The top order will take care of itself, right?
The best cricket stories of the week, 21st to 27th June 2025
1
The top order will take care of itself, right?
Beyond Cow Corner has a typically funny and insightful look at how teams are using the No.3 role as a low pressure spot to blood youngsters.
“Hypothetically, two of your senior-most batters have just retired (oh, let’s call them, Blirat and Blohit) and you’re weighing up their replacements for an upcoming overseas tour. When the dust has settled on the rest of the batting order, you have two remaining top-order spots available: number three and number six.
Now, let’s introduce the contenders. Player A (for the sake of argument, S. Sudharsan—no, that’s too obvious: Sai S) is 23. They have played only 29 first-class games for a promising but modest average of 38.96. If selected, they would be a Test debutant. On the other hand, Player B is 33. They’ve been around the block. They’ve played Test cricket before and have even scored a Test triple hundred. They’ve played 116 first-class games, average the best part of 50, and have kicked the selection doors down via a sheer weight of runs. Who do you bat at number three, and who do you bat at number six?”
2
South Africa’s long road home
Lines on the Grass’ Sarthak Dev looks at South Africa’s run from Apartheid exilees to World Test Championship winners via ten emotive pictures.
“Cricket was a batter and bowler’s game. The bowlers ran, the batters hit. Pace and power. Those who could do both were robed in 24-carat gold. Then Jonty arrived, inventing a third genre. He turned fielding into jazz - all improvisation and impossible angles. He flew, ran, slid, jumped, glided. Fielding was cricket at its most physically expressive, and no one had quite explored its range like this. One time, he was awarded the Player of The Match for his fielding alone. That's how good he was.”
3
How many countries can afford Test cricket?
Broken Cricket Dreams’ Nitesh Mathur goes through the financial reports of every full nation board to determine which countries can still afford to play Test cricket.
“For financially strong boards like India and England, ICC distributions make up only around 10% of their total revenue. In contrast, boards such as Zimbabwe (~85%) and others like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand (each around 48%) remain heavily reliant on ICC funding.”
4
The best of the rest
BBC’s Matthew Henry looks at Jofra Archer’s long road, and remembers why everyone was so excited about him initially; “Will Archer 2.0 still be a £100m cheat code on England Test return?”
ESPNcricinfo’s Andrew Fidel Fernando looks at the lonely, unrewarding life of a pacer in Sri Lanka; “Hit the deck, break a neck, still no cheque: the quiet sacrifice of SL's red-ball quicks”
Cricverse’s Simon Hughes looks at the five best England innings of all time, including a new entrant; “DUCKETT HAS INDIA'S NUMBER”
Old Ebor remembers the life of a forgotten Caribbean legend; ““The West Indies will not produce a better”: “Float” Woods and the West Indies tour of England in 1900”
5
The best videos and podcasts
Stick to Cricket’s Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, David Lloyd & Phil Tufnell talk shit about England and India for a pretty entertaining hour. I don’t normally promote random catch-up videos, but I will mention this once just to introduce what I think is a paradigm-shifting piece of media for cricket. [YouTube]
6ixandout chronicles New Zealand’s crappy form in 2024 running up to the India Tests, and the most surprising series result in years. Begrudgingly, as an Indian, I gotta admit it’s a good story. [YouTube]
The Paddock and the Pavilion’s Stephen Wallis talks to Zimbabwean broadcaster Tawanda Eli about what Zimbabwe’s Test against England meant for the country’s cricket fans. [Apple/Spotify]
Good Areas’ Jarrod Kimber talks to Bangalore-based journalist Sarthak Dev to follow up on the RCB parade deaths, and what’s happening now. [YouTube]