Gryllidae Cricket

Kane Williamson's eight Test dismissals in England indicate a trend of dismissals by mistakes, not a deficient technique, and as errors are by nature avoidable, he could well excel in the upcoming England series and against India in the World Test Championship final. A rare thing: a modern sports superstar who inspires little animus. From the outside, Kane Williamson is everything a non-Kiwi fan wants a New Zealand cricketer to be with his batting is based on class, watching the ball to the last second, playing with soft hands, and building runs via touch, not brute force. As a personality, he is as an understated, softly-spoken megastar who is deserving of a place among the modern greats as you're likely to see based on his 7114 Test runs, averaging over 54, with 24 centuries; these impressive figures have grown since he slipped effortlessly into being a calm (what else?) and tactically-astute captain. Williamson averages 62 as New Zealand captain which is the best figure for ...

Cricket, and only cricket, could spend the best part of a century agonising over something as straightforward as a legal run out. Seventy years after Vinoo Mankad dismissed the backing-up Bill Brown in Sydney, the Mankad’s continuing controversial reputation is symptomatic of game’s unhelpful fixation with the ‘spirit of cricket’. Vinoo Mankad’s name had become a synonymous with unfair play, but he should be remembered as an innovator not a villain. Somehow the act of running a batter out with the Mankad has become seen to be disreputable and something that is certainly not cricket . After all, a batter is just wandering a little way towards to safety of the striker’s popping crease  17.68 metres away , which is hardly a crime against cricket, is it? Yet with the Mankad and the whole notion of 'spirit', the devil is in the detail.  Where do we mark the ‘line’ of encroachment acceptability for non-strikers trying to gain an advantage? Five centimetres is probably fine; one metr...