Innehållsförteckning för Issue 89 från Wisden Cricket Monthly

I’ve been helping Ashley Giles with his book. He’s been writing it for the best part of 20 years, and he needed an editor (of sorts) to tie up a few loose ends, so we got together at New Road, where these days he runs the show, to go back through the big stuff. We began somewhere near the end, digging into that still unexplored era of biosecure bubbles, nose swabs and mounting anxiety. As the ECB’s head honcho, Giles ran that show too, until it broke him; it turns out that much of his career has been about keeping the breakages to a minimum. Finally, we arrived at the good place – the source from which, for richer, for poorer, the English game as we know it continues to…

It was June 2024 and I was in my car when Dave ‘Syd’ Lawrence called me to tell me he had been given the worst news imaginable. He struggled to get the words out but once he said “I’ve got Motor Neurone Disease” the tears started to flow and he couldn’t talk anymore. He didn’t need to. He passed the phone to his wife, Gaynor, who continued the brief conversation before I said goodbye, on the verge of tears myself. Almost exactly one year later, I was in my car again when I received a call from George Orchard, one of Syd’s closest friends who had moved back to the UK from Australia to be with him, and he told me the news. Dave had passed away. It was the…

JUNE 3 I normally don’t like warm-up games. I find that I don’t actually need them and can sometimes get myself in bad habits. I don’t even like facing bowlers in the nets, I prefer the sidearm. I don’t like over-training. So I faced a few balls in our warm-up for the World Test Championship final at Arundel against Zimbabwe and once I felt OK I walked off [unbeaten on 23 off 28 balls]. JUNE 5 We only had one day of cricket in Arundel because of rain, but I think it turned out perfectly actually. All our batters got a hit on a fast, bouncy wicket against some good bowlers. Standing for a full day in the field in a warm-up game, you never know, you might tweak something,…

The Next Test first emerged back in 2018 as an account in the backwaters of Twitter, trying to raise awareness of environmental issues in the game at a time when sustainability was a much less fashionable topic. Created by cricket journalist Tanya Aldred, it has since evolved into a not-for-profit organisation run by a merry band of volunteers who love the game and believe it has a positive role to play in the fight against climate change. “We’re trying to become a hub for people who love cricket and are interested in how and why the game is connected to environmental issues and sustainability,” Xeena Cooper, co-founder of The Next Test, tells WCM. “I would say people who play club cricket are switched on. They get it, they understand the…

