ShreyasIyer

Part 1 - Edward William Gregory The start of cricket in Australia can be traced right back to the time of the First Fleet. 1787 saw a number of coincidences that were perhaps indicative of the importance that cricket would assume to the future nation of Australia. The year that Arthur Phillip set sail from Portsmouth to become the first Governor also saw the foundation of the Marylebone Cricket Club in England, and Thomas Lord established his first ground in London that would eventually become known as the home of cricket. It is likely that many of the early immigrants, both voluntary and otherwise, had played a version of cricket in their native England, and they introduced the game to Australia. The earliest record of cricket being played in Australia occurred on the 8 th of January 1803, when a game of cricket was played between officers and crew of the MHS Calcutta on a field that is now Hyde Park. There are mentions of the game at a schoolboy level as well as other military ma...

OK, long time between drinks. I have, however, not been completely idle. I decided a while ago to stop writing the shorter profile pieces and instead sink my teeth into something a bit longer. The Gregory family and their contribution to the development of cricket in Australia is the focus of my current cricketing obsession. What follows is the introduction, and I'll also post up chapter one. I am currently around 80,000 words into the project (around 2/3 s finished) - if people enjoy it, I'll keep posting it up. Cheers, Stuart In March 1877, a combined team of cricketers from New South Wales and Victoria took the field against a side of touring Englishmen. Whilst the historical significance of this game was not evident at the time, it is now universally recognised as the first ever Test cricket match. The man elected by his team-mates to lead this united Australian team was David Gregory. Cricket chronicles many famous families from which multiple members have been chosen to r...

I commented a while back about the cultural differences between our countries ( Cultural Differences in Cricket ) , and how this could possibly lead to the problems we are sadly seeing now. At the time I was thinking mostly of on-field behaviour (i.e. sledging versus team appealing), however, I have been thinking recently about off-field cultural differences as well. I am probably being overly simplistic in this viewpoint, but in the past few decades the three teams that most often threaten legal action are Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. In contrast, I don't remember the West Indies making similar legal threats to try and win a point. Is this a cultural difference? Is legal action very commonplace as a threat in India etc? Legal action in sport in Australia is fairly rare - I don't know about other countries. Is this another example of the cultural differences between our respective countries? I am not trying to start an argument about who is right or wrong, and this isn't ...

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog - real life and laziness gets in the way :). Many people may not be familiar with Project Snow, or how close world cricket came to a serious split. This summary of Project Snow is written based upon the information provided in Graham Halbish�s book, Run Out . As such, the information must be considered in light of any potential biases as there is no �other side� to the story. In 1996, there was potentially a major schism in the world of cricket. The ICC was starting to show major cracks in its supposed united front, with the entire structure under review. The sub-continent teams had been making a significant, and to be fair, overdue, claim for the England/Australia dominated council to be more equitable. However, as with any process of change, there were egos and powerplays on both sides that were preventing a suitable compromise to be reached. The running of the World Cups and the lucrative sponsorship and television rights made for some ...

The Sub-Continent is clearly the hardest place in the world to bat. Of the batsmen with the top six averages of all time (for players with over twenty tests), only Hussey has managed to conquer the sub-continent. Bradman, Pollock, Sutcliffe and Paynter all failed to score a single run away from home against India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or even the lowly Bangladesh. Headley did managed to atleast get off the mark in the sub-continent, but ended up with a combined away average of a dismal 2 against all four of the sub-continental teams. This is in sharp contrast to Hussey, who averages over 80 in the sub-continent. It is clear from these statistics that the sub-continent is easily the hardest place to get a great batting record, and as such, Hussey�s record just underlines the fact he is the greatest batsman of all time . Happy new year everyone!

Many commentators have said that cricket is, when you break it down to its purest essences, just a game. This definition is certainly simplistic, and perhaps even a little sacrilegious for many, but ultimately it is true. Nonetheless, cricket is a subject that arouses great passions in people all around the world, and the results of either their team or their own performances can have a decided impact upon an individual�s state of mind. Cricket has also been called a team game played between individuals. Sadly, cricket has attracted many participants who have battled themselves and their own inner daemons as much as any opposition players. David Frith�s book, Silence of the Heart (originally published as �By His Own Hand�), is a look at the tragedy of those cricketing heroes who were unable to cope with the demands of an existence post-cricket, and who sadly chose to end their own life. Suicide would appear to be a very strange topic for a cricketing book, and without reading Frith�s ...

Marcus Berkmann is well known to many cricket lovers as both a writer for Cricinfo and Wisden, and as the author of Rain Men and the sequel Zimmer Men. His first book, Rain Men, has been acclaimed by many readers and journalists as a masterpiece of cricketing literature. I had not read it until recently, so it was with interest that I finally opened it up. Simply put, Rain Men is a recounting of the events of a cricket team and the characters that haunted it. Berkmann tells the stories and describes the personalities in a wonderful manner, and his laid back style of writing is perfectly suited to this format of book. The anecdotes and events will be familiar to all cricketers who never quite reached the heights of international play, and have had the enjoyment of playing cricket simply for enjoyment. The staples of lower grade cricket such as umpiring, the selection process for the team, trying to even find enough players to make up numbers, and the often bizarre and psychologicall...