Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 93 i Wisden Cricket Monthly

◆ Watched the Windies bat through the night to save the Christchurch Test, Justin Greaves making an incredible unbeaten double ◆ Started Felix White's soulful new book, Whatever Will Be, Will Be. It's about football, but even so… ◆ Went on New Zealand radio to discuss the future of Brendon McCullum – if they're right, he won't be going anywhere ◆ Caught up with Simon Harmer after his career-defining India tour – page 28 for that one ◆ Celebrated the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast breaking into the top 20 of Apple's UK sports podcast list with a glass of Chardonnay live on air…

Relishing his role as Australia's leading man, Mitchell Starc brought back traumatic memories for England fans as he dominated the Perth and Brisbane Tests, writes Lawrence Booth COLUMNIST Fifteen years ago at the WACA, Mitchell Johnson sat before the media and admitted he had no real idea how he had suddenly managed to swing the ball into England's right-handed middle order. It was the spell which briefly squared that 2010/11 series, before Andrew Strauss’ team ran away with things at Melbourne and Sydney. And it was largely forgotten for three years, until Johnson wreaked his terrible revenge. On the first day of the second Test at Brisbane this month, another southpaw fast bowler named Mitchell was emitting similar humility. Mitchell Starc had just overhauled Wasim Akram as the leading Test…

THIS MONTH'S DIARIST OCTOBER 18-23 T20I SERIES IN NEW ZEALAND I was supposed to make my Test debut in New Zealand last year, so going back there was a bit bittersweet. We played one of the T20Is at Christchurch, where my Test debut was going to be, so I was getting flashbacks to that time and the injury I picked up. I'm desperate to play Test cricket, that's still the ultimate goal for me. I'd happily give up all this franchise stuff to play Test cricket. The T20I series itself was a little frustrating – I got 16 in the first game and didn't bat in the second or third. We won 1-0 with two games washed out. Still, it was great to be back around the England team, especially…

Ben Stokes could dodge it no longer. After a second eight-wicket hammering, defeat raining down on his shattered quicks, he made a decision. He would go public. The media, both mainstream and armchair, would have something to get their teeth into. And Stokes could clear his chest. “When the game is on the line, teams are able to handle that pressure better than us,” he told the TV cameras, steadily, evenly. “We're a great team when we're ahead. And when we need to play catch-up, we're great. But when the moment of the game is on the line, we're not able to stand up. For me, as a captain, it's starting to become quite obvious.” That last line. That's the killer. Stokes has never spoken about his team like this…

40. 103 v Sri Lanka, Lord's, August 29-31, 2024 Root's fastest Test hundred, and his least challenging. Ollie Pope chose not to enforce the follow on, so this was about giving the bowlers some rest and ensuring nothing catastrophic happened. Mission accomplished, and Nº34 achieved. 39. 106 v New Zealand, Wellington, December 6-8, 2024 The game was pretty much already won, England effectively 351-2 when Root came in, but this was still a knock to seal arguably England's most impressive overseas series win in three years, and their first in New Zealand since 2007/08. 38. 136 v West Indies, Edgbaston, August 17-19, 2017 England were 39-2 at one point, and West Indies would later show at Headingley that they weren't actually terrible, but the tourists’ efforts in the first Test,…

It was once tradition for the England touring party, including wives, partners and children, to wear fancy dress at the Christmas Day lunch in Melbourne. It felt quite apt, when looking for pictures of Robin Smith, that I came across an image of him dressed and made up as The Joker on the 1990/91 Ashes tour. Judge loved to be the centre of attention. He was the life and soul of any event, he loved to please, and went out of his way to make everyone feel welcome. He also found it hard to say no. Those of us who knew him well were fully aware that behind the mask was a far more complicated and insecure man. I could never work out how someone with so much going for…

Send your answers to editorial@wisden.com. Entries must be received by January 12, 2026 WIN! 1. 5 years ago… On January 6, 2021, New Zealand defeated Pakistan in the second men's Test in Christchurch to complete a clean sweep and move to No.1 in the Test rankings. Kane Williamson and which other batter shared a 369-run partnership, the third-highest stand in New Zealand's Test history? 2. 10 years ago On January 6, 2016, who resigned as South Africa's men's Test captain after only 14 matches in charge? 3. 15 years ago On January 5, 2011, who announced their retirement from Test cricket, calling time on a career which brought him 4,259 runs at an average of 40.56 from 68 matches? 4. 20 years ago On January 5, 2006, who became the…