It pays in this job to mind the space that exists between subject and writer. Even with friendly faces and old acquaintances, it’s good to remember where the balance of power truly lies. Much of the heavy lifting will always be carried out by the hack, and though it’s often a very enjoyable joust, no one ever pretended it was a meeting of equals. Usefully, English cricket is still a smallish, relatively communal little world, forever in a sweat about its place in the national conversation, and this lack of cultural dominance keeps the gap fairly small. Essentially, we’re all locked into it together, hoping for the best. In India, the story is rather different. Their overlords bestride the corridors of real, actual power – not for them the virtual,…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Middx, T20 (H), July 18; Kent, CC (H), July 22-25; Lancs, CC (A), July 29-Aug 1; Hants, ODC (H), Aug 5; Derby, ODC (H), Aug 7; Surrey, ODC (A), Aug 13; Gloucs, ODC (A), Aug 15; Notts, ODC (H), Aug 17; Essex, ODC (A), Aug 20 After a rollicking May which saw the club register three consecutive Championship victories, Glamorgan kept pace in the promotion race with high-scoring draws against Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, leaving them just two points behind Derbyshire with five matches remaining. Having conceded a first-innings deficit of 223 against the Foxes, despite a maiden first-class ton for opener Asa Tribe, Glamorgan had to dig deep at Grace Road, Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram notching centuries to hold out for the draw. The following week,…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Essex, T20 (H), July 18; Glam, CC (A), July 22-25; Leics, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Sussex, ODC (A), Aug 7; Durham, ODC (H), Aug 10; Warks, ODC (A), Aug 13; Lancs, ODC (H), Aug 17; Middx, ODC (A), Aug 19; Northants, ODC (A), Aug 21 Rooted to the bottom of Division Two after hard-fought draws with Lancashire and Northamptonshire extended their winless red-ball run to seven matches, Kent have found a little comfort in the Blast. The Spitfires finished last in the South Group twice in the last three seasons but rediscovered their white-ball form with four wins (and a no result) in their first nine matches to put themselves in the mix for a first quarter-final appearance since they lifted the trophy in 2021. Tawanda…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Glam, T20 (A), July 18; Northants, CC (H), July 22-25; Gloucs, CC (A), July 29-Aug 1; Somerset, ODC (H), Aug 6; Sussex, ODC (H), Aug 10; Durham, ODC (A), Aug 13; Warks, ODC (A), Aug 15; Yorks, ODC (H), Aug 17; Kent, ODC (H), Aug 19 With Middlesex in the lower reaches of Division Two and unable to rectify their miserable T20 form, the club decided to act. Richard Johnson, head coach since 2022, was axed, with director of cricket Alan Coleman stating: “We do not feel that the results this season have matched the expectations we have for the team at our disposal.” Dane Vilas, the ex-Lancashire skipper, was appointed in Johnson’s place on an interim basis and was at Lord’s to see Middlesex end their…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Derby (A), July 18; Worcs, CC (H), July 22-25; Essex, CC (A), July 29-Aug 1; Yorks, ODC (A), Aug 5; Northants, ODC (H), Aug 10; Kent, ODC (H), Aug 13; Middx, ODC (H), Aug 15; Somerset, ODC (A), Aug 17 County cricket is awash with superb cricketers who for one reason or another exist slightly below the watermark of public recognition. The unimposingly named Ed Barnard, with his Woakesian traits of line-and-length adherence and quietly vast batting numbers, is in a sub-group of his own. An essential presence in Warwickshire’s teams and a consistent performer who this year has racked up 677 runs and taken 20 wickets from nine Championship matches, he nonetheless does his work on the edges of the really big conversations. His relative lack…

Some shots linger long after the circus moves on, kicking around in the collective mind to become not just mere snapshots of brilliance but personifications of the whole. Pietersen’s slow-motion pull against Dale Steyn in the spiteful Leeds Test of 2012, a shot the player himself still can’t fathom. Flintoff’s checked 100-metre punch off Brett Lee in the guts of mad Saturday, Edgbaston, 2005. Stokes, on one knee and off balance, the arms swiping furiously across the body to deposit a Nathan Lyon off-break over deep point. There’s loads more. You can run the list yourself. On the final afternoon at Leeds last month, in an arm-wrestle of a Test match that India had edged overall but which, by this point, is swinging to England, Ben Duckett flips his body…

Barry Richards is 80. And just like so many stories about Barry Richards it doesn’t seem likely, but it must be true. He was born in Durban on July 21, 1945, a few weeks before the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to the Second World War. He made his first-class debut in 1964, the year of Beatlemania and Cassius Clay becoming Muhammad Ali, and played his four Test matches in the early months of 1970, before the rock n roll deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. His batting lives in the memory, a shimmer through the haze of time. He last played for Hampshire in 1978 (the Jonestown Massacre, the Winter of Discontent), a year after he’d written the following words in his autobiography, The Barry…

14. THE UNFORGIVEN BY ASHLEY GRAY (2020) Arthur Morris, the great Australian opener with more than 3,500 Test runs to his name, gave a one-word answer when asked what he had got out of the game: “Poverty”. Although a comprehensive economic history of cricket has not yet been written, studies such as The Players by Ric Sissons (recommended as further reading in WCM79) show that the story of their pay is a little more complicated than Morris made it. One sociologist’s wage slaves are another sociologist’s proletarian elite. Between the wars, the average weekly earnings of a capped county cricketer were double a coalminer’s and on a par with a white-collar office worker. But uncapped youngsters at the bottom of the player pyramid struggled to make ends meet; old pros…

