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Throughout the world of sport there are few individuals who are universally recognized for pioneering the techniques of their chosen sport. The Fosbury Flop in high jump, so named after Dick Fosbury, is one clear example of an athlete’s contribution to their sport’s evolution being easily identified. Within cricket circles, it is obviously impossible to say with certainty the first person to introduce the square cut or the drive to the batsman’s armory of shots, however cricket historians appear unanimous in their recognition of an Indian batsman as the first player to master play off his pads with the leg glance. This man was K.S. Ranjitsinhji, known by all supporters of the game simply as Ranji.

New Zealand were the fifth country to play Test Cricket back in 1929/30 when an England team lead by Harold Gilligan played a four match series. The purpose of this article is to enable comparisons to be made with the more recent elevations of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and, perhaps, to stimulate some debate.

Bangladesh became a test nation at the dawn of the new millenium. But where their predecessors achieved a triumph, Bangladesh- who briefly threatened a shock as big as Zimbabwe’s- collapsed to a humiliating defeat.

Zimbabwe astonished the world with their performance in their nation’s inaugural test in 1992, outplaying an experienced India side and drawing the match easily. How did they manage such a feat?

In a continuing series of articles where we introduce Series Points, a new way of ranking Test players, this time we look at the 1960s.

The atrocities that took place in the City of Mumbai will never be forgotten, but England have now finally received the green light to progress with the Indian tour, and cricket will be doing its utmost to bring a welcome distraction to the nation.

Does Andrew Symonds really deserve his spot in the Australian Test Side ahead of Shane Watson at this point of time? I think Watson can consider himself extremely unlucky at the moment, and I’ll tell you why.

Three English seasons have now passed since live Test cricket was removed completely from free-to-air television. Matters are serious already and will only get worse. It is down to the British government to stop this happening.

This article is the latest in a series which introduces Series Points, a new ranking method for Test players which directly compares all players together (i.e. batsmen and bowlers as well as fielding ability), whilst also awarding more points to players who performed well against stronger opposition

In January Ricky Ponting’s team was heavily criticised for their “win at all costs” mentality in the Sydney Test. Recently, the captain was vilified for putting compliance with a playing condition ahead of his side’s chances of winning. The media and cricketing public cannot have it both ways.