Cricket

The county cricket championship is under way and Sussex CCC have the thin end of the bat. The mini league format of the last Covid-stricken season was re-adopted with Sussex placed in an ‘odds and sods’ group along with Lancashire, Yorkshire, Northants and Glamorgan. The championship starts [...]

With Sussex opening the County Season yesterday with a mini league format against Lancashire I thought of an encounter in 1927 between the Red Rose county and Sussex which John Arlott cites in his appreciation of Maurice Tate in his Book of Cricketers. In 1927 Lancashire was the most formidable [...]

On Tuesday evening, on Sky Sports, I was preparing to watch the Champions League when I saw a programme presented by Charles Colville called Talking Cricket. It featured those black cricketers who over 40 years ago made the breakthrough of playing for England – guys like Roland Butcher and [...]

No doubt the papers will castigate England for this comprehensive defeat. My mind goes back to 2017 in Mumbai and watching the bedraggled Barmy Army making their way along the coastal pavement after India and Ravi Ashwin had spun us out. I had expected another 4-0 defeat in this series. India have [...]

Losing a Test in two days is certain to attract castigation in the media. Michael Vaughan, who seems to have taken over from Geoff Boycott as trenchant critic-in- chief, led the charge after the first day. However certain points were not made by him. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad failed to take a [...]

I may well be disproved wrong by the time you read this but England look set for at least a draw and possibly a win at Chennai. To win in India is at tough as it gets. It used to be the West Indies, then Australia but now the sub-continent is the most demanding examination of tests. Much has been [...]