ISSUE 89 What’s in a name? In cricket, everything and nothing, as the move to rename the Pataudi Trophy, contested when England host India in Tests, proved. The debates over when the need to embrace modernity trumps the desire to preserve history were largely nuanced, good-natured and respectful. And then there was Sunil Gavaskar, who saw no slight against the only man to represent both England and India in international cricket, and instead had a gripe all his own. “For most, if not all, Indian cricket lovers it is jarring to know that Anderson’s name comes first,” he wrote in his column for Mid-Day. “I urge all Indian cricket lovers including the India media to call it the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy.” The whole thing is so gloriously petty that it’s hard…

“It just takes out the 75mph bowler who’s going to hit you on the shin. He’s not doing that with a Kookaburra ball, and that’s not Test cricket SAMIT PATEL SAMIT PATEL Derbyshire white-ball skipper I’ve been calling out for us to play with the Kookaburra for years. Apart from us and India, everyone else plays with it. Rob Key is right – it develops pace and it develops spin. We lack spin in this country if you play with a Dukes ball because the seamers do the vast majority of the work, but with the Kookaburra everyone’s in the game. If you don’t have pace you’ll get exposed and if you’re not a good spinner then you’re definitely getting exposed. If I had my way we’d go exclusively with the Kookaburra.…

“The top three would be Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Kohli. “Tendulkar, the most complete – his technique, as pure as pure can get. Gavaskar, opening batsman, watertight technique. A man for all conditions. “And Kohli, because of the way he played in his prime, when he wanted to dominate and be in the face of the bowlers, no matter who he played against. As much as they would like to hate him, people wanted to see him. He had fans all around the globe because he scored everywhere. “Then you’d have Dilip Vengsarkar, who played probably the best innings I’ve seen in England, where he got 60 and an unbeaten hundred in overcast conditions at Headingley [in 1986], where the ball was seaming around all over the place. He also got three…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Northants, T20 (H), July 18; Somerset, CC (A), July 22-25; Surrey, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Sussex, ODC (H), Aug 5; Somerset, ODC (A), Aug 8; Kent, ODC (A), Aug 10; Middx, ODC (H), Aug 13; Northants, ODC (H), Aug 15; Lancs, ODC (A), Aug 20 It has not been an easy start to life as a Tier 1 women’s county for Durham. Going into a mini break in late June, they had tasted victory just five times in 16 games across the Blast and One-Day Cup. There are reasons to believe there are better times are ahead, though. During England A’s 3-0 one-day series victory over New Zealand last month, both Grace Thompson, 18, and Phoebe Turner, 21, featured at that level for the first time.…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Sussex, T20 (A), July 18; Yorks, CC (A), July 22-25; Durham, CC (A), July 29-Aug 1; Leics, ODC (H), Aug 6; Gloucs, ODC (H), Aug 8; Glam, ODC (H), Aug 13; Essex, ODC (A), Aug 15; Hants, ODC (H), Aug 18 With a review into the game’s domestic structure currently taking place ahead of likely changes next season, Surrey have outlined how they envision the future via an open letter jointly signed by the club’s chair Oli Slipper and CEO Steve Elworthy. Most significantly, the club advocates retaining 14 Championship matches per season, ringfencing “the best domestic red-ball competition in the world”. Skipper Rory Burns adds that maintaining that “volume” of red-ball cricket in the calendar is essential to aiding players’ development and building the “resilience you…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Notts, T20 (H), July 17; Warks, CC (A), July 22-25; Hants, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Notts, ODC (A), Aug 7; Essex, ODC (A), Aug 10; Hants, ODC (H), Aug 13; Derby, ODC (A), Aug 15; Gloucs, ODC (H), Aug 17 In round nine of the Championship, an astonishing innings of 266 from Adam Hose didn’t, in the end, lead to Worcestershire’s second win of the season as Hampshire held on for a draw on the final day. But it did reaffirm Worcestershire’s appetite for the scrap, serving as a timely reminder that they won three games in a row last term to ensure comfortable survival. They may need something similar this time round but won’t be going quietly. Hose’s knock, from just 253 balls as part…

