THE BEST CRICKET PLACES ON THE INTERNET THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
Written by Dennis Freedman
September 2014
Copyright (c) 2014 Dennis Does Cricket
All Rights Reserved
This product is protected by copyright and distributed under licenses restricting copying, distribution and decompilation.
Contents
Introduction ...... 3 Websites ...... 4 The King: ...... 4 The Cricketing Nations: ...... 5 The Bloggers: ...... 7 Facebook Pages ...... 9 Twitter ...... 10 Podcasts ...... 13 Hidden Gems: ...... 14 Where to Follow Dennis? ...... 15
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Introduction
Hi there.
My name is Dennis Freedman.
I like to describe myself as a guy who shares a satirical view on the world of cricket. I have a website where I write, a podcast where I talk and I share my content primarily via Twitter and Facebook
I love cricket
I love the internet
Through my antics over the years on these platforms, I have managed to discover the best places in the World Wide Web that allow my two loves to converge.
OK, I also love some other things. Probably more than cricket and the internet. But for the sake of this ebook, let’s just assume I only love cricket and the internet.
I’m sure my wife and kids will understand.
This guide is meant to act as a quick reference for you to find those places that will add to your cricket journey.
All of the links in this reference guide are clickable
They are websites, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, podcasts and even cool little hidden gems that I’ve got to know, use, engage with and would like to share with you.
So, let’s get into it quicker than Arjuna Ranatunga runs a quick single.
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Websites
The King:
ESPN Cricinfo
Without a doubt, Cricinfo is Lord of the Realm when it comes to cricket on the web. Articles, podcasts, videos, photos and a statistics depository that captures every player and every game of note in history.
Want to know anything about cricket. Start here.
It’s like cricket’s online bible, or wiki page or something kinda like that.
Put it in your favourites.
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The Cricketing Nations:
ICC
The ruling body of cricket. The website is a great place to explore what is happening in the game at a strategic level.
Cricket Australia
Since setting up its media arm as an independent body in 2013, this website has suddenly become useful.
ECB
Any cricket board’s website that has merchandise for sale on its front page is usually a turnoff. However, plenty of great English (and sometimes Welsh) cricketing news.
Cricket South Africa
This website is a mess. When I last looked, it promoted tweets from some guy who has nothing to do with cricket. For that reason alone, it is worth a random visit
Cricket Zimbabwe
The slowest loading cricket website on the planet. The ‘Contact Us’ page gives a dreaded ‘404 Error – Page not found’ error. I’ve shared this link for comedic value only.
Pakistan Cricket Board
A surprisingly useful website. The great thing about the PCB is that when there is a crisis (daily), the press releases that follow are refreshingly honest.
Board of Control for Cricket in India
The website address is BCCI.tv.
It’s not a dot com or dot org. That should tell you all you need to know about these guys. They still have a #ThankYouSachin link on the home page. I can sense your excitement about visiting this webpage already.
Sri Lanka Cricket
Obviously a little strapped for cash, as they have a ‘Memorabilia Auction’ link in their main menu. The Aravinda de Silva signed shirt is a great present for your 6 year old nephew. Right size too!
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Bangladesh
It’s clean. It’s green. It’s named ‘Tigers Cricket’. It probably gets a lot of hits from Tasmanian fans.
Cricket New Zealand
One of the nicest looking national cricket board sites. It even mentions women’s cricket on the home page. Extra points for that. Come here if you want to research the best Anderson to ever play Test cricket…Corey.
West Indies Cricket Board
Not much to see here. Included for completeness.
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The Bloggers:
Cricket content has moved on. You no longer have to rely on the newspapers and the 6pm news. We now go to independent sources. People who are just like us…except they have taken the time to set up a website.
They are known as Bloggers.
These mighty keyboard warriors are not afraid to form a view and express it. They use the language of the common man rather than that of Gideon Haigh. They write about stuff that we are interested in. They avoid mundane match reports and player overviews. Instead, they tackle chucking, ICC corruption, James Anderson crying and India’s away record. Strong opinion, a well placed metaphor and the odd bit of satire are their weapons of choice.
The ones listed below are my personal favourites, but the list is growing daily. However, there are plenty more out there.
Get behind them. Subscribe to their email lists. Follow them on social media. You will not be disappointed
Cricket with Balls
Let’s face it. Everyone who writes about cricket wants to be able to write like Jarrod Kimber. Cutting insight, long form pieces and an amazingly bad logo that makes his site even more endearing.
No one tells a cricketing story like this bloke. Get on board.