You probably don't remember the second ODI between West Indies and England at Antigua in March 2014. England won by three wickets; the debutant Stephen Parry was Player of the Match. During the innings break, on Test Match Special, Sir Vivian Richards answered listener's questions – including an old favourite. “The fastest bowler I ever faced,” said Viv, “was a guy from South Australia called Wayne Prior. He was a farmer's boy. He looked well fed.” Few things in cricket earn respect – instant, unconditional respect – like the ability to bowl fast. That was particularly acute in Australian cricket in the mid-1970s, when the only comparable assertion of masculinity was a coarse thicket above the top lip. Prior impressed the other Richards, too. Earlier this year, when somebody posted…

Founded in 1965, the West Lancashire Cricket Society meets once a month between October and March at the Southport & Birkdale Sports Club, the home of a vibrant recreational cricket club and a regular outground for Lancashire CCC. Whilst the society usually puts together a varied programme, there is more of a focus on Lancashire-related speakers in 2025/26 in order to celebrate the society's anniversary. So far this winter the WLCS has already welcomed former England and Lancashire all-rounder Barry Wood and former England and Lancashire batter (and Lancs captain) Frank Hayes. Beyond the Red Rose, the society has also hosted former Derbyshire and England cricketer and pioneering international umpire Sue Redfern. Most meetings begin with a talk from the guest speaker followed by a Q&A session, with the first…

18. CRICKET CRISIS: BODYLINE AND OTHER LINES BY JH FINGLETON (1946; UPDATED 1947) Like Percy Fender, featured last month, Jack Fingleton published four books in the immediate aftermath of Ashes series he had followed from the press box: Brightly Fades the Don (on Bradman's “invincible” farewell tour of England in 1948); Brown and Company (on Freddie Brown's defeat in 1950/51, with a nod to the esteemed American publishing house Little, Brown and Company); The Ashes Crown the Year (on Len Hutton's triumph just after the Coronation in 1953); and Four Chukkas to Australia (“chukka” is a term taken from polo for a unit of play: Australia unexpectedly won four Tests in 1958/59, allegedly because four of their bowlers had suspect actions). The snappy titles reflect Fingleton's early journalistic training. He…

*Only available to UK residents  LETTER OF THE MONTH  CONTACT US AT Wisden Cricket Monthly, 5 Beaufoy Walk (off Black Prince Road), Lambeth, London, SE11 6AA editorial@wisden.com  A familiar Ashes story England are 2-0 down. The thing that was promised to be different this time is looking depressingly familiar. Personally I just feel frustrated and downbeat. I can't work myself up into a fury about it, and I'm gloomy about how this might play out now. I've never been a proselytiser for Bazball, but I do know that in 30-plus years of following England this team has provided some of the most memorable, and gut-wrenching, Test cricket I've seen. Now I'm forced to consider, has it all been a confidence trick? Have I been hoodwinked into believing this was truly…

When Michael Slater was eight, hustling in the Sydney suburbs of Wagga Wagga, he would beg his brother Julian to let him play with the big boys. The street outside 17 Hardy Avenue was a hub for some of the suburb's best teens, and though young Michael was an irritant – hyper, irrepressible, always in the way – chewing gum, swinging his Slazenger 5 Star above his head, the kid's persistence won out. His cricketing education would be forged through the intense interconnectedness of the Australian backyard. One of Julian's mates, the gimlet-eyed skipper of the local under-14s, would watch him particularly closely, compiling a dossier of mental notes. Those street tussles in Wagga Wagga must have left a mark. Because a few years later the two would open together…

It's February 2021 and the dust is settling on England's shock win in Chennai, where Joe Root marked his 100th Test with a magisterial double-century before James Anderson's reverse-swing masterclass confirmed a resounding victory to open the series. It's only India's second Test defeat on home soil since England's triumphant tour of 2012 and crucially, given what follows, it puts their place in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final in jeopardy. The loss leaves Rohit Sharma's side needing at least two victories and a draw from the remaining three matches in the series if they are to join New Zealand at the Ageas Bowl. According to reports in the Indian press, Team India are furious with the pitch served up at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and the curator's failure…

WIN! Send in your answers to the address listed at the foot of page 8 or alternatively email them to editorial@wisden.com. Remember to include your address! Closing date is January 8. Both of our winners this month will each receive a pair of cricket socks, courtesy of The London Sock Exchange, an independent British brand dedicated to creating playful, premium and more sustainably made socks. Our crossword winner will receive a pair of ‘The Opener’ socks, and our Picture Perfect winner will get a pair of ‘The Yorker’. Last month's ‘Picture Perfect’ answer: They all completed the double of 50 first-class wickets and 1,000 runs in a single county season – Bill Edrich, Will Gidman, Phil Simmons, Franklyn Stephenson, Richard Hadlee, Stewart Storey. Winner: Simon Revis Crossword winner: Iain Hynd…

