Cricket
England’s new heroes were real Test Match specials
The weather forecast last Saturday promised 100 per cent likelihood of rain. I like that formulation: it doesn’t leave much…
What stopped Stoppard?
Two programmes this week presented two radically different world views, or rather ways of life. Aditya Chakrabortty’s series for Radio…
Test of time
I first walked into the Oval as a small boy in the early 1950s. My family home was in Brixton,…
The keys to the kingdom await
Give them all peerages as far as I’m concerned: if you can pick up a gong for bunging a few…
High life
A funny thing happened on my way to lunch last week. I opened the Daily Mail and read a few…
Cricket needs a top-to-bottom overhaul: here’s how I’d do it
No place for the faint of heart, Headingley, and certainly not for some sketchy Sri Lankan batsmen at the back…
Revealed: the true and unrepeatable secret of Leicester City’s success
A few years ago a motivational speaker brought out a smart little book called Legacy: What The All Blacks Can…
The Archers v the cricket: which was the more dramatic?
It was a toss-up on Sunday between the atmosphere in the Radio Five Live Sports Extra studio in Kolkata for…
Reasons to be cheerful about cricket, football and the Grand National
Well the sun is out, the sky is blue, and poor Boris Johnson is taking such a pounding from Matthew…
Two big hitters leave the crease: Brendon McCullum and Hugh McIlvanney
Two great men have just bowed out from their chosen trades and it is bloody sad. The New Zealand cricket…
The angry young bowler who could take the West Indies back to the top
In the north of Antigua, just by the medical school, is a neat little cricket ground. It was a bit…
This could be the year that sport starts to die
If sport loses the public’s faith – and it’s starting to – then all its power and glory will fade
In most state schools, cricket is a dead ball game
The England team may be riding high, but state schools have all but abandoned cricket
Every Test match should have a Ben Stokes (or even a Chris Gayle)
On Sunday morning a friend texted: ‘You watching the big bash, or the domestic stuff down in Australia?’ On one…
From the dismal to the delightful: the year in sport
So long, then, to another thrilling year of sport in which the full range of human possibility — from the…
From the archives: W.G. Grace’s legacy on the Western Front
From ‘W.G.’, The Spectator, 30 October 1915: The late Dr. W.G. Grace had become in his lifetime a legend, and he is…
Sport’s first celebrity: W.G. Grace
Should you wish to have a good copy of the 1916 edition of Wisden, cricket’s annual bible, you should be…
Alastair Cook's victory for character, calm – and cunning
The roar of the Premier League is beginning to drown out everything else in sport (there’s even Friday night football…
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
I've loved football for decades. Now I dread the start of the season
I’ve spent years defending football from middle-class disdain. But I can’t do it any more
Hallelujah! The England cricket team is fun again
At long last, the England cricket team have rediscovered their love of the game
The twilight of Tiger Woods
A car crash is a terrible thing, but hordes of people still slow down to cop an eyeful on the…
Peter Oborne’s diary: My Pakistan cricket tour, and what the ‘no’ campaign needs
For the first time since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team six years ago, a Test match side…
Sir Ian Botham is a hero – and a fool
Mark Mason 28 November 2015 9:00 am
In 1981, when I was ten and Ian Botham was 26, I thought he was God. Now, the week after…