Wisden Cricket Monthly

Wisden Cricket Monthly is ‘the independent voice of cricket’. Read the best writers, exclusive interviews, and the most comprehensive coverage of both the professional and amateur game every month.

Back in the old routine

THE Top Six

Over-rate penalties doing more harm than good • Sluggish over-rates remain a scourge of the game but penalising offenders with point deductions undermines the integrity of the already fragile World Test Championship, writes Andrew Miller

Team of the Month • Jo Harman selects a side of the month’s best performers, including a history-making Sri Lankan, a rejuvenated leggie and a keeper who makes our side without scoring a run in her team’s title win

Swimming against the white-ball tide • With the proliferation of white-ball cricket pushing the longer format to the margins of the English summer, Mark Ramprakash reflects on the changes he’s witnessed in the County Championship

Lewis in vanguard of transformative women’s game • In conversation with Katya Witney, England Women’s head coach Jon Lewis reflects on his first year in the job

Fallen stars and awkward legacies • The death of former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak and the tributes that followed gave us an uncomfortable reminder of cricket’s dirty open secret, writes Lawrence Booth

NEWS CYCLE • Mark Boucher’s got nothing on Fazalhaq Farooqi, writes Ben Gardner

JONATHAN TROTT

RE:VIEW

The Game’s GONE • James Wallace (and his alter-ego) on the rights and wrongs of stadia nomenclature

Mailbox • In association with Chapel Down, the letter of the month receives a bottle of awardwinning English sparkling wine – Chapel Down Brut. Based in Kent, Chapel Down is England’s leading wine producer and the official sparkling wine of the ECB.

THE COUNTY FILES • Covering each of the 18 first-class counties every month, including news, interviews and stats, as well as the oddities which make county cricket what it is

Regional Round-Up • Jo Harman picks out the big stories from the last month of women’s regional cricket, as the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy nears its climax

WORLD IN MOTION • David Tossell, author of One Day at a Time: The History of Limited-Overs Cricket in 25 Matches, introduces our 32-page guide to the 2023 Men’s World Cup in India, underlining the shifting tectonic plates of the global game which threaten the grand old tournament’s long-term future

WELL, WHO WANTS IT? • Ten Wisden writers offer their predictions for a wide-open tournament

THE FINAL FRONTIER • Jo Harman analyses England’s chances of defending their World Cup title and winning a first major white-ball trophy in Asia

A NEW HOPE

HEAD FULL OF IDEAS

STARC TRUTHS

SHAKIB AL HASAN: SCOUNDREL; SHOP STEWARD; SURVIVALIST

THE ACCIDENTAL ICON

SHUBMAN GILL: THE CROWN PRINCE OF INDIA

BUMRAH’S SECOND COMING

BAS-BALL, DUTCH STYLE

CONWAY BACKPACKS UP TO THE SUMMIT

THE MANY LAYERS OF BABAR AZAM

A TOUCH OF KLAASEN

HASARANGA BRINGS THE MYSTERY

Growing pains • Having won their battle for Full Member status with a series of World Cup giant-killings, Ireland will not feature at the showpiece 50-over event for the second tournament in succession. Ben Bloom examines the difficulties they face in making their presence felt at the game’s top table

The Hundred dares to make itself known • Taha Hashim covered the third iteration of The Hundred and was present at a packed Lord’s to see Oval Invincibles and Southern Brave triumph in two spirited games. Is it finally time to talk about the actual cricket?

PROCREATION • Next in our series on the origin stories of elite cricketers, Jo Harman speaks to a groundbreaking England seamer and her FA...