Andy Zaltzman’s Number Palace!

FINDING BEAUTY IN THE BRUTAL

"The Test game is thrillingly alive, and as

The month in cricket No.1

PHOTO BY MICHAEL BRADLEY/AFP Having been dismissed

Crawley creeps out from his hole

Centuries for Zak Crawley, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow got England’s reshaped Test team off to a positive start in the Caribbean and hinted at a fresh kind of expressiveness, writes Andrew Miller

Warne and Marsh: too Australian even for Australia

Shane Warne and Rod Marsh hold a special place in the hearts of cricket fans but their fierce independence and unflinching views led the Australian board to keep them at a safe distance, writes Lawrence Booth

The grandest of occasions on the flattest of pitches

Taha Hashim reports from Rawalpindi on a historic Test match which combined joy, tragedy, and mountains of runs

Where next for Virat Kohli?

After more than two years without an international century, and no longer captain in any format, Virat Kohli’s seemingly impregnable position in Indian cricket is suddenly insecure. Suresh Menon considers where the world’s most famous cricketer goes from here

Liam Plunkett

36, FAST BOWLER, COACH, ENGLISHMAN IN PHILLY

NEWS CYCLE

Ben Gardner runs the rule Law over the MCC’s latest tweaks

Steven Finn

The fast bowler talks to John Stern about his move from Middlesex to Sussex, his encouraging first steps in commentary, and the regrets he has from a rollercoaster England career

CRICKIPEDIA

The alternative compendium of cricket

RE:VIEW

Three writers predict who will triumph in this season’s County Championship

Mailbox

In association with Botham Wines, the letter of the month receives a bottle of Botham 80 Series Cabernet Sauvignon – an extra special wine presented in a hand-embossed wooden case

SHANE WARNE 1969-2022

Shane Warne is gone and the game is

‘He crammed a number of lifetimes into those 52 years’

Simon Katich, who played alongside Warne for Australia and Hampshire, describes what it was like to call arguably the greatest bowler who’s ever lived a friend and teammate

‘I’d never seen a ball turn like that before’

Mark Butcher, who played 14 Test matches against Warne (and was dismissed by him on seven occasions), recalls what it was like to come face-to-face with a master of his craft

Bowling, Shane

The moments of genius that made the man

Flipping the lid

12-128 – Australia v South Africa, SCG Second Test, 1994

Smokes and mirrors

9-111 – England v Australia, Old Trafford Third Test, 1997

The Gibbs ball

4-29 – Australia v South Africa, Edgbaston World Cup semi-final, 1999

A side order of sliders

8-24 – Pakistan v Australia Second Test, Sharjah, 2002

Batting, Shane

107 – Kent v Hampshire, Canterbury County Championship, 2005

The near miracle

4-31 – England v Australia, Trent Bridge, Fourth Test, 2005

The Oval

12-246 – England v Australia, The Oval Fifth Test, 2005

One more flipper for the road

7-85 – Australia v England, MCG Fourth Test, 2006

The mic drop

1-22 – Brisbane Heat v Melbourne Stars, The Gabba Big Bash League, 2011

2022 The County Season

Atumultuous winter is behind us, the sun is

County Championship PREVIEW

Jo Harman runs the rule over the 18 counties ahead of the new season

Nottinghamshire Bridging the gap

The clans of Nottingham and Derby maintain a sporting rivalry as fierce as any in the country, and when they play each other their relative standings count for little. WCM commissioned a writer from each province to explore the interplay between the archetypal haves and have-nots and what the future holds for both

Derbyshire Peaks and troughs

Wayne Madsen: consistently overlooked for higher honours despite

Northern Soul

As Durham embark on their 30th season as a first-class side, Jo Harman unpicks one of the county game’s Soul most stirring stories

The making of SAQIB MAHMOOD

England’s next fast-bowling hope talks to Cameron Ponsonby about his emergence through the ranks at Lancashire and what happens now England are interested

ICONOGRAPHY of cricket

PART 7: 1960-69

Gary KIRSTEN

The first South African to make 20 Test hundreds, and the man who coached India to World Cup glory before guiding his homeland to No.1 in the Test rankings

The king in the north

At the heart of club cricket

Rupert Evans

The Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame

Time Warp

The winner of this month’s quiz will receive a copy of issue 37 of the Nightwatchman, the Wisden Cricket Quarterly

MY GOLDEN SUMMER 2011

Tales & treasures from cricket’s glorious past

The Line-up

England pool their resources

Chaos Theory

England v West Indies, 2nd Test, Lord’s, 1988