Cricket
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…
The Ashes just got spicy
You don’t have to look hard to find swaths of sports fans around the world who dislike England – England’s…
The sorry demise of Windies cricket
The tub-thumping atmosphere in the Long Room at Lord’s was so raucous late on Monday afternoon as India and England…
The force of Typhoon Tyson, Sydney, 1954
After receiving a bouncer from Ray Lindwall that left him temporarily unconscious, England’s fast bowler Frank Tyson swore vengeance and annihilated the Australian team – to retain the Ashes
Wine to pass the cricket Test
What to drink while watching cricket? Beer or even Pimm’s for the village green, but I think that a Test…
State-school cricket at Lord’s? Bring it on
A state-school cricket competition announced last week with a final at Lord’s is such a good idea you wonder why…
The (nearly) lost art of the Test match
If you can bear to turn away from the Fifa Club World Cup, take a moment to ponder cricket and…
Sportswashing? Bring it on…
If that was sportswashing, let’s have more of it. The Champions League final, when Paris Saint-Germain vaporised Inter Milan, was…