There is a running joke that South Africans are always late, a battle with punctuality often dubbed ‘Africa time’. Almost every major concert, cultural event or sports fixture in the country gets going in front of empty seats with punters making a last-minute dash through the turnstiles. Even the opening game of football’s 2010 World Cup began in this manner. But on June 14, 2025, something unusual was taking place, with long queues of South Africans snaking outside the gates at Lord’s before 10am. It was day four of the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the Proteas needed 69 runs to beat Australia and finally rid themselves of the chokers’ tag that had clung to South African cricket. Even with eight wickets in hand on a pitch that bore…

THE FORMER ENGLAND AND NOTTS ALL-ROUNDER, NOW CAPTAINING DERBYSHIRE IN WHITE-BALL CRICKET, SPEAKS TO JO HARMAN-MCGOWAN ABOUT HIS PROLIFIC T20 CAREER, HIS “FRUSTRATING” BIT-PART ROLE WITH THE NATIONAL SIDE, AND WHY THE CPL IS HIS FAVOURITE FRANCHISE COMPETITION PART 1 GETTING THE BUG Growing up in a cricket-mad household in Nottingham, his family having moved from Leicester when he was two years of age, Patel would play endless back-garden ‘Test matches’ with his younger brother Akhil, who went on to play first-class cricket for Derbyshire and Notts. After watching his idol tear Australia to shreds on TV, he was clear what he wanted to do with his life. Cricket lived in the family. Dad played at local league level and cricket was always on TV in the house. Come the…

Do you know someone deserving of a place in the Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame? Email editorial@wisden.com "There was no money in cricket then, so I went into Law. But I wanted to prove something to myself "Derek Randall helped me a lot,” recalls Glucka Wijesuriya of his beloved six-season Suffolk teammate. “I was a compulsive hooker and he taught me to duck, although he was a brilliant puller. My List-A debut, against Somerset, Caddick bounced Derek, who said, ‘Good try, young fella’. He was 45; this was England’s opening bowler. He walked down and said, ‘Wiji, I think I can take him. What do you think?’ ‘There’s 6,000 people here to watch you, too: go for it!’ Next ball, top-edged six. ‘Sorry, young fella!’ Great fun!” The 38-year-old…

A World XI at one end, Ilford Seconds at the other. Graham Gooch’s timeless line about facing a New Zealand attack containing Sir Richard Hadlee has been revived by the recent performances of Jasprit Bumrah. By the end of last month’s Headingley Test, Bumrah had taken 26 per cent of his team’s wickets in his 46 Tests. Only two Indian bowlers have taken more than 30 per cent across their career. They are also two of India’s greatest leg-spinners: Anil Kumble (30.18) and Subhash Gupte (31.57). Gupte should be remembered as an Indian forerunner of Abdul Qadir, a mischievous leg-spinner blessed with genius; instead his story sits among Test cricket’s deep cuts. That’s despite the best efforts of Sir Garfield Sobers, who has spent the last 50-odd years acting as…

The bloody Ashes. It’s arguably the contest that lies at the root of all of Test cricket’s ills. Here we are, midway through a captivating home series against India, and still there’s no way to stop our minds projecting forward, as if willing away an extraordinarily balmy summer in order to enter the chilly embrace of autumn and a legacy-defining tour of Australia. Okay, so maybe it’s just me at this precise moment. But even that is a vast improvement on England’s collective attitude at the same juncture four years ago, when then-head coach Chris Silverwood declared that a home summer schedule against New Zealand and India (that year’s World Test Championship finalists) would be “perfect preparation” for the team’s true calling Down Under: Reader, it wasn’t. Let’s, though, for…

PERFORMANCE OF THE MONTH India were supposed to be toothless at Edgbaston without Jasprit Bumrah, but Akash Deep overcame a flat pitch to take 10187 – India’s best match figures in England. It takes nerves to survive a hat-trick ball, guts to drive it for four. On the third morning of the second Test at Edgbaston, Jamie Smith eased Mohammed Siraj through mid-off, and instantly took a little sting out of the situation. More than six hours later, he was walking off with 184 not out to his name, the highest score by an England wicketkeeper, and the highest by an England No.7, beating a record set by Ranjitsinhji in 1897. Among all that was a hundred before lunch – now, as then, an evocative yardstick of derring-do. In the…

