Cricket
Is Harry Brook a good captain?
How cheering to realise that, as winter decides to make itself properly felt, the world of cricket has given us…
World rugby is changing for the better
It’s rugby, Jim, but not as we know it, as they nearly said on Star Trek. The Northampton vs Bath…
I find it hard to be outraged about the Man City saga
When the sonorous voice of Clive Myrie describes something as the ‘biggest sports story of the century’ in tones normally…
Face it: Frank Lampard just isn’t a good manager
As Spectator readers will surely be aware, many of the stories we read in the papers nowadays are there not…
Cycling is the most dangerous sport
Who’s the greatest athlete on the planet? It’s hard to look beyond the Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar, five times winner…
The curious history of sporting superstitions
My father had been waiting his entire life for that whistle. After 75 years, the curse was over. Mayo were…
How to rescue English cricket
There was always something of John Cleese’s Sir Lancelot about Ben Stokes, ever eager for a flamboyant rescue mission in…
Why are the Belgians so bad at football?
Whisper it if you must, but it looks as if Gianni (‘Today I feel gay…’) Infantino might have got it…
Who cares if cricketers drink?
Cricketers Have Beer, Shock: well, who knew! This wretched incident in some joint in Chelsea involving Ben Stokes and Gus…
How Rupert Murdoch destroyed the innocent enjoyment of watching sport
Since the emergence of Sky Bet in 2001, the ‘casinofication’ of sport has ensured that innumerable ‘micro-events’, along with major fixtures, are now firmly in the grip of gambling
My miracle match against the Vatican’s cricket team
Many have come to Rome seeking spiritual guidance: Thomas à Becket, Lord Byron, Lionel Richie. I came for a different purpose:…
The inner secrets of Rory McIlroy
It’s easy to be sceptical about top sportsmen turning to psychologists for help. A bit precious, no? After all, what’s…
Australia’s cricket was just too good
The longest postscript in sport is finally over. On the eve of the first Ashes test, which began on 21…
Don’t blame Ben Stokes
So what was the best bit of this dispiriting Ashes series? Lucky you if you’ve found one, but for me…
An obituary for Bazball
Any account of the third test match, in Adelaide, inevitably becomes an obituary notice on England’s abortive attempt to wrestle…
My advice to Ben Stokes
In preparation for the 2005 Ashes series, the late Graham Thorpe, a man I looked up to enormously, turned to…
Ben Stokes’s run-in with Aggers
There’s tetchy, and then there’s Ben Stokes ‘tetchy’ – pulling out his mic and stomping off cursing, or so I’m…
Ben Stokes will go down as the greatest captain of modern times
And so it begins, as Donald Trump likes to say, though not usually about cricket. He was offering his thoughts…
England will win the Ashes
The build-up to any Ashes series in Australia provides great entertainment all of its own. This time, as the first…
The maverick magnificence of Henry Pollock
‘Gosh he seems full of himself’ was how my friend’s wife reacted when she came in to see Henry Pollock…
How long does it take to build a runway?
Flight path How long does it take to build a runway? — 33 years (at least) in the case of…
My new show with Andrew Lloyd Webber
The week of my cricket team’s annual tour of Cornwall. I formed Heartaches CC in 1973 and 765 games later…
Why three is the magic number in these Ashes
And so it begins, the Great Debate: no, not who will be deputy leader of the Labour party but the…
Will Ben Stokes be fit for the Ashes?
What a marvellous summer this has been for Test cricket, which is sadly at risk of becoming an endangered species.…
Is it ‘off his own back’ or ‘off his own bat’?
During the last Olympics, Jane Edwards from Worcestershire wrote to the Times observing that Mrs Malaprop herself would have found…
