an as yet unnamed Essex cricketer as he threw a banana down the stairs at Maurice Chambers, a man of Caribbean decent who played for the county between 2005-2013. Chambers alleges he was routinely offered bananas and subjected to racist abuse during his time at Essex. He added that he would go home at night and cry in his room. Azeem...