Jon Hotten

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that there is a deep statistical conviction behind their current method

Prodigies, like Yorkshire have nurtured, emerge with the expectation of something big. But really all they offer then is promise, which can be fulfilled or lost

Fans or experts' comments dismissing a player on the basis of a few low scores are in stark contrast to the game's natural rhythm

Players who compel you to watch them and be engaged in the game, when absent, stir a yearning in the spectator that has nothing to do with team loyalty

Neville Cardus' writing is alive, full of daring and almost novelistic observation. Cricket writing owes him a debt of gratitude

Playing against the Japan national side in London on a cold April day is a story bound to be told several times over

Risky or not, Johnson is thrilling in his unpredictability. More's the pity we won't see him this Ashes

If captaincy was not regarded as an art before Brearley, it was after he had gone. His tenure may have been brief, but his impact endures still

Cricket's relationship with its rules is a constantly evolving flirtation, unlike in golf, say, where things are more cut and dried

Clad in his space-garb, his gold pads and his gridiron helmet, shoulders rippling under his muscle shirt, Chris Gayle is an implacable object, driving cricket forwards, challenging the world to produce another batsman that plays like him

Over the course of England's next series, James Anderson should become the 26th bowler to take 300 Test wickets. That no Englishman has reached 400 - or 10,000 runs with the bat - is indicative of how the record books left them behind

In the space of eight days in 1876, WG Grace scored 839 runs, including two triple hundreds. He shaped the game we know today, inventing technique and influencing bowling

Modern bat manufacturers seem to be going to increasingly absurd lengths in coming up with exotic nouns in which batsmen can attempt to locate idealised versions of themselves

Although he only played in four Tests prior to the sporting boycott of South Africa, Barry Richards still managed to confirm his greatness. However, the tragedy of his lost international career must be set in the context of a far greater struggle

The game's shortest format can learn lessons from baseball in particular when it comes to the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs