Innehållsförteckning för Issue 88 från Wisden Cricket Monthly

Oscar Wilde didn’t much care for cricket, once remarking that the game required one to assume such “indecent postures”. What a loss to literature that he was otherwise detained in the dying days of the 19th century, and thus unable to revise his position with a few words on Ranji’s leg glance. Instead it was left to Ranji’s pal, CB Fry, to wax on about the perfect poise of his movements (“peculiar to the athletic Hindu”); and the incorrigible rhapsodiser Neville Cardus to swoon at “the strange light from the East flickering in the English sunshine“ whenever he took to the crease. Cricket has always talked like this. It can’t help itself. And so to one of Ranji’s spirit disciples, the great impressionist Rohit Sharma, forced to pack up his…

After an unconvincing start to the county season for three of England’s preferred Test XI, the routine victory over Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge provided a timely boost. Zak Crawley, averaging 31 from eight Championship knocks for Kent which included four single-figure first-innings scores, notched his first Test hundred for almost two years; Ollie Pope, averaging 33 across four matches for Surrey, racked up his highest score since his Hyderabad epic; and, in the most dramatic shift, Shoaib Bashir, who’d mustered two wickets at 152 during a miserable three-match stint with Glamorgan, collected nine in the match. Such is the England’s management’s faith in the trio that there’s a strong chance they would have been picked for the series opener against India however they’d fared in Nottingham. But in the case…

*Only available to UK residents ★ LETTER OF THE MONTH Shining a light on the issue In response to Phil Walker’s Editor’s Letter from WCM87, ‘Lighten Up!’ I’m delighted that Wisden has stepped up on this issue. I have heard stories of international umpires standing in county games saying things like, “Let’s get this over with so we can all go home”. I have waited for play to start under a bright blue sky because young athletes can’t run around on slightly damp grass while wearing spikes. How does anyone play football, I wonder? And yesterday I queued for 30 minutes to get a ticket, then queued again to use that ticket to get into a virtually empty Lord’s because the MCC put the minimum staff in place for the…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Notts, T20 (A), June 13; Leics, T20 (H), June 14; Lancs, T20 (H), June 20; Gloucs, CC (A), June 22-25; Lancs, CC (H), June 29-July 2; Lancs, T20 (A), July 5; Yorks, T20 (H), July 6; Worcs, T20 (H), July 10; Northants, T20 (A), July 11; Yorks, T20 (A), July 13 As red-ball cricket made way for white, Division Two had a curious look to it. In fact, if you turned the table upside down, it would have more than a passing resemblance to this magazine’s pre-season predictions. With the fancied trio of Middlesex, Lancashire and Kent bringing up the rear, it’s Leicestershire who lead the way after seven fixtures. But perhaps even more unexpected is the identity of the team sitting just beneath them. Wooden-spoonists last…

What a May it was for Glamorgan, who had opened the season with three defeats in four before reeling off three victories on the spin to move into third place in Division Two. To put that streak in context, that’s as many red-ball wins as they managed across the two previous campaigns. Having thrashed Kent by an innings at Canterbury, claiming their first Championship victory outside of Cardiff for almost three years, they notched back-to-back home wins against Northants and Middlesex, by eight and 10 wickets respectively. Marnus Labuschagne jetted in for the latter two of those matches as he warmed up for the World Test Championship final, and fellow Aussie Matt Kuhnemann made an instant impact during his one-match spell at the club - the left-arm spinner taking a…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Surrey, T20 (A), June 12; Somerset, T20 (A), June 15; Gloucs, T20 (H), June 18; Essex, T20 (A), June 20; Lancs, CC (A), June 22-25; Northants, CC (H), June 29-July 2; Sussex, T20 (H), July 4; Glam, T20 (A), July 6; Sussex, T20 (A), July 9; Somerset, T20 (H), July 11; Middx, T20 (H), July 13 Adam Hollioake’s arrival had brought fresh optimism to St Lawrence, particularly when the ex-Surrey captain made the perfect start as head coach, registering back-to-back wins to begin the Championship campaign. Since then, though, Kent have reverted to the form which saw them relegated last summer, losing four on the bounce in a bleak May to leave them bottom. The rot started at Lord’s in the first week of the month, when…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Middx, T20 (H), June 12; Gloucs, T20 (A), June 13; Kent, T20 (H), June 15; Hants, T20 (H), June 19; Glam, T20 (A), June 20; Warks, CC (A), June 22-25; Notts, CC (H), June 29-July 2; Glam, T20 (H), July 4; Hants, T20 (A), July 6; Essex, T20 (H), July 8; Kent, T20 (A), July 11; Surrey, T20 (A), July 13 James Rew’s century in Somerset’s victory over Essex in early May not only kickstarted his county’s summer, it also made him the youngest Englishman to make 10 first-class hundreds since Denis Compton in 1939. Not a man unduly concerned by milestones, Rew had been made aware of the potential record during a pre-season appearance on the Wisden podcast but it slipped his mind as he went…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Yorks, T20 (A), June 13; Notts, T20 (H), June 14; Worcs, T20 (H), June 20; Somerset, CC (H), June 22-25; Sussex, CC (A), June 29-July 2; Leics, T20 (A), July 4; Durham, T20 (A), July 6; Lancs, T20 (H), July 9; Worcs, T20 (A), July 11; Northants, T20 (H), July 13 Akey contributor to Warwickshire’s fourth-place position at the Championship’s halfway point, Zen Malik could have been forgiven for assuming professional cricket was a ship that had sailed. But late last summer the 27-year-old old signed his first pro contract, making him the 10th player to graduate from the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA). Fast forward to early May, and Malik’s assured unbeaten 49 on debut helped steer a successful chase against Yorkshire. A maiden first-class century…

Following the ECB’s decision in May to ban trans women from competing in all levels of women’s cricket with immediate effect, Katya Witney unpicks a complex and controversial subject, and speaks to those who are feeling the impact “Now I’ll never play as my authentic self with the other women on the team” When Jamie Hughes came out as a trans woman, she thought she would never play cricket again. “I never thought that playing cricket would be a safe environment for someone under the trans umbrella,“ she says. “I played for a team in the lowest division of the Leicestershire leagues before I came out. As my gender journey went on, it didn’t feel like a safe space for me.” That changed when Hughes found Birmingham Unicorns CC, an…

WIN! Send your answers to editorial@wisden.com. Entries must be received by July 7, 2025 1. 5 years ago… On June 29, 2020, the ECB confirmed that county cricket would resume following an enforced break due to the Covid pandemic. What was the name of the first-class competition which temporarily replaced the County Championship? 2. 10 years ago… On June 4, 2015, which Australian made a century on their Test debut against West Indies in Dominica and finished their career with a Test average of 61.87? 3. 15 years ago… On June 19, 2010, England beat Scotland by seven wickets in a one-off ODI in Edinburgh. Which former England all-rounder captained the hosts? 4. 20 years ago… On June 18, 2005, Bangladesh claimed their first ever ODI win over Australia, defeating…

13. A HISTORY OF CRICKET BY HS ALTHAM (SERIAL 1922-25; EDITIONS IN BOOK FORM 1926, 1938, 1947, 1948, 1962) EVOLVING INTO WORLD OF CRICKET GENERAL EDITOR EW SWANTON (1966; LATER EDITIONS SPONSORED BY BARCLAYS 1980, 1986) Harry Surtees Altham captained the Repton XI of 1908, generally considered the greatest in the school’s history, got his Blue at Oxford, won an MC and DSO in the Great War with the Royal Rifle Corps, and then resumed a long career as classics teacher and housemaster at Winchester, playing as an amateur for Hampshire in the summer holidays up to 1923. A practising Anglican and erudite antiquarian, he edited the Winchester Cathedral Record from 1945 until his death in 1965, contributing articles such as ‘Norman Bench Seats’ and ‘Corbels in the Presbytery’. It…

ISSUE 88 84.05 Bashir’s bowling average in the County Championship 36.39 Bashir’s bowling average in Test matches 32.52 Bashir’s bowling average in Test matches under Ben Stokes’ captaincy 1 Bashir is the youngest English bowler to take 50 Test wickets, beating Steven Finn’s record 8 Bashir is the eighth-youngest spinner to reach 50 Test wickets It’s a classic case of “he said, he also said”. In the immediate aftermath of England’s victory over Zimbabwe, Ben Stokes railed against a slew of stories in the build-up to the game reporting that Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley could be playing for their Test futures due to the imminent return of Jacob Bethell. The stories’ source? Stokes himself, though the England captain claimed his words had been “twisted to suit an agenda”. Helpfully,…

Spencer CC is a behemoth of a cricket club. Founded in 1872 and based in South-West London, they are the largest recreational cricket club in the UK, boasting a membership of more than 1,600 and putting out as many as 74 teams per week. It’s here that England internationals Alex Tudor and Gus Atkinson learnt their craft. Spencer traditionally had a diverse membership but the numbers of African-Caribbean and South Asian cricketers coming through their doors had dwindled in recent years. “We got ourselves a reputation as being a white middle-class club,” admits Jamie Greig, the club’s managing director. “And that’s probably the reality of what it was.” With the release of the ICEC report in 2023 bringing the game’s diversity problem into sharper focus, the club re-examined the make-up…

Even had fate not intervened to wrench him off the conventional path, you fancy that James Taylor, now 35, would have been back at Grace Road regardless. It’s easy in this alternative history to imagine him graciously concluding his tenure as skipper at Trent Bridge to return to where it all began, strolling through the familiar old gates carrying a bunch of Test hundreds and a winner’s medal from a home World Cup. In reality he is right here in front of us, fit and buoyant in his Leicestershire polo, talking with WCM from one of the ground’s cosy radio boxes ahead of the club’s first T20 match of 2025 - a season which has so far unfurled like a dream. The destination is no surprise. This is Taylor’s place.…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Northants, T20 (A), June 13; Yorks, T20 (A), June 15; Worcs, T20 (A), June 18; Yorks, T20 (H), June 20; Sussex, CC (H), June 22-25; Surrey, CC (A), June 29-July 2; Notts, T20 (H), July 4; Birmingham, T20 (H), July 6; Notts, T20 (A), July 11; Lancs, T20 (A), July 13; Leics, T20 (H), July 15 The pride was evident ahead of Durham’s Championship encounter with Somerset as seamer Mitchell Killeen was presented with his county cap. While the 20-year-old debutant listened intently to words of wisdom from fellow academy graduate Ben McKinney, Mitchell’s dad Neil – the England Pathway bowling coach and a Durham club legend – and school coach Ash Thorpe loitered on the edge of the circle. That pride was audible the following morning…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Somerset, T20 (H), June 13; Glam, T20 (H), June 15; Kent T20 (A), June 18; Hants, T20 (H), June 20; Derby, CC (H), June 22-25; Glam, CC (A), June 29-July 2; Essex, T20 (A), July 4; Middx, T20 (H), July 6; Surrey, T20 (H), July 9; Middx, T20 (A), July 11; Glam, T20 (A), July 13; Sussex, T20 (H), July 17 There is no bowler quite like Ajeet Singh Dale on the county circuit. As a child he wanted to be the next Brett Lee; in fact, there’s more than a touch of Shoaib Akhtar in the 24-year-old’s action. Pace, genuine pace, is what England want, and pace, genuine pace, is what Singh Dale has. Little wonder then that he got the nod for Andrew Flintoff’s Lions…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Worcs, T20 (A), June 13; Derby, T20 (A), June 20; Kent, CC (H), June 22-25; Derby, CC (A), June 29-July 2; Northants, T20 (A), July 4; Derby, T20 (H), July 5; Birmingham, T20 (A), July 9; Yorks, T20 (H), July 11; Durham, T20 (H), July 13; Yorks, T20 (A), July 17 To describe May as a turbulent month for Lancashire’s men would be undercooking it. Days before the Blast campaign began, the club confirmed head coach Dale Benkenstein’s departure by mutual consent, just two weeks after Keaton Jennings had stepped down as red-ball skipper. After relegation in 2024, Lancashire were among the promotion favourites this summer. Yet at the Championship’s halfway stage, they are the only club without a victory across both divisions. Old Trafford’s flat tracks…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Durham, T20 (H), June 13; Notts, T20 (H), June 20; Middx, CC (H), June 22-25; Kent, CC (A), June 29-July 2; Lancs, T20 (H), July 4; Worcs, T20 (H), July 6; Leics, T20 (A), July 10; Derby, T20 (H), July 11; Birmingham, T20 (A), July 13 A decade on from being given a second chance at a professional career, Ben Sanderson continues to reward Northants for the faith they put in him, last month playing a match-turning innings against Lancashire to set up his county’s first Championship victory over the Red Rose in 20 years. “I’ve worked hard on my batting the last couple of years,” said Sanderson. “It was just one of those days where it’s come off.” In his 112th appearance, the 36-year-old blitzed a…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Kent, T20 (H), June 12; Hants, T20 (A), June 17; Sussex, T20 (H), June 18; Middx, T20 (H), June 20; Worcs, CC (A), June 22-25; Durham, CC (H), June 29-July 2; Essex, T20 (H), July 6; Gloucs, T20 (A), July 9; Glam, T20 (H), July 11; Somerset, T20 (H), July 13; Middx, T20 (A), July 16 Counter to the narrative that red-ball cricket is on its last legs, Surrey recorded back-to-back record attendances in the County Championship in May. Against Yorkshire, 14,853 came through the gates across four days at The Oval, the highest attendance for a Championship match in the 21st century, and a week later the record was broken again as 14,982 attended the Festival of Red Ball Cricket fixture against Essex – a now…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Lancs, T20(H), June 13; Leics, T20 (A), June 15; Durham, T20 (H), June 18; Birmingham, T20 (A), June 20; Surrey, CC (A), June 22-25; Hants, CC (A), June 29-July 2; Yorks, T20 (A), July 4; Northants, T20 (A), July 6; Derby, T20 (A), July 10; Birmingham, T20 (H), July 11; Leics, T20 (H), July 13; Notts, T20 (H), July 17 Worcestershire are bottom of Division One as the Championship takes a pause but could have been even further adrift had they not been saved by the rain on the final day against Warwickshire. “We got away with one,“ admitted head coach Alan Richardson. “I think we’ve been pushed hard by a good side, a very good bowling attack and a side who batted a long way down.…

WIN! Send in Send in your your answers to the 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 July 7. Our crossword winner will win the new book from Vic Marks, The Cricket Captains of England. The winning entrant to the picture quiz will receive a subscription to The Nightwatchman – the Wisden Quarterly. Last month’s winners: Picture Perfect – Matthew Wright Crossword – Michael Hale (answers below) THE WCM CROSSWORD No.2 Set by Iorwerth ACROSS 1. Do this if you’re behind the run-rate or in danger of being timed out? (5,2) 5. A clanger, a dolly, a goober (3,4) 9. Ate out off the back of a great performance? (5) 10. According to his Sky…

July 22-24 and 29-31 (Days 1-3 of both Gloucestershire v Lancashire and Gloucestershire v Middlesex) Fairfield Books will be selling a range of their titles including brand-new offerings. July 22 (Day 1 of the Gloucestershire v Lancashire match) A special marquee for members of cricket societies and their friends will feature guest appearances from several former cricketers and writers, and talks in the intervals. For more information email stephen.chalke@hotmail.co.uk. July 31 (Day 3 of the Gloucestershire v Middlesex match) The latest staging of the Cricket Memorabilia Market will see a variety of items on sale from 10am to 5pm. For anyone wishing to sell items, tables are available for £30, which includes two match tickets and a car park pass. For more information email kenburney@outlook.com.…

“I was stood at the top of my mark, nervous as hell, thinking, “What have I got myself into?!” It was the fear of embarrassment if it all went wrong The first time I bowled off-spin was during a Wales age-group session. I’d been a seamer until then. I wasn’t the biggest, so it was a case of getting the keeper up and bowling a couple of little swingers. The coaches didn’t see a future in that. Once I bowled a few off-breaks, they told me we had a lot to work with. I had no idea what I was doing at first, I was just flicking my wrist and seeing what happened. But I started to learn the foundations. During lockdown my younger brother and I would play long…

“Drugs are bad m’kay?” as the counsellor in South Park used to say. But in the world of professional sport, the hierarchy of badness isn’t quite how Mr Mackey might have laid it out. Take the curious case of Kagiso Rabada, South Africa’s senior strike bowler. Last month, he was spirited out of the IPL for “personal reasons”, but it was only when he returned, exactly one month later, to pick up where he left off for Gujarat Titans, that his issue was revealed to have been a sanction for recreational drug use. Cocaine was later confirmed to have been Rabada’s drug of choice by the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport. His suspension was commuted from three months to one following the completion of a treatment program and, all…

