Oborne & Heller on Cricket

Two monarchs lead the obituaries in the 2023 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. As always, it is a melancholy but matchless memorial to global cricket’s losses, and a section to which many readers turn first. Its compiler and editor, Steven Lynch, discusses its selection and preparation as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. In this edition Roger Alton replaces Peter as co-host.Steven outlines the late sovereign’s long connexions with cric...

After a record-breaking early start in county cricket for Glamorgan, James Harris is back with them after spells with Middlesex and Kent. He has also begun his second term as chair of the Professional Cricketers Association. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. In this edition Roger Alton replaces Peter as co-host.James has just returned from Glamorgan’s pre-season tour of Zimbabwe. He gives an upbeat account of the country and its cricket...

Many eccentric geniuses have written about cricket, and indeed played it. Few have been as eccentric as Major Rowland Bowen – or had his genius. In 1970, after years of dedicated research (not all his own) he published Cricket: A History of its growth and development throughout the world. Long out of print, it is still unmatched in its global sweep, its presentation of arcane facts, and its insurrectionary daring (which delighted C L R James) in overturning almost sacred cricketing myths. It ...

John Broom has combined his passions for cricket and military history in two books on global cricket in both world wars: Cricket In The First World War Play Up! Play The Game and Cricket In The Second World War The Grim Test. They are both meticulous and moving. He explains his mission in writing them, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.John sought to fill a significant gap in cricket’s historiography. Eminent writers of standard works had a...

Based in Mumbai, Aayush Puthran is an experienced cricket reporter and analyst, with a strong focus on women’s cricket. He has written an inspirational book, Unveiling Jazbaa, which weaves together the astonishing personal stories of the creators and players of women’s cricket in Pakistan.Aayush begins by explaining the Urdu word Jazbaa. It has no precise English equivalent, but conveys a cocktail of emotions and passions which generate stunning unexpected achievement. It has been regularly a...

Mike Coward is among the world’s most distinguished and distinctive cricket writers and broadcasters, although he graciously declines the title of “Australia’s John Arlott.” He makes a welcome return to the crease as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Mike begins by responding to a grim result (for Australia): the innings defeat within three days in the first Test of their current series in India. Coming after two unsatisfying one-sided domesti...

In August 1971 Bella the elephant from Chessington Zoo travelled to the Oval to watch India’s historic first Test match victory in England. Her story gives the title to the fascinating book, Elephant In The Stadium, by the historian Arunabha Sengupta. Around it he weaves not only the gripping cricket played in the series but also the major surrounding events, the political, social and cultural history of India’s relationship with Britain and its empire, and its enduring legacy. He is th...

In the British isles cricket had a start on association football of over a hundred years as a game with Laws, organization and popular following. In the late Victorian era it was overtaken in a short time. Based on his fascinating book Beastly Fury on the strange birth of British football, the distinguished documentary maker and sports historian Richard Sanders teases out the reasons why. He is the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast.Richard’s book ...

Cricketer, diplomat and author Tom Fletcher is now Principal of Hertford College, Oxford. As the UK’s ambassador to Lebanon, he made notable efforts to support the country’s cricketers, especially from its community of Sri Lankan workers. Previously, he served in 10 Downing Street as the principal adviser on foreign policy to three British Prime Ministers, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read...

As England play their first Test series in Pakistan for nearly twenty years one of the country’s leading cricket historians, Najum Latif, describes their reception and celebrates the timely republication of a classic work on the start of England’s cricket relationship with the country. He is an expert tour guide to a vanished world as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: England versus Pakistan – the first seventy ...

Few sights in cricket’s history have been more thrilling than the great West Indian fast bowler Wes Hall in the 1960s bounding in from his long run. He is now Sir Wesley Hall and the subject of a fine new biography Answering The Call by Paul Akeroyd. He creates the same thrill in his spell as the guest in the latest cricket-themed podcast by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller. In Peter’s absence, Roger Alton again faces the bowling.Peter, Richard and Roger are delighted to put out the appeal aga...

In his book Swallows And Hawke, co-written with past podcast guest André Odendaal, the historian Richard Parry gives a uniquely penetrating account of England’s first eighty years of cricket relations with South Africa, ended by the D’Oliveira affair. It is full of pulsating cricket matches in exciting locations – but all deeply entwined with racism and imperialism. He is the guest in the latest edition of the cricket-themed podcast by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller. In Peter’s unavoidable a...

Ed Smith played cricket for Kent, Middlesex (as captain) and England, was an incisive commentator on Test Match Special and was England’s Chief Selector from 2018 to 2021. In that role, he drew on learning from many different fields as well as those of cricket, as he reveals in his recent polymathic book, Making Decisions. He is the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast. Ed begins by describing his childhood training for the post of Chief Selecto...

Two highly successful captains of village cricket teams, Tom Greaves of Reed, Hertfordshire, and Callum Widdows of Horningsham, Wiltshire, are the latest guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. They share the problems and triumphs of making cricket thrive in local communities – where it belongs.Both were raised in the villages they now captain, but had little exposure to cricket in primary school. At around 12 years old each was inspired by watching t...

Fernando Sugath, a Sri Lankan expatriate, has been playing cricket in Lebanon for 25 years, in some extraordinary places and despite some extraordinary obstacles. With Will Dobson, an English expatriate and a bookseller in Beirut, he recently organized the biggest cricket tournament in Lebanon’s turbulent history. They are the guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-103-the-cricketi...

Wendy Wimbush has given a lifetime of service to cricket. She is best known as the BBC scorer in the 1970s but has also worked in other capacities in other countries and with some of the most famous names in cricket. She is the guest in the latest edition of the cricket-themed podcast by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller. In Peter’s unavoidable absence, Roger Alton takes up the attack.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-102-wendy-wimbush-fifty-years-of-keeping...

After sixty years’ experience in all forms of media, Mike Coward has become one of the most honoured reporters and analysts of cricket in his native Australia and across the world. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-101-mike-coward-sixty-years-of-great-cricket-writing/Get in contact by emailing obornehellercricket@outlook.com

Most of cricket’s history for nearly three hundred years can be found behind a small shopfront in a quiet suburban street in Surrey, forty minutes on the commuter train service from London Waterloo. It is easy to miss on a first visit. The most obvious landmark is the large plastic poodle promoting the dog grooming parlour next door. But a closer inspection shows a handsome carved wooden cricket frieze at the base. Peter Oborne and Richard Heller went there to meet England’s premier cricket b...

Throughout his playing career, Sir Geoffrey Boycott made a habit of celebrating special occasions with a century. It makes him the ideal and appropriate guest for Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on the hundredth recorded edition (according to official statisticians) of their cricket-themed podcast. With him is his new opening partner, Jon Hotten, his collaborator on a revealing, intimate book Being Geoffrey Boycott.Signed copies and two limited editions – celebrating Sir Geoffrey Boycott’s 10...

Alan Higham has become a leading campaigner for the preservation of the county championship as the foundation of first-class cricket in England and Wales and for real consultation with its supporters over its future. He explains why this is essential now in the light of the ECB’s just-published high-performance review, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-98-high-performanc...

Simon Heffer has had a distinguished career as a journalist, historian, academic and man of letters, above all as a cricket-lover who contributes a monthly column on the game to the Daily Telegraph. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-97-can-serious-cricket-survive-pornography-asks-simon-heffer/

When Peter Oborne and Richard Heller last spoke to Kobus Olivier, CEO of the Ukraine Cricket Federation, he and his four dogs had escaped to Poland from the war-shattered city of Kyiv. A lot has happened since to him and to Ukraine cricket. He updates Peter and Richard as the first guest in their returning cricket-themed podcast.Donations to the programme can be made directly to Kobus Olivier through PayPal to @wardogsandIFollow Anna’s journey on Facebook and Instagram.Read the full descripti...

Given the joy it has given to the world, the history of Sri Lankan cricket has been strangely neglected. A young author, Nicholas Brookes, has now filled the gap with a masterly study: An Island’s Eleven. He shares its rich and often surprising contents as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. In Peter’s absence, Roger Alton is co-presenter of this episode.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-95-the-joy-of-sri-la...

The Netherlands has played organized cricket almost as long as England. Steven van Hoogstraten was chairman of the Royal Dutch Cricket Association for over a decade and is a current member of its supervisory board: he has also had a distinguished career in public service in the Netherlands and with the United Nations. As England play their first one-day international series in the Netherlands, Steven explores the rich history of Dutch cricket and analyses its current state as the guest of Pet...

The 2009 edition of Wisden Cricketers’Almanack contains a beautiful tribute to Harold Pinter. It was written by the academic and musician Ian Smith, his friend and teammate in the celebrated Gaieties Cricket Club. Ian traces Pinter’s deep dedication to cricket and its influence on his life and work, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. In Peter’s absence, Roger Alton is co-presenter.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co....

Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde won major awards in 2020 for their book Cricket 2.0, tracking the T20 cricket revolution. Tim has now joined forces with one of the world’s leading sports economists, Stefan Szymanski, to write Crickonomics The Anatomy of Modern Cricket. He reveals its essential messages about the inescapable impact of economic and social change on the future of cricket, and surprising conclusions from its data, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cric...

Charles Sale has been a sports journalist for forty years, almost half of them as the incisive sports diarist of the Daily Mail. In his book The Covers Are Off, he excavates the chaotic and costly story of the redevelopment of Lord’s cricket ground, blighted by two decades of unnecessary conflict between the Marylebone Cricket Club and a sharp-witted local property developer. He shares its story and analysis with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller as the guest on their latest cricket-themed podc...

The former Sports News Editor of the BBC, Mihir Bose, has written with great authority about British and international sport for nearly fifty years. His latest book, Dreaming The Impossible, tracks the slow journey towards a non-racial sports world. It draws on dozens of interviews with leading sportspeople, coaches, managers, administrators, business leaders and campaigners for change. He outlines its vital messages as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-them...

After a playing career in the Netherlands, Middlesex and Somerset Isabelle Westbury has become one of Britain’s most acute writers and broadcasters on cricket, in combination with a professional legal career. She is the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast. In Peter’s unavoidable absence, Roger Alton shares the bowling in this edition.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-89-writer-broadcaster-cricketer-isabelle-westb...

In modest premises in a deprived part of north London, the Haringey Cricket College was a unique institution which developed a generation of talented black players into English first-class cricketers. Its disappearance was a lasting loss. Adrian Rollins was one of its alumni, an opening batter with over 7000 first-class runs for Derbyshire and Northamptonshire between 1993 and 2002. Julien Cahn was chair of its successor, the London Cricket College. They are the guests of Peter Oborne and Ric...

Year after year the obituary section of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is one of its most admired features. Its tributes to people who have contributed to cricket mean a great deal to their families, friends and followers. But they also form a tapestry of cricket itself. They capture its varied settings and moods: they reveal why millions of people in all walks of life across the world have been drawn to the game. Even the briefest typically contain the germ of a novel. Their long-serving compil...

The arrival of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is the global publishing event of the year. It makes butterflies stop flapping their wings in the Amazon. On their latest cricket-themed podcast Peter Oborne and Richard Heller celebrate it with Lawrence Booth, its distinguished editor since 2011.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-86-wisden-2022-the-global-publishing-event-of-the-year-and-its-editor-lawrence-booth/Get in contact by emailing obornehellercricket@outl...

After a varied and highly successful business career, Andy Nash was chairman of Somerset County Cricket Club for ten years full of achievement on and off the field. He became a non-executive director of the England and Wales Cricket Board, but resigned dramatically and publically over fundamental issues. As the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast he forensically dissects the ECB’s errors and failures in running English cricket – and tells fans...

Jonathan Collett is a devotee of Warwickshire, whom he represented at under-19 level. He was Press Secretary for Michael Howard, then Conservative party leader and later Public Relations advisor for Pakistan’s successful cricket tour of England in 2016. He shares fierce but trenchant views on what’s gone wrong with cricket in Warwickshire, England and the world – and who’s to blame – as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full descripti...

The late Mike Marqusee, who described himself as a “deracinated New York Marxist Jew”, wrote two of the most daring and important cricket books of modern times. The second, War Minus The Shooting, was long out of print. The distinguished cricket journalist Siddhartha Vaidyanathan explains why he republished it and what it has to say to a new generation, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalend...

What defines great cricket writing? Should it be on the side of “progress” in the game? Should it be more representative of the global world of cricket and its players and lovers? Is there too much of it by louche comic incompetents? These are among themes of a fascinating hour with two distinguished practitioners. Jon Hotten is the author of The Meaning Of Cricket, a collection of essays which illuminate … well, the meaning of cricket. Matt Thacker is managing editor of The Nightwatchman, Wi...

Kobus Olivier, CEO of the Ukraine Cricket Federation, returns to the latest cricket-themed podcast by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller, with an update on his personal situation and the impact of the war. They are joined by Sharda Ugra, one of India’s leading cricket writers, who has analysed with great authority the relationships between Indian cricket and the country’s politics, business and wider society.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-81-escape-from-ky...

