Favourite Cricket Journo's

Favourite Cricket Journo's

I mainly read Australian and English journo's, in the sense that I read publications from both these countires (online).

In Australia, I rate Robert Craddock highly in the sense that he has a very good range of sources within Cricket Australia and has been in the job for some time.

Malcomm Conn also rates highly, not least because he likes to indulge in the odd bit of pom bashing :D. On a serious note, he was the journo who pieced together and then consquently broke the massive story about Mark Waugh and Shane Warne with regards to the Indian bookie back in the late 90's.

I don't rate him as high as Craddock simply because Craddock has a lot of contacts while Conn normally indulges in a bit of opinion based writing.

Mike Coward, who writes for the Australian and has made various documentaries (cricket in the 70's, etc), also writes good material.

Peter Roebuck is a poor writer, basing most of his stuff on hyberbole. He also can changes his opinion like the wind. However, despite this I can't help read his work.

England has a lot more papers then Australia and as such there are quite a few different journos.

Mike Atherton writes sensible stuff. Simon Barnes irrates me no-end, needless to say when Australia regains the Ashes I will look forward to reading this guys work.

Lawrence Booth is a bit of a cheer-leader however when he feels that way inclined he does have some interesting stuff to say.

Thoughts?
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

A mate of mine was trying to find a bit about a stoush between Mark "Hello....Maximum" Nicholas and Peter Roebuck, and found this weird story! :eek:

PETER ROEBUCK, the former Somerset cricket captain and journalist, was given a suspended jail sentence yesterday for caning apprentice players in his care.

Roebuck, 45, admitted common assault on three 19-year-old South Africans who lodged at his bungalow near Taunton, Somerset.

The Cambridge graduate, who captained the side that included Ian Botham and Viv Richards, beat the boys across the buttocks when they failed his fitness tests.

In a statement, the victim said Roebuck told him: "I'm going to cane you now. Then it will be over and I will forgive you and, if I don't cane you, I will feel differently about you."

"Roebuck then pulled the boy towards him, in what appeared to be an act of affection. He then asked if he could look at the marks on the boy's buttocks, something which he in fact did."

What the!!!!!

Ex-Somerset captain caned young cricketers - Telegraph
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

el-capitano;393985 said:
A mate of mine was trying to find a bit about a stoush between Mark "Hello....Maximum" Nicholas and Peter Roebuck, and found this weird story! :eek:



What the!!!!!

Ex-Somerset captain caned young cricketers - Telegraph

Don't know if Nicholas has ever had a stoush with Roebuck, but Roebuck had a massive stoush if Botham and Viv Richards back when all 3 played county cricket for Somerset.

I know a few years ago Botham simply referred to Roebuck as a "sad, sad man". Botham also wrote a scathing article about Roebuck in 2005 when Roebuck tried to say that Flintoff had a dodgy action. I can't remember the exact terms but Botham described Roebuck as a "nobody".

I don't like Roebuck's work because he trys to link the events on the field to outside work.

Like when that streaker tackled that Pakistan fielder, saying that Indian students had been killed in Melburne.
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

Hard to go past Gideon Haigh. I devour anything he produces; in Australia he is probably the only cricket writer who is a genuinely class journalist as well. Definitely the benchmark for cricket journalism.

Robert Craddock is a good beat reporter, I agree. I don't usually read much of his stuff merely because I avoid News tabloids.

I read very little opinion stuff in the mainstream press, as it's generally just by ex-players and the quality is usually no better than what you can find amongst bloggers online (and sometimes inferior). Peter English over at cricinfo is an excellent writer for Australian news and opinions, I generally enjoy his columns regardless of whether I agree with him or not. Mike Coward is also good. Malcolm Conn is decent enough knowledge-wise, but his constant cheerleading is pretty boring.

As far as international commentators go, Jayaditya Gupta is always worth reading about anything and everything to do with Indian cricket. Tony Cozier is great on West Indian cricket - they should have him running the WICB. Andrew Miller doesn't seem to write much these days but I always appreciate his opinions. I have others, but they're my favourites.

If anyone could recommend some good writers on Pakistani and South African cricket I'd be much obliged - I don't really read anybody regularly.
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

That Andrew Miller is / or was a ball by ball commentator on cricinfo. He used to give me the shits to be honest, I found him a bit of a cheerleader for England.
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

Not sure. I haven't noticed his ball-by-ball stuff, and as an opinion writer he tends to focus on the current state of the English team, development pathways, selection decisions, etc. rather than comparing them to other countries.

He IS an English opinion writer though, so it's not like he's not going to express some preference for them. Mind you, you'd probably consider 95% of Indian cricket writers cheerleaders for daring to consider Tendulkar a superior batsman to Ponting.
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

Caesar on your South African journalists request. Neil Manthorp and Telford Vice write decent cricket articles but they are sometime far from subjective as they tend to have certain people that they do not write about truthfully.

If you are looking for decent investigative tipoffs then Eduan Roos is a good bet. He knows the right people and tend to write facts that make you want to read his content.

My favourite South African writer, who writes seldomly these days is Colin Bryden.

Feel free to ask me for some advice on the subjectivity of other writers based in South Africa.
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

Caesar;394573 said:
Hard to go past Gideon Haigh. I devour anything he produces; in Australia he is probably the only cricket writer who is a genuinely class journalist as well. Definitely the benchmark for cricket journalism.

Robert Craddock is a good beat reporter, I agree. I don't usually read much of his stuff merely because I avoid News tabloids.

I read very little opinion stuff in the mainstream press, as it's generally just by ex-players and the quality is usually no better than what you can find amongst bloggers online (and sometimes inferior). Peter English over at cricinfo is an excellent writer for Australian news and opinions, I generally enjoy his columns regardless of whether I agree with him or not. Mike Coward is also good. Malcolm Conn is decent enough knowledge-wise, but his constant cheerleading is pretty boring.

As far as international commentators go, Jayaditya Gupta is always worth reading about anything and everything to do with Indian cricket. Tony Cozier is great on West Indian cricket - they should have him running the WICB. Andrew Miller doesn't seem to write much these days but I always appreciate his opinions. I have others, but they're my favourites.

If anyone could recommend some good writers on Pakistani and South African cricket I'd be much obliged - I don't really read anybody regularly.

That Peter English journo is a poor writer IMO.

He wouldn't know the pitch from the stumps.
 
Re: Favourite Cricket Journo's

lemmon;396649 said:
Enjoy reading Gideon Haigh's stuff, a personal favourite of mine.

He is worth reading as he doesn't rant or become hysterical easily.

I used to read Michael Atherton as he can write well, but I found that in the past 2 years, he always wound up having a dig at the Indians regardless of what topic he started with. There is too much of this, either opaque or transparent, in many of the English journos to want to read them much anymore. The attitude many of them hold that they are the Guardians of cricket comes across as pathetic.

I find the blogosphere more useful as a gauge of different views and many of them are funnier and written far more skillfully.

There is a Pakistan fan who writes a really funny blog. Mind you, if you were a Pakistan fan you'd have to have a bottomless sense of humour to follow that board and team.
 
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