Innehållsförteckning för Issue 81 från Wisden Cricket Monthly

BANGLADESH'S BRILLIANCE Against a backdrop of a bloody, popular uprising in Bangladesh against alleged government corruption, their cricketers went to Pakistan and nailed their greatest ever Test series win, a 2-0 result against the head. We will be covering their story in greater detail in future issues, with particular focus on the emergence of a new cohort of quality cricketers led by the canny operator, Najmul Hossain Shanto. CRICKETING LIVES Researching this month's fun-andgames piece on rascals, I returned to Richard H Thomas’ Cricketing Lives: A Characterful History From Pitch to Page. Richard is a big-time journalism lecturer these days so he doesn't have time to write for us, but he's been one of our finest contributors over the years, and this book emphasises why. Witty, informed, humane and deeply…

LAWRENCE BOOTH Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack editor and Daily Mail cricket correspondent @BoothCricket First, a confession: I've always quite liked Dawid Malan. Why does this need saying? Because during his six years as an England cricketer his name could barely crop up without someone, somewhere, pointing out in earnest tones that, really, he was an awkward customer. Yet on the couple of occasions I interviewed him one-to-one, I found him engaging and friendly; it's surprising how few players ask how you are, but Malan did. His press conferences were usually frank, so no complaints there. And if he could come across as insecure, it was hard to blame him. Few international batters have spent so much of their career apparently one innings away from the chop. You'd need nerves of tungsten…

Hollioake has thrown his support behind Ollie Pope, amid criticism of England's stand-in captain's leadership and form. Michael Vaughan, in particular, was critical of Pope after the second Test, saying the Surrey batter isn't cut out for captaincy. Hollioake disagrees. “Ben Stokes is such a natural leader, arguably the most natural leader I've seen. Graeme Smith, Stephen Fleming, these guys are natural leaders. He's of that ilk. People follow him. The way he plays the game impresses the crowd, but it impresses his fellow teammates. He's a very inspirational character. “Popey's not an inspirational captain, that's just not what he is, and that's not a criticism. There have been a lot of good captains that aren't that way as well. He's a different type of captain, and he knows he's…

LETTERS * LETTER OF THE MONTH A turn for the better David Woodhouse's review of The Complete Leg-Break Bowler was a great summary of the history and practice of wrist-spin, but also in its own way an inspirational read. I moved from bowling (left-arm) finger-spin to wrist-spin this year, seduced by the promise of making the ball turn cartwheels. As the review suggests, the highs have been high – turn and bounce, batters displaying astonishment – but the lows have been frustrating and inconsistency the overriding theme. My cardinal sin is not bowling wides but leg stump long-hops, so my overs don't drag on like sometimes is the case, but they can be very expensive. I feel for my captains as neither they nor I know whether the good or…

THE COUNTY FILES NEXT MATCHES: Worcs, CC (H), Sep 17-20; Somerset, CC (A), Sep 26-29 Dawson continues his Indian summer It looks as though it will be another summer of what ifs on the south coast, with Hampshire exiting the OneDay Cup in the quarter-finals and sitting third in the Championship, 37 points behind Surrey, with three rounds of matches remaining. The defeat to Leicestershire in the last eight of the 50-over comp will rankle, the Foxes chasing down 291 with a ball to spare having been 1886; as will their sluggish start to the red-ball campaign, which saw them register four draws and a loss (to Surrey) in their first five matches. Since then, they've been impressive, going unbeaten since mid-May and winning four matches from six. Batting has…

NEXT MATCHES: Northants, CC (A), Sep 17-20; Derby, CC (H), Sep 26-29 Holland makes permanent move Leicestershire's spirited defence of their One-Day Cup title ended in defeat at Taunton, when they lost by 23 runs in a high-scoring semifinal. Chasing 335 for victory, Pete Handscomb's brilliant hundred (111 from 86) got the Foxes close, but ultimately Somerset's 334-4 proved out of reach. The match also featured a sprightly 40 at the top of the order from Ian Holland, on loan from Hampshire, and four days later the all-rounder made 104 and 56 in Leicestershire's Championship runfest with Gloucestershire at Bristol. The club wasted no time in making his move a permanent one, swiftly announcing that Holland had signed a two-year contract which will take effect on October 1. “It's been…

