If you couldn’t care less about the future of cricket, don’t want the sport to grow, love private members’ clubs and think Giles Clarke is more of a cuddly teddy bear than a walrus, then Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber’s new film Death of a Gentleman isn’t for you. If, on the other hand, you actually want test cricket to exist in twenty years’ time, value transparency and equality, want cricket to expand and abhor secret deals in hotel rooms, then you must see this film when it’s released on...
It’s the Bowlers’ Bar at Lord’s two weeks ago. ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ is in full swing on the jukebox. It has been a long night. Balloons and empty glasses litter the place. MATTHEW HOGGARD, a dishevelled old bowler in an out-of-date tour suit, is holding court at the bar. HOGGARD ‘Ave a sup on me. Gi’em all a sup. And gi’ them ECB hoodlums a sup. (We see two other men, PETER MOORES and JAMES WHITAKER, standing near Hoggard at the bar, raise their glasses in salute.) HOGGARD It’s grand...
I started writing this on a cloud-dappled morning, sat at a boathouse in view of a crystalline river, with a cappuccino at my elbow and a sense of freedom in my heart. I say this not to embark on a sequel to Brideshead Revisited – I’ll leave that to the imaginations of the new government – but rather to remind myself that England’s premature capitulations can have their upside in releasing one from a sofa-bound vigil to more salubrious and less angst-ridden surrounds. Cricket is a...
This piece first appeared on the Guardian BTL pages. Its author has now kindly shared it with The Full Toss Camp 34.7, Omsk, Siberia – October 11 Winter advances apace. The cruel wet snow is a constant reminder of the impossible, relentless struggles that lie in the months ahead. And why? For what end? The prospect of Spring brings no relief – so distant does it seem, such a bleak reminder of the good men we are to lose before then. But oh! – despite the cold, our hearts are...
Living in East Asia, I get an awful lot of IPL on television. And IPL highlights. And IPL re-runs. And the IPL Champions Trophy, or whatever it’s called. Leaving aside any snobbish and/or condescending opinions I might have about the quality of IPL cricket, I’d like to share my confusion at the IPL team names, which – the defunct Deccan Chargers aside – make less sense to me than those in the United States or Yorkshire (remember the Phoenix!). I see that they are supposed to be glitzy, but...
My old Mum used to tell me ‘if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all’. Unfortunately, if we adhered to this particular sentiment today, the following article wouldn’t be very long. That’s why we’ve given our new guest writer, Edward Higgs, free rein to tell us how he really feels about the only man in cricket with worse tattoos than Mitchell Johnson. Over to you Ed … Years from now, Jade Dernbach will settle down in...
