The Long Room
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Essays, reflections and more
The effortless artistry of VVS Laxman
Sep 1, 2012: When you watched him bat, there was a sense that you were witnessing the creation of something beautiful yet not inaccessible
Krishna Kumar
Apr 29, 2012: How a fan came to write the story of the Pakistani great's life
Saad Shafqat
Mar 25, 2012: A one-time cricketer gets into whites again, and lives to tell the tale
Sam Blackledge
You came, I saw, you conquered
Mar 7, 2012: Gum-chewing, ball-thwacking, awe-inspiring superstar Viv Richards is sixty today
Sriram Dayanand
Feb 26, 2012: As an ordinary person you don't get to see the workings of the home of cricket. Not unless you sign up as an archery volunteer for the Olympics
Liam Herringshaw
Jan 14, 2012: What was it about them that made them the team to follow for an Indian boy growing up 30-odd years ago?
Krishna Kumar
Jan 8, 2012: What if the greatest batsman of them all had faced the finest legspinner ever?
Ashley Mallett
Lessons from a middle-aged cricketer
Dec 4, 2011: Don't give up the game just because your joints are creaking. Take inspiration from these tales of a cricket-mad community
Mudar Patherya
Nov 27, 2011: John Arlott wasn't just the voice of cricket. He was a source of comfort and hope to two cricketers who felt themselves alone against the cricket establishment
Sriram Dayanand
Oct 1, 2011: There's nothing more exciting in cricket than watching a quick man tear in with a batsman in his sights
John Woodcock
Lashings v Crab? No complaints
Sep 5, 2011: What happens when a team of international vets faces off against Sheffield's finest club cricketers for charity?
Kanishkaa Balachandran
Aug 11, 2011: The Test match-watching experience has changed over the years - the players' faces are obscured, the grounds are more coldly impersonal - but the buzz of a big game remains
David Frith
Aug 10, 2011: A fan makes a long-anticipated pilgrimage to the home of cricket
Sriram Dayanand
Two thousand Tests, I've watched them all
Jul 28, 2011: Test matches burn bright in the memory whether you watched them or not
Suresh Menon
The sport that makes the clocks melt
Jul 26, 2011: In Test cricket, like in no other game, time is a protagonist. An instant can be an aeon, hours can go by in a heartbeat
Sharda Ugra
Jul 24, 2011: The great spinners visualised their wickets and deceived the batsmen in the air. But why are today's bowling coaches almost always fast men?
Ashley Mallett
Jul 14, 2011: They're evocative, they're old-timey, they're among cricket's few constants in an age of change
Tanya Aldred
May 30, 2011: You don't support your side through a World Cup win and then forget all about it inside a week to cheer them as they turn out for different teams in a Twenty20 league
Abhishek Purohit
Apr 8, 2011: As the 2011 season gets underway, a county cricket watcher recalls his first year travelling the Sunday League grounds of 1980s Britain with a press pass-wielding father
Liam Herringshaw
India or Sri Lanka: whom to support?
Apr 2, 2011: Which team does a second-generation British Asian fan cheer for? It's not all that straightforward
Sahil Dutta
Where did the old Duncan Fletcher go?
Sharda Ugra: India's coach seems a far cry from the combative professional who took England to the top
If you want to know what Brisbane's cricket culture is like, you've got to talk to Ian Healy
Vernon's best, and Rahul's record
Ask Steven: Also: XIs of only right-handers, best bowling on captaincy debut, most innings without being stumped, and the Peshawar Rickshaw
Mike Gatting, Graham Thorpe and Murali Kartik on how England need to bat against the Indian spinners. Interviews by Nagraj Gollapudi
Brave New Pitch: Evolution of Modern Cricket
Samir Chopra introduces his new book
Amla, the secret of Kallis' prolific run?
Jacques Kallis has shifted a gear since scoring his first double-century in December 2010. A key factor for this seems to be the presence of Hashim Amla
While Rob Quiney sat and watched the rain in Brisbane, Usman Khawaja was emphatically pushing his Test case in Hobart
Bowlers forget the McDermott mantra
Australia's bowlers were guilty of bowling short on a slower Gabba pitch and their new bowling coach's key task would be to remind them the methods that brought them success last year
Kohli's record, and a victory drought
Also: big leads in defeats, highest score in Sri Lanka, Bradman's nemesis, and Ponting's fast-bowling cousin
When Chandra took the best figures of his career, only for India to lose the match to England
How Ashwin can turn his class to world-class (98)
He has a terrific temperament for spin bowling and doesn't alter his plans just because he gets hit for a six. All he needs to do now is work on his fitness
Look out for KP and Sachin (96)
Their particular circumstances and their manner of playing make two cricketers especially worth watching in the India-England series
Where have all the batsmen gone? (71)
The Sheffield Shield used to be a factory for producing Test-ready batsmen. But a combination of green seaming pitches and flawed techniques has resulted in the cupboard becoming alarmingly bare
World's best attack brought down to earth (62)
There will be days when a pitch has nothing in it, South Africa are out of ideas and a Michael Clarke is hard to remove. And they will need to know what to do on those days - something they did not know today
Amla, the secret of Kallis' prolific run? (60)
Jacques Kallis has shifted a gear since scoring his first double-century in December 2010. A key factor for this seems to be the presence of Hashim Amla
