CategoryCult heroes

The Commentators, Old and New

Cricket commentators are a unique breed in broadcasting. They work in pairs and shifts in a game that could depending on the format last up to five days. It’s a sport that requires more explanation than most with its tactical complexity and arcane methods. Typically there is a paradox in the way cricket is presented on screen. Less is often more and plainly obvious when these particular broadcasters speak forth. The doyen of cricket commentators Richie Benaud once said ‘my mantra is: put your...

County Stalwarts: Steven Croft

County cricket in many ways gets a bad rap nowadays. Many of the younger generation of players seem more interested in playing for some franchise side which no one in Lancashire has ever heard of than representing the county that developed them: the likes of Liam Livingstone virtually never appear for Lancashire, particularly in red ball cricket, due to his wish to play for every franchise going. Steven Croft, Lancashire’s longest serving player, is in some ways a throwback, as he has spent his...

Brian Close, 1931-2015

There are a few things cricket blogs can do better than the mainstream press. Obituaries are rarely among them. I’d love to pay fulsome tribute to Brian Close, but I rather doubt I’d do him justice. Close was never England’s finest batsman or bowler. But he was the stuff of genuine cricketing legend. Pugnacious, rebellious, insanely brave, Close was one of the most colourful and fascinating figures in the history of English cricket, his career a rollercoaster ride of unwitting...

The Chewsday Chew Over

Welcome to a new concept in midweek cricket blogging: it’s the Tuesday Chew Over (pronounced Chewsday in honour of Richie Benaud). It’s up there with the Monday Moan and Wednesday Wipe in the pantheon of obscurity and general irrelevance. Lots has been happening in the cricket world this week, but unfortunately none of it has involved the England team, English players, or even England cricket boards. We’ve all been twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next disaster. Therefore, in a desperate...

One of cricket’s greatest stories

  Today I’m going to talk about Piers Morgan and a brilliant but controversial cricketer. But don’t worry. This time, Kevin Pietersen is not involved. That said, he does bear more than a few parallels with the man in question, despite their very different public personae. Both had a turbulent relationship with a distrusting English cricket establishment. Both could turn the entire course of a series with a single performance characterised by a bravado and elan beyond the...

Thanks, Hoggy

  So farewell, Matthew Hoggard – what a fine servant you were for England. Hoggy this week announced his retirement from cricket, finally hanging up his boots after a career more glorious and substantial than we often realise. He will forever remain one of my favourite England bowlers of all time, but he was rarely taken as seriously as he should have been. Virtually the perfect cricketing embodiment of an Old English Sheepdog, Hoggard perpetually wore an air of the village idiot...

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