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Sir Alf Ramsey is highly regarded in England. He led the England football team to World Cup glory in 1966. The FA sacked him in 1973 shortly after his side failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. Sir Clive Woodward is pretty famous as well; he led the Rugby team to a monumental triumph on the world stage in 2003. He then oversaw the beginning of a dramatic decline in the England side, before resigning in September 2004 and taking control of a disastrous British Lions tour. How about another? Linford Christie, you might have heard him, ruled the 100 metre sprint world from 1992 until 1994. His international career ended in disqualification at the 1996 Olympics for two false starts in a race he would probably have finished 6th or 7th in. And he went on to fail a drugs test when running as a retired athlete at an indoor meeting a few years later. The English don’t do “going out on a high”, it’s not for us. Sadly, alongside Ramsey, Woodward and Christie (and countless others) you can place Michael Vaughan, former England captain.

For nearly two decades now Australia has been the benchmark in world cricket in all forms of the game. But look out, India is about to take over.

For the past forty years the English county game has welcomed players from all over the globe.
During this time county cricket has had an era of glory from the sixties to the start of the nineties, when it could boast talents such as the three Sirs – Viv Richards, Garfield Sobers and Richard Hadlee, as well as many more. More recently however county cricket has begun to flounder.

Ratings systems suffer from exclusivity – they rank either batting or bowling (sometimes all-rounders), but never everything together. This means we can’t compare a great batting performance with a great bowling performance. The ICC Test Player Ratings system is interesting because you can search not only the best ever but also any given date in Test cricket history. However, that rating system is limited in that you can only search on batting, or bowling, but not both together.

In light of the recent spotlight on Zimbabwe, we take a look at one of history’s most under-appreciated cricketers, and his fight to free his country.

There are certain things that a person looks forward to for their entire life and as the event approaches they worry that it will never match their long held expectations. This was how I felt about my visit and tour of Lord’s. Fortunately, despite my concerns, the grand old cricket ground didn’t disappoint.

Michael Vaughan and the England management will undoubtedly have made meticulous plans ahead of this highly anticipated series with South Africa, and things could not have gone much better after the opening three days of the series.

A dangerous game we all play at some point is virtual history, that is what if? But the weight on England’s shoulders these last three years has been the monumental Ashes victory in 2005 and many have said that England have wished to replicate too much of the same thing since. The focus of the English on the Ashes above all else has been a constant criticism both at home and abroad and too many selections have said to have been based around the yearning for those magical days in the fantastic summer that was 2005. Is this fair? Have English selections been unduly influenced by a desire for what was? Was the Ashes victory of 05 detrimental to English cricket. What would have happened if the series had ended all square and the Aussies kept hold of the urn?

The evolution of batting in one day cricket has made it increasingly hard to compare the greats. A method to measure the value of contributions across time has been devised.

As the ICC ruminates and fumbles with the game’s future, the time is ripe for change. A fundamental shift in thinking about cricketing governance is required.