“It’s quite a pleasant day here, warmer and sunny,” says the expatriate cricketer, “and if we won the toss it’s definitely a day to bat first.”The problem for Kobus Olivier is that he is speaking to Peter Oborne and Richard Heller from Kyiv, in the apartment where he has had to barricade himself against Vladimir Putin’s savage assault.The 62-year-old South African is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ukraine Cricket Association. Before the war, cricket was beginning to thrive. He personally ...

Osman Samiuddin is Senior Editor at Cricinfo, the largest cricket website in the world. He is also the author of The Unquiet Ones, which during the past decade was one of a trio of epochal books on Pakistan’s cricket history. He joins the authors of the other two, Peter Oborne and Richard Heller, as the guest on their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-79-reporting-the-whole-world-of-cricket-osman-samiuddin/Get in contact by em...

Mohammed Sadiq Patel is a long-serving activist for equality in sport – and the rest of life. As a lawyer he has pursued some notable cases in the cause and as a charitable entrepreneur launched some important initiatives. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-78-english-crickets-biggest-and-longest-crisis-economic-inequality/Get in contact by emailing obornehellercricket...

The sports historian Duncan Stone has written a thoroughly irreverent book about English cricket. Different Class destroys many cherished myths about his history. It smashes many icons of English cricket writing. All this has a moral purpose, to tell the true story of English cricket and strip it of the class-based ideology that has stunted its growth as a national game. He explains this to Peter Oborne and Richard Heller as the guest in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full descr...

Micky Stewart’s service to English cricket began in the 1950s as a county cricketer for Surrey – a stylish opening or top-order batsman and one of the finest close catchers in the world. He played eight Test matches. He captained the county from 1963 to 1972, winning the County Championship in 1971. He was Surrey’s cricket manager from 1979 to 1986, and then England’s from 1986 to 1992. For another five years he was England’s Director of Coaching and Excellence. He shares highlights of ...

Founded in 1996 and based in London, the Graces CC is the first cricket club in the world specifically for LGBT people. Until this year, it was the only such club but there is now one other, the Birmingham Unicorns. Stuart Anthony is the Graces captain, Chris Sherwood its press and publicity officer. They explain what the club has meant for them and other members, and review the situation of gay cricketers in Britain and worldwide as the guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their late...

The incomparable Henry Blofeld switches on the festive lights as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Henry explains his choice of the nailbiting finishes in the cricket matches beautifully described in his latest book Ten To Win… And The Last Man In. He also describes his recently-completed project: a three-part documentary of his full and vivid life.For more information on At Home With Henry visit: simonfielder.com/productions/at-home-with-hen...

Tanya Aldred has become one of Britain’s most respected cricket writers, contributing notably to The Guardian, The Cricketer, Wisden Cricket Monthly and many other media. She is a co-editor of The Nightwatchman, the publication which showcases the best cricket writing every quarter. For the past three years, she has contributed one of the most significant sections of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, on cricket and the environment. She is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their...

Scyld Berry, a former editor of Wisden, has watched nearly 500 England Test matches (more than anyone in history), and reported them for The Observer and then The Daily Telegraph. He has just published a penetrating account of all the countries where he has seen England on tour: Beyond The Boundaries, published by Fairfield Books. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their latest cricket-themed podcast.Listeners are invited to contribute to the MCC Foundation appeal don...

By popular demand … the brilliant West Indian cricket commentator Fazeer Mohammed returns as a guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Speaking from Sri Lanka, where he is commenting on the current West Indies tour, with his customary ebullience, eloquence and erudition he reviews a turbulent period for English and West Indian cricket.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-71-the-great-commentator-fazeer-mohammed-brings-...

Rafaelle Nicholson is the author of Ladies And Lords: A History Of Women’s Cricket In Britain. Having previously presented the highlights of the first six hundred years or so, she returns to share the dramatic events and big personalities of the next eighty, as the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their regular cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-70-seventy-years-of-revolution-in-english-womens-cricket/Get in contact ...

In the winter of 1953, the MCC sent a full-strength England team to the West Indies for the first time, led by Len Hutton, the first professional captain. The party included Denis Compton, Tom Graveney, Peter May, Trevor Bailey, and two pairs of great bowlers, Jim Laker and Tony Lock, and Fred Trueman, and Brian Statham. They played a thrilling series against a West Indian team with the three Ws, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell, and the spinners Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentin...

“I expected a bit more from England”, says a magisterial Imran Khan, at the start of the latest podcast from Peter Oborne and Richard Heller, rebuking the recent cancellation of England’s short cricket tour of his country. In a clip from an extended interview with Peter Oborne, the Pakistan Prime Minister and former captain suggests that England still think they are doing Pakistan a favour by playing them at all: they would not dare treat India in the same way, because of its financial ...

