It’s Thursday lunchtime in Warsaw, and I’m standing in a field outside the city, in the rain. I’m trying, and failing, to hit a Polish off-spinner. Chasing 206, we’re 23-4. I’ve never been so happy on a cricket pitch. For this story to make sense, I need to mention that last year I released a … More 20 All Out: The Ukrainian Cricket Team’s Euro Cup Adventure
From a workshop in Ammanford, South Wales, Bear Bats is what founder Richard Gullam calls “a hobby that’s gone wrong”. From repairing other companies’ bats, Richard and his co-owner Hedd-Wyn Jones now make their own – including for the Glamorgan player Ben Morris, and dozens of serious club cricketers.
My bat – a 2lb10oz ‘Hunter’ – is a beautiful piece of willow, with a really fast ping to it. My budget was enough for a grade 2 blade, when the big brands only sell patchy grade 3 at that price, even on discount. … More Bear Bats: The players who swear by the bear for their cricket kit
Supporters of Uzbek sport have had a lot to celebrate this year. The national football team currently sits at the top of its qualifying group for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while eight of the country’s athletes took gold at this summer’s Paris Olympics.
But next year Uzbekistan wants to enter the world stage in a more surprising sport: cricket.
The Central Asian country joined the game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), in 2022. As an “Associate” ICC member there are hopes that the Uzbek squad will play its first international matches in 2025, in the Twenty20 (T20) version of the game. T20 games are much shorter than traditional five-day Test matches. … More Uzbekistan’s Cricket Team: We’re Ready For International Matches — The Times of Central Asia
In 2014 I joined a cricket team from North Wales, Carmel CC, on an unusual cricket tour – to the Former Yugoslavia. Two years later, some of my photographs from our game at the Surnikovo ground in the Slovenian Alps, against Mežica CC, have been included in Brian Levison ‘s new book Remarkable Cricket Grounds. … More Photographs from Slovenia in the book ‘Remarkable Cricket Grounds’
The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2014 includes a short piece that I wrote for its ‘Cricket Round The World’ section, about Uzbekistan’s first ever cricket tournament. Cricket Round The World this year comes from Colombia, Hungary, Iran, Nauru and Japan, as well as Uzbekistan and other places. Wisden 2014 has essays by Gideon Haigh, Ed Smith and its editor Lawrence Booth. … More Cricket in Uzbekistan: Some writing for the 2014 Wisden Almanack
I had a month to teach three Russians, a Ukrainian, a Bulgarian, a Slovenian and a Vietnamese – four lads and three ladies, none of whom had ever played before – how to bat, bowl and field. Finding time to practice together was difficult (I am surely the first captain to cancel a net because my best bowler was in Magnitogorsk), but three lunchtimes a week I took a Kwik Cricket set to London’s Regent’s Park, and made everyone try each of the skills. My teammates’ enthusiasm never wilted: anglophiles all, they threw themselves into the challenge of a complicated English game. … More FROM RUSSIA WITH STUMPS
LIFE IN CENTRAL ASIA 