Our cricket season is longer than it used to be. As the hectic short form of the game has expanded, the traditional county fixtures now begin in early April, concluding at the end of September. The lucrative televised games are scheduled for warmer summer days and evenings. The less fashionable county games simply have… Continue reading
Browsing Category Sport
Will the Australians’ preposterous world record score ever be beaten?
Few records in cricket can be regarded as unbreakable – although six sixes in an over has to be one – but I find it hard to imagine, in a two innings per side game, any team surpassing the Australians’ monumental total on a sunny Saturday in May 75 years ago. We are used to… Continue reading →
Sobers six hit perfection at Swansea: That was the Day
53 years today, on Saturday, August 31st, 1968, Garfield Sobers became the first player in the history of cricket to hit every ball of an over for six. I was there and I wrote a book about it, Sobers six hit perfection at Swansea: That was the Day. Sobers was captaining Nottinghamshire that day, in a… Continue reading →
The unbeatable cricket record? – Bradman’s 300 in a day in the Leeds Test Match
On July 11th, 1930, at the Headingley ground in Leeds, Donald Bradman became the first and only batsmen to score 300 in a day in a Test Match. It was at the time the highest score by a Test batsmen – he was out the next day for 334. His score included the fastest ever… Continue reading →
When Bradman’s “Invincibles” came to Worcester – cricket as national balm in 1948
“A field cannot be set to such genius, with the ability, in the twinkling of an eye, to find the exact stroke to any chosen part he may select. Bradman in true faith can play any stroke at will.“ At the opening of the 1948 cricket season, as the nation still endured a brutal… Continue reading →
England and New Zealand – the greatest cricket game ever?
So, was Sunday’s World Cup final at Lords the greatest cricket match ever? Some are certainly calling it that. Others stop short with “the greatest ODI final ever.” Sky commentator Ashley Giles slipped in a qualifying ” one of the”, but the Sky website (after all, they were the broadcaster) called it the greatest… Continue reading →