PERFORMANCE OF THE MONTH Of the four hundreds scored during the Trent Bridge Test, the most uplifting came from Zimbabwe opener Brian Bennett – just 21 but striking the ball with the confidence and class of a veteran. How much will we all miss Virat Kohli this summer? In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard wrote that death is “the absence of presence, nothing more”. And England v India did die a little when it emerged that Kohli – whose presence was greater than any cricketer since Shane Warne and Viv Richards – wouldn’t be part of the trip. Few players become an end in themselves, but Kohli did. India’s 2018 tour of England is regularly discussed in terms of his taming of Jimmy Anderson after the trauma of…

“It might seem like a weaker-than-usual team on paper, but India still has the upper hand. They still have some of their biggest Test match-winners AADYA SHARMA JOHN STERN WCM editor-at large This series feels like a huge ask of Shubman Gill, the new India Test captain who’s played three Tests in England (only one against England) and hasn’t made more than 28. His top score away from home since 2022 is 36. I’m expecting a lot of counter-punching from the India middle-order engine room of Pant and Jadeja with perhaps the opposite from England: a series of good starts being blown apart by old-ball Bumrah amid head-scratching collapses. The best news for England is Jasprit Bumrah can’t bowl both ends and, given the captaincy decision, perhaps isn’t expected to play…

He’s come back a far superior player this year. I know he’s had some really good conversations with Rooty, and he’s a lot more mature as a player. He’s a super talented bat. In red-ball cricket he’s definitely a batsman, and he always has been. The misconception is he’s a bowler – that’s what the public think, but he’s a batsman. That said, when he has been bowling, he’s bowled nicely. With the ball he’s got decent control. He’s got a good leg-spinner, and obviously he’s got a very good googly. He was desperate to bat up the order, which is half the thing. There was an opportunity there, so we ran with it. He’s got the talent, he wanted it, so go and get it. The tempo of his…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Middx, T20 (H), June 13; Surrey, T20 (H), June 17; Somerset, T20 (A), June 19; Gloucs, T20 (A), June 20; Essex, CC (A), June 22-25; Worcs, CC (H), June 29-July 2; Sussex, T20 (A), July 5; Somerset, T20 (H), July 6; Middx, T20 (A), July 9; Glam, T20 (H), July 10; Sussex, T20 (H), July 13; Essex, T20 (A), July 17 As longstanding captain of Southern Vipers, Georgia Adams led the most successful side of the women’s regional era. She expressed some sadness at its discontinuation at the end of last season but recognised the switch to a county model was a necessary next step in the domestic game’s evolution. It came as no surprise when Adams was named Hampshire captain, having previously skippered the Vipers at…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Essex, T20 (H), June 13; Glam, T20 (A), June 14; Surrey, T20 (A), June 18; Durham, CC (A), June 22-25; Warks, CC (H), June 29-July 2; Kent, T20 (A), July 4; Hants, T20 (H), July 5; Kent, T20 (H), July 9; Essex, T20 (A), July 11; Hants, T20 (A), July 13; Gloucs, T20 (A), July 17 At the Championship campaign’s halfway stage Sussex find themselves third in Division One, with evergreen skipper John Simpson and a couple of homegrown talents leading the charge following their promotion last summer. Simpson, who turns 37 in July, sits third in the Division One runscoring charts with 675 at 84.37, including three centuries. Opening bat Tom Haines is a place behind him with 655 and further boosted his reputation by making…

Do you know someone deserving of a place in the Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame? Email editorial@wisden.com “I never, ever missed a practice night. Every Tuesday, every Thursday, always there It may have looked innocuous from the boundary – “my off-spinner usually went straight, or spun a little bit on a big-turning wicket” - but from 22 yards Gordon Smith was a different matter: relentlessly accurate, reliable in all situations, too quick to shuffle at, too canny to hoick, and possessed of a deadly, late-swinging arm ball that did for many a pro. In 1987 the 50-year-old’s 52 scalps at 13.23 - third in the wicket charts, second in the averages - propelled Stourbridge to a first Birmingham League title for 68 years. On he swept past 1,300 BDCL…