Oborne & Heller on Cricket

“I expected a bit more from England”, says a magisterial Imran Khan, at the start of  the latest podcast from Peter Oborne and Richard Heller, rebuking the recent cancellation of England’s short cricket tour of his country. In a clip from an extended interview with Peter Oborne, the Pakistan Prime Minister and former captain suggests that England still think they are doing Pakistan a favour by playing them at all: they would not dare treat India in the same way, because of its financial power over international cricket. He says that there was no security reason for cancellation of the England tour or the earlier one by New Zealand: the latter was prompted by false information from an Indian source.

Then Peter and Richard hear more from the amazing multi-layered life of Lingard Goulding, especially his inspirational cricket coaching and mentoring of children in two continents. Commenting first on the reluctance of some England players to go to Australia, he recalls Alec Bedser’s account to him of the trials and tribulations of postwar Ashes tours, when the players travelled by sea and had no time with their wives and families.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-68-the-magisterial-imran-khan-the-inspirational-lingard-goulding/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

After a first-class career as a pace bowler for Hampshire, John Holder became one of England’s finest umpires. He was a popular expert on Test Match Special and the regular Observer newspaper feature “You Are The Umpire.” On the first-class list from 1983 to 2009 , he joined the Test panel in 1988 and after only a handful of matches was chosen to be one of the first “third-country” Test umpires for a dramatic series between Pakistan and India. But his Test career was interrupted without explanation for ten years after his report on a controversial home Test match. As the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast he explains why, years after retirement, he brought a legal action against the England and Wales Cricket Board not only for himself but also to ventilate racial discrimination issues in English cricket.  In Peter’s absence in Pakistan, author and broadcaster Mihir Bose takes over at the Pavilion End.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-67-a-great-umpire-raises-his-finger-against-discrimination-in-cricket/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

George Dobell, chief correspondent of Cricinfo but not for much longer, is one of the most independent, incisive and informed cricket writers in Britain. Never a captive of the cricket Establishment or a champion of any interest except everyday cricket fans, he has broken or developed some of the biggest stories in English cricket. He brings unique insights as the first guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their new season of cricket-themed podcasts.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-66-englands-most-incisive-cricket-writer-george-dobell-who-never-forgets-the-fans/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

In recent months, South Africa has been rocked by the testimonies from black players of the isolation, hostility and outright racial abuse they have encountered playing in first-class and international cricket. Two expert South African cricket broadcasters and authors, Mo Allie and Aslam Khota, relay these stories and their impact as the guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their latest cricket-themed podcast.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-65-painful-testimonies-of-racism-shake-the-culture-of-denial-of-apartheid-in-south-african-cricket/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

Annie Chave is the founder and editor of County Cricket Matters magazine and a regular contributor to Guerilla Cricket. Rob Eastaway is a writer, lecturer and cricket-lover who produced a clear and witty book explaining cricket’s mysteries called What Is A Googly? as well as several explaining the mathematics behind such everyday mysteries as why buses arrive in threes. They are joint trustees of a new charity called the Googly Fund which supports adult recreational cricket. They describe its origins, purpose and successes as the latest guests of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their cricket-themed podcast. In Peter’s unavoidable absence, Roger Alton replaces him as co-host.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-64-who-needs-the-hundred-when-two-hundred-parents-start-playing-cricket/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

Former first-class cricketer and leading historian André Odendaal has made it his personal mission to reconstruct the true story of South African cricket from its beginnings. He reveals more of the black, mixed-race and Asian-descent players  whose talents and achievements were suppressed and for whom opportunity was denied by South Africa’s white rulers and cricket administrators. He suggests that South Africa is at last coming to acknowledge the deep poisoned legacy of white supremacy, as a returning guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-63-south-african-cricket-still-haunted-by-its-unacknowledged-legacy-of-white-supremacy/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

Lonsdale Skinner was Surrey’s wicketkeeper-batsman in the early 1970s and also played cricket in the same role for his native Guyana in the West Indies. Since 2013, he has been chairman of the African Caribbean Cricket Association which campaigns for fair treatment and greater representation of African Caribbean people throughout English cricket. As guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their cricket-themed podcast he gives powerful first-hand testimony of the impact of the racism he encountered in his English cricket career and expresses his deep scepticism over official efforts to overcome enduring discrimination and prejudice.

Read the full description and response from the ECB here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-62-lonsdale-skinner-a-cricket-career-blighted-by-racism/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

Dame Angela Eagle has been the Labour MP for Wallasey in the Wirral since 1992. When her sister Maria was elected as Labour MP for Liverpool Garston five years later they became the first twins to sit together in Parliament in modern times, and later they became the first twins to be Ministers of State in the same government. Angela held a variety of posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including wide-ranging responsibilities as the first Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. She has also been a long-serving member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. But most importantly, she is a lifelong cricket lover. She shares her memories of playing and watching cricket, and her wider reflections on the interplay of sport, gender and politics as the guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their latest cricket-themed podcast.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-61-caught-eagle-bowled-eagle-and-other-highlights-from-a-political-cricket-lover/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

The rise of women’s cricket is one of the biggest sporting stories in modern Britain – but behind it is nearly 700 years of history. That is one of many surprises revealed by Rafaelle Nicholson, a leading authority on women and sport, in her book Ladies And Lords: A History Of Women’s Cricket In Britain. She is the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller in their regular cricket-themed podcast.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-60-the-hidden-history-of-a-huge-success-womens-cricket-in-britain/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]

Lingard Goulding kept wicket superbly in three continents over eight decades. He also found much else to do with his life, as an industrialist, a master of early computing, an author, a Formula 5000 motor racing driver and most importantly an inspiring head master and cricket coach, mentor and recorder. He shares highlights of an astonishing portfolio career, and memories of his high-achieving family, as the latest guest of Peter Oborne and Richard Heller on their cricket-themed podcast.

Read the full description here: https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/episode-59-behind-the-stumps-but-never-the-times-in-eight-decades-the-multiple-lives-of-lingard-goulding/

Get in contact by emailing [email protected]