“I saw four eye specialists and three said I'd never play professional cricket ever again It was pre-season in 2003 and the ball was loaded into the bowling machine when I wasn't looking. It hit me in the right eye. I'm still partially sighted in that eye to this day. I saw four eye specialists and three said I'd never play professional cricket ever again, but one had operated on a Boston Red Sox baseballer who'd managed to get back to the top level. The period after the injury is probably the part of my career that I'm most proud of. I had no idea how difficult it was going to be, but I just had to find a way. I came back and we avoided relegation in 2003 and…

Andrew Miller, who first coined the term back in 2022, delivers Bazball's last rites after the debacles at Perth and Brisbane COLUMNIST It may have come to your notice that, in last month's edition of this esteemed publication, I dared to inject some optimism into an otherwise miserable, defeatist panel of pundits, by sticking my neck on the line and predicting that England would win back the Ashes in Australia. Well, at 2-0 down on the morning after the Brisbane Test, consider this the last chopper out of Saigon. I have smelt the napalm, and it is toasty. Even if England do somehow engineer the most miraculous comeback in Ashes history, the methods and mindset for which this team has been renowned (and reviled) will not return. Bazball is dead.…

ISSUE 93 It was hard to avoid the visual metaphor. Here was TNT Sports’ big moment, having secured the rights for “the biggest series of all of our lives”. And here, at the lunch break on day one, was Alastair Cook in his Sunday best alongside Steven Finn in his casual smarts. There was a reason for Cook looking like the kid on work experience who has overestimated the office dress code: he had been presenting the toss that morning, which, ironically, is what TNT seemingly couldn't give. It felt cobbled together because it was – patchwork coverage of a marquee event. TNT are calling it hybrid, which those who had forked out upwards of £30 a month for the privilege knew was code for ‘half-arsed’. Commentators are being seconded…

Facing up to Crohn's In a special Reddit Ask Me Anything Q&A episode of the Wisden Women's Cricket Weekly Podcast, co-host Lauren Winfield-Hill tackled questions from our listeners and opened up on her battle with Crohn's, the inflammatory bowel disease. “It came about in 2019,” said the England and Yorkshire batter. “I started getting symptoms of sickness and diarrhea. I'd be on tour and I'd be in the toilet all night. Next day I haven't slept, I've got no energy, no nutrients. I probably had 18 months where I was violently ill. I was very, very poorly throughout that period. For ages we thought I just had an intolerance. “I remember being in Melbourne on an Ashes trip and I couldn't even walk to breakfast. I just had nothing in…

It's 5.05am on my 30th birthday and Joe Root is walking out to the middle in Perth. England lead Australia by 105. They are objectively in front. A first win down under in 15 years surely awaits. ‘A Root hundred would be a nice birthday present,’ I thought to myself. Four-and-a-half hours later, Australia are 1-0 up. The implosion is so dramatic that it is difficult to immediately process. It's not just the manner of defeat itself, it's the earth-shattering speed with which pre-series, and heck, post day one, narratives had been torn up. In the days that follow Perth there was a certain joylessness to the discourse that I found grating. From an English point of view, it was a galling defeat. But after the dust settled I couldn't…

Like the too-recent deaths of Graham Thorpe and Ricky Hatton, the premature passing of Robin Smith at his home in Perth on December 1 cut deep for followers of English sport. Each embodied the kind of courage and flair that came out under the greatest pressure on the biggest of days, yet each were nakedly vulnerable, and heartbreakingly honest about it, too. They touched something in their supporters – which included pretty much everyone – because they were all too human, just like us but blessed with a talent we could only dream of. You could look up at any of them and understand what they were going through even as they pulled off the apparently impossible, ducking punches or bouncers and firing back with some ammo of their own.…

Do you know someone deserving of a place in the Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame? Email editorial@wisden.com “I never had any pace. I used to bowl big in-swingers, keeper up, and developed different ways of cutting the ball away “My first Lancashire League wicket was Mudassar Nazar, caught at squareleg on debut,” recalls David ‘Dibber’ Ormerod of the start of a golden cricketing journey that brought him much silverware and a further 1,396 league wickets, including 97 fivefors. Only one bowler since Queen Elizabeth II's coronation has more, and only six ever. It was enough to win him a joint-record seven Lancashire League Bowler of the Year awards, with another shared. More Test scalps followed, all logged by his father, Alick, an enthusiastic second-teamer and later award-winning umpire. “Dad…