Tour Diaries

Matty or Trotty?

The last few days summed up why I watch the England side abroad. Not only has the cricket picked up from an English point of view, but perhaps more importantly there is also a feeling in the air that the tour has finally started. After the disappointment of Dubai and its fairly soulless surrounds, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium has...

The Surfer

How Mark Mascarenhas made cricket a business

In , Rahul Bhatia looks back on how Mark Mascarenhas - who was in fatal car accident ten years ago to a day - first broke open the business of cricket.

Over the course of the era that he helped define—and then in the decade after him—the sport grew up from a gawky adolescence to an irresponsible adulthood,...

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The Cricket Sadist Hour

Stop the madness

Ben Hilfenhaus’ body is built for a purpose, and you can’t imagine that purpose was ever running, diving and throwing all in one motion. Hilfenhaus doesn’t have the body shape of an athletic fielder. He’s not a huge man, but he’s got a solid trunk on him, more tree than ballet dancer. There aren’t many moving parts. It just all...

It Figures

Batsman analysis by bowler-pitch quality - part 2

This is the follow-up article to the one analysing the batsmen performance in conditions related to bowler quality and pitch types. There were a number of very useful suggestions and after a careful study some of these have been implemented. There have been very sound arguments also that there is an element of double-counting and this method,...

The Pitch

An open letter to Giles Clarke

Dear Mr. Giles Clarke, Well done. With your statement that Internet piracy is the “biggest danger to cricket" you have pulled off a rather wonderful trifecta: you join the ranks of those politicians and industrialists that persist in misunderstanding and fear-mongering about the Internet; you divert attention from far bigger dangers to cricket, including its relentless commercialisation,...

The Long Handle

A sinister conspiracy against county cricket

Sunday, 22nd January Like many cricket watchers, I have whined on incessantly about how boring modern Test pitches are. Who cares if the game lasts five days if we’re asleep for four of them? Well, like a bank that has been recently been bailed out by the government at a time of low economic growth, I should now start...

The Buzz

Keep your clothes on at the cricket

There will be no skin on show at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, where spectators have been told to observe a strict dress code during the second Test between Pakistan and England. The message was clearly spelt out – “Dress code is very simple. Just keep your clothes on.” That means the 500-strong Barmy Army, particularly those...

The Confectionery Stall

Beaten like a naughty egg white

England do not lose too many Test matches these days. But when they do lose, they lose properly. They go down hard, they go down fast, and they go down in a blaze of statistical ignominy. Since the Flower-Strauss era began, with an almost mathematics-defying innings defeat after collapsing to 51 all out in Jamaica three years ago, England...

Different Strokes

George Bailey: charm and larrikin in one genuine package

Some things are meant to be. Some leaders are born that way. The first time I met George Bailey, I had this premonition that he would one day captain Australia. And so it has come to pass. Bailey will break a long tradition in Australian cricket, captaining his country on international debut. Apart from in the very...

Pak Spin

Saeed Ajmal lifts Pakistani hearts

Never in the field of cricket conflict have so many enjoyed a match played before so few. Pakistan's thumping victory in Dubai was accompanied by shrill cries of glory that echoed around a near-empty stadium, but it was also greeted with a torrent of exultant tweets and status updates that rang out around the world. This was...

Shot selection

Ashes emotion: jubilant England, dejected Australia

It's been too long since my last blog - not as much cricket in my working life for a while - but I'm back again. For my first blog in a long time, I've picked a photo from the end of the 2010-11 Ashes. As an Aussie photographer, particularly during the final Ashes Test in Sydney, I had a...

• It Figures: Batsman analysis by bowler-pitch quality - part 2
• Posted by shrikanthk
• It's good to see Bradman's 212 getting a mention. It was played one the same ground where the 4-0 ..

• The Pitch: An open letter to Giles Clarke
• Posted by Sardeep
• Dear Old British Monarch Minded Stagnant Person. First question why should we pay extortionate mon..

Latest News

Specials

• Bates, Latham picked; Brendon McCullum to lead

• Australia wrap up 4-0 whitewash

• Visitors reeling after following on

• England can chase 250 - Broad

• Nawaz shines as Pakistan U-19s level series

• Warner's Achilles heel
• How he copes against spin bowling will be crucial to his future, writes Ashley Mallett

• How a cricket hero went political
• Review: What influence did the game have on where Imran Khan is today? Sharda Ugra on Pakistan: A Personal History

• Cook-Strauss, and other durable openers
• Numbers Game: A look at the long-term opening combinations and their partnership records in different regions

• India's road rage masks their inadequacy
• Sharda Ugra: What would the reaction have been if all this bad behaviour had come from a team touring India instead?

• Analysing Test batting performances
• It Figures: Bowling-pitch quality revisited