Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2024-05-02T06:31:09.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Wisden Cricket Monthly: Great transformations – 3 cricket superstars who reinvented themselves
items: Wisden Cricket Monthly breakout XI: Cricket players to watch in 2024
items: Unlikely heroes of the Cricket World Cup
items: The A-Z of the Cricket World Cup: Cult heroes, magic moments and the "barest of margins"
items: The Ashes 2023: Big questions that must be resolved

Wisden Cricket Monthly: Great transformations – 3 cricket superstars who reinvented themselves
type: item
date: 2024-05-02T06:30:46.000Z
creator: Phil Walker at Wisden Cricket Monthly
subject: Cricket
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: RadioTimes.com presents a handful of cricket superstars who reinvented themselves to great effect, in partnership with Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine.
encoded: Wisden Cricket Monthly picks out a handful of players who remodelled their role to outstanding effect. Abridged version below. First published in full: Wisden Cricket Monthly Issue #77. SPECIAL OFFER: Save 10% on a 12-month subscription with code: RADIOTIMES10 Rohit Sharma England v India (Ageas Bowl, Southampton – July 29th 2014) After Rohit Sharma was omitted from India’s 2011 World Cup squad, the crestfallen 23-year-old took to Twitter. “Really really disappointed of [sic] not being part of the WC squad... I need to move on from here but honestly it was a big setback!” At the time Sharma was considered an attractive wastrel going nowhere fast. After 61 ODIs he averaged 27. His three knocks as an ODI opener had produced 29 runs. For the backwater boy from Maharashtra, who’d lived with his grandparents because his father’s income was too lowly and was discovered by a talent scout while bowling off-spin as a teen, Test cricket remained a faraway dream. The turnaround came in January 2013, when MS Dhoni won the argument to push Sharma up to open in his ODI team. Sharma, given time and backing, was transformed. In his first innings he strummed an 83 against England. He sparkled in the 2013 Champions Trophy in tough English conditions. Later that year he hit Australia for 141 (123) at Jaipur. A fortnight after that, in the same Australia series, he registered his first double, 209 off 158. At the end of a whirlwind year, he was given his Test debut. He made 177 and 111* in his first two knocks. A decade later Sharma has 48 international hundreds, five IPL titles, and the label of the most complete opener in the game. If it wasn’t for Dhoni, he may have sunk with barely a trace. PW Moeen Ali England v South Africa (The Oval, London – July 31st 2017) No English cricketer this century has shifted shape or redefined himself quite like Moeen Ali. When he returned for one final blast last summer, replying to Stokes’ “Ashes?” text message with “lol”, he resumed a Test career …

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Wisden Cricket Monthly breakout XI: Cricket players to watch in 2024
type: item
date: 2024-04-15T12:22:46.000Z
creator: Phil Walker at Wisden Cricket Monthly
subject: Cricket
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: RadioTimes.com presents an XI of cricket stars set for a breakout year in 2024, in partnership with Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine.
encoded: The new county season is here, so Wisden Cricket Monthly writers have selected a team who they fancy to go particularly well in 2024. Some of our XI may be on the cusp of higher honours, while others slip into the ‘talented but unproven’ bracket. One thing unites them: they’ll all be great to watch. Words from Phil Walker, Ben Gardner, Adam Hopkins and Katya Witney. First published in full: Wisden Cricket Monthly Issue #76. SPECIAL OFFER: Subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly for only £1.99 for the first issue. Tawanda Muyeye Age: 23 Club: Kent Role: Majestic right-hand shot-creator Standout: 179, Northants v Kent, Wantage Road, 2023 – A maiden ton alongside Daniel Bell-Drummond, sharing a record 318-run partnership for the second wicket What they say: “A rare talent” Matt Walker, Kent head coach Wisden Cricket Monthly prediction: Three-plus red-ball tons; established star of The Hundred Finlay Bean Age: 21 Club: Yorkshire Role: Left-hand old-world opener Standout: 441, Yorkshire Second XI v Nottinghamshire Second XI, Nottingham, 2022 – A record Second XI Championship score that earned him a professional contract What they say: “There’ll be more expectation on him after last year, but he’s one of those guys who’ll take it in his stride” Jordan Thompson, Yorkshire teammate Wisden Cricket Monthly prediction: 1,000 Championship runs in Division Two; a red-ball Lions cap Ali Orr Age: 22 Club: Hampshire Role: Willowy lefty stylist Standout: 206, Somerset v Sussex, Taunton, 2022 – A double ton in the 50-Over Cup (11 sixes) followed by a red-ball 198 against Glamorgan a fortnight later What they say: “He’s stepped outside of his comfort zone to join us” Giles White, Hampshire’s director of cricket Wisden Cricket Monthly prediction: Hampshire’s star batter in a triumphant Championship campaign Jack Haynes Age: 23 Club: Nottinghamshire Role: Right-hand strokemaker Standout: 134*, Durham v Worcestershire, Chester-le-Street, 2023 – A career-best against the best attack in Divisi…

