SAMPLE EDITION SUMMER10 2015 THE NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN THE THE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY Nightwatchman Issue 10, out now, features the following: Cricket’s past has been enriched by great writing and Wisden is making sure its future Matt Thacker introduces the tenth issue of The Nightwatchman will be too. The Nightwatchman is a quarterly collection of essays and long-form articles and Rob Smyth on the cameo that won the 2005 Ashes is available in print and e-book formats. Patrick Collins remembers terrestrial television’s last hurrah Co-edited by Anjali Doshi and Tanya Aldred, with Matt Thacker as managing editor, The Nightwatchman features an array of authors from around the world, writing beautifully and Dan Waddell In memoriam Emma at length about the game and its myriad offshoots. Contributors are given free rein over Ten years on Photographs from the greatest Test series ever subject matter and length, escaping the pressures of next-day deadlines and the despair of cramming heart and soul into a few paragraphs. Sean Ingle digs out Test Match from the attic There are several different ways to get hold of and enjoy The Nightwatchman. You can Huw Richards remembers Mike Marqusee – friend, Marxist and cricket nut subscribe to the print version and get a free digital copy for when you’re travelling light. If you don’t have enough room on your book case, you can always take out a digital-only Dilip D’Souza mourns the Ranji Trophy’s drift to irrelevance subscription. Or if you’d just like to buy a single issue – in print, digital or both – you can Richard Beard counts from one to eleven do that too. Take a look at the options below and decide which is best for you. Julian Norridge wishes the County Championship a happy 125th birthday Felix White finds distance brings a clarity of sorts Full subscription Telford Vice celebrates the World Cup’s happy vibe Annual print Digital subscription Top shots The Wisden–MCC cricket photographs of the year subscription (with Annual e-book only free e-book versions) subscription Liam Herringshaw on his dad’s career behind the camera £27 (+P&P) £10 David Tossell examines England’s selection lottery of the 1980s Click to Buy Click to Buy Damian Broomhead finds solace in a cricket ball Joe Wilson talks about Leicestershire’s future with Wasim Khan Martin Claytor on Worcestershire’s 1965 trip round the world Single copy Liam Cromar raises his foaming tankard Single issue (with Digital single copy free with free Single issue e-book version) On the following pages you’ll find an article by Geoff Lemon, exploring cricket’s ‘for-men- (e-book only) £9 (+P&P) by-men’ attitude £4 Click to Buy Click to Buy THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN FOR MEN, BY MEN Geoff Lemon examines cricket’s attitudes towards women in the game – and finds plenty of room for improvement It has to be the most embarrassing sledging, ask how they physically cope cricket footage I’ve ever seen. Worse with playing cricket, and claim credit than those compilations of Inzamam for Perry’s career after “I let her get me run-outs. Worse than Steve Harmison out” in an exhibition game. bowling to second slip or Darryl Tuffey’s 14-ball over. You can watch it It’s a tour de force. But the champagne- again and again, squirming more each fountain centrepiece of this glittering time yet strangely compelled to click shit-show comes with a segue-free replay, the only time Channel Nine’s transition. Lanning is vice-captain lunchtime filler has approached the of a national side at 21 while Perry genius of The Office. represents Australia in two international sports. So, logically, the producers It’s the Boxing Day Ashes Test in 2013. cut to footage of both women doing Michael Slater – the accidental David modelling shoots. The host has been Brent – is presenting with Michael prepped: he gives what passes in Vaughan. Their guests are Australian Slatish for an introduction, then as players Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry. the camera lingers uncomfortably on Women’s cricket is getting six minutes images of Perry in a bikini, so does of airtime amid five men’s Tests. In those he. “Ellyse is just… it’s just taking full six minutes Vaughan’s contribution flight with these shots. What’s going consists of four questions about the on there, you are… you are looking men’s series and 35 seconds narrating fantastic! Do you enjoy doing that?” footage of himself on a British dance show. Slater manages to praise the Safe to assume she doesn’t while a women for being attractive, admit he dude twice her age is sitting next doesn’t know who won their last series, to her, frothing at the corners of his make cat-fight noises to portray them mouth like the creepiest of uncles. THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET 5 SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN “It’s much better wearing a set of plop apologetically for six amid the decade. England and India played the It’s true that the last three years cricket whites on the field,” says Perry circus where a not-so-deep midwicket last mathematically definable series have seen improvements in Australia pointedly. Freshly-sharpened-pencil would once have held a catch. But for in 2006. In nine years since, cricket- and England: players have modest pointedly. “Don’t be embarrassed,” this game the boundary was further playing nations have collectively professional contracts, games are replies Slater with a time-honoured circumscribed – of the mighty MCG managed eight matches. England more available via digital TV and deflection, as though embarrassment turf it seemed barely half was used. captain Charlotte Edwards has played streaming, the last two Ashes had an is an innate personal phenomenon and 19 years for 22 Tests. Men’s captain increased profile, and plans are afoot not the result of unwelcome attention. All I could wonder was how the Alastair Cook has over a hundred for a Women’s Big Bash League. But women about to take that field could Tests in half the time. Female captains India has actively run its team into the Cricket Australia still have the segment fail to feel demeaned. On 8-bit logic still name Test cricket as the sport’s ground, and while West Indies and Sri on their website. No worries boys, this is it made sense: if women can’t hit as pinnacle, but for them it’s a sporadic Lanka have provided on-field highlights, how to talk to the ladies. Point out things far, make the boundary smaller. But exhibition. All domestic women’s other teams still live in the margins. The like this and there is always someone who any game is about using your skill to cricket is now 20 or 50 overs. It’s degree may vary, but wherever you look will call you humourless, but you need a gain mastery of its conditions, not cheaper to stage, easier to sell and has the women’s game is still secondary – sense of humour to truly appreciate the easing the conditions to the point that some prayer of being telecast. an obligation to be expended rather woeful. The first mention of women’s you can master them. Repainting an than an opportunity seized. cricket was probably enough to see entire dartboard as a bullseye will not So why bother with the token half of you flip the page, but the article improve your aim. remainder? Women are picked * * * in front of you is a lot more relevant to for Tests based on performance men. In writing it I could only conclude It’s part of a pattern whereby the in a different game. They can’t Inevitably, such conversations detour that cricket has deeper problems with women’s game is – in all respects – develop the familiarity or stamina into the relative worth of female women than tone-deaf interviews, even reduced. Women play Tests over four to excel. Effectively the structure sporting endeavour. Articles on the interviews that array those problems days, not five. Those Tests are one-offs, sets them up to underperform. It’s subject prove irresistible to a subset in perfect microcosm. Women in the not series. Their Ashes contest rests on not complex: if you want to call of men personally aggrieved to find game don’t need this pointed out, but limited-overs games. Double-headers something an Ashes series, build it it under discussion. First, the biology those of us who outnumber them might are granted like favours, but their like one. If Tests are too hard, have lecture: men are on average stronger stir our natural curiosity about things summer decider could be a curtain- a different series. If women’s Tests than women, you will be stunned to we haven’t had to notice. raiser to a meaningless men’s T20. are the pinnacle of the sport, have learn. They are more suited to athletic Whatever the practical arguments, first-class comps to support them. excellence, you shall hear intoned. Men * * * these things can’t help but give a Players are bound by nonsense, will be depicted as sparring stags, perception of the women’s game as deciding major trophies with a form women as dun-coloured bowerbirds A month after that interview its key quantifiably lesser, smaller, a pat on the they never play. You don’t ramp up waiting to be impressed. O teach participants returned to the scene. head. Don’t strain yourselves, there’ll a 200-metre sprint final to 800 just me, teach me, whose muscle mass Australia and England had a Twenty20 be extra breaks.