✍️ Shashank Kishore has a fantastic profile of Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s prodigious rise to global superstar before his 15th birthday.
“I gave them a new ball and said, ‘Attack him, boss.’ I told Vaibhav they’d be quick. He just said, ‘Haan sir, no problem.’ The first few balls, he left. But even that stood out. The way he was leaving, it felt like there was no pace on the ball. The keeper was standing 30 yards back and he’s just… so comfortably leaving them.”
”One of the sidearmers hit the deck hard, and Vaibhav hit it straight over the sightscreen for six. I asked for the ball speed, and it measured 157 kph! That’s not normal. Not even for the best. To do that off your fourth or fifth ball facing that pace – that’s when you know this is something incredibly special.”
🔒 Will Macpherson ranks the 30 best County cricketers of the 21st century.
“Even in a pre-Indian Premier League era of global stars in the shires, Hampshire signing Shane Warne in advance of the 2000 season was a jaw-dropping moment. His first season was Hampshire’s last at their old Northlands Road home in Southampton, but by the time his red-ball career ended in 2007, they were a force who had come close to winning their first championship since 1973.
He was desperate to win it, not least because “the winners get to meet the Queen”. As Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire’s former chairman, said last month: “He completely reversed the fortunes of the club. He helped build us into one of the big teams, and gave us a winning instinct.”
✍️ Chris Kay talks to IPL chair Arun Singh Dhumal about expansion, bilaterals, and the future of cricket.
“There are different possibilities. One is reducing some bilaterals. Another is carving out a window elsewhere. In case we get some windows during September or October, when you have the end of the English season and before the start of the Australian season, then if we have a few days available there, we can extend at that time. So all those possibilities can be worked out and whatever works best, we will do.”
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“The invisible hand at the crease”
🔒 Johan Fourie crunches the international numbers to prove LHB-RHB combos don’t have an advantage (📊 you can read the full academic paper here). -
“The art of control”
📊 Deepu Narayanan deep dives into Shubman Gill’s control in T20 cricket. -
“The most unlikely County Championship”
✍️ View from the Bridge on Notts’ unlikely championship in 2010. -
“Just nail them”
✍️ Jack Paynter on the burgeoning South Australia dynasty.
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“RCB’s self-inflicted spin handicap”
📊 Raunak Thakur on the spin hole in RCB’s roster construction. -
“Padikkal takes charge”
📊 Tarun Pratap on how Devdutt Padikkal accelerated his game. -
“The demand for free tickets is suspicious”
🗣️ Tarutr Malhotra questions the timing of the Karnataka government’s demand for free tickets; the sale two days before the tantrum can’t be a coincidence?