Cricket

England’s new heroes were real Test Match specials

5 August 2017 9:00 am

The weather forecast last Saturday promised 100 per cent likelihood of rain. I like that formulation: it doesn’t leave much…

What stopped Stoppard?

29 July 2017 9:00 am

Two programmes this week presented two radically different world views, or rather ways of life. Aditya Chakrabortty’s series for Radio…

Test of time

22 July 2017 9:00 am

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

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Give them all peerages as far as I’m concerned: if you can pick up a gong for bunging a few…

High life

8 July 2017 9:00 am

A funny thing happened on my way to lunch last week. I opened the Daily Mail and read a few…

The biggest threats to gorillas (Cincinnati Zoo not included)

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Gorilla warfare Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla, was shot at Cincinnati Zoo after he started dragging away a boy aged four…

Cricket needs a top-to-bottom overhaul: here’s how I’d do it

28 May 2016 9:00 am

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

14 May 2016 9:00 am

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?

9 April 2016 9:00 am

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

2 April 2016 9:00 am

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

5 March 2016 9:00 am

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

20 February 2016 9:00 am

In the north of Antigua, just by the medical school, is a neat little cricket ground. It was a bit…

Novak Djokovic, the world number one, said that he turned down US$220,000 to throw a match. (Photo: Getty)

This could be the year that sport starts to die

30 January 2016 9:00 am

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

23 January 2016 9:00 am

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)

9 January 2016 9:00 am

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

12 December 2015 9:00 am

So long, then, to another thrilling year of sport in which the full range of human possibility — from the…

Sir Ian Botham is a hero – and a fool

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…

From the archives: W.G. Grace’s legacy on the Western Front

29 October 2015 9:00 am

From ‘W.G.’, The Spectator, 30 October 1915: The late Dr. W.G. Grace had become in his lifetime a legend, and he is…

W.G. Grace, by W.T. Wilson, 1887: Grace is beginning to show signs of the gluttony that marked his late career

Sport’s first celebrity: W.G. Grace

10 October 2015 9:00 am

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

22 August 2015 9:00 am

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

15 August 2015 9:00 am

Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket

Mario Balotelli (Photo: Jamie McDonald/Getty)

I've loved football for decades. Now I dread the start of the season

8 August 2015 9:00 am

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

4 July 2015 9:00 am

At long last, the England cricket team have rediscovered their love of the game

The twilight of Tiger Woods

27 June 2015 9:00 am

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

6 June 2015 9:00 am

For the first time since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team six years ago, a Test match side…