Hesitant Aussies come unstuck Following Australia’s surprise defeat to South Africa in the World Test Championship final, pod regular Mark Butcher said he was “stunned” that Pat Cummins’ side weren’t able to capitalise on their 74-run first-innings lead. Butch highlighted what he saw as “hesitancy” in Cummins’ captaincy and also took issue with their team selection at Lord’s. “Australia’s batting line-up had square pegs in round holes, with Marnus Labuschagne asked to open for the first time in his Test career and Cameron Green promoted to No.3. Between them, they made 43 runs in the match. It didn’t help that the other member of their top three, Usman Khawaja, is struggling for fluency and form. “Australia have shown a reluctance in recent years to trust the next generation of batters…

*Only available to UK residents CONTACT US AT Wisden Cricket Monthly, Unit 3.G01, The Leather Market, 11-13 Weston Street, London, SE1 3ER editorial@wisden.com ★ LETTER OF THE MONTH Brave Bavuma leads from the front Aiden Markram and Kagiso Rabada’s performances at Lord’s illustrated their class and without them South Africa would not have beaten Australia to win the World Test Championship final. However, the role of the Proteas skipper, Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s first Black captain, should never be forgotten. In lifting the trophy he followed in the footsteps of Springbok captain, Siya Kolisi, who has lifted the World Cup twice. Going into the final, Bavuma had led South Africa in five of their seven successive Test wins (he missed the series against Bangladesh in 2024 due to injury) and…

Rory Burns walks out to bat on day one of Surrey’s Championship stalemate with Durham at The Oval, a match in which 1,444 runs were scored for the loss of just 19 wickets. With the Kookaburra ball introduced for the two rounds of matches in late June, the runs flowed in record volume. Fifty-nine centuries were scored across 18 fixtures – 13 of which resulted in draws – with Surrey’s 820-9 versus Durham setting a new club record. The Kookaburra will be used for the two rounds of fixtures in late July before, much to the relief of the seamers, the Dukes returns for the fnial three rounds.…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Hants, T20 (H), July 17; Kent, T20 (A), July 18; Sussex, CC (A), July 22-25; Warks, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Notts, ODC (A), Aug 5; Hants, ODC (A), Aug 7; Worcs, ODC (H), Aug 10; Surrey, ODC (H), Aug 15; Leics, ODC (A), Aug 17; Glam, ODC (H), Aug 20 Make no mistake, Essex are in a fierce scrap to stave off Championship relegation. With five games to go they are in the bottom two, having registered just a single victory – a 23-run steal against fellow dogfighters Worcestershire back in mid-April. Indeed, by early July that result stood as their only victory in any form of cricket. Their Blast campaign had been unremittingly bad – after nine games they were rock bottom, with two points…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Essex, T20 (A), July 17; Notts, CC (H), July 22-25; Worcs, CC (A), July 29-Aug 1; Glam, ODC (A), Aug 5; Essex, ODC (H), Aug 7; Worcs, ODC (A), Aug 13; Leics, ODC (H), Aug 15; Surrey, ODC (A), Aug 18; Notts, ODC (H), Aug 20 Draws with lowly Essex and Worcestershire left Hampshire looking over their shoulder in the Championship, sitting 17 points above the relegation spots heading into the final five matches. Their position could have been worse if it weren’t for a fourth-day century from Ben Brown against the Pears, the skipper chewing up 270 balls for his 109* to take a share of the spoils from a game in which they’d been second best, conceding 679-7 declared in the first innings as their…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Yorks, T20 (H), July 18; Derby, CC (A), July 22-25; Kent, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Surrey, ODC (A), Aug 6; Gloucs, ODC (A), Aug 10; Notts, ODC (H), Aug 13; Hants, ODC (A), Aug 15; Essex, ODC (H), Aug 17; Derby, ODC (H), Aug 20 A first Championship defeat of the season, thrashed by Middlesex on home soil, served as a reminder that Leicestershire’s bid for promotion is far from complete. “I think it’s the way we lost this game that was the most disappointing,” said head coach Alfonso Thomas after seeing his side lose by an innings and 127 runs. “But I’m not going to ponder on it too long. It’s ok to have a result like this but it’s important that we address it…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Worcs, T20 (A), July 17; Lancs, T20 (H), July 18; Hants, CC (A), July 22-25; Somerset, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Essex, ODC (H), Aug 5; Worcs, ODC (H), Aug 7; Derby, ODC (A), Aug 10; Leics, ODC (A), Aug 13; Glam, ODC (A), Aug 17; Hants, ODC (A), Aug 20 Given B&Q’s branding, Kirstie Gordon would have expected to catch an orange flash or three on her recent visit to the home and garden store. But when she turned into an aisle and was met by an unexpected shade of the colour, she could not help but grin. “It was a little girl in a Blaze T20 top,” Gordon explains. “And I thought, ‘That’s class’. Her family have gone out and bought it for her, and…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Gloucs, T20 (A), July 17; Surrey, T20 (H), July 18; Essex, CC (H), July 22-25; Yorks, CC (A), July 29-Aug 1; Durham, ODC (A), Aug 5; Kent, ODC (H), Aug 7; Middx, ODC (A), Aug 10; Lancs, ODC (H), Aug 15; Northants, ODC (A), Aug 17; Somerset, ODC (H), Aug 21 Third in the Championship in their first season back in the top tier and squarely in the conversation ahead of September’s title run-in, Sussex under John Simpson have become one of the most watchable teams in the country. It’s a source of deep frustration inside the club that the Championship’s uneven schedule means they won’t be able to tackle Surrey or Notts in the final rounds, the two teams sitting above them, having already played their…

