Who Wants to be a Batsman: Don’t Look Too Closely
(Extract) ‘Watch the ball.’ It’s the first thing they tell you. ‘Why do you think you missed that one?’ the coach says. ‘Because you took your eye off the ball! Watch it all the...
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Who Wants to be a Batsman: ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON
(Extract) I was driving back down the M1 from Trent Bridge in the summer of 2011. It was 11pm. My mobile rang. It was not a number I recognised. ‘Is that Simon Hughes?’ It...
1st Test, Day 4: Influence of Trevor Bayliss has already been felt in the field
Fielding. A very general word for a very specific set of skills. Through their new coach Trevor Bayliss, England are beginning to really interpret those various skills and significantly improve them. His input was...
1st Test, Day 3: Anderson and Co use stock answers to cut off the tail
Polishing off the tail has frequently been England’s Achilles heel. Seasoned England watchers are perennially exasperated by the inability of England’s bowlers to finish innings off. A four-man attack regularly work their way through...
1st Test, Day 2: Spinner earns opponents’ respect after outwitting key batsmen
Cardiff has never been a spinner’s paddock. The pitch rarely takes turn and the straight boundaries are short and inviting. More than the odd tossed-up delivery is returned sopping-wet from the depths of the...
1st Test, Day 1: Joe Root’s cover drive brings back memories of Len Hutton
Who would have imagined, at the outset of this potentially bruising contest, that Australia’s post-tea attack on Day One would be the twin-trundlers of Shane Watson and David Warner? And who would have thought,...
Preview: Confident Alastair Cook feels he has found the essence of batting
The life of the England captain is similar, in one way, to being the mother of a growing family. There are so many people seeking your attention – kids/teammates, husbands/chief executives, teachers/coaches – that...
Boxing Day tsunami, 10 years on: how cricket helped save Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has got its smile back. This serendipitous isle, blighted by 25 years of civil war and, exactly a decade ago, a devastating tsunami, is finally emerging from the darkness of its...
Life beyond the boundary
Barbados comes alive through the eyes of its greatest cricketers Barbados was once famous for the three W’s: Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott, the fabulous Fifties cricketers. More recently, the three R’s...
Bowled over by Sri Lanka
A decade on from the Boxing Day tsunami, Simon Hughes warms to an Indian Ocean island restored in part by the healing power of cricket ‘Now, the green shoots of peace and prosperity are...