Pavilion Opinions
James Marsh is the king of satirical cricket writing. Also one half of the world’s most listened to cricket podcast 'Radio Cricket’. Never a wasted word. A real fan favourite
The Cricket Geek (NZ)
Michael Wagener is the Cricket Geek. Based in New Zealand, he primarily uses stats to make detailed arguments. Kind of like a statistician writing a book, except without the boring bits.
Bored Cricket
Gaurav Sethi won ‘India’s best sports blog’ in 2014 for a reason. Not only a writer and brilliant cartoonist, this blogger also penned possibly the greatest cricket song ever written. Listen to it. Go on. Do it.
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The Middle Stump
A uniquely English look at cricket, with a strong focus on the County game. These guys have done some amazing interviews and have even published a book.
The Bounce
Ben Karpinski runs South Africa’s leading sports blog. However, come the summer, it has a strong cricket and ‘girls in bikinis’ theme. He is the current holder of Africa’s best sports blog and star on Cliff Central Radio
The Roar
The Roar is a home for everyone and anyone who wants to write on sport, or in this instance, cricket. It has some amazing guys as staff writers including Glenn Mitchell and Geoff Lemon. You can subscribe to their newsletter and get a daily dose of cricket articles land like clockwork in your inbox.
Fancy yourself as a cricket blogger. At The Roar, you can set up a profile and have your first piece up in cyberspace in minutes.
Cricket Badger
Another English blog with a strong focus on English, County and provincial cricket. Plenty of content and a rather nice podcast.
Cricket by Dmitri
Dmitri Old is a chronic producer of content who has an ability to cut through complex issues and make them simple and easy to digest. He also mixes his cricket writing up with personal anecdotes, which in my humble opinion, make him rather endearing.
Island Cricket
The true home of cricket in Sri Lanka. Possibly my favourite cricketing blog. They deep dive into Sri Lankan issues more than any other blog can in their home country.
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Facebook Pages
Many of you reading this will be avid Facebook users. That’s cool, because so am I. In fact, you can find my page here. I typically use my Facebook page posting funny pictures with captions, new blog posts, podcasts and links to other great stuff I find out there.
Funnily enough, so do these guys I’m recommending below.
Are you a Facebook user? Like these pages to enrich your cricketing experience.
Holding Willey
Cricket quizzes, interesting stats, cartoons and a very Indian vies of the world. A great page
Troll Cricket
250k people can’t be wrong. The home of cricket memes.
The Full Toss
A great page for English cricket lovers. The Facebook page most likely to have a public war with Jonathan Agnew.
The Alternative Cricket Almanac
Nishant Joshi is everywhere at the moment. However, his best stuff is easily found on his Facebook page. Be sure to also follow him on twitter, sign up to his website and listen to his podcast.
Green Shirts
This fanpage of the Pakistani Cricket Team also has a broader cricket focus. A must Like.
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Twitter is an amazing place to follow cricket. It is a world wide community of people with a common interest engaging in real time conversations.
Only on Twitter can you send a message to a player or commentator and have them reply to you instantly.
Twitter is also uncensored. Say what you like. Post a pic or share a link of anything you find interesting.
If you are not on twitter, get on it. Then, follow me here.
If I was starting out on twitter today, I would start following these guys at a minimum.
Chris Gayle
Entertaining for two reasons. Firstly, if you are female, it is highly likely that Gayle will return your tweet. That could be exciting for some. Secondly, he likes to share his sex life antics via the Twitter forum. That could also be exciting for some.
Kevin Pietersen
Now that he is no longer an employee of the ECB, KP has opened up and shares his fairly insightful views with us all. This is the account that the ECB wish didn’t exist….but it does…which is great for you.
Nishant Joshi
This recently qualified doctor is the king of average Joe’s on twitter. He’s not an ex player or journo, yet has a following of over 50k people. You only attract these numbers when the content you produce is of value. Follow him.
Peter Miller
Chronic tweeter, freelance writer and podcaster. Confusingly, he also uses the pseudonym ‘The Cricket Geek’ that Michael Wagener (mentioned earlier in the blog section) uses. Strong views to the point of obsessive, but usually based in strong fact. Tells it how he sees it without any ‘beg your pardons.’
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Freddie Wilde
At the time of writing, young Freddie is still in his teens. But don’t let that fool you. More an old school style of writing, but with a fresh perspective. Knows more about the game that you and I combined. Will be a player in the cricket media for the next 50 years.
George Dobell
The gentleman of the twittersphere. George is worth following just to get links to his brilliant writing and video segment ‘Polite Enquiries’ on Cricinfo. In fact, do yourself a favour and watch every single episode of Polite Enquiries.
However, he also enjoys engaging with almost anyone on Twitter. Send him a question. You won’t regret it.
US Cricket Guy
A great parody concept with brilliant execution. Not that the guy tweets like an American. More like a Russian struggling with the English language. Check out his website for additional fun.
