James Hildreth – The Forgotten Man Of English Cricket
Today we welcome new writer Sam Tomkinson to TFT. He'll be writing a series of articles about fan favourites, forgotten men, or other county players with an interesting history. He kicks things off with a profile of James Hildreth. Is the Somerset stalwart the best batsman never to play for [...]
Well Left, Mitchell
Today new writer William Buckingham discusses one of the most extraordinary events to occur on a cricket field in living memory. And we're not talking about Ben Stokes's heroics at Headingley or Kusal Perera's miracle at Durban ... During this period of lockdown I have, inevitably, watched the 2019 Cricket [...]
The Ugly Ducklings
Today we welcome 13-year old writer Rahul Palaninathan to TFT. I really like this topic. It's a tribute to all those understated and underrated finger spinners out there. The 2005 Ashes. A series that revived a national sport as the squashbuckling English team slew the legendary Australian juggernaut. It will [...]
Cricket’s Taking A Siesta As The Nation Plays A Test Match
Today we introduce guest writer Richard Sprake to TFT. Here are his musings on Test cricket and the lockdown. Enjoy! At 11.15 on Sunday the 3rd of April, the ICC announced that cricket will take a siesta this summer. There will be no spring butterflies in bellies of opening batsman. [...]
Why Vaughan’s England Would Beat Strauss’s England
Lockdown. It's the perfect time to engage in hypothetical discussions. Nobody can ever win these arguments - it's just a matter of opinion - but that doesn't mean we can't have a good time trying. And what else are we going to do in the absence of live cricket? I [...]
Will England Play At All This Summer?
Today Alex examines the ECB's proposals for quarantine cricket. Can you see any cricket being played this summer? There’s a report in The Guardian that the England Cricket Board are trying to resurrect test cricket this season by effectively getting players to play in ‘cricket quarantine’ for nine weeks. This [...]
The Test Documentary – A Review
Today we welcome back James Wilson, author of Court and Bowled: Tales of Cricket and the Law (WSH, 2017). Here's his review of Amazon Prime's documentary on Australia's post sandpaper-gate resurgence. I have just finished binge-watching The Test, the fly-on-the-wall documentary about Australian cricket’s travails from shortly after the sandpaper affair [...]
Left Field Lives After Cricket
You're a professional cricketer whose playing career has finally come to an end. What do you do? Cricket is probably all that you've known. Your A-levels are a distant memory. And even if you went to university that second class history degree doesn't exactly make you a hot commodity in [...]
Cricketers Have Brains Too You Know
There hasn't been much to talk about recently - well, nothing we haven't done to death in the past. The ECB have postponed The Hundred until next season. What other choice was there? And Colin Graves will stand down at the end of August. He will not be missed. It [...]
The Joe Root Dilemma
With no live cricket to look forward to, I've spent some time this week looking back. I came across this article I wrote about Joe Root in October 2015, just after he became the fastest English player in the modern era to score 3,000 Test runs. It really made me [...]
Welcome To The Full Toss
Thanks for visiting TFT, the irreverent cricket blog with a zero percent bounce rate. If you’d like to write something for us, whether it’s about selection, governance, or the cost of a pint, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You don’t need to be a journalist or copywriter, just a fan with something to say. Email [email protected] for more info.