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Articles by Douglas Heath

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About Douglas Heath

Douglas Heath began his lifelong love affair with cricket as an 8 year-old schoolboy playing OWZAT? Whilst listening to a 160s Ashes series on the radio. He later became half-decent at doing John Arlott impressions and is a member of Middlesex County Cricket Club. He holds no truck at all with the T20 version on the game. More Posts

Assessing the 3rd Test

By the time you read this the Aussies should have retained the Ashes and the critics will be dancing on Ben Stokes’ grave. As usual and for time immemorial these critics are long on critique and short on solutions. Supposing Ben Stokes does decide that neither his body nor his methods are up to [...]

December 21, 2025 // 0 Comments

First Day World Test championships/Australia v. South Africa

I was in two minds whether to use my ticket for the ICC WORLD TEST FINAL contested between South Africa and Australia. I have had a recent run of bereavements and I thought the event might conflict with a funeral. In such situations (of losing a close friend) I follow the advice of the American [...]

June 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

Wisden arrives

The primrose cover of Wisden’s Cricket Almanack does not just herald the start of the cricket season, which is into its fourth round of Championship games, but of summer. John Wisden was the finest cricketer and coach of his age – the 1850s. Through his friendship and business association [...]

April 29, 2025 // 0 Comments

The cricket season begins …

Normally the cricket (four day) championship is bookended in April and September in order to accommodate an ever-burgeoning fixture list so the weather can be unreliable. Though there was still a cold wind, there was heat in the sun and a bright clear spring day. Cricket has always been [...]

April 5, 2025 // 0 Comments

Australia beat India in Melbourne Test

The Melbourne Test Match, played before a record crowd, proved to be an eventful and absorbing match as well as instructive as England will play both India and Australia in 2025. Australia won comfortably in a ding-dong battle after India collapsed after tea 0n the final day. India can add Reddy, [...]

December 31, 2024 // 0 Comments

One Hell of a Life/biography of Brian Close by Stephen Chalke

Personally, whilst I respected Brian Close, not least for his often reckless courage, he was never a favourite of mine – there was too much of the curmudgeonly Yorkshireman for me. Stephen Chalke is more sympathetic of “Closey”. Close had the longest first class career of any [...]

October 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

Cricketing national identities

Reading articulate and well-informed books on post-War Caribbean cricket led me to the scarcely original theory that cricket is not played in that many countries but each has an identity  and style of its own. The West Indies dominated cricket for 20 years under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards but no [...]

September 25, 2024 // 0 Comments

England v Sri Lanka: bad light, bad decision

Fact: 44 overs were lost at the Oval yesterday because of bad light. Fact: ticket price for the Oval = £ 80. You might have thought that – with floodlights, a pink ball and a suspension of pace bowling – play could continue for the benefit of spectators but for those that make the [...]

September 7, 2024 // 0 Comments

Joe Solomon and the Spirit of Mourant/Clem Seecharan

Port Mourant, a sugar plantation on the Corenyne Coast of Guyana, is a remarkable place as it has spawned 4 famous West Indian cricketers – Basil Butcher, Rohan Kanhai and Joe Solomon –  and later Alvin Kallicharan, a political leader Cheggi Jagan and the author Professor Clem [...]

August 30, 2024 // 0 Comments

Worrell/Simon Lister

This biography serves as an illuminating follow up to Who Only Cricket Knows.   Frank Worrell was the first black cricketer to captain the West Indies for a full series. A member of the three Ws triumvirate Caribbean; Clyde Walcott, who like Worrell went to Combermere school, and Everton Weekes [...]

August 10, 2024 // 0 Comments

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