Innehållsförteckning för Issue 66 från Wisden Cricket Monthly

WISDEN CRICKET MONTHLY EDITOR’S LETTER So now we know. Australia will meet India in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC). The five-dayer will take place in June at The Oval, with a reserve day in the event of rain. With early ticket sales reportedly excellent, we can expect a packed house; but then you knew that already. In England, Test cricket lives forever. This is the match the game deserves. With due respect to New Zealand’s inaugural win of two years ago, the sight of Kane Williamson edging a run-chase in the winds and mizzle of a Covid-proofed bowl on the outskirts of Southampton wasn’t quite the opening night we were hoping for. This game feels like the big one. It has the makings of a classic. A…

THE Top Six The month in cricket No.4 MARK RAMPRAKASH Former England batter and current Middlesex batting coach @MarkRamprakash In 1983 I got selected for the South of England under- 15s to play at the ESCA [English Schools Cricket Association] festival, now known as the Bunbury Festival. Nasser Hussain was our captain. I remember walking into the dressing room, aged 13, and a couple of the lads were messing around with Nasser, calling him ‘P**i’ this, ‘P**i’ that. Nasser sort of laughed it off but knowing what I was like at that age, and the experiences I’d already had, if someone had directed those words at me, I would have reacted very, very differently. I would have confronted them. Looking back at that incident now, 40 years on, I still…

THE Top Six The month in cricket No.6 No.4 LAWRENCE BOOTH Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack editor and Daily Mail writer @BoothCricket Eighteen months ago, I took the train to Barnsley, where I was collected at the station by Azeem Rafiq. We had never met, but I was trying to work out how best to cover the Yorkshire racism scandal in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, and I knew the decision would be easier once I had spent time with him. He was happy to oblige. We chatted over coffee for an hour or two, and I was impressed by his eloquence and resolve – qualities that were again on display soon after when he spoke in front of the parliamentary DCMS committee. Of course, I’d heard some of the stories about his past,…

“If Keaton Jennings and Luke Wells can replicate their form of last year, Lancashire have the range and depth of attack to take 20 wickets every match, especially if Saqib Mahmood can stay the course after his stress fracture PHIL WALKER WCM editor-in-chief Wide open as ever. The head says it’s a scrap between Surrey and Lancashire, two titans with big squads and deep pockets. But with Surrey missing Jamie Overton’s point-of-difference pace in a seam-heavy attack, I’d lean to Lancashire. If Keaton Jennings and Luke Wells can replicate their form of last year, they have the range and depth of attack to take 20 wickets every match, especially if Saqib Mahmood can stay the course after his stress fracture. Beyond them, legit cases can be made for any of…

From the boardroom to the boot room, the old bowlers are in charge at Middlesex. Mike Selvey is just about to step down after four years as club president, Gus Fraser is interim chair and Richard ohnson is head coach. ambeth’s finest, Tim Murtagh, is still hooping it at 41, having taken on a player-coach role, and into his stead as red-ball skipper steps youngster Toby Roland-Jones, a mere 35. If there is a trickle down from the white heat of the Stokes-McCullum revolution, you’d imagine it would be batters upping the ante. But to these senior citizens of St John’s Wood, the sight of England’s new ball being taken by a 40-year-old and a 36-year-old is inspiration enough. One of the many statistical jaw-droppers showcasing Jimmy Anderson’s longevity is…

YOUR GAME At the heart of club cricket SCOTT OLIVER Freelance sportswriter and stalwart club cricketer @reverse_ sweeper When Marnus Labuschagne rattled off 1,049 runs for Sandwich Town in 2014 to break Justin Langer’s Kent Cricket League record for most runs in a season, his first five away games were at Bexley (founded 1805), Beckenham (1866), Bickley Park (1868), Blackheath (c.1840) and Bromley (1820, and revived by HG Wells’ father in 1856) – five long jaunts along the M2 from the coast to Greater London and these venerable, big-hitting clubs of metropolitan Kent. If the ‘Garden of England’ is traditionally divided into East and West by the River Medway – divided, that is, between ‘Men/Maids of Kent’ and ‘Kentish Men/Maids’ – then Labuschagne’s journeys chart the power shift in the…

DAN LAWRENCE “I owe it everything really, it’s a very special place My dad is still groundsman at Chingford Cricket Club and we lived in a little flat at the ground. I was so fortunate to grow up there, to have the indoor nets and all the facilities literally on my doorstep. I didn’t go to private school or anything like that, and we weren’t as wealthy as a lot of the other families, but the fact I grew up at the club gave me a healthy advantage. If I didn’t have the club then I probably wouldn’t have played cricket at all. Cricket wasn’t a thing at primary or secondary school. It was always football or rugby. I’d get back from school and I’d be straight in the indoor…

TEMBA'S MOMENT Thrilled for Temba Bavuma. South Africa’s new Test captain made a superb 171 against West Indies last month. It may be just his second Test century in seven years, but he’s averaging 45 over the last three years and has protected his team against many a middle-order implosion. Even more than that, he has the intelligence and dignity to ride out the various storms that circulate around this singular cricketing culture. They are lucky to have him. EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD As an occasional contributor to this magazine, the writer and academic Roger Domeneghetti is always good value for some leftfield thinking and original insights, and in his latest book, Everybody wants to rule the world: Britain, sport and the 1980s, he focuses on that most…

