As The Cricketer reviews 2024, we're looking back on our favourite pieces from the last 12 months that you may have missed
As The Cricketer reviews 2024, we're looking back at the outstanding journalism and reporting delivered by our team over the past 12 months.
Chief correspondent George Dobell followed the England men's Test team across India, the Caribbean, the home summer and Pakistan, stood up for county cricket and highlighted administrative failures in the game. Here, we look at some of his stand-out pieces from the past year.
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At a time when Test cricket is fighting for relevance, at a time when it threatens to be consumed by T20 franchises, the past few days have provided a powerful reminder of this format's ability to delight, enthral, surprise and thrill.
Read: Thrilling series opener showcases the best of Test cricket
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It's hard to know what to make of these claims, with insiders at the ECB and Yorkshire suggesting that cursory checks led them to conclude these were not viable options. So, where does all this leave us? Right back where we started. With Graves about to take control at Yorkshire and many shaking their heads and saying they had no other choice.
New Road spent the early part of the year underwater (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Doubt isn't necessarily a negative thing. It might provide the motivation to work harder and think differently. It might encourage new thoughts and positive change. Equally, it's not inspiring or visionary to offer nothing but praise. It can reinforce faults. It can build delusion. It can create complacency where there should be hunger.
Read: English cricket needs honest conversations after humbling tour
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Despite the ICC requiring its members to have functioning women's teams, little action has been taken to persuade Afghanistan to reconsider its position. Their men's side continues to receive ICC funding, play international cricket and will shortly compete in the T20 World Cup.
Read: Isa Guha: World has turned its back on Afghanistan's women's cricketers
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Already, the club are resigned to not playing here until May 24. Any more flooding could push that back further. And if it pushes into the T20 Blast season, a period which is economically crucial, it will offer an existential threat to Worcestershire's future. That season starts, at home, on May 31. It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say the floodwater is bobbing around the throat of the club.
James Anderson took his final bow as an international cricketer at Lord's in July (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
The thing is, we're not really just selling a stake in teams, are we? We're selling a foothold in the English game. We're selling the prime weeks of summer. And by doing so, we're enshrining the prioritisation of The Hundred in our schedule. We're enshrining the predominance of the counties which host its games. There will be no moving away from that window now. No chance of playing Championship cricket with the best players at the height of summer. No going back.
Read: ECB should heed ICI lesson as they flog off English cricket
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A period of reflection would be wise before reacting. It would, for example, be simplistic to pin the blame for this defeat on the head coach, Matthew Mott. He's not the one who has diminished the domestic 20-over competition; he's not the one who designs the schedule or the lack of warm-up matches. He does not have much time with his best players. He's not, in many ways, the problem.
Read: India's thrashing of England provides clear demonstration of gap between best and the rest
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Whatever your view on the rights and wrongs of this, the feeling at Lord's was celebratory. Anderson, who briefly appeared to have a chance of a five-wicket haul, provided a masterclass in seam and swing bowling. Had it not been for an uncharacteristic missed catch off his own bowling, he would have finished with a wicket.
Read: Cricket will miss the dedication and class of James Anderson desperately
The health and sustainability of county cricket is no clearer after 2024 (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
We all know why. It's so the Hundred can have a window for itself. A window which might enable it to attract more of the top players from England and elsewhere and a window which doesn’t require the broadcasters to share coverage with other competitions. That's the Hundred with its falling ticket sales, falling broadcast numbers and falling estimations of worth to prospective buyers of teams. The whole of English cricket is being compromised to sustain a competition which now exists primarily to be sold.
Read: ECB fail to deliver on Test summer promises
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Sadly, at the media conference following the game, Ben Stokes was keen to suggest that looking at things "too deeply" would be unhelpful. But just as you hope your airline has looked terrifically deeply at the safety of your plane, so sometimes it pays to question and enquire and investigate. At some stage, England need to accept their failings and acknowledge there may need to be changes if they want different results. At present, those 2025 series against India and Australia look daunting.
Read: Introspection required after Rawalpindi horror show condemns England to series defeat in Pakistan
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Much though many of us may value and cherish it, the county game is now at a stage where it doesn't fulfil most of the key roles it once did. And that leaves it in a precarious state. Let's be clear on one thing here: this is not a criticism of the county game. It's still the solution to many of the sport's ills. It still develops the players England need. It still provides, despite all its challenges, entertainment.
Read: Dereliction of county cricket is cruel and self-defeating
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