Columnists

This is where you will find all The Cricket Paper’s Columnists content and opinion.

Mark Butcher: Ben Stokes uncertainty creates England dilemma

6 October 2024 0 comments

As England prepared for the first match of their three-Test series in Pakistan, they were faced with a familiar conundrum.

Mark Butcher: Glib Harry Brook receives lesson in leadership

29 September 2024 0 comments

It has been an eventful week for Harry Brook, who came under fire for his comments after England’s defeat to Australia at Trent Bridge.

Katya Witney: Sunrisers win Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy send-off

29 September 2024 0 comments

Regional women’s cricket bowed out last weekend with the final of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, won by Sunrisers.

Darren Stevens: Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy ends regional era

29 September 2024 0 comments

It was a funny old way to bring down the curtain on women’s regional cricket on Saturday at Grace Road in the 50-over final.

Annie Chave: County Championship season one to remember

29 September 2024 0 comments

In the ECB laboratory, the domestic game is laid bare, its schedule trailing across the table as technicians busily fiddle with the formats.

Mark Butcher: Gloucestershire show T20 Blast retains magic

22 September 2024 0 comments

Gloucestershire went into Finals Day as the rank outsiders but delivered a stunning performance to win their first T20 trophy.

Ben Gardner: Sussex’s solid season points to a bright future

22 September 2024 0 comments

For Sussex, at the start of this year, simply not ending the season in crisis would have marked a form of progress.

Darren Stevens: Gloucestershire deserving T20 Blast champions

22 September 2024 0 comments

After Gloucestershire’s heroics a week ago, I can’t hide my pleasure at seeing a smaller county triumph on domestic cricket’s biggest stage.

Richard Clarke: Luke Fletcher, Joe Leach a dying breed

22 September 2024 0 comments

There was a time when Luke Fletcher’s preparation for a cricket match consisted of two paracetamols plus a double sausage and egg McMuffin.

Richard Clarke: T20 Blast finals day is magical, unique

15 September 2024 0 comments

It is 10am on September 4, 1993 and I am shouting at cricket fans as they shuffle into Lord’s. To a man, woman and child, they ignore me.

Katya Witney: Women’s cricket at crossroads ahead of restructuring

15 September 2024 0 comments

September is weird. Cricket season desperately tries to extend the summer warmth, entering its sixth month as nights start to creep in.

Bowlers need the art of surprise to fight back

15 September 2024 0 comments

By Derek Pringle It was Ricky Ponting who spotted it on commentary and only then after a battery of replays. […]

Nissanka exposes England’s naivety

15 September 2024 0 comments

By Mark Butcher Pathum Nissanka’s century to inflict a first Test defeat of the summer on England was fabulous to […]

Nothing as graceful as a Moeen Ali drive, except for the man himself…

15 September 2024 0 comments

By Darren Stevens After Moeen Ali announced his international retirement last week, I looked up how many times I came […]

There’s Tea In Every Team – Because County Cricket Matters

15 September 2024 0 comments

By Annie Chave Recently, my cricket team played a friendly 20-over game. It was an absorbing contest that had me […]

Derek Pringle: Small is beautiful for England opener Ben Duckett

8 September 2024 0 comments

At 5ft 6in Ben Duckett is in the small camp. But small batters have advantages even if looking up to everyone else on a cricket field isn’t one of them…

Ebony Rainford-Brent: After a solid summer, England will look to dominate winter tours

8 September 2024 0 comments

It’s a new-look England team at the moment and it is a direction that Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have wanted to go in.

Mark Butcher on Gus Atkinson: A new star with old-fashioned virtues

8 September 2024 0 comments

An incredible start to Gus Atkinson’s Test career. His century at Lord’s was outrageous, it will be fascinating to see how he develops.

Derek Pringle column: DRS protocols over lbw need to change now

1 September 2024 0 comments

Master and apprentice is a phrase you often hear when Joe Root and Harry Brook are at the crease together. Yet the roles could so readily have been reversed in the Second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, after the Decision Review System had both men lbw to balls clipping leg-stump.

Mark Butcher: England star Jamie Smith is a natural-born thriller

1 September 2024 0 comments

What a start Jamie Smith has made to his England Test career. The most extraordinary thing is how comfortable he’s looked since arriving in the Test arena – in all aspects.

Blink before you miss it: Finals Day looms for lucky eight

1 September 2024 0 comments

There aren’t many bigger days in the county calendar than the T20 quarter-finals, which take place later this week. I say quarter-finals, but really it feels like a semi because the prize is Finals Day at Edgbaston, to my reckoning still the biggest day of the domestic summer.

Columnists

Mark Butcher: Ben Stokes uncertainty creates England dilemma

Mark Butcher: Glib Harry Brook receives lesson in leadership

Katya Witney: Sunrisers win Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy send-off

Darren Stevens: Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy ends regional era

Annie Chave: County Championship season one to remember

Mark Butcher: Gloucestershire show T20 Blast retains magic

Ben Gardner: Sussex’s solid season points to a bright future

Darren Stevens: Gloucestershire deserving T20 Blast champions

Richard Clarke: Luke Fletcher, Joe Leach a dying breed

Richard Clarke: T20 Blast finals day is magical, unique

Katya Witney: Women’s cricket at crossroads ahead of restructuring

Bowlers need the art of surprise to fight back

Nissanka exposes England’s naivety

Nothing as graceful as a Moeen Ali drive, except for the man himself…

There’s Tea In Every Team – Because County Cricket Matters

Derek Pringle: Small is beautiful for England opener Ben Duckett

Ebony Rainford-Brent: After a solid summer, England will look to dominate winter tours

Mark Butcher on Gus Atkinson: A new star with old-fashioned virtues

Derek Pringle column: DRS protocols over lbw need to change now

Mark Butcher: England star Jamie Smith is a natural-born thriller

Blink before you miss it: Finals Day looms for lucky eight

Annie Chave column: Money talks but memberships matter

EYE ON THE FUTURE AS SQUADS ANNOUNCED

POPEWATCH: ANALYSING THE SKIPPER

Jamie Smith ton shows he feels at home at six

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