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Unlikely heroes of the Cricket World Cup
type: item
date: 2023-10-14T06:00:32.000Z
creator: Phil Walker at Wisden Cricket Monthly
subject: Cricket
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: Cricket World Cup
description: Wisden Cricket Monthly pick out some of the less heralded names to light up the men's Cricket World Cup over the years in partnership with RadioTimes.com.
encoded: Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-in-chief Phil Walker and magazine editor Jo Harman pick out some of the less heralded names to light up the men’s Cricket World Cup over the years in partnership with RadioTimes.com. Gary Gilmour (1975) Headingley, Leeds 18th June 1975 Gary Gilmour, a beer-bellied chain smoker with a rustically arranged rug and a name shared with a notorious American serial killer, was a popular swing-bowling all-rounder who burned brightly if briefly for Ian Chappell’s Australians in the mid-Seventies. His finest moment came at Leeds in the semi-final of ’75, when under dank and heavy skies he swung it round corners to claim six wickets for 14 as England were bundled out for 93. Extraordinarily, Australia were then reduced to 39-6 before Gilmour joined Dougie Walters. The pair steered Australia to their first final, with Gilmour top-scoring in the match with an unbeaten 28. He then took five more wickets in the final as West Indies edged out Australia to lift the inaugural trophy, but after that high watermark Gilmour fell away, beset by a foot injury and the consequences of what Gideon Haigh described as a “light-hearted attitude to training”. PW Duncan Fletcher (1983) Trent Bridge, Nottingham 9th June 1983 In 1983 Duncan Fletcher was a 34-year-old data systems manager, responsible for designing and implementing the Zimbabwean government’s car-registration system. Away from work, he moonlighted as the captain-coach of Zimbabwe’s cricket team. This was pre-Test status Zimbabwe, a set-up comprised mainly of club cricketers, including a 16-year-old called Graeme Hick, and the South Africa Test veteran, John Traicos. As recent inductees of the International Cricket Council, they were invited to make up the numbers at the 1983 World Cup. Few expected them to bother the established nations, yet against Australia at Trent Bridge, Fletcher would mastermind the first great upset in World Cup history, carving an unbeaten 69 from Zimbabwe’s 239-6 before marshall…

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The A-Z of the Cricket World Cup: Cult heroes, magic moments and the "barest of margins"
type: item
date: 2023-10-07T06:00:10.000Z
creator: Jo Harman at Wisden Cricket Monthly
subject: Cricket
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: Cricket World Cup
description: Wisden Cricket Monthly have produced an A-Z of the Cricket World Cup, celebrating the weird and wonderful, the disastrous and the magical.
encoded: To celebrate the start of the Cricket World Cup, Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-in-chief Phil Walker and magazine editor Jo Harman have produced an A-Z of all things World Cup-related in partnership with RadioTimes.com, brimming with cult heroes, memorable moments and a few entries that made the cut by the "barest of margins"... A is for… Aravinda Bow-legged and hook-nosed, 5ft-nothing in his best spikes and decked out in random bits of kit from the team bag, Aravinda de Silva exhibited a kind of dishevelled, Chaplin-esque genius through much of the '90s that, what with him being Sri Lankan, meant he was taken for granted – until one night in Lahore when the full sweep of his magics was revealed. It was 1996, and Sri Lanka had found themselves in the World Cup final, only to face, wait for it, Australia. The bad people batted first, got a few, and then kicked sand in the face of Sri Lanka’s top order. It’s 23-2 when our guy waddles out, pads round his ankles, borrowed bat in hand. This is Sri Lanka, remember; with four wins from five full tournaments before this one. Three hours later, Aravinda’s strummed the most beautiful hundred you’ve ever seen, taking them to a victory that remains to this day the most exquisite in World Cup history. B is for… Boycs & Brears White shirts, red balls, bushy sideboards, grumpy patrons: welcome to World Cups in late-'70s England. We’re back at Lord’s again, where the last vestiges of imperialism dictate that finals must be held – and Viv Richards has already swaggered to 138 not out, scooping his final ball into the Tavern to take West Indies to 286 from their 60 overs. In reply, England’s freewheeling openers, Geoffrey Boycott and Mike Brearley, come barrelling down the steps to unfurl their full repertoire of leaves, blocks, nurdles and prods across 130 time-elasticating minutes, inching the score along to 129 before Brears, clattering along at a strike rate of 49, finally gives up the ghost. Boycs follows him soon after, his 57 f…

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The Ashes 2023: Big questions that must be resolved
type: item
date: 2023-06-16T10:03:04.000Z
creator: Phil Walker at Wisden Cricket Monthly
subject: Cricket
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Wisden Cricket Monthly Editor-In-Chief Phil Walker takes a look at the big questions still looming over The Ashes 2023.
encoded: In a series overflowing with intrigue, Wisden Cricket Monthly Editor-In-Chief Phil Walker sifts through some of the questions that will need resolving. Will any opener score any runs? England, 2023: where openers come to die. “Go with low expectations,” says Usman Khawaja, who averages 18 from seven Tests in England. “Toughest place in the world to bat.” Davey Warner, 10 knocks for 95 runs in 2019, may be inclined to agree. Ditto Zak Crawley, with two fifties from 15 innings as an opener in England. Ben Duckett, the fourth of this year’s starters, made 182 against Ireland in his first Test knock in this country, but sterner tests await. In 10 full summers since Andrew Strauss retired, English openers not named Cook have managed seven Test centuries between them. Of all the post-Strauss pretenders, only Rory Burns averages in the thirties (30.32) across his whole career. Perhaps Crawley was not being entirely self-protective, not to say bored witless by the same old proddings, when he wondered out loud to a clutch of journalists last month if ‘centuries’, as the truest measure of a batter, were not such a useful metric after all. He is a moments player; and moments, insist McCullum and Stokes, win matches. Whether or not he is the answer, the idea of Crawley – and of Duckett too – is far from unsound. Opening in England means hitching your game to the vicissitudes of chance and probability. There are playable unplayables, unplayable unplayables, and occasionally, every so often, playable playables – and when the last one happens, the counter puncher becomes very useful, shrugging off the binary scores of the last month with a definitive hour or two’s hitting. And that’s all it needs. All-day grinds, silent struggles to stumps, batting time – are not for these days. So, Crawley starts; so much has been invested there. But for all the laudable loyalty, this is still, unshakeably, Ashes cricket, where careers rise and fall on its awesome waves. There is a limit to how l…

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