Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 53 i Wisden Cricket Monthly

“The removal of Broad and Anderson severs the last link to a vanished time – when a fast bowler knew what he was there for, the red ball fitted perfectly in the fingers, and the skills required to fiip Test matches in a session were all and everything. Their records will be retired with them I think it was just after the Melbourne Test when I lost it. I have some vague recollection of ranting tiredly on the Wisden podcast. Something about the need, the absolute cast-iron necessity, as much for our own sanity as anything else, not to mention our collective peace of mind, tied up as it is to questions about what this whole doomed endeavour is for, if not to laugh and cry and cry and laugh…

ANDREW MILLER Wisden Cricket Monthly columnist, UK editor of ESPNcricinfo and former editor of The Cricketer @miller_cricket For a man who rakes in the bare minimum of half a million pounds from English cricket each year, Tom Harrison is exceptionally good at projecting a sense of persecution. For seven years, he has been the plausibly dashing face of the ECB. A chief executive who radiates his can-do attitude through the medium of rolled-up sleeves and, where possible, a conspicuously absent tie, but who has been shocked – shocked, I tell you! – by the extent of the failings that have stacked up during his tenure. “But, but, but …” has been the gist of Harrison’s recent public utterances – and given his notable reluctance to front up to the media,…

JO HARMAN Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine editor @Jo_Wisden England’s tournament may have ultimately ended in disappointment, losing to a strong Indian side by four wickets in the final at Antigua, but it nonetheless provided a glimpse of a bright future, and some welcome victories to cheer after a chastening couple of months for touring English sides. Coached by Richard Dawson and captained by Hampshire’s Tom Prest, England strolled through their group with victories over Bangladesh, Canada and UAE, before comprehensively beating South Africa in the quarters and edging a nail-biter against Afghanistan to qualify for the final, where India controlled the game to lift their fifth Under-19 World Cup title. England fielded 13 players from 10 different counties across the tournament, with five in particular catching the eye. TOM PREST…

Rejoice, one and all, the most entertaining T20 competition on the planet is back! No, not the IPL, although we’ll come to the megaauction in a bit. And not the Pakistan Super League, undoubtedly high-quality but frustratingly straightlaced. We’re talking about the Bangladesh Premier League, the world’s peerless short-form tournament, at least if your metrics are backroom back-stabbings and on-field tomfoolery. And let’s face it, that’s all we’re really here for. Having taken a break in 2021, the 2022 edition has had to cram in an extra calendar year of controversy. Mohammad Shahzad being reprimanded for smoking on the field was merely an amuse-bouche to the main course: Ravi Bopara being made captain of Sylhet Sunrisers – his elevation so sudden that the teamsheets still had the name of the…

An alternative prize will be provided if the winner is aged under 18, or if requested LETTER OF THE MONTH Making a Rod for his own back There is no doubt that both Hampshire Cricket and its supporters will always be indebted to the buoyant enthusiasm and deep pockets of chairman Rod Bransgrove, but his recent appearance before the DCMS select committee was littered with ‘engage brain before opening mouth’ moments. The media focus was rightly on the abysmal performance of Middlesex chairman Mike O’Farrell but, as a Hampshire fan for 59 of my 64 years, it was confusing to try and make sense of many of Mr Bransgrove’s utterances. For me, it bordered on offensive to hear him say: “I know what prejudice is like, I know what it…

WHO BATS THREE? With Dawid Malan among those omitted, England needed a new first drop. Joe Root, who’s made no secret of the fact that four is his preferred position, began the selection meeting by telling Andrew Strauss, the caretaker managing director and chief selector, that he felt the team would be best served by moving himself up a position. There’s logic behind the decision - there aren’t any compelling candidates to bat three and Root is invariably facing the new ball anyway - but is it sensible to change pretty much the only thing about the team that’s actually working? England’s skipper averages 39 at Nº3 and 51.27 at Nº4, the position in which he’s just enjoyed a record-breaking year. If his form dips in the Caribbean, the wisdom…

PHIL WALKER Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-in-chief @Phil_Wisden Frank exchanges Trent Bridge, Nottingham July 21, 1950 PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN The first black captain of the West Indies, Frank Worrell, unfurls his full repertoire to take his team to victory against the stunned hosts. Worrell’s magnificent 261, along with 129 from Everton Weekes, secures a 10-wicket triumph, and an eventual 3-1 series win. Earlier that summer at Lord’s, the tourists’ landmark 326-run victory had sparked an impromptu calypso performance on the outfield, with the musician Aldwyn Roberts – or Lord Kitchener as he would come to be known – one of around 5,000 Caribbean-born immigrants to have settled in Britain since the war, leading the legendary singalong. Sonny boy Fenner’s, Cambridge June, 1950 PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN The Windies’ great triumph in 1950 was only…

