Cricket

The ICC (that’s the International Cricket Council) and the authorities in England keep banging on about how they want to ensure that test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game. Then they keep announcing additional one day and 20/20 competitions. You tell me how that adds up. Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire backer of the new England vs West Indies 20/20 challenge matches (for $5m each game) says he finds test cricket “boring”. Virgil was right: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes… Stanford sees 20/20 as a way to “crack” the American market. Now I think he is almost certainly mistaken in thinking this is possible but I’m not prepared to

Apologies for the delay in publishing this latest installment in our marathon series. Still, here it is at last. So far we have has featured teams skippered by: Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich,  Fry, Gower,  Hutton,  Imran and Jardine. Now it is Kapil Dev’s turn. 1. Gary Kirsten (SA)2. Rohan Kanhai (WI)3. Vinod Kambli (IND)4. Jacques Kallis (SA)5. Alvin Kallicharran (WI)6. Alan Kippax (AUS) 7. Kapil Dev (IND) (Capt) 8. Alan Knott (ENG) (Wkt)9. Anil Kumble (IND)10. Khan Mohammed (PAK)11. Bart King (USA) Country representation in the series: England 41, Australia 23, West Indies 15, India 12, Pakistan 11, South Africa 10, New Zealand 5, Sri Lanka 2, Zimbabwe 1,

It is not, right now, saying much to observe that Kevin Pietersen is England’s best batsman. His century against New Zealand today has not been the stuff of legends but it has at least rescued England from the perilous position they had put themselves into at 86/5. But if Pietersen is England’s best batsman, we must hope that he is also be their most ignorant. How else to explain his prediction that Monty Panesar “will be the best finger-spinner the world has ever seen”? Of course there’s no reason to suppose that test cricketers might also have some appreciation for the the game’s history. But it would be nice to

So, to no-one’s great surprise, the first test between England and New Zealand ended in a draw. Commendations are due Daniel Vettori for his bowling and Jacob Oram for the century that ensured England would have no chance to snatch an improbable victory. England’s pusillanimous tactics made achieving victory, however, very much more improbable than it needed to have been.

Since I’m too young to have seen Dennis Lillee in his absolute prime, Malcolm Marshall is the greatest fast bowler I’ve watched in my lifetime. He would have been 50 this month, but for the colon cancer that killed him. Pat Lynch remembers the great Barbadian here. One fine story that has just a hint of the Golden Age about it: What he said, he meant, as he did at Pontypridd when playing for Hampshire. With two days remaining, Glamorgan were 13 runs ahead in their second innings with seven wickets left. Just before the start of play in front of a full dressing room Marshall rang his Southampton golf

After  Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich,  Fry and Gower it is clearly time for Len Hutton’s lads to take the field. This, I submit, is a pretty strong ‘H’ XI. It would have been posted three days ago had I not been paralysed by indecision brought on by the difficulty of selecting the man to bat at 6. 1. Jack Hobbs (ENG)2. Len Hutton (ENG) (Capt)3. Wally Hammond (ENG)4. George Headley (WI)5. Neil Harvey (AUS)6. Clem Hill (AUS)7. Richard Hadlee (NZ)8. Ian Healy (AUS) (Wkt)9. Michael Holding (WI)10. Wes Hall (WI)11. Harbhajan Singh (IND) Country representation in the series so far: England 34, Australia 16, West Indies 12, India 8,

Well, better late than never, here’s the long, even keenly, awaited G XI. No excuses for its late arrival, but comfort yourselves with the thought that you’ll have less time to wait before the H XI arrives to batter everyone else’s bowling to pieces. So, following Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich and Fry, it is time for Gower. 1. Sunil Gavaskar (IND)2. Gordon Greenidge (WI)3. David Gower (ENG) (Capt)4. WG Grace (ENG)5. Tom Graveney (ENG)6. Adam Gilchrest (AUS) (Wkt)7. Tony Greig (ENG)8. Jack Gregory (AUS) 9. Joel Garner (WI)10. Clarrie Grimmett (AUS)11. Lance Gibbs (WI) Number of players from each country in the series so far:England 31, Australia 13, West

One of the great annual treats is upon us: yes, the 2008 edition of Wisden arrived this morning. As always, the obituaries provide some of the best reading. To wit, Mike Brearley’s father, Horace who died last August aged 94. He was: A batsman who played once for Yorkshire before the war, and twice for Middlesex afterwards…Mike himself tells the story of his father’s only game for Yorkshire, which was against Middlesex: “He batted an No. 5, and faced a side that contained three leg-spinners. Horace had never, or almost never, been confronted by a googly bowler, and here were three all at once. But he was a typical Yorkshireman,

After Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter and Edrich it must be time for a bit of Fry. 1. Roy Fredericks (WI) 2. Jack Fingleton (AUS)3. CB Fry (ENG) (Capt)4. Tip Foster (ENG)5. Andy Flower (ZIM) 6. Aubrey Faulkner (SA) 7. Andrew Flintoff (ENG)8. Frank Foster (ENG)9. Bruce French (ENG) (Wkt) 10. Arthur Fielder (ENG) Fazal Mahmood (PAK)11. Tich Freeman (ENG) If some teams are a chore to select, others are a pleasure. This is one such delightful XI.There are names to conjour with aplenty: Fry, Faulkner, the (unrelated) Fosters, Freeman… And names one wishes to have been able to include too such as Percy Fender or Chuck Fleetwood-Smith. But there can