Mohandas Menon
Mohan the Statsman will fill your twitter feed with statistical goodness. Plenty of Top 5 lists for the discreet connoisseur of numbers.
Ric Finlay
A different type of cricket statistician. A legend in Australia as the main numbers man for the ABC since before Jesus was born. An awesome story teller. I’ve even interviewed him once. You can listen to that here.
Dan Liebke
This guy is a comedy writer in real life and it tells. A unique view of cricket, usually with a joke or two attached. Once ran a fake Nathan Hauritz account. That sums him up really.
Michael Vaughan
This ex English Test captain is now a force in the media. I used to enjoy following him but then he blocked me. I was probably too factual in highlighting his batting deficiencies. If he tweets something good, would you mind sending me a copy?
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Shane Warne
The man with more faces than a Swiss watch factory is quite opinionated on Twitter. Worth a follow.
Graeme Swann
Like Michael Vaughan, here’s another ex England cricketer who has blocked me from following them. This time it was because he didn’t like being called a deserter when he quit the Ashes mid series in 2013. A funny man.
Fake IPL Player
Anupam Mukerjee started this Twitter account during the 2009 Indian Premier League. For quite some time, the Indian press treated the account as a real player hiding behind an alias. Great stuff! After outing himself in 2010, Anupam continues to entertain us with comedic insights from deep inside Indian cricket.
Peter Della Penna
A uniquely North American look at cricket from a real journalist.
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Podcasts
Not everyone wants to read something or use social media to expand their cricket content consumption. Many of us enjoy podcasts as a way to relax and enjoy some banter.
Clearly, you need to follow my podcast called ‘Can’t Bowl Can’t Throw’. I think we are the most listened to one produced in Australia. That’s an achievement right?
The ones below are where I go when I want to hear someone else’s perspective.
Radio Cricket
Nishant Joshi and James Marsh produce this simply brilliant piece of cricket satire. Although it has a strong English and Indian flavour, it is very engaging. Listening to the two young men try and out wordsmith each other is a perennial treat.
The Cricket Couch
Subash Jayaraman is The Cricket Couch. Based somewhere in the USA, this pleasant voice interviews some of the biggest names in world cricket.
Curtly Ambrose? He’s spoken to him. Dean Jones? Yep, him too. Gordon Greenidge, Greg Chappell, Gary Kirsten…ok, I’m just name dropping now on his behalf.
Geek and Wilde
Peter Miller and Freddie Wilde host this podcast that focuses usually on the English cricket scene. A highlight is their ‘Geek and Wilde Daily’s’ where they throw up a 10 minute summation of that day’s Test cricket when England are playing.
The Cricket Podblast
The world’s 2nd biggest selling cricket magazine, All Out Cricket, produce this spirited and fast moving lad’s chat.
The Australian Cricket Podcast
Catch up on all the news in Australian Cricket and follow the trials and tribulations of the Australian cricket team with Menners, Macca, Joe & Tim
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Hidden Gems:
Scoryboard
Like to have a second screen open when watching the cricket? Then Scoryboard is the place for you. Watch as an enchanting mosaic of tiles slowly turn to unveil what is happening in the match, a new stat or an enlightened tweet.
Bookmark it now
Guerilla Cricket
Sick of the ABC, BBC or any other of the tired old commentary options? Guerilla Cricket may be for you. Grab a bunch of cricket fanatics, stick them on a couch in front of a TV, stick a microphone in their hand and listen to the outputs.
Engaging, funny, witty and insightful. Definitely one to try out during the next international match you listen to.
Rob Moody’s YouTube Channel
Ever wanted to find that rare footage of something you remember seeing in your youth. Rob has it. This YouTube channel is the biggest resource of cricket videos on the web. Rob has had over 145 million on his channel.
He’s also a bloody ripper bloke.
PakPassion.net
The world’s biggest cricketing forum that has a clear Pakistani flavour. Plenty of unique content with interviews and stories from the sub continent. Become a member of PakPassion and join in the conversation. Is Saeed Ajmal really a chucker? This is the place to debate it.
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Where to Follow Dennis?
Do me a favour and follow me on your favourite platforms.
I do my best to engage with everyone who reaches out to me. Drop me a tweet, write on my Facebook page or record a question for the podcast.
Cricket on the internet is all about engagement….so damn well engage!
Website: http://DennisDoesCricket.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FreedmanDennis
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DennisDoesCricket
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+DennisFreedmandoescricket/posts
Can’t Bowl Can’t Throw podcast: http://cantbowlcantthrow.com/
Email me: [email protected]
The guy on the right is Australia’s next great all rounder (me). The other guy is James Faulkner
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