After a first-class career as a pace bowler for Hampshire, John Holder became one of England’s finest umpires. He was a popular expert on Test Match Special and the regular Observer newspaper feature “You Are The Umpire.” On the first-class list from 1983 to 2009 , he joined the Test panel in 1988 and after only a handful of matches was chosen to be one of the first “third-country” Test umpires for a dramatic series between Pakistan and India. But his Test career was interrupted without expla...

George Dobell, chief correspondent of Cricinfo but not for much longer, is one of the most independent, incisive and informed cricket writers in Britain. Never a captive of the cricket Establishment or a champion of any interest except everyday cricket fans, he has broken or developed some of the biggest stories in English cricket. He brings unique insights as the first guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their new season of cricket-themed podcasts.Read the full description here: http...

In recent months, South Africa has been rocked by the testimonies from black players of the isolation, hostility and outright racial abuse they have encountered playing in first-class and international cricket. Two expert South African cricket broadcasters and authors, Mo Allie and Aslam Khota, relay these stories and their impact as the guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-65-pa...

Annie Chave is the founder and editor of County Cricket Matters magazine and a regular contributor to Guerilla Cricket. Rob Eastaway is a writer, lecturer and cricket-lover who produced a clear and witty book explaining cricket’s mysteries called What Is A Googly? as well as several explaining the mathematics behind such everyday mysteries as why buses arrive in threes. They are joint trustees of a new charity called the Googly Fund which supports adult recreational cricket. They describe its...

Former first-class cricketer and leading historian André Odendaal has made it his personal mission to reconstruct the true story of South African cricket from its beginnings. He reveals more of the black, mixed-race and Asian-descent players whose talents and achievements were suppressed and for whom opportunity was denied by South Africa’s white rulers and cricket administrators. He suggests that South Africa is at last coming to acknowledge the deep poisoned legacy of white supremacy,...

Lonsdale Skinner was Surrey’s wicketkeeper-batsman in the early 1970s and also played cricket in the same role for his native Guyana in the West Indies. Since 2013, he has been chairman of the African Caribbean Cricket Association which campaigns for fair treatment and greater representation of African Caribbean people throughout English cricket. As guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their cricket-themed podcast he gives powerful first-hand testimony of the impact of the racism he en...

Dame Angela Eagle has been the Labour MP for Wallasey in the Wirral since 1992. When her sister Maria was elected as Labour MP for Liverpool Garston five years later they became the first twins to sit together in Parliament in modern times, and later they became the first twins to be Ministers of State in the same government. Angela held a variety of posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including wide-ranging responsibilities as the first Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. She has also ...

The rise of women’s cricket is one of the biggest sporting stories in modern Britain – but behind it is nearly 700 years of history. That is one of many surprises revealed by Rafaelle Nicholson, a leading authority on women and sport, in her book Ladies And Lords: A History Of Women’s Cricket In Britain. She is the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their regular cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-60-the-hidden-history...

Lingard Goulding kept wicket superbly in three continents over eight decades. He also found much else to do with his life, as an industrialist, a master of early computing, an author, a Formula 5000 motor racing driver and most importantly an inspiring head master and cricket coach, mentor and recorder. He shares highlights of an astonishing portfolio career, and memories of his high-achieving family, as the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their cricket-themed podcast.Read ...

Professor André Odendaal has made it his life’s work to tell his native South Africa its true cricket history. He has restored to memory the achievements of thousands of black, mixed-race and Asian-origin players deliberately suppressed to serve the cause of white supremacy. Besides giving back to South Africa its cricketing past he shares responsibility for its present and future as a board member of Cricket South Africa. Born into apartheid, he describes his personal journey into truth and ...

Cricket has always been rich in statistics, but lately they have deepened and multiplied. Cricket’s new professional data analysts can access the detailed results of every single ball bowled in major cricket matches for over twenty years and use them to influence team selections, tactics and onfield decisions. This has alarmed many critics, who say it is turning cricket into a process without character or the thrill of the unexpected. Not so, argues Ben Jones, the latest guest of Peter Oborne...

It is an almost unnoticed revolution in global cricket: New Zealand’s cricketers have completed a journey from amateur whipping-boys to worldbeaters. They have secured an emphatic Test series victory over England while enjoying the luxury of six team changes to prepare for the ultimate prize of the World Test Championship. David Leggat, former chief cricket writer of the New Zealand Herald, gives unique insight into their modern success and the present state of New Zealand cricket, as a...

