Cricket
Simon Barnes’s diary: A sportswriter is never without a big subject (unless it’s golf)
Sport is like love: it can only really hurt you if you care. Or for that matter, bring joy. You…
Alastair Cook is world class. Steven Gerrard isn’t
This time last year, England’s cricketers were 2-0 up against Australia, two thirds of the way towards their third consecutive…
What Germans are worst at
What Germans do worst Some things Germans aren’t very good at: — Making reliable car engines. According to a survey by Warranty Direct…
The Spectator's notes: Diana's bed, Boris's dirty trick and Prince Philip's mystery tie
On Friday night, I went to Althorp, childhood home of Diana, Princess of Wales, to speak at its literary festival.…
When the English cricket team toured Nazi Germany – and got smashed
Why have the Germans never been any good at cricket? This entertaining account of the MCC’s 1937 tour to the…
In defence of the BBC’s Sochi commentators
You can trust the BBC to behave like a leaf blown by any breeze, but even that spineless leviathan (if…
It’s not just Kevin Pietersen. England needs a whole team of new heroes
Englishmen used to be deported to Australia as a punishment. Now they get sent back to England as an act…
Five reasons to be cheerful about British sport (yes, even the cricket)
James Cook’s third voyage as an English captain ended in disaster, stabbed to death and disembowelled by a pack of…
Roger Alton: The day Viv Richards came to watch me play cricket
Sir Vivian Richards came to watch me play cricket the other day. That’s the sort of sentence you wait a…
Hurrah for Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss is a serious man and Driving Ambition (Hodder, £20, Spectator Bookshop, £18) is a serious book. It looks…
If Carberry doesn't open for England, the world should split asunder
In sport, as in life, you just don’t know where you stand any more. Look at the Premier League: no…
My dear old thing! Forget the nasty bits
There can be a strong strain of self-parody in even the greatest commentators. When Henry Blofeld describes the progress of…
Sport: Nigel Lawson on the Ashes
Those of us who watched the last day of the final Ashes Test of the present series enjoyed a rare…
Suddenly, the future of British golf looks bright
Were you still up, as they used to say about Portillo in the 1997 election, for Hedwall? It was well…
Has Test Match Special lost its wits?
Test Match Special is the sound of the English summer. Why are we letting it be vulgarised?
