The past and future of English cricket
Is English cricket struggling to leave its past behind, or, with the advent of Twenty20, forgetting its history a little too quickly
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
Is English cricket struggling to leave its past behind, or, with the advent of Twenty20, forgetting its history a little too quickly? Giles Smith tries to find some answers in his review of the BBC documentary The Empire of Cricket in the Times. Watch out for the interesting anecdote on the treatment meted out to WG Grace for his 'amateur' participation in an international tour.
The narrative arc seemed fairly typical for an English sport: invented it, lost it, never quite got over it. Here's my tip - don't bother coming up with a sport. Wait for someone else in another country to do it. Then casually perfect it while they're still sitting in leather chairs and hugging themselves about how clever they've been. It seems to work out so much more happily for everyone concerned if you don't “give the game to the world” but simply snitch it a few years later.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo