Cricket's unholy offspring tries to explain the benefits and challenges of the review system to Americans (and fails)

Forty years since he announced his arrival on the cricket stage, Ian Botham remains a symbol of home-grown guts for glory that the current England team lacks

The standards of fielding, particularly catching, have improved out of sight, but there are still no proper numerical measures of its value

Despite T20's ceaseless urgency, Maxwell never appears to be in a rush. Could he, like David Warner, flourish in the Test arena?

Dhoni, de Villiers and a few others may finally be putting an end to one of the game's most robust blind spots. Or are they?

Salman Butt appears to think that redemption will be his by insisting that players should refrain from "wrongdoing". That shouldn't gain him back the trust of those he duped

Tantalising finishes, technicolor extravaganzas, and sport as opera - notes from an armchair

Success can dazzle, even blind. It's in failure that those like Jonathan Trott can address their weaknesses

Test cricket is in roaring health and there has been no proof more ringing than the enthralling South Africa v Australia series

In modern times, the most accurate method of anointing the best of the best is surely an analysis of those who have been voted top performers in series most often

Remembering English cricket's favourite punching bag, who didn't always do the right thing, but had unbridled passion for the game

Instead of demonising him again, maybe it's time to give him some of the love he patently craves

It's hard to see anyone maintaining such discipline, efficiency, focus and fitness for close to two decades

Sydney Barnes, the most feared bowler of them all, was a colourful, forbidding and often misunderstood character who wouldn't have been out of place in the modern game

It's time to turn the stump mikes all the way up, and leave them that way

If the great man had sat down to write a letter to his fans, reflecting on his life, it might have read something like this

A new book presents a passionate case for protecting the game's premier format, and an acknowledgement that all solutions begin and end with having a more responsible ICC

And what are we to make of the inimitable Mitchell Johnson then?

Affirmative action is among the most bitterly divisive issues of the age. Particularly in sport, which depends on fairness, which in turn begins with equality of opportunity

Steve Harmison was a standard-bearer for a new breed of sporting hero: understated, self-effacing, unafraid to non-conform or to reveal vulnerability