Frank Read

Earlier this month, a 16-man squad was announced for England Men’s three-match series against Pakistan. The inflated number of players, more appropriate for a touring party than a truncated late-summer home series, offered a tentative sketch towards the team’s new era. The New Zealand defeats provided little more than an elaboration on all of the flaws of the Bazball regime that had been made perfectly clear before. The botched backing and then firing of Brendon McCullum, meanwhile, has...

It’s been an odd few weeks for what was once England’s summer sport. The newly privatised incarnation of The Hundred has rattled on, with the star-studded investment vehicles occasionally producing exciting finishes and high-grade hitting. The competition remains a qualified success, accruing attention from newcomers to the sport, and occupying a heartening amount of free-to-air minutes on BBC Two. The spectacle, however, remains largely hollow, and the identities of each franchise...