NEXT MATCHES: Glam, CC (A), Sep 17-20; Northants, CC (H), Sep 26-29 Bairstow bites back It's been a hallmark of Jonny Bairstow's career that when he feels he has a point to prove, he generally does it with aplomb. Having been discarded by England across all formats, he did just that by making his first firstclass century for nearly two years in Yorkshire's high-scoring draw with promotion-chasing rivals Middlesex at Headingley. On a flat deck which was never likely to produce a positive result, Bairstow made 160 from 198 balls, his first red-ball ton for his county since 2016, as the hosts piled on 601-6 declared. The captains shook hands on a draw after Middlesex responded with 522 and Yorkshire reached 150-2 in their second innings. As he approaches his…

Shaping up against the quicks ◆ Brook is one of those world-class players who has his head close to off stump – the ‘business area’ – at the point of release. ◆ Just before the bowler releases, his back foot ‘triggers’, going back and across from middle stump to off stump. ◆ This trigger limits unnecessary movement at the point of release and enables him to have his head near off stump. ◆ He dips his head and front shoulder forward to create the backswing. ◆ He keeps his hands under his head and creates a straight vertical line – from head, through hands to feet – for excellent balance and to help him transfer his weight quickly and easily. ◆ His strong wrists are cocked to ensure maximum snap…

October 5, Bangladesh v England, Sharjah, 11am (BST) October 7, England v South Africa, Sharjah, 3pm October 13, England v Scotland, Sharjah, 11am October 15, England v West Indies, Dubai, 3pm October 17, Semi-final 1, Dubai, 3pm October 18, Semi-final 2, Sharjah, 3pm October 20, Final, Dubai, 3pm Heather Knight (c) Lauren Bell Maia Bouchier Alice Capsey Charlie Dean Sophia Dunkley Sophie Ecclestone Danielle Gibson Sarah Glenn Bess Heath (wk) Amy Jones (wk) Freya Kemp Nat Sciver-Brunt Linsey Smith Danni Wyatt-Hodge…

FACTFILE BORN: Gokarella, February 9, 1990 ROLE: Left-hand opening bat; off-break bowler T20I RECORD: 139 matches; 3,326 runs at 25.38, strike-rate 111, 3 hundreds, 12 fifties, HS 119*; 56 wickets at 26.16, economy 6.64, 1 fourwicket haul, BB 4-29 By winning the Asia Cup, we changed women's cricket in Sri Lanka. In the last 18 months we have beaten top teams: New Zealand, England in their home country, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh, so the people in Sri Lanka now think women's cricket is in the right hands and being played in the right way and they're supporting the team. My team is inspiring the next generation. During Covid, we didn't have any international games. The players worked hard in the nets, we analysed a lot of things, we developed…

In association with N° 7 The understated greatness of Graham Thorpe ROB SMYTH Author and freelance sportswriter Graham Thorpe's greatest strength was that he didn't have one. Pretty much every innings he played was a bespoke response to the match situation, the pitch, the bowlers, sometimes even his personal life. While most batters have a signature style and a defining innings, Thorpe had neither. “He was our most complete player,” said Mike Atherton during one of many heartbreaking tributes. “He was brave and fearless against pace; he was highly skilful against spin… most of all, he was a fierce and unflinching competitor.” At different moments Thorpe, while not quite in the same class, batted like three all-time greats. He could dig a trench like Allan Border, collect runs through stealth…

UNNATURAL SELECTION On the eve of our final league game of the season, my overriding emotion is relief. A quick look at Play Cricket tells me a whopping 78 players have represented the second XI this summer. In a way, our season – and the fact our third team didn't concede a single fixture – is a triumph of resourcefulness; that no matter the circumstances, our club has somehow managed to field 33 players. “Our first-team skipper sent me a screenshot the other day of a set of XIs we fielded early in 2022. Of the 22 first- and second-team players that day, half have effectively left the club But it's also a reflection of our dire shortage of regular players. There hasn't been a single week that hasn't started…

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 October 21, 2024 WIN! 1. 5 years ago… On September 21, 2019, Essex won the T20 Blast final at Edgbaston, defeating Worcestershire by four wickets. Who was named Player of the Match after hitting boundaries from the last two deliveries of the match to seal the victory? 2. 10 years ago… On September 12, 2014, Yorkshire won their first County Championship for 13 years after beating Notts by an innings at Trent Bridge. Which seamer helped seal the title by taking match figures of 9-65 against his former county? 3. 15 years ago… On September 10, 2009, which 33-year-old opener…

The Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society (SCLS) hosts an event approximately every other week from October to April (excluding January) with meetings typically taking place at 7pm on a Wednesday evening at Lees Hall Golf Club. Notable dates for the diary include the twice-yearly ‘Pie & Pea’ supper events, the Christmas Lunch and the Annual Dinner (held in April). The society was founded in 1960 by father and son, George and David Drabble. David was the society's secretary until 2017 when he became too ill to continue and left huge boots to fill after 57 years in the role, but with the 65th anniversary approaching (in April 2025), the SCLS is still going strong. Until his death last year, legendary broadcaster and journalist Sir Michael Parkinson served as SCLS president for…

No. 6: Stanley Jackson & Reginald Bray Any cricket lover should know Sir Stanley Jackson, great Yorkshire and England cricketer, and later a Conservative politician, who ended up as Governor of Bengal. He most famously captained England in the 1905 Ashes series, winning back the urn, and topping the batting and bowling averages, leading to the publication of a book entitled Jackson's Year. The Bishop of Knaresborough conducted his funeral and later said: “As I gazed down on the rapt faces of that vast congregation, I could see how they revered him as though he were the Almighty, though of course infinitely stronger on the leg-side.” The name of Reginald Bray, however, will probably mean nothing to cricket lovers. He was a South London accountant, who sent out 30,000 requests…

MARK RAMPRAKASH Former England batter and current Middlesex batting coach @MarkRamprakash Graham was always his own man. In the era we played you were often left to your own devices, and you had to take responsibility for your game. The best players I've come across during my time as a player and a coach tend to be their own best coaches; they give their game a lot of thought and put a plan of action into process. Graham very much did that. We first played against each other when we were 12 – Graham for Surrey, me for Middlesex – and we worked our way up through the age groups together until we became England teammates. As a youngster he was very much an all-rounder, his batting didn't come to…

“Kashif Ali at Worcestershire has become an instant star of the top tier, two tons and five fifties – all flair – to top the run-scoring charts at New Road. His boss Ashley Giles has no doubt he's an England cricketer in the making PHIL WALKER BEN GARDNER Wisden.com managing editor At the start of this summer, having made the move from Kent to Essex, Jordan Cox had big plans. “Hopefully this is the year that I do a Harry Brook,” he said at his Chelmsford unveiling. It was an utterance that spoke to his self-confidence, and he has matched it with output, peeling off four Division One hundreds – doubling his career tally – and finishing as The Hundred's leading uncapped run-scorer. His 2024 Championship strike-rate is north of 70, and…

THE COUNTY FILES NEXT MATCHES: Middx, CC (H), Sep 17-20; Leics, CC (A), Sep 26-29 Derbyshire finally find home comfort After a dismal run of results, Derbyshire finally gave their supporters something to cheer in the latter stages of the summer, an encouraging One-Day Cup campaign followed by a (very) long-awaited Championship victory on home soil. While they narrowly missed out on a quarter-final place in the 50-over comp, edged out by Hampshire on net run-rate, five victories from eight group-stage matches represented a positive return and would have given them some belief when redball cricket resumed in late August. Heading into their home fixture with Glamorgan, Derbyshire were on a winless Championship streak of 25 matches. Their record at home was even worse, with no victory at the County…

NEXT MATCHES: Notts, CC (H), Sep 17-20; Durham, CC (A), Sep 26-29 Walker steps aside Matt Walker will leave his post as Kent head coach at the end of the campaign after eight years in the role. Having spent 16 years as a player at Canterbury, Walker succeeded Jimmy Adams in 2017 after previously served as his assistant. He oversaw two limited-overs trophies – the Blast in 2021 and One-Day Cup the following season – and guided the club to Championship promotion in 2018, but the club have endured a wretched summer, cut adrift at the bottom of Division One and finishing rock bottom of the South Group in the T20 comp. Walker said Kent needed new impetus as the club announced his departure. “Now is the time for new…

THE COUNTY FILES NEXT MATCHES: Lancs, CC (A), Sep 17-20; Glam, ODC (N), Sep 22; Hants, CC (H), Sep 26-29 Leach serves timely reminder Not for the first time, it has been a summer of negotiating obstacles for Jack Leach. For him, that is no issue. He is as resilient as tungsten, and it will surprise no one that he has, yet again, leapt the hurdles in his way with aplomb. Undoubtedly, Leach would rather have been playing Test cricket against the West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer. England's preference, though, was his Somerset teammate Shoaib Bashir. But getting an extended run in a Somerset shirt is hardly a consolation prize for Leach, and, having missed the early part of the season through injury, he is coming into his…

