4 minute readYou may have noticed from this website’s Patreon ‘benefits’ that we’re not big on paywalls. We’re therefore very excited to see that John Spellar MP wants to change the law so that England’s home Test matches would become ‘protected’ sports events and consequently broadcast on free-to-air TV. It’s a shame
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3 minute readTo scroll through the list of venues for women’s Tests between England and India is to be struck by two things. (1) They don’t play in India very often. (2) The few India Tests that do take place are held in rather bigger cities than the ones used for the
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2 minute readOne thing we have not at any point touched upon in our podcasts about the 1981 Ashes has been Richie Benaud’s hair. And that’s a shame. Richie Benaud’s hair in 1981 is worthy of comment. If you’re old enough, Richie Benaud’s “morning everyone” is a thing that will instantly take
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2 minute readIt’s not a great time for English spin bowling, but it is a great time to be an English spin bowler. That’s “the market” for you, we suppose. It’s hard to think of a more unexpected England Test selection than Shoaib Bashir – not so much out of left field
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4 minute readSome players are better in white ball cricket and some players just look like they are. Liam Livingstone is a good red ball batter. Or at least he was. Who knows any more? Perhaps not coincidentally, his limited overs batting form ain’t what it was. White ball cricket is the
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2 minute readIt is oddly reassuring to read the letters page in an old cricket magazine and learn that making a real point of being totally unimpressed with incredible sporting feats isn’t some new social media era affectation. In reality, it was ever thus. In November of 1981, John Drummond of Stoke
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3 minute readEngland are in the West Indies for three one-day internationals (ODIs) and five T20s. The main coverage is on TNT Sports, which is what BT Sports has apparently become. There are however medium-length highlights packages on the Windies Cricket YouTube channel. Fifteen minutes is a really weird duration for highlights.
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2 minute readWe’ve written about Ian Botham’s record as England captain before and we’ve now reached his final Test in charge in our podcast looking back on the most ridiculous moments of the 1981 Ashes. Beefy’s resignation/sacking wasn’t the only significant event in that match though. We feel we must draw your
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2 minute readAfter losing out to the BBC and The Independent after being shortlisted in two categories of the Sports Podcast Awards earlier this year, ourself and Dan Liebke have dusted ourselves down and climbed back on our (pantomime) horse for another series of the Ridiculous Ashes. This time around we’ve gone
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3 minute readIt’s the nature of modern cricket that international cricketers don’t so much retire as go part-time. But while a good few members of this England World Cup squad will also be part of the England T20 World Cup next year, when it comes to one-day internationals (ODIs), this is pretty
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