PART II For middle-aged clubbie Nick Campion, a strength and conditioning programme has helped keep him fit and performing at his optimum level. In the second of a two-parter he outlines how he stays fit through the duration of a whole season NICK CAMPION Freelance writer and club cricket veteran, playing for Walton on Trent in the Derbyshire League @NickScribbler In the previous issue I outlined the programme for mobilising your body and coordinating your movements. Now it’s time to work on your strength. The programme below is necessarily general, so this is another moment where investing in a session with a qualified strength and conditioning coach (a member of the UKSCA) might be worth your while. If not, Google is your friend for filling in the details. The following…

Send in your answers via email (editorial@wisden.com) or via post (Time Warp, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Fourth Floor, Bedser Stand, Kia Oval, Kennington, London, SE11 5SS). Entries must be received by March 16, 2022 1. 5 years ago… On March 9, 2017, England beat West Indies by 186 runs in the third ODI at Bridgetown, completing a 3-0 whitewash. Who was named Player of the Match after becoming the fastest Englishman to score five ODI centuries (in his 39th innings), breaking David Gower’s record? 2. 10 years ago… On March 29, 2012, Sri Lanka beat England by 75 runs in the first Test at Galle. Which all-rounder made his debut for the tourists? Clue: it was his first of six Test appearances, all of them made in Asia. 3. 15 years…

A small change can make a big difference. James Wallace re-imagines key moments from the game’s past The Match Pakistan 249-6 (I Khan 72, Miandad 58; Pringle 3-22) v England 250-7 (Botham 107, Lewis 31*; Akram 0-77) England won by 3 wickets The Cast Graham Gooch Dermot Reeve Ian Botham Derek Pringle Imran Khan Steve Bucknor The 1992 World Cup was the beginning of a new era. The first to include coloured kits and floodlit matches, it was beamed around the world to a huge TV audience. The tournament did not disappoint – closely fought matches were played out with funky fields, experimental bowlers and pinch-hitters. The tournament would not only change the face of cricket forever, but also forge one of the sport’s most memorable double acts. GG: I…

Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack editor and Daily Mail writer @the_topspin LAWRENCE BOOTH When Australia began their second innings at Hobart in January, their lead was 115 and the game all but over. Stuart Broad didn’t care. He was in David Warner’s ear from the start, and his third ball completed Warner’s second Test pair. Back in August, Jimmy Anderson kickstarted the Headingley Test against India with a near-perfect spell of 8-5-6-3, removing KL Rahul for nought, Cheteshwar Pujara for 1 and Virat Kohli for 7. India never recovered, and England squared the series. These were nutshell moments: Broad the competitor, up for the scrap, context be damned; Anderson the surgeon, the fresh Dukes deployed as a scalpel. And these were two of the eight men England decided to leave out when…

1 Brendan Taylor, the former Zimbabwe captain, has been banned from all cricket for three-and-a-half years by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit for failing to report an approach from alleged corruptors in 2019. Taylor had earlier confessed on Twitter to the encounter, revealing he had been filmed taking cocaine during a meeting in India and was then allegedly blackmailed. The 36-year-old admitted the ICC’s charges but insists he never fixed a match. 2 Joe Root has been named the Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year by the ICC, becoming only the second Englishman, after Alastair Cook in 2011, to win the award. England opener Tammy Beaumont was recognised as the Women’s T20 Cricketer of the Year, while Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi received the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Men’s…

PHIL WALKER Wisden Cricket Monthly editor- in-chief @Phil_Wisden From the moment that his spirit father Alec Stewart anointed him the best wicketkeeper in the world, Ben Foakes has had to lug the label wherever he’s gone. It accompanied him through the early years at Surrey, footnoting his stirring Test debut in 2018, and got dragged through an enervating 2019, when Foakes, overlooked for the summer’s Ashes, briefly grew tired of the scene and his place within it. And it was there again last year at Chennai, tapping away at his temples as he crouched into his first competitive match in six months, his Test career shakily resurrected. So what’s it like, I ask him, over a coffee in the players’ dining room at The Oval, having to live with it…

Nets Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the nets are still the place to find all levels of cricketer. From the gleaming pro honing their technique one-on-one (or on one leg) with an expensively remunerated dog stick-wielding coach, to the chaos of a club net where a helmet-less, black trainer-clad first-timer is trying to emerge in one piece from a Lord of the Flies-free-for-all. Indoor nets are a particularly curious entity; a cacophony of noise, ego, fear and loathing that in truth bares almost no resemblance to what will play out on the pitch. Nibble If there’s a bit of nibble about, a hint of deviation off the pitch, the bowlers get excited. And it is always ‘just a bit’. You can’t have lots of nibble; that would be ‘gnaw’, which…

It feels like an age since that mesmerising day at Lord’s in July 2017, when Anya Shrubsole burst through the defences of Rajeshwari Gayakwad, winning England a match they had no right to win and sending a sell-out crowd into delirium. The 2017 World Cup, watched by an estimated 180 million people around the world, was heralded as a new dawn for the women’s game, its breathtaking final the perfect conclusion for everyone but fans of India. T20 World Cups in 2018 and 2020 continued that momentum, with the final of the latter attracting more than 86,000 fans to the MCG, the second-highest audience for a women’s sports event in history. Then, suddenly, not long after Katy Perry had hit her final note in the rollicking post-match party, everything fell…

