✍️ Adam Burnett with Terry O’Connell on the ball he bowled 50 years ago that killed Martin Bedkober at the crease; as a deeply traumatised and repressed Vietnam War vet, the moment has hung over O’Connell’s life ever since.
“O’Connell meanwhile, sees it all through a lens coloured by war. It takes him only a matter of seconds to reach the end point of this scene, well before it has played out for Short, or anyone else.
“I got down to him – and Bob got to him – and his eyes rolled back,” he says, very slowly now. “And my experience, being in Vietnam, I’ve seen people who had died – and I knew then that he was dead.”
✍️ Lalith Kalidas investigates Pondicherry’s cricket association; a privately funded state-level organisation that has all the problems of private equity in a social good.
“The Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) is a relatively small unit of the BCCI but, in the last seven years, it has become a showcase of how the lines between a private enterprise and sports administration blur — raising serious questions over governance, and conflict of interest in finance, land ownership and voting control.”
✍️ Jarrod Kimber analyses the changing bowling conditions in Australia, the rise of wobble seam, and why James Anderson’s forced retirement was short-sighted.
“In a traditional English attack on a normal Australian pitch, there would be no point taking Anderson back.
But when you have Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson, perhaps the thing you need is the English-style seamer…But it wasn’t the change that Anderson made that affected everything; it was Australia’s evolution.”
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“Journey to the End of the Night”
✍️ Jon Hotten on Robin Smith, Ben Stokes, “weak men”, and ENG’s identity. -
“England at breaking point”
✍️ Vithushan Ehantharajah on the collapsing ideals of Bazball. -
“England’s grade cricket connections”
🔒 Cameron Ponsonby traces the improbable, funny and influential connections between England’s internationals and Australia’s grade cricket system. -
“From stand up to statistics”
🔒 Darren Richman profiles Andy Zaltzman’s switch from comedy to cricket.
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“Bangladesh’s GOAT”
📽️ Beard before Wicket hosts Shakib Al Hasan to discuss his (cricketing) career, & his frustrations playing for (and now, not playing for) BAN. [YouTube] -
“How Dale Steyn Became One Of The World’s Fastest Bowlers”
📽️ Kevin Pietersen talks to Dale Steyn about the duality of his life; the nice guy who becomes a menace when you hand him a ball near a cricket pitch. [YouTube] -
“England haven’t produced a world class batter in the last decade”
🎤 Katya Witney & Yas Rana ask why England Women have not had an elite batter in a decade. [Apple/Spotify]