Attention cricket fans: this is the best video you will have seen in ages. Left Arm Chinaman reconstructs the miserable first test between England and New Zealand… using blu-tack. Genius. [Via Will at The Corridor]

So here we are again. After Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine and Dexter we come to John Edrich’s XI. 1. John Edrich (ENG) (Capt)2. Matthew Elliott (AUS)3. Bill Edrich (ENG)4. George Emmett (ENG)5. Russell Endean (SA)6. Farokh Engineer (IND) 7. Godfrey Evans (ENG) (Wkt)8. Steve Elworthy (SA)9. Richard Ellison  (ENG) 10. Phil Edmonds (ENG)11. Tom Emmett(ENG) Poor Godfrey Evans. What has he done to deserve this? Evans, arguably the greatest wicket-keeper (note, I do not say wicketkeeper-batsman) to play the game, finds himself in shabby, mortal company. Well, that’s what happens when you’re unlucky enough to have a surname starting with E. Suffice it to say that selecting this XI was neither an

Ross responds to my gentle tweaking about baseball and cricket here. He makes some fair points. But thinking about it just now, it occurs to me that there’s another major difference between British sports and their American counterparts that sets British sports apart. Namely, participation. With the obvious and notable exception of basketball, it’s notable that very few people actually play the major American sports. Sure, kids play American football and baseball in school and some – a minority obviously – will do so in college but very few adults actually play these sports. I know that there are adult hardball baseball leagues and there are still some independent leagues

Today, being perhaps the best day of the year*, is a good moment to consider Ross Douthat’s assertion that John Rawls was right. We do not speak of philosophy, of course, but of something much more important: sport. More specifically, Rawls’ belief that “baseball is the best of all games.” There’s something to this, for sure, though really it would be better rendered as “Baseball is the best of all American games” – a sentiment with which it would be hard to quibble, much though I also admire and enjoy college football (Go Blue!). Ross elaborates: One could go on to note the perfect balance that baseball strikes between team

In the wake of Armstrong and Benaud and Constantine we come, as we must, to Dexter. THE D XI 1. Stewart Dempster (NZ)2. Ted Dexter (ENG) (Capt)3. Rahul Dravid (IND)4. KS Duleepsinhji (ENG)5. Martin Donnelly (NZ)6. Basil D’Oliveira (ENG) 7. Jeff Dujon (WI)  (Wkt) 8. Alan Davidson (AUS) 9. Bruce Dooland (AUS) 10. Allan Donald (SA) 11. Dilip Doshi (IND) This was a more difficult selection than some and a degree of ingenuity and no small measure of research were required before I could finalise the XI. A reminder of the criteria: the side must, as best as is possible, be balanced, however balance must not be fetishised to the

You didn’t think I’d forgotten did you? After Armstrong and Benaud we come, logically enough, to Chappell Constantine. [Updated after much dithering. To hell with  it, however, romance demands that Learie be skipper. Thanks to Sam G for reminding me of this.] THE C TEAM 1. Jimmy Cook (SA)2. George Challenor (WI)3. Greg Chappell (AUS) 4. Denis Compton (ENG)5. Martin Crowe (NZ)6. Colin Cowdrey (ENG)7. Jock Cameron (SA) (Wkt)8. Learie Constantine (WI) (Capt)9. Colin Croft (WI)10. Jack Cowie (NZ)11. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (IND) This is, as you will notice, a less balanced side than those previously selected in this series. Also, I suspect, a less formidable one. For that you may

I’ve mentioned CLR James’ Beyond A Boundary before now, but searching a moment ago for something else I came across this 1984 review in the The New York Times. The author asks: It is… hard to tell how much of what Mr. James says is playful hyperbole and how much is passionate advocacy. Can he be entirely serious when he writes, ”I believe and hope to prove that cricket and football were the greatest cultural influences in 19th-century Britain, leaving far behind Tennyson’s poems, Beardsley’s drawings and concerts of the Philharmonic Society”? Well, would anyone take the other side of this argument? That is to say, who would claim seriously

After the great success of the first installment of our alphabetical cricket teams, it’s only natural that we move on to, yes, The B Team. As always, have your say in the comments. THE B TEAM 1. Geoffrey Boycott (ENG)2. Sid Barnes (AUS)3. Donald Bradman (AUS)4.  Ken Barrington (ENG)5. Allan Border (AUS)6. Ian Botham (ENG)7. Richie Benaud (AUS) (Capt)8.  Mark Boucher (SA) (Wkt)9. Alec Bedser (ENG)10. SF Barnes (ENG)11. Colin Blythe (ENG) Selection notes: Tough to decide who should bat number 3 in this largely Anglo-Australian side, obviously. Any team with Bradman is going to be competitive. Apart from the Don, it’s not the most exciting batting line-up but that gives