ROHIT SHARMA’S PULL SHOT The most iconic shot in world cricket right now. Not since Ricky Ponting’s swivel has there been such a destructive, disdainful whip across the line to the short stuff. So effective it causes the most fearsome fast bowler to think twice about whanging one halfway down. AMBIDEXTROUS BOWLERS When Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis made his T20I debut four years ago he kicked off a revolution. It happened midway through England’s innings, when Mendis, having arrowed a few left-arm darts at the right-handed Jason Roy, flipped his action to bowl right-arm off-breaks to Ben Stokes. Heralded as a pioneer, he is far from the only one. In India there is Akshay Karnewar, and in Pakistan, Yasir Jan, the game’s only ambidextrous pace bowler, while in the women’s…

Most young English cricketers grow up dreaming of a match-winning performance against Australia yet very few achieve it, even among full-time pros. In 1977, Peter Gill, Staffordshire’s 29-year-old opener, caressed 92 as the Minor Counties XI took advantage of a sporting declaration to beat the Australian tourists in Sunderland: Doug Walters, David Hookes, Kerry O’Keefe, Len Pascoe, et al. He had also made 39 in the first innings, earning him £100 as Player of the Match, a quick radio interview and a champagne celebration. “There were 40 or so still to get when I got out,” he says, “having a slog at one from Gary Cosier. It was the innings of my life.” It was a golden summer for Gill, whose 710 runs were the most in the Minor Counties…

JAMES WALLACE My Golden Summer James Wallace on falling back in love amid the olive groves of southern Italy, helped along the way by a Stokesian classic You’ll find Ostuni at the ankle end of Puglia, the heel of Italy, about five miles inland from the swaggering, frankly show-off turquoise-ness of the Adriatic. Sat atop a rocky outcrop that peers down on the flat carpet of olive farms below, Ostuni is one of those places you see sploshed all over the travel supplements of a weekend newspaper. Skies bluer than blood in a Bowes-Lyon vein contrasting with artful stacks of white-washed buildings – it’s not called ‘La Città Bianca’ for nothing. There’s a citadel. Check. An ‘old town’. Check. It has hazardous marble cobbles coming out of its ears. The…

The men’s and women’s Ashes contained, between them, 12 matches. England failed to win all 12 of them. Their eight defeats were leavened only by a dramatic drawn Test in each series, plus two sogged-off women’s T20s. In the drawn women’s Test at Canberra (the 12th women’s Test in the last 12 years and seven months, featuring four teams, in which time there had been 529 men’s Tests played by 12 different cricketing nations), Kate Cross survived her 12th and final ball to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat, after England’s final-hour collapse had Heimliched the game from the oesophagus of victory. In the end, they were 12 runs short of their victory target, and it became the 12th time that England have secured a Test draw with…

ADAM COLLINS Wisden Cricket Monthly Australia correspondent @collinsadam At time of writing, it’s a week and a half since Justin Langer’s announced his decision – to the extent that it was his to make – to resign as Australia’s head coach. It isn’t overplaying it to say that, for the first few days at least, his resignation was the biggest story in Australian cricket since the sandpaper crisis. That it was Langer who was called upon in 2018 to fix the joint up after that trauma was not lost upon those who couldn’t comprehend how he’d been ousted after pumping the Poms and, a couple of months earlier, stunning everyone by snatching the T20 World Cup. Blistering hot takes followed, with former teammates queuing up to slam Cricket Australia (CA)…

Including news, interviews and stats, as well as the oddities which make county cricket what it is When he was 18 and still in the Lancashire Academy, Josh Bohannon scored a century for the club’s second XI. Nothing strange about that, you may think, for a batter who is now confirmed as one of the best young players in England. However, he was dropped for the next match and promptly decided to leave the game and concentrate on his electrician’s apprenticeship. Anger and frustration prompted this decision but a lack of understanding of the professional system was really to blame. He didn’t play because some of the first-team squad had to be coaxed back to form in the seconds. Four weeks went by without a game, before a hundred in…

“Ponting would bring an earthiness and grit to the Test set-up that has been sorely lacking, not to mention a vast amount of batting expertiseJO HARMAN PHIL WALKER Wisden Cricket Monthly editorin-chief The coaches must be split. Silverwood, for all his limitations, was lumbered (in a pandemic) with three jobs: head man of both whiteball and red, and national selector. With the formats increasingly diverging, they must get the overall directorship role right. It won’t be easy: whoever takes over from Giles will need to foster a spirit of collaboration, with complete buy-in from both captains and coaches. Can they persuade Strauss to take it full-time? More pertinently, would he want the hassle, not least after the abuse he got for the decision to drop Broad and Anderson? Get the…