When, at the end of the 2003/04 Australian domestic season, Jo Angel decided to retire, a giant presence was leaving the Western Australia ranks. A giant man too, at six-foot six-inches tall. For more than a decade, Angel had been the man WA turned to match after match. The final statistics said it all: 485 … More Jo Angel; ‘It’s a pretty simple game overcomplicated by people’
It’s November 12th, 1991. India are hosting South Africa in the second match of a three-game ODI series. South Africa are playing their first series back from isolation, so the historic occasion isn’t lost on anyone. The Gwailor crowd are cheering their home fans on, with Kris Srikkanth and Navjot Sidhu putting on a fantastic … More Clive Eksteen; ‘they stuck the badge on with glue!’
In my first ‘Six Ball Over’ in over six months, Stiaan van Zyl has been kind enough to talk to us about his cricketing career to date. In fact, we even bowled a couple of wides, so we’ve got a nine ball over! Van Zyl made his Test debut in the series against the West … More Nine Ball Over: Stiaan van Zyl
Sports coaches have possibly the most fragile jobs in the world. In all sports, but particularly football and cricket, coaches are the first to have their head on the chopping block after a defeat. Even in the quiet fields of County Cricket, the job of a coach is tenuous at best. Most survive one cycle, … More Building the County Champions: The Mick Newell interview
Part one of Andrew Hall’s interview can be found here, discussing his international career. Part two concentrates on County cricket. Case C-438/00. Held in the fifth chamber of the European Court of Justice, the case was between Deutscher Handballbund eV and Maroš Kolpak. None of that will have made much sense – apart from that … More Andrew Hall: From Cronje to Kolpak (part two)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one of a two part interview with Andrew Hall, the former South African all-rounder. Due to the length of the interview, it’s been split into two pieces. This piece focuses on his international career, while the following piece will focus on his County Cricket years. Thanks go to Andrew for … More Andrew Hall: From Cronje to Kolpak (part one)
Until the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Canada hadn’t been a ‘real’ cricketing nation. They’d been nothing more than the answer to a rather tragic piece of cricket trivia: What’s the oldest international cricket fixture? Canada vs the USA, in 1844. That 1844 match, which Canada won by 23 runs, could quite easily have its “international” … More The Maple emergence?
Geoff Allott will always be remembered for the 1999 Cricket World Cup. New Zealand made the semi-finals, and it was in no small part thanks to Allott’s 20 wickets. As equal-top wicket-taker for the tournament – alongside Shane Warne – Allott’s performance was one that stayed as a New Zealand record until the recent semi-final … More Geoff Allott; “I live with that moment, constantly.”
Originally published on DV Mace’s Smorgasbord of Sport, 06-Nov-2014. Jeremy Snape is the world’s most eminent cricket psychologist – and one of the most notable sports psychologists in any field. While it’s the players and coach who are the most likely to receive kudos for team performance, a lot more goes on behind the scenes … More Six Ball Over: Jeremy Snape
Originally published on DV Mace’s Smorgasbord of Sport, 03-Nov-2014. The art of left-arm unorthodox spin – or Chinaman bowling – is incredibly rare. Only really Brad Hogg, Paul Adams and the one-Test Beau Casson have made decent goes of the art in recent years. The South African-born Dutchman Michael Rippon, however, is doing is … More Six Ball Over: Michael Rippon
Mind The Windows 