Since its dawn in 2003, the T20 format has taken over cricket. Last year alone, there were a whopping 536 T20 international matches, including a successful World Cup alongside an array of domestic leagues and franchises. The format has been around for a mere two decades, yet has undergone a host of tactical developments. The explosion of mystery spin is an obvious example, with loopy leggings gaining favour for their variation in the shortest format. However, the T20 game’s most prominent...
Rolling out of bed the other morning after a leisurely Saturday lie in, I turned on the TV expecting to see a good couple of hours of cricket. Instead, BT Sport was screening a documentary about Pele. Checking the internet to see what had happened, I was shocked to find Australia had already been bowled out for 91 to lose the first Test to India by an innings and then some. Leaving aside for a moment the arguments about doctored pitches and favourable home conditions, this is a shocking defeat...
Australian cricket is in the midst of one of its greatest ever peaks. With a team that includes their greatest ever since the Don, a record-breaking bowling attack and a host of world-class supporting acts, they seem as well set as any to compete in India. So will this series be a classic that goes down to the wire? I make the case that Australian cricket should prepare for their sternest challenge yet. India is without question the hardest place to win Test matches in the world. The home sides...
After the retirement of Bob Willis, English cricket was criticised for not producing enough genuinely quick bowlers. The standard criticism was that the heavy county workload meant that potential fast bowlers had to cut down on their pace and develop into fast-medium seamers to prolong their career. As England fans, we spent too long watching our seamers struggling in the Ashes while the Australians compiled vast totals. The standard complaint was that we lacked any genuine pace. And the same...
Today we welcome new writer Jack Surtees to TFT. He has some interesting insights that should pique the interest of fellow cricket aficionados with a penchant for data. Peter Moores would absolutely love this… Largest Run Contributions in Men’s Tests 2022 Cricket in 2022 was quite the ride. It featured two World Cup finals, an expansion of the IPL, rather a lot of international captaincy drama, the retirement of some legends and the passing of some others, a collection of incredible...
Here are TFT’s annual awards courtesy of Billy Crawford. Happy New Year to all… Hero of the year – Ben Stokes Has anyone in the history of cricket ever had such a transformative effect on the game as Benjamin Stokes has wrought in the last 12 months? If so, it is hard to think of one. In June, the Durham man, along with coach Brendan McCullum, took on an England team which had won 1 of its last 17 Tests and was beginning to make the shambles of the 1999s look like the glory years of...
