Cricket
Tim Rice: I left Lord’s during that cricket final… to see The Lion King
As I left Lord’s at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon to go to The Lion King European premiere I…
Why women shouldn’t play Test cricket
The name Cameron Delport might not be immediately familiar, but his exploits last week could mean more for the future…
When will man make it to Mars?
Mars missions When will there be a manned Mars mission? — As early as 1962, Nasa studied the practicalities of…
Why nail-biting sports matches are good for mental health
Why do we need tie-breaks and photo finishes? If competitors have been nip-and-tuck all the way, why can’t they just…
Why croquet beats cricket
People say cricket is the quintessential English game. Those people are wrong. Cricket may have a longer pedigree, but it’s…
Ian Botham’s Ozzie Chardonnay is too good for the convicts
Cricket is the most gracious of games. County grounds in the lee of cathedrals, village greens in the perfect setting…
It’s not just cricket: India vs Pakistan is the greatest rivalry in world sport
There are plenty of much-anticipated contests in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. But nothing to compare with this Sunday’s match…
Letters: The consequences of a Corbyn government could be catastrophic
Sleeping on the streets Sir: Mark Palmer claims that ‘homelessness is hardly a top government priority’ (‘Home truths’, 1 December). I…
The All Blacks: world-class time-wasters
Marvellous team, the All Blacks, of course. But they certainly know how to waste some time. Here are some things…
As our World Cup hopes grow, let’s not fret about the brilliant Belgians
Here’s a question: name some famous Belgians. Well there’s Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, and Eden Hazard. And if that’s…
Twenty20 is making cricket great again
Blame it on a marketing survey. In 2001, the England and Wales Cricket Board commissioned the biggest piece of market…
Gareth Bale’s megabucks are not a pretty sight
I must have missed the memo when it became compulsory for major football matches to operate as a marketing opportunity…
Letters: Rod Liddle is right, Toby Young is wrong and Bruce Anderson must stop
Campaign for real cricket Sir: Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s splendid article ‘Cricket, unlovely cricket’ (28 April) remonstrated against the threat to Test…
English cricket’s new tournament already looks doomed
Difficult to know quite what to make of The Hundred, which has the feel of being knocked up on the…
Warner and Smith are paying for the sins of a generation of Australian cricket players
When the much-admired (and very tall) literary agent Gillon Aitken died in October 2016, he left most of his estate…
Cricket’s ball-tampering scandal has been nothing but a tearful pantomime
I haven’t seen so many men crying since the end of A Tale of Two Cities at the Scala Cinema…
When does cricketing banter cross the line?
‘Good morning, my name’s Cowdrey.’ England batsman Colin, later Lord Cowdrey, to the Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson. ‘That’s not…
More Ashes tours like this and long-form cricket will be in trouble
So will the sight of poor Joe Root at Sydney, pale as a ghost and barely able to stand, heroically…
Tea in the hallowed grounds of Lord’s: The Long Room reviewed
As dreams of winning the Ashes became, well, the only word is ash, for 4-0 is not a number even…
Why Ben Stokes should be picked for Perth
And so to a cloudy, chilly Adelaide, more like London in October than Australia in the early days of high…
Let’s give young Ben Foakes a chance to sweep out the Ashes
So the Ashes has finally got over the line, and not a minute too soon. At the time of writing…
Death hovers over the scrum
Rugby’s autumn internationals are almost upon us and dark thoughts hover over lovers of the sport. One day soon a…
Playing it safe
BBC1’s latest Sunday-night drama The Last Post, about a British military base in Aden in 1965, feels like a programme…
Close of play
This retiring is a hectic business. When I said in June that it was going to be my last year…
Swagger and squalor
This is a monumental but inevitably selective survey of all that occurred in Britain, for better or worse, in the…