THE COUNTY FILES NEXT MATCHES: Essex, CC (H), Sep 17-20; Notts, CC (A), Sep 26-29 Bears left with a sore head Warwickshire's wait for a white-ball trophy will stretch into a ninth year after they suffered two knockout defeats in the space of three weeks. First came a 39-run loss to Glamorgan in the semi-finals of the One-Day Cup. Then, having sailed through to the last eight of the Blast after topping the North Group, they came unstuck against Gloucestershire, losing a low-scoring contest at Edgbaston by 14 runs. The latter defeat will have felt particularly galling given it was the fourth time in successive years that the Bears have exited the T20 comp at the quarter-final stage. They were strong favourites at the midway point having restricted the visitors…

ANDREW MILLER Wisden Cricket Monthly columnist, UK editor of ESPNcricinfo and former editor of The Cricketer @miller_cricket Brendon McCullum has an aura that commands a room. Either you've got it, or you haven't – and only those who have been in its presence can truly grasp the metaphysics – but in essence, it all boils down to a simple message, authentically delivered. As a player, he practised what he preached; as a coach he now preaches what he practised. And if the concept of “running towards the danger” is one of his central tenets, then his embracing of England's white-ball fortunes is entirely true to his ethos. McCullum did not need the hassle of this appointment – indeed, he found it deeply unappealing when Rob Key first approached him in…

OSMAN SAMIUDDIN Senior editor at ESPNcricinfo and the author of The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket He arrives straight to your smartphone, as a notification, maybe as a WhatsApp forward. One camera angle, one clip, a collage. Young body sprinting in, zero stress, maximum swag. Banana swing. Stumps splayed. Pads rapped. Edges flying. Bouncer flying past. Pace that doesn't need a speed gun. Social media blows up. Legacy media jumps in, the uncle crashing the party. Back story comes out. Village kid, back of beyond, tape-ball in slippers and shalwar kameez. A PSL franchise signs him up. A coach talks him up. A former great weighs in. Great first domestic season. Big love at the PSL. Selected for the big time. Fantastic debut. Here we go. Another off…

As director at the Centre for Sustainable Design (CFSD) and a former club cricketer, Professor Martin Charter has become frustrated at the game's inaction when it comes to the sustainability of cricket gear. He had conversations with the ECB but found them to be “quite blinkered”, focusing their energy on macro issues relating to climate change and failing to address an area which has potentially serious implications for the game's future. “From the ECB downwards, nobody is really looking at the sustainability issues associated with cricket gear, and there's very little research produced on it,” Charter tells WCM. He started to explore how much waste is created in the sector and to look at more environmentally friendly alternatives in the production of batting pads and gloves. The CFSD have since…

NEXT MATCHES: Surrey, CC (A), Sep 17-20; Kent, CC (H), Sep 26-29 McKinney makes big impression Ben McKinney was tired, and so he took a nap. Nothing extraordinary there. Except that the 19-year-old's snooze came in the bowels of Durham's Paul Collingwood Pavilion, and his fatigue was the result of the maiden first-class hundred he'd just made. McKinney's knock, 121 in Durham's innings win over Nottinghamshire in late August, was a thing of beauty. He's built like a fast bowler, but the left-hander's height allows him to reach balls others might not and when his feet are moving well, he drives crisply through the covers. Anything short is quickly latched on to. His emergence was not unexpected in the north-east, where they have been excited about his talent for a…

THE COUNTY FILES NEXT MATCHES: Sussex, CC (H), Sep 17-20; Glam, CC (A), Sep 26-29 Price is right for gritty Gloucester At the time of writing, Gloucestershire are one of only five counties not to have won the domestic T20 competition – by the time you read this, that may have changed after a shock win over Birmingham Bears took them through to Finals Day on September 14. They will start as underdogs in their semi-final against Sussex, just as they did for their visit to Edgbaston, but Mark Alleyne's side have developed a happy knack of defying the odds. Having snuck through the South Group on net run-rate after winning their last three games, Gloucestershire upset the North Group table-toppers in a low-scoring thriller. But they needed to dig…

THE COUNTY FILES Anti-climactic campaign sees Sadler depart Atough season for Northants, especially in red-ball cricket, was compounded by the double whammy of a near-miss in their Blast quarter-final, and the news – announced the very next morning – that their head coach John Sadler would be leaving with immediate effect. Sadler had been in the post since 2021, steering the team to safety in Division One in 2022, but after relegation last term, this season was a backward step. Tipped to challenge for promotion, their threadbare attack has been exposed; going into the final three games, they remained the only county yet to register a first-class win all summer. They made a better fist of their Blast campaign to sneak into the last eight but when a rampant Somerset…