THE Top Six The month in cricket No.2 ANDREW MILLER Wisden Cricket Monthly columnist, UK editor of ESPNcricinfo and former editor of The Cricketer @miller_cricket The world cricket calendar is a bit like a downat-heel townhouse. Some aspects of its existing ‘character’ are period features that must be preserved at all costs; others are avocado bath fittings that are already decades out of date. But given how packed the men’s schedule already is, who could ever hope to make it fit for modern life? Who cares about the state of the tiling in the shower when the main concern is that someone will flush the downstairs toilet and steal all your hot water? In the midst of a winter that has boasted several outstanding features, England have twice been whitewashed…

THE Top Six The month in cricket No.5 KATYA WITNEY Wisden staff writer @KatyaWitney Isa Guha is one of the game’s most recognisable faces. As the first woman of South Asian heritage to play for England, and now forging ahead in the notoriously male-heavy world of cricket broadcasting, her story is integral to a generation of female cricketers who are demanding a fairer future. At the top of the game, opportunities for elite players have been transformed, with 80 professional cricketers now reaping the rewards of sustained recent investment. But when Guha’s charitable foundation, Take Her Lead, commissioned a survey last year among girls aged 8-18 involved in the grassroots game, the responses showed that progress had stagnated. The worries of young female players looked remarkably similar to those experienced…

1 Clare Connor has been named the ECB’s deputy CEO while also taking on the new role of England women’s managing director. Connor, who served as the ECB’s interim CEO when Tom Harrison’s tenure came to an end last summer, will manage the response to the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket’s upcoming report into diversity and inclusion within the sport. 2 David Saker has been reappointed as England’s fastbowling coach for this summer’s men’s Ashes series. The Australian held the role when England won the Ashes in 2010/11 before overseeing the Aussie quicks during their 4-0 defeat of England in 2017/18. “Playing in English conditions, I think it puts England’s bowing group in front of the Australians, without a doubt,” said Saker. 3 Dane van Niekerk has retired from…

#1 MATEY CRICKETERS What’s your problem now? Everyone’s so nice all the time, it drives me nuts. Too nice, uh? Do you, like, actually live on this planet? Take a look around you... In cricket. These days it’s all backslaps, boundary beers and bonhomie. Nauseating. But that’s, well, nice, isn’t it? A distraction from the unrelenting gruesomeness everywhere else? No! I don’t want cricket to be nice. Spare me all that guff about manicured lawns, leather on willow, buttered scones and “Oh, bad luck Lucien, that was a corker”. I want some gnarl, some grit. If I wanted nice I’d listen to George Ezra, I’d read David Nicholls with a nice cup of Earl Grey in the Cotswolds on a Sunday afternoon. Where are the Thommos of the day? Sign…

From Tokyo to The Hague to Warsaw to Stoke d’Abernon, it’s been an unconventional route to cricketing stardom for Nat Sciver- Brunt. But the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year says she wouldn’t change a thing. It’s the journey that’s made her. She’s speaking to WCM from Mumbai where’s she’s starring in the inaugural Women’s Premier League. Mumbai Indians paid £320k for the all-rounder’s services, making her, alongside Australia’s Ash Gardner, the most expensive overseas player in the auction. Only local hero Smriti Mandhana attracted a higher price. “It’s amazing to think about where I started, and the people before me started,” she says. “To be going for that much in an auction, it’s just worlds apart. We know India is cricket mad, but this feelsbig. It makes you…

THE WCM COACHING TEAM Alex Tudor Former England fast bowler; now head coach at Kimbolton School Lydia Greenway Former England batter turned coach and broadcaster Keaton Jennings Lancashire and England opening bat Matt Parkinson Lancashire and England leg-spinner Ollie Pope England’s Test No.3 Toby Radford Former West Indies batting coach Mark Ramprakash Former England batting coach Anya Shrubsole World Cupand Asheswinning former England seamer John Simpson Middlesex wicketkeeper “I’m a teenage fast bowler and I’ve been told I’ll be taking the new ball for my second team this season. I’ve been training through the winter and I’m feeling good but I want to be able to sustain my pace through the whole innings, or at least to be useful to the team in my second spells. And I’ve also had…

WIN! 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 April 24, 2023. 1. 5 years ago… On April 28, 2018, Matt Renshaw made a century before lunch on day one of Somerset’s Championship clash against Yorkshire at Taunton, but who was the Australian a late overseas replacement for? 2. 10 years ago… On April 13, 2013, Durham began their Championshipwinning campaign with a 48-run win over Somerset at Chesterle-Street. Which home seamer took seven wickets in the victory and finished the season as the Championship’s most prolific bowler, with 70 scalps from just 12 matches? 3. 15 years ago… On April 5, 2008, South Africa beat India by…