For about fifteen years no England Test match seemed complete without the golden notes of Billy Cooper, the professional trumpeter who accompanied the Barmy Army. It made him the best-known musician in the cricket world since the celebrated pianist Don Bradman. He shares his memories of matching music to the many moods of cricket with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-55-crickets-clarion-call-from-the...

Timothy Abraham and James Coyne are co-editors of the perennially fascinating and expanding section of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack on cricket around the world. Together they completed a long-cherished project, a personal odyssey into Latin American cricket, which took them from Mexico to the southernmost tip of Chile. They have just published an unputdownable book about it called Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion. They discuss it with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podca...

Author, publisher and supreme recorder of cricketers’ memories Stephen Chalke returns as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. They celebrate a tremendous start to the English County Championship, before Stephen draws on his detailed and beautifully illustrated history Summer’s Crown, to analyse the competition’s past and its prospects. Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-53-the-county-championship-past-pr...

Steven Lynch, International Editor of Wisden Cricketers Almanack, returns to the regular podcast by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller to celebrate a landmark edition which more than ever lights up the mighty issues which shape global cricket and the lives of all its players and devotees. Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-52-wisden-2021-cricket-and-class-race-plague-and-global-warming/

The arrival of Wisden Cricketers Almanack is always one of the great publishing events in the calendar. The latest edition had rather less cricket to record than usual, but was nonetheless packed with important content. Indeed, it is a major source book for future political, social, economic and cultural historians. In their latest cricket-themed podcast Peter Oborne and Richard Heller celebrate it with its International Editor Steven Lynch.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcale...

Annie Chave is a cricketer and editor of County Cricket Matters, journal of the members organization of the same name which supports the county structure of English cricket. She is also part of the team at Guerrilla Cricket, which provides eclectic and independent commentary and analysis of major matches. She is the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their regular cricket-themed podcast. County Cricket Matters can be obtained through www.countycricketmatters.comRead the full d...

Whether in victory or defeat, Bangladesh’s cricket team, the Tigers, have some of the most passionate supporters in the world. Athar Ali Khan is a former Bangladesh international players and selector, now a freelance commentator. He explains how and why their cricketers have captured the hearts of their nation on its fifty-year journey since independence, as the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast. In Peter’s absence for family reasons Roger A...

Over twenty years ago an expert watcher predicted that a boy called Eoin Morgan would make his name in world cricket. These and other wonders of Ireland’s rich cricket story are related by author, cricketer, lawyer and all-round man of letters Charles Lysaght, returning by popular demand as guest on the latest cricket-themed podcast by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-48-the-man-who-discovered-eoin-morgan-and-other-stories/...

The Lahore Gymkhana ground is one of the most delightful places in the world to play or watch cricket. It houses a cricket museum, small but full of treasures, which was the first of its kind in Pakistan. Its founder and curator is the eminent cricket historian Najum Latif. He has watched generations of Pakistan’s great players perform at the ground, played with many himself, befriended many more and, vitally, captured their oral memories of past epochs of Pakistan cricket. He is the guest of...

Welsh cricket gets off to a noisy, swearing start in Swansea on a Sunday in 1771. Local landowners, railways, the British army and industry all help the game to spread. After success as a Minor county, Glamorgan are the first Welsh team into the County Championship in 1921. They struggle but are revived by inspiring leadership from Maurice Turnbull, who meets a hero’s death in the Second World War. Under another inspiring leader, Wilf Wooller, they win their first Championship in 1948 – celeb...

Andy Flower was one of the most talented cricketers of his generation. In 2003 he and his teammate Henry Olonga amazed and inspired the world when they played a cricket match in black armbands, in mourning for the death of democracy in their country, Zimbabwe. He gives a vivid and moving account of their protest as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-45-andy-flower-inspiring-...

A dramatic first Test match at the giant new Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad is the cue for an insightful assessment of the Prime Minister’s impact on Indian cricket by Mihir Bose, in his second innings as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their regular cricket-themed podcast. The former Sports Editor of the BBC is the author of over thirty books, including Nine Waves, a comprehensive history of Indian cricket and, most recently Narendra Modi The Yogi Of Populism. He has led ...

Kashmir contains some of the most beautiful settings for cricket in the world – but cricket there has been blighted for over seventy years by the political and military conflicts which were a legacy of the partition of India. It has become not just a game but a political statement, as is explained by a local journalist, author, historian and cricketer Gowhar Geelani, the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chi...