NEXT MATCHES: Durham, CC (H), Sep 17-20; Essex, CC (A), Sep 26-29 Shakib saddles up Surrey had identified the problem some time ago. They knew that the crunch match against Somerset in September could be crucial for their title chances, and that it would fall in the guts of two England series – the Sri Lanka Tests and the Australia T20Is. They concluded that with a number of internationals unavailable – in the event it would be eight – they needed reinforcements. One stroke of administrative flair from Alec Stewart later, and one of the world's great all-rounders – a spinner, no less, with 242 Test wickets – joined them at Taunton for a single match. Shakib Al Hasan is no stranger to controversy, but this particular scheduling issue is…

THE COUNTY FILES NEXT MATCHES: Hants, CC (A), Sep 17-20; Lancs, CC (H), Sep 26-29 Libby sticks to his guns “I felt like I could have got a call at any time,” admits Jake Libby when asked whether he had Test cricket on his radar before Bazball shifted the sands. “I got quite excited and probably, if I'm honest, put too much pressure on that at the time.” His optimism was understandable. Ahead of the 2022 summer, the opener had made 1,602 first-class runs at 55 in two seasons at Worcestershire. England were rudderless, directionless, and in need of a reset. Libby had enjoyed “good communications” with then selector James Taylor. “But when McCullum and Stokes came in, with the style of cricket they wanted to play, I'll be straight…

It was inevitable. And why? Because no one in history, save for Bradman, had ever kept it up. No one. After six Test matches Harry Brook had 809 runs at 81, at a strike-rate of almost 99 with a false-shot percentage lower than prime Pujara. No one. So: inevitable. It couldn't last, and it hasn't. And yet we have this fixation with genius, with its outer limits, the shape it takes, that makes us restless. It means that we can't be content with a middle-order featuring England's greatest post-war player. We have to rush to anoint a second. We just can't help ourselves. And so that's what happens. We extrapolate those wild early numbers across, what, a decade? – you think that should do it? – projecting them on some…

FACTFILE BORN: Barbados, March 19, 1998 ROLE: Right-hand opening bat; offbreak bowler T20I RECORD: 96 matches; 2,339 runs at 25.70, strike-rate 113, 2 hundreds, 13 fifties, HS 132; 99 wickets at 17.38, economy 5.87, 4 fourwicket hauls, BB 4-10 WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THAT WORLD CUP WIN IN 2016, WHEN YOU MADE 66 TO BEAT AUSTRALIA IN THE FINAL AT EDEN GARDENS? I was so young! It was my first World Cup so I just remember going out there and wanting to enjoy myself. I wasn't thinking about planning an innings, I was just having fun. We were set 149 to win, and at the time that was a massive score. Heading out to bat I was very nervous. I even dropped my bat on the floor while I…

The Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame ‘Dean and Carnage’ – such was the well-earned sobriquet Staffordshire's opening pair picked up on the Minor Counties circuit across a dozen years’ tag-team terrorising of new-ball attacks, ultimately underpinning five trophies in three seasons for a county which had gone 64 summers without silverware. The duet began with 171 and 140 at Dunstable in 1983 and thereafter unleashed many a blitzkrieg, 100 up inside 10 overs against Lincolnshire among the more folkloric. Steve Dean was squat, Dave Cartledge was not: a bear of a man who whacked it through cover-point off front or back foot and picked up towering sixes over mid-wicket. They dovetailed neatly, although occasionally fought over first-fiddle chair. After ‘Carlo’ reached a fifty before Dean was off the mark,…

Books CRICKET IN 50 BOOKS 7. TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS BY ‘AN OLD BOY’ [THOMAS HUGHES] (1857) “Come, none of your irony, Brown,” answers the master. “I'm beginning to understand the game scientifically. What a noble game it is too!” “Isn't it? But it's more than a game. It's an institution,” said Tom. “Yes,” said Arthur, “the birthright of British boys old and young, as habeas corpus and trial by jury are of British men.” This fictional exchange takes place on the playing fields of Rugby School, during a match versus MCC, between a clergyman classics teacher (modelled on GEL Cotton, future Bishop of Calcutta), the first XI captain (Tom Brown) and the sixth-form swot (Arthur). It is the source of the phrase “more than a game” which, although recently appropriated…