Oborne & Heller on Cricket

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’s absence, Roger Alton is co-presenter of this episode. Read the full description here:...

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 one-day international series in the Netherlands, Steven explores the rich history of Dutch cricket and analyses its current state as the guest of...

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 in their latest cricket-themed podcast. In Peter’s absence, Roger Alton is co-presenter. Read the full description here:...

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 social change on the future of cricket, and surprising conclusions from its data, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest...

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-witted local property developer. He shares its story and analysis with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller as the guest on their latest cricket-themed...

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, business leaders and campaigners for change. He outlines its vital messages as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest...

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 shares the bowling in this edition. Read the full description here:...

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 Northamptonshire between 1993 and 2002. Julien Cahn was chair of its successor, the London Cricket College. They are the guests of Peter Oborne and...

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 all walks of life across the world have been drawn to the game. Even the briefest typically contain the germ of a novel. Their long-serving...

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.uk/episode-86-wisden-2022-the-global-publishing-event-of-the-year-and-its-editor-lawrence-booth/ Get in contact by emailing...

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 Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast he forensically dissects the ECB’s errors and failures in running English cricket – and tells fans how...

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 and the world – and who’s to blame – as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Read the full...

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 generation, as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Read the full description here:...

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 Meaning Of Cricket, a collection of essays which illuminate … well, the meaning of cricket. Matt Thacker is managing editor of The Nightwatchman,...

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 cricket and the country’s politics, business and wider society. Read the full description here:...

“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-old South African is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ukraine Cricket Association. Before the war, cricket was beginning to thrive. He...

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. Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-79-reporting-the-whole-world-of-cricket-osman-samiuddin/ Get in contact...

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: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-78-english-crickets-biggest-and-longest-crisis-economic-inequality/ Get in contact by emailing...

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 growth as a national game. He explains this to Peter Oborne and Richard Heller as the guest in their latest cricket-themed podcast. Read the full...

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, and then England’s from 1986 to 1992. For another five years he was England’s Director of Coaching and Excellence. He shares highlights of his...