The BCCI’s disbursement of a one-time payment to retired cricketers in acknowledgement for their services to Indian cricket has helped many players. But those who haven't got their due are unhappy. Makarand Waingankar, writing in the Hindu, says that if the scheme benefited 165 former cricketers, it has hurt cricketers who played Ranji Trophy till 1957–58 when it...
Malinga six for my girlfriend – Tiwary: Kolkata Knight Riders’ batsman Manoj Tiwary hit Mumbai Indians fast bowler Lasith Malinga for a straight six in the 13th over in Mumbai on Wednesday. That six, for which Tiwary moved outside leg stump to make room and got under the length ball, was for his girlfriend. “My girlfriend had once told me...
The photographs of India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik diving and stumping England’s Michael Vaughan were taken on September 5, 2004 at Lord’s during a one-day series. The shots were taken with a Canon body with a 500mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter. I had in 2004 changed to Canon equipment as I believed Canon had overtaken...
Australia’s captain Michael Clarke, known for his cover drive, is going to try driving of a different kind when he makes an appearance in next week’s International Rally of Queensland. Clarke will compete in two stages of the race between May 25 and 27. The rally has attracted some of the biggest names in the sport, including former world rally...
6.30pm: Alan Gardner wraps the day's play At last, the batsmen have had a decent crack - which will probably only serve to deepen Mark Ramprakash's funk this evening. All seven County Championship matches went uninterrupted today and of the sides that batted first this morning, only Glamorgan failed to make it through the day. Even then, they picked up...
In the 1920’s and 1930’s, West Indies cricket was in its infancy and the side was a hodgepodge of amateurs and weekend cricketers. This team was often bettered by the stronger English and Australian sides. During those forlorn decades, one world-class batsman emerged. He was the bulwark of a frail batting line-up and the team’s fortunes often rested on...

The IPL’s Fair Play League is a splendid idea, if not an original one. There is, believe it or not, a similar tally of chivalrous conduct in the English Premier League, although given that the spirit of sportsmanship in that particular competition is as fragile as a daisy seedling in the middle of a rugby pitch, the threshold for...

Andy Zaltzman goes where no man has gone before to get stats that prove who the world's best allrounder is, while also finding time to answer other readers' questions. Download the podcast here (mp3, 14.3MB, right-click to save).
As an Englishman my initial reaction is to lambast the IPL for making a mockery of the sport played by such esteemed gentlemen as Denis Compton and Jack Hobbs. Yet the more I watch it (in place of studying, I might add), the more necessary it seems to the international game. It is beneficial for all the players who...

Mohammad Hafeez, professor of the Pakistan cricket team, has now also become its Twenty20 captain. The professor’s research interests might initially be restricted to T20 international cricket but impressive early work is a logical path to a more substantial role in one-day internationals. Misbah-ul Haq, who stepped down as the T20 captain, will be equally reluctant to surrender his...
America gets to vote on whether they want to be run by a Mormon with a cricketer’s name or a guy some of their country is convinced is a socialist traitor in waiting. But if they get off work on stupid Tuesday they can waddle down to their local booth and vote based on how much they care about gay...
We’re the smart ones aren’t we? The intelligentsia of spectators. As out of the whole, wide, wide, world of sports, it’s cricket that has the lowest proportion of mouth-breathers amongst its support. Seriously, do you think anyone has ever taken a copy of Middlemarch with them to Wrestlemania? How often does a debate about Co Stompé’s footwork break out at...