Into the void, big men talk tough about sitting in rooms and getting round tables and thrashing things out. Yet there’s too often a despairing vagueness to the language. Anyone can identify the pressure points. A quick glance at the WTC table will highlight the inequities of such a financially unstable landscape. As South Africa’s supremo-commissioner, Smith is asking for “real, strong leadership” to protect this most unique and weirdly durable of art forms. But who will step up? I honestly believe that the Test game is ripe for its fourth act. Just look around you. New Zealand has just staged two of the greatestTests of all time, first at Wellington against England, and then in the gloaming at Christchurch against Sri Lanka with a two-wicket win from a scrambled…

ISSUE 66 It’s been an excellent month for wilful ignorance. Or, if you’re especially credulous, it’s been an entirely unremarkable month and you can stop reading right here. First you had the Women’s Premier League, the biggest, most lucrative show in town and never shy of making that abundantly clear. And so, when Ellyse Perry was clocked at 130.5kph against UP Warriorz, they ran with it. “Fastest delivery in women’s cricket,” boasted RCB’s official Twitter account, accompanied by the requisite goat emoji, with the official WPL website still listing Perry as holding the record for the competition’s fastest ball. If the reading is accurate, it would indeed be a world record. It’s a conditional roughly the size of a Shafali Verma six, however. Before the WPL, no woman had been…

THE MEL FARRELL INTERVIEW MEL FARRELL Australian writer and broadcaster @melindafarrell “Cricket definitely fell off its perch in South Africa and the game was wobbling and needed to be resurrected. There was a dark cloud hanging, so it was really great to see how that all shifted At the end of the first week in January, things looked grim for cricket in South Africa on multiple fronts. The Test team had suffered a 3-0 pummelling in Australia which, following on from a 2-1 defeat in England, ended their hopes of appearing in the World Test Championship final. The T20 side had continued South Africa’s unenviable World Cup tradition of performing well until it really mattered, failing to progress beyond the group stage after a shock loss to the Netherlands. And…

SRI IAN Botham WINES An alternative prize will be provided if the winner is aged under 18, or if requested *Only available to UK residents LETTER OF THE MONTH Are ‘cocky’ England heading for a fall? I see Ollie Robinson is already upping the ante ahead of the Ashes, predicting England will give Australia a “good hiding” this summer. It’s all harmless fun I suppose, and you can understand Robinson’s confidence given his excellent record so far in his Test career, but I can’t help but wonder if England are setting themselves up for a fall. There’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness and it’s not so long ago that Robinson was part of an England side on the receiving end of a thrashing in Australia, albeit in very…

With more county players than ever spending their winters overseas, how challenging is it to prepare your team for the new season? Billings: The opportunities for players around the world are endless now. We’ve got 21 guys on the staff, have been away at some point this winter. The logistics are certainly challenging. Rather than spending a week or days on a pre season trip, we saw value in putting that money into another resource. or most counties, that cost is the difference between having another overseas player or not. Mullaney: ou’d be very gutsy to stop people going and earning a lot of money, and also gaining the e perience they’re getting in different conditions playing with different players. It’s a given that people are going to be away…

PHIL WALKER Wisden Cricket Monthly editorin-chief @Phil_Wisden Ollie Robinson hunches over his at white in the love coffee shop he’s chosen for our meet. Like most cricketers, especially those who used to like a drink, coffee is a big deal for him. e’s doing a barista course, he says, to take his mind off cricket. It’s easy to see why he likes this place. he stuff they serve here propels a man through his third spell of the day, no bother at all. Anyway, he’s telling about the best delivery he’s ever bowled when something becomes clear. obinson has done the seemingly impossible, not only in breaking up that fabled new ball stranglehold on nglish bowling, but inveigling his way between them. hese days tuart road waits in line for…

THE PANEL Sue Redfern, 45 The first woman to be part of the ECB’s elite panel and the first female umpire to officiate in an England men’s home international. Jack Shantry, 35 The former Worcestershire seamer was added to the ECB’s elite umpire list ahead of the 2022 season. David Millns, 58 The ex-Leicestershire and Notts fast bowler has been a first-class umpire since 2008, standing in men’s and women’s internationals since 2009. Umpires are the decision makers and law implementers, the white-coated judge, jury and finger-waggling executioner. Did you know the word ‘umpire’ derives from the Old French nompere – meaning ‘not a peer’, i.e. not belonging to a side? I didn’t know that, I had to look it up. Umpires, on the other hand, know everything. As David…

Do you know someone deserving of a place in the Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame? Email editorial@wisden.com The Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame “I hit Wasim’s first ball back past him for four, then clipped another to fine leg. As I ran past him he said, ‘That’s the end of the hal volleys and totally peppered us The prodigious batting exploits of the young Graeme Hick began with his mammoth 1,234 Birmingham League (BDCL) runs for Kidderminster in 1984, aged 18, the third-highest total in its then 96-year history. It wasn’t even the highest that season, however, as 20-year-old Moseley opener Ian Stokes reeled off six centuries to compile 1,236 runs – still the amateur record – his game grooved by a full season (averaging 38) for Warwickshire…