The rich history of Welsh cricket still comes a surprise to many English people, even after Glamorgan’s hundred years in the County Championship. That is no fault of Dr Andrew Hignell, author of some 40 books about it, Glamorgan’s scorer (since 1982) and archivist, and curator of the Museum of Welsh Cricket at the county’s headquarters at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Read the full description here: https://...

Ramachandra Guha is a hugely distinguished historian not just of Indian cricket but of India itself. His most recent book, A Commonwealth Of Cricket, has a detailed descriptive sub-title “A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind.” He talks about that relationship and its high and low points as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their latest cricket-themed podcast.Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/epis...

Mahela Jayawardene is a busy man these days: chairman of the Sri Lankan National Sports Council, head coach of the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, running a chain of successful crab restaurants with his friend Kumar Sangakkara. But characteristically, the former Sri Lankan captain scored rapidly in a few overs with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller as the latest guest in their cricket-themed podcast. Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-40-another-fast-scoring-innin...

“It was very hard to live with Isis. You could see them cutting off the heads and cutting off the hands of some people.” Maram, 15-year-old refugee, on the life cricket is helping her to forget. Alsama means “the sky” in Arabic. It gives its name to a cricket club in one of the world’s most astonishing locations – the teeming Shatila camp in Lebanon where tens of thousands of refugees are trying to rebuild lives shattered by war, tyranny and deprivation. https://alsamaproject.com/c...

In 1996 Sri Lanka won the World Cup with electrifying, innovative cricket. They brought solace and hope to a deeply troubled nation and joy to all the world’s neutral cricket-lovers. For the next fifteen years or so, players such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Muttiah Muralitharan, and the brothers-in-arms, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, delivered often magical performances which kept their country in the top flight in all forms of the game. But now Sri Lanka is struggling...

The United States is the Paradise Lost of world cricket. For about half of the lifetime of the Republic cricket was its major summer sport. Then it lost its hold to baseball and other sports and recreations. In modern times waves of immigrants from the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent have fostered many attempts at a revival. Another big effort is under way, backed by high-profile investors – but will it prove another false dawn? Giving an expert assessment is the author and journalist...

He was once the most hated man in cricket. He faced down threats to his career and to his life. He achieved his mission, an epoch-making change in international sport. His new book (with the great historian André Odendaal) Pitch Battles not only narrates his astonishing personal journey but sweeps up the history of South African sport and society, especially the lost stories of non-white players, and throws down major challenges for everyone today who cares about the state of global sport. Pe...

To most English cricket-lovers Scotland is an exotic foreign country, but it has a rich, independent cricket history, as Peter Oborne and Richard Heller discover from an expert guide in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Fraser Simm is an author, historian, analyst and collector who has been chairman of the Cricket Society of Scotland for over 25 years. Fraser speaks of his first introduction to cricket – from Richie Benaud’s Australians visiting Edinburgh at the end of their long&nbsp...

For over fifty years, there have been few pleasures to compare with spending a cricketing hour with Henry Blofeld. He was the joyous guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.Henry explains his philosophy as a radio commentator on TMS and elsewhere of making listeners feel part of a real cricketing event. If they hear only the events in the middle “it all becomes rather two-dimensional and not very warm or human.” Hence the buses, pigeons and colourful sp...

Charles Darwin watched a cricket match in New Zealand in 1835 – but the country had to wait a long time for international recognition and even longer for its first Test match victories. Things began to change in the 1970s, and David Leggat explains the reasons for its climb, and not only the one named Richard Hadlee. Formerly the chief cricket writer of the New Zealand Herald who has reported and toured with many New Zealand teams, he is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their l...

In the pomp of his playing days, Ted Dexter filled cricket grounds with spectators. The former Sussex and England captain returns to the crease as the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their regular cricket-themed podcast. This also includes an appeal from Mike Atherton for the MCC Foundation. For the week from 1 December donations will be doubled in value, and will help to give cricketing experience and access to coaching for disadvantaged boys and girls. See htt...

As England’s tour of South Africa gets under way, the two latest guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their cricket-themed podcast offer deep insight into South African cricket past and present. Mo Allie, of the BBC Africa service has reported on South African sport for many years and is the author of More Than A Game, telling many heroic stories of South Africa’s non-white cricketers in times of racial segregation. Cricket historian and analyst Arunabha Sengupta has written Apartheid...

