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.

Cluttered agendas

Colophon

The month in cricket No.1

Talent pooling leaves minnows floundering • With a number of talented young players departing the counties that reared them to join “Hundred-affiliated superclubs”, the 18-county model feels more at threat than ever, writes Andrew Miller

Team of the Month • Jo Harman selects a team of the month’s best performers including four members of Australia’s triumphant World Cup side

Lanning retirement alters the landscape of the women’s game • England skipper Heather Knight, writing exclusively for WCM, considers the great Meg Lanning ’s impact on the women’s game, and what her sudden retirement means for its future

Trans women are not a threat to the integrity of international cricket • In late November the ICC Board met to discuss several issues in international cricket. Among the decisions made was approving new gender eligibility regulations for the international game, which effectively ban trans women from playing international women’s cricket. Katya Witney considers the decision

Australia’s dashing everyman completes the set • When the great fast bowler Patrick Cummins was appointed Australia captain, opinions were at best mixed. When he chose to bowl first in the World Cup final, most pundits thought he’d lost his mind. But Cummins, writes Lawrence Booth (through gritted teeth), is always one step ahead

NEWS CYCLE

AB DE VILLIERS • The former South African strokemaker sat down with Mel Farrell after his country ’s latest World Cup semi-final disappointment to discuss his own near misses, the strains of captaining the Proteas, and the future of 50-over cricket

RE:VIEW • After a tournament which received mixed reviews, three Wisden writers consider possible improvements to the Men’s World Cup

The Game’s GONE • James Wallace (and his alter-ego) pick over cricket ’s increasingly crazy schedule

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Middlesex in the mire • After a dismal season on the field, Middlesex ’s precarious financial situation and ongoing dispute with their former CEO is providing further cause for concern. John Stern examines what ’s gone wrong at a proud club which has lost its way

In other news...

That was the world that was • Kicking off our 20-page special of the 2023 Men’s World Cup, Matt Roller, who covered the whole tournament on the ground, considers how India’s carefully orchestrated celebration of itself came up against one of the last truly immovable forces: cricket ’s essential mischievousness

Float like a  butterfly • Following the death of Bishan Singh Bedi, the great Indian finger spinner, Jo Harman examines the evolution of the skill he turned into an art form and considers its place in the modern game

THE HORROR ASHES  2013/14 • Ten years on from England’s decimation at the hands of Mitchell Johnson, Taha Hashim looks back on an Ashes tour which emphatically spelt the end for a once-great side

I’m a West Indian, man. I’m a West Indian. To the bone • Sir Wesley Winfield Hall was the fastest bowler of his day – the shimmering spearhead of the first truly great West Indies team. But that ’s not the half of it. Phil Walker met him

PROCREATION • Next in our series on the origin stories of elite cricketers, Jo Harman meets an England opener whose family name has been both a “blessing and a curse”

THE GREAT... No.14 • Next in our series we pick out a handful of batters who hung around for a long time, but not necessarily a good time

ANYA SHRUBSOLE • The star of the 2017 World Cup final on her career-defining...