Ed Smith

Why cricket's national stereotypes are outdated

We often tend to overstate certain characteristics of teams as permanent qualities, but a team's identity is constantly in flux

08-Aug-2016•Ed Smith

What sport means to us

When you go to watch a Test, you participate in a ritual that is a part of civilised existence

11-Jul-2016•Ed Smith

What has to be done to save Test cricket?

A two-division structure will give the format the shake-up it needs. It's important for fans of the traditional game to embrace change

27-Jun-2016•Ed Smith

What is sporting achievement made of?

Records and victories matter, but not as much as the power sportsmen have to engage our emotions and imagination

13-Jun-2016•Ed Smith

Welcome to the era of the total batsman

T20 has produced a breed of player who with his imagination, athleticism and technical mastery proves that scoring prodigiously and fast does not have to involve massive risk-taking

30-May-2016•Ed Smith

Was Cozier the last of a golden age of commentators?

The sport and media landscape has changed so much that we may never have definitive voices like his ever again

16-May-2016•Ed Smith

The World T20 and the battle for cricket's future

Who will win the war of techniques: the batsmen or the power hitters? Will timing triumph over muscle?

04-Apr-2016•Ed Smith

The importance of Afghanistan's exuberance

The way they throw themselves into cricket with unfettered passion is a lesson to those of us for whom the game may have lost its freshness

21-Mar-2016•Ed Smith

The torture makes the genius?

For all the perspective he gained later in life, would Martin Crowe have been the batsman he was if not for the disharmony within him?

07-Mar-2016•Ed Smith

The clear-sightedness of Brendon McCullum

He was able to free himself of the pressure of looking in the rear-view mirror and instead set about building an expressive, audacious team

22-Feb-2016•Ed Smith

Why T20 batting needn't be all about on-side power-hitting

George Bailey's technique shows that an alternative set of solutions is evolving, which are less derivative of baseball

09-Feb-2016•Ed Smith

The figure a shot makes

It's about trusting yourself rather than premeditating events, achieving simplicity in a complex environment, and finding clarity in the midst of a contest

11-Jan-2016•Ed Smith

Has sport ever had it so good?

The doomsayers may believe different, but sport is a more prominent part of our culture than ever, and fears of its decline are vastly exaggerated

29-Dec-2015•Ed Smith

Sport is more about philosophy than we might think

The greatest competitive advantage, in cricket and other games, is the ability to use existing information better than the opposition - i.e. critical thinking

15-Dec-2015•Ed Smith

Why blame culture is toxic for sport

Is ranting at players during team talks like bloodletting in the age of quack doctors?

01-Dec-2015•Ed Smith

The man with no minus

In most sportsmen, extraordinary ability and strengths are inevitably accompanied by some inadequacy, big or small. Not so with AB de Villiers

13-Nov-2015•Ed Smith

The pink ball isn't a risk, resisting change is

Test cricket will be under threat if there is resistance to experiments such as day-night matches

02-Nov-2015•Ed Smith

How good would cricket be if we made the easy fixes?

The bad-light farce in Abu Dhabi should be a wake-up call to the ICC to be more proactive in enforcing rules that benefit the game at large

19-Oct-2015•Ed Smith

The making of a sporting icon lies in the timing

The legend of great sportsmen like WG Grace, Babe Ruth and Sachin Tendulkar is partly to do with the eras they lived in

05-Oct-2015•Ed Smith

Can sportsmen be called geniuses?

Mastery, playfulness, naturalness, style, wonder, mystery - all these concepts are relevant to the idea of genius. But is the term relevant to sport at all?

21-Sep-2015•Ed Smith

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