The game is bigger than those who are trying to strangle it. ibid. Richie Benaud
Mr Packer and World Series Cricket has offered secure remunerative employment for the cricketers at a time when most had no guarantee of regular employment in the game … I find for the plaintiffs with costs. Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War II, 25th November 1977
From the nine camera positions we’ve got … ibid. Hill
Why don’t you go work for Murdoch? ibid. Packer
They want to see Cricket; we’ll let them see Cricket. ibid. Packer
The 2005 Ashes was the greatest thing in human history. Andy Zaltzman, comedian & cricket fan
This is the cricketing story of a lifetime that tells of how one man and one innings that led ultimately to the downfall of a brutal political regime. Not Cricket: The Basil D’Olivera Conspiracy, BBC 2004
The problem for the selectors was that he was racially classified as coloured in South Africa. ibid.
Denis Compton: ‘To leave out d’Oliveira is Shameful.’ ibid. newspaper article
One of the great betrayals of modern sport. ibid. commentary
St Augustine’s was a club for Christian coloureds. ibid.
He once scored a double century in only an hour. ibid.
Coloured Cricketer’s Average of 295 runs. ibid. newspaper article
A convinced opponent of apartheid, Arlott was determined to help them. ibid. commentary
D’Oliviera became a British citizen in 1964. ibid.
The South African government was plotting against him. ibid.
D’Oliviera had been dropped from the English team. ibid.
Dolly offered £50,000 to drop tour. ibid. newspaper article
And then came the bombshell – the MCC committee dropped him. ibid. commentary
Unknown to anybody at the time, the ruling elite at the MCC had been in contact all year with the Apartheid authorities in what amounted to a conspiracy to allow the tour to go ahead. And Alex Douglas Hume and Colin Cowdrey were at the centre of it. ibid.
The selectors had been shocked at the outcry. ibid.
Vorster Puts Ban On Dolly. ibid. Daily Mirror headline
His captaincy at Lord’s was terrible, then on Monday at Headingley I witnessed the worst day of captaincy I have ever seen at International level in almost 25 years in the game. Shane Warne, Daily Telegraph 27th June 2014, re Alastair Cook
If everything else in this nation of ours were lost but cricket – her Constitution and the laws of England of Lord Halsbury – it would be possible to reconstruct from the theory and practice of cricket all the eternal Englishness which has gone to the establishment of that constitution and the laws aforesaid. Neville Cardus
But as a player, Tests are the real thing. You have to concentrate for five days. It’s a lot of time, and not easy to do it day in and day out. If people have played 70-100 Tests, it’s a lot of cricket, a lot of concentration and dedication. Yuvraj Singh
The only thing I’ve ever been interested in teaching anyone in life is cricket. Peter O’Toole
Any captain can only do his best for the team and for cricket. When you are winning, you are a hero. Lose, and the backslappers fade away. Richie Benaud
The bowler approached the wicket at a lope, a trot, and then a run. He suddenly exploded in a flurry of arms and legs, out of which flew a ball. Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything
He breathed gently on to the maroon leather and polished it on his leg as the Sontaran finally tossed the Kshatriya aside and stopped to pick up its fallen weapon. He stepped around the corner, sighting along his free arm as the Sontaran straightened, its back fully turned. The cricket ball flashed down the length of the corridor in the blink of an eye, punching into the back of the Sontaran’s collar and ricocheting away. To Nur’s astonishment, the alien spasmed and crashed to the floor like a falling tree. ‘Out for a duck,’ the Doctor commented, blowing across his fingertips. David A McIntee
It is not true that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavours look interesting and lively; that was merely an unintended side effect. I don’t wish to denigrate a sport that is enjoyed by millions, some of them awake and facing the right way, but it is an odd game. Bill Bryson, Down Under 2000
There is so much uncertainty in cricket. One day you can get a hundred, the next day you can be dismissed for a zero. It makes you become practical about things. Teaches you to accept both success and failure. I think I have learnt a lot about life from cricket. Mahela Jayawardene
Cricket civilises people and creates good gentlemen. I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen. Robert Mugabe
It is hard to tell where the MCC ends and the Church of England begins. J B Priestley, The New Statesman 20th July 1962
I was brought up to believe that cricket is the most important activity in men’s lives, the most important thread in the fabric of the cosmos. Bernard Hollowood, Cricket on the Brain, 1970
Cricket is a most precarious profession; it is called a team game but, in fact, no one is so lonely as a batsman facing a bowler supported by ten fieldsmen and observed by two umpires to ensure that his error does not go unpunished. John Arlott, An Eye for Cricket
It is as well for us to remember when we are watching the best batsmen that, however easy it may all look, they do not achieve their success without toil and sweat, and that there are times even with the greatest when they must seem to themselves, as we humble performers so frequently seem to ourselves, to be batting with a broomstick, with a barn door for a wicket. E W Swanton, Denis Compton: A Cricket Sketch
It requires one to assume such indecent postures. Oscar Wilde
I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth – certainly greater than sex, although sex isn’t too bad either. Harold Pinter
Once again our cricketers have flattered to deceive in Australia. Ted Dexter
A cricketer’s life is a life of splendid freedom, healthy effort, endless variety, and delightful good fellowship. W G Grace
The great thing in hitting is not to be half-hearted about it; but when you make up your mind to hit, to do it as if the whole match depended upon that particular stroke. W G Grace
6Frequently the assertion is made that wicket-keepers are born and not made. Yet anyone with average ball sense can make a fair job of it if he is prepared to work hard. Alan Knott
I took her to see India. At the Oval. Fawlty Towers: The Germans s1e6, Major, BBC 1975
The fellow were practising long shies and bowling lobs and slow twisters. In the soft grey silence he could hear the bump of the balls: and from here and from there through the quiet air the sound of the cricket bats: pick, pack, pock, puck: like drops of water in a fountain falling softly in the brimming bowl. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The latest test score from Australia: at the end of the fourth day’s play 30,000 cricket lovers stormed on to the field to congratulate Freddy Truman on the best bowling figures of his test career. In a 14-over spell Freddy took 9 wickets for 47 runs. Live It Up! aka Sing & Swing 1963 starring Kenny Ball & David Hemmings & Jennifer Moss & Veronica Hurst & Heinz Burt & Joan Newell & David Bauer & Patsy Ann Noble & Gene Vincent & John Pike & Peter Nobel et al, director Lance Comfort, television news flash
And finally, m’lud, I conclude that my client could not possibly have struck the man with a forceful and accurate blow – he plays for the England test team. Spitting Image s6e5, brief in court, ITV 1986
Well, I think we needed some extra experience in the side so I’ve brought in W G Grace. Yes, surprise choice I admit but he ought to settle down the younger lads. Spitting Image s17e2, Mike Atherton