[This article originally appeared in my Substack feed, on 13th March 2026.]
An odd confluence of articles and posts in my social and news feeds, back in March.
All interesting, in their own right, but with a linking thread of alcohol.
And that’s without mentioning Noosa, nor the Kiwi bouncer.
Does cricket in England have a problem with alcohol?
(more…)For reasons too mundane to detail, I have paid several visits to the Nursery Pavilion at Lord’s over the last fortnight.
The Nursery “Pavilion“ isn’t really a pavilion, in the cricket sense, but actually a corporate hospitality venue, tastefully decorated with a selection of cricketing quotes, insightful, funny, and satirical.
One, attributed to G H Hardy, caught my attention.
Cricket is the only game where you are playing against eleven of the other side and 10 of your own.
And I felt obliged to defend the honour of the game I have played for more than 50 years, and coached now for 15.
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Back in the day, schoolboy cricketers (and it was, almost exclusively, boys, back then) played ay school, and were invited to play “adult” cricket, initially to make up the numbers and do the running around for the older players.
But a lot of essential learning happened in the game, talking and watching, often in the bar after the game.
Understanding how to win. How not to lose so often. Why a bowler might prefer an unorthodox field setting. How to get on with the rest of the team.
But that learning opportunity has largely been lost.
Partly because young players are not being led astray, into the bar, as used to happen. Probably not a bad thing!
But also as the organised pathways develop, and more youth cricket is played, young players possibly get to play less with more experienced players.
And I think that loss of exposure to more experienced players might need to be addressed.
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