NEXT MEN’S MATCHES: Lancs, T20 (H), July 17; Leics, T20 (A), July 18; Surrey, CC (H), July 22-25; Sussex, CC (H), July 29-Aug 1; Warks, ODC (H), Aug 5; Northants, ODC (A), Aug 8; Lancs, ODC (H), Aug 12; Somerset, ODC (H), Aug 14; Middx, ODC (A), Aug 17 Seven wickets with the Kookaburra ball from the ever-reliable Jack White, a spectacular 150 from Matty Revis and a career-best 89 from tailender Ben Coad – the two putting on 169 for the ninth wicket – ensured that Yorkshire took down Essex in the battle of two angst-ridden clubs. Meeting at the end of June, for three days the teams seemed content to size each other up, only for White to burst the game open on the final afternoon with a…

We last produced a list of the best young male cricketers in the world back in 2019 (WCM21), when Rashid Khan pipped Rishabh Pant to top spot and an uncapped 19-year-old by the name of Shubman Gill snuck in at Nº.14. What ever happened to him? Six years on, with talented youngsters having more avenues than ever before to carve out a career for themselves, it felt the right time to revisit the exercise. Canvassing opinion from writers across the world, we produced a long list of more than 70 names which we eventually whittled down to a top 40. There is, of course, no exact science to this – as shown by our top 40 from 2019, which features a mix of global stars, names that shone brightly but briefly,…

Send your answers to editorial@wisden.com. Entries must be received by August 11, 2025 1. 5 years ago… On July 10, 2020, which England player described themselves as “angry, frustrated and gutted” after being dropped for the first Test against West Indies at Southampton? 2. 10 years ago… On July 19, 2015, Australia thrashed England by 405 runs in the second Test at Lord’s to draw level in the series. Which second-wicket pairing shared a stand of 284 to set the platform for victory? 3. 15 years ago… On July 16, 2010, who retired from Test cricket with immediate effect after captaining their side to a 150-run defeat to Australia at Lord’s? 4. 20 years ago… On July 24, 2005, England slumped to a 239-run defeat to Australia in the first…