“In that moment I went absolutely rigid with real terror, far worse than facing Jeff Thomson.” That is John Cleese, sharing with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their latest cricket-themed podcast his experience as a performer of the “yips”, that dread loss of control which can blight cricketers on the field. He shares joyous memories of a lifelong love of cricket, which began watching the postwar Somerset team play at Clarence Park, Weston-super-Mare. A previous guest, Jeffrey Archer...

Jill Rutter had many high-profile roles in British public service, including Director of Communications at the Treasury and a spell in the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit. She is now a Visiting Professor at King’s College, London and a senior Fellow at the Institute For Government (which has the uphill task of promoting better government.) She has been a regular and trenchant commentator on Brexit issues and the machinery of government (especially when this breaks down). But most important, she ...

Sana Mir played in 226 international matches for Pakistan, as an off-spinning all-rounder, 137 as captain, an appointment she received at just 23. She won many awards in her career, including two Asian Games Gold Medals, and was the first woman cricketer to be honoured by her country. Wisden named her Captain of the Women’s Team of the last decade. On her retirement earlier this year, she received messages from admirers all over the world, in tribute to the inspiration she has given to ...

Besides being a celebrated student debater, who replaced Ken Clarke and handily defeated Vince Cable in 1964 as President of the Cambridge Union, then one of Ireland’s leading constitutional and administrative lawyers, a biographer, obituarist and a man of letters Charles Lysaght has been a noted cricketer and host of cricketers in Ireland for over sixty years. (For the curious, he is a distant kinsman of Cornelius Lysaght, the racing commentator.) He shares his deep love and knowledge of the...

James Coyne, Assistant Editor of The Cricketer magazine, has prepared each year since 2012 the section in Wisden Cricketers Almanack on Cricket Around The World. He is also the co-author of a book Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion ​(to be published next April) a record of an epic cricketing odyssey in Latin America. As the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast, he shares his knowledge of all the astonishing places in the world which now play cricket. &nb...

Clive Stafford-Smith OBE is a cricket-lover who is also one of the leading human rights lawyers in the world. He is the founder of Reprieve, an organization which specializes in defending people facing execution and victims of rendition, extrajudicial detention and torture in the name of counter-terrorism. As a lawyer practising in the southern United States he personally represented over 300 prisoners sentenced to death: all but six were spared. He won five cases in the (pre-Trump) Sup...

In 1911 the first cricket team to represent all of India made a long tour of all parts of the United Kingdom. Professor Prashant Kidambi wrote a book about it, Cricket Country, which won the Lord Aberdare Prize awarded by the British Society of Sports History and was the first sporting work to be shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize for history. Cricket Country not only describes the events on the field but also the long and complex preparations for the tour, and its role in the history of India...

The rise of women’s cricket, in England and worldwide, is the biggest story in the modern history of the game. Clare Connor CBE is a witness to this journey and a key driver of it. As a cricket-crazed girl, she played in boys’ and men’s teams, not even aware of English women’s cricket. But still in her teens, she played Test cricket for England women, then captained the side to a famous long-delayed Ashes triumph. After retirement she became a top administrator. Since 2012 she has been the ch...

Neil Robinson is the MCC’s Head of Collections and Heritage at Lord’s. He is responsible for one of the world’s greatest collections of sporting art, artefacts, and memorabilia, as well as a constantly expanding Library of over 20,000 books and complete collections of journals, many rare, as well as the MCC Archive, a treasure trove for historians and not only of cricket. Previously the MCC’s Librarian and head of research, he has given unstinting help to thousands of writers on cricket. He i...

The Cricketer, on the edge of a well-deserved century, is the oldest surviving cricket magazine in the world – and shows no sign of leaving the crease. With Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast are its managing editor, and historian, Huw Turbervill, and its editor, Simon Hughes, known to millions from his televised appearances as the Analyst. They reveal that another distinguished centenarian, Captain Sir Tom Moore is a subscriber and an avid cricket fol...

Qamar Ahmed is a legend in global cricket. He reported 450 Test matches – about one in six of all those ever played since 1877 – and 738 one-day internationals, including nine of the twelve World Cups. He is respected throughout the cricket world for his authority and integrity. He recently published his memoir Far More Than A Game. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their cricket-themed podcast.As a boy, Qamar Ahmed experienced the sudden and traumatic end of an idyl...

Mihir Bose, author of over 30 books and the BBC’s first sports news editor has analysed and reported global sport incisively for nearly 50 years. He has written with special authority about Indian cricket, tracing its journey from colonial dependency to superpower in his book Nine Waves. He is the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. He explains how the Board of Control for India (BCCI) acquired its dominance over world ...