Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2023 is the longest edition on record. It not only records the present state of global cricket but also reflects on the mighty global forces – political, social, commercial, environmental – which shape it. Its editor, Lawrence Booth, analyses its content as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cri…

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 …

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 replac…

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…

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 Helle…

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…

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 …

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 surround…

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 Ri…

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 Mi…

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 …

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 …

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 racis…

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…

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 r…

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 Oborn…

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 absen…

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-mik…

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 i…

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, h…

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 …

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.…

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 p…

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…

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 on…

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 i…

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 soc…

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-witt…

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, busin…

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 share…

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 Nort…

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…

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…

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 Hel…

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 …

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 genera…

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 M…

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 cric…

“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…

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.…

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: http…

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 gro…

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…

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 an…

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: …

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 sign…

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 o…

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 Engl…

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 podc…

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 ser…