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Thoughts on scribes

By Scott 2 years ago, at the end of December Leave a comment on this post

The Guardian is touting Gideon Haigh on its Ashes webpage as ‘the world’s best cricket writer’.

That’s the sort of boosterism that I thought those lefties at the Guardian were dead-set against. But I digress.

After all, how would you define someone as ‘the best cricket writer’? Is it because he’s the most readable writer going around, or because he is the most descriptive? And there is two definate styles of writing, the ‘reportage’ and the ‘analysis’. So that makes defining the ‘best’ an even more subjective task.

So in effect, there are multiple writers that could reasonably be classed as ‘the best’, by each individual. And there’s plenty of individuals with their own ideas. Who are your ‘best writers’? And what do you want your ’scribes’ to be writing about?

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7 Responses to “Thoughts on scribes”

  • Wraye wrote:
    December 29th, 2006 at 8.05 pm

    Ah, remember Neville Cardus? What a brilliant writer. John Arlott was the people’s cricket poet, and because I’m a girlie, I have to praise Margaret Hughs, who died earlier this year, and Chloe Saltau.

    What I really admire are the writers who are able to express both the grace and the beauty of the game in their literary skills, who capture the vigour or despondency, paint a picture with words. Arlott was a master.

    I’ve had to do a fair bit of cricket writing myself over the years - getting a game report online as quick as poss was a nightmare for me, hard graft. It’s all so easy to fall into those dreaded clichés about “gifted strokeplay” or “masterful shots”.

    I also used to love Amit Varma’s 23 Yards on cricinfo because the articles made you think. And were fun.

    Oh, and nearly forgot, the best of all is Will Luke ;)

  • Angus wrote:
    December 29th, 2006 at 10.52 pm

    Aye, apart from Will, I would say Bill Bryson, who has some fab quotations on cricket - none of them too glowing.

  • Rae wrote:
    December 29th, 2006 at 10.58 pm

    I think Gideon is more musing analyst than reporter, but if English would probably bat at 5 :)

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/raeallen/209452233/

  • Kathy wrote:
    December 30th, 2006 at 4.41 am

    I like a cricket writer who is smart and who doesn’t over-react, who can see the long game and who wasn’t born yesterday, ie remembers something that happened more than three weeks ago, and most of all, who has a sense of perspective.

    My favourites at the moment are Michael Atherton at the Telegraph and Tim de Lisle, who is at both Cricinfo and the Times, I think. My least favourite is Andrew Miller at Cricinfo for his ludicrous conspiracy theories, his ability to make the tiniest molehill into Mt Everest and for his overreaction to practically everything.

    Gideon Haigh is a very stylish and knowledgeable muser — though sometimes a little too impressed with himself.

  • Miller wrote:
    December 30th, 2006 at 9.36 am

    It’s a conspiracy, I tell ya

  • Kathy wrote:
    December 30th, 2006 at 9.43 am

    Teehee, Mr Miller!

  • SpryCorpse wrote:
    December 30th, 2006 at 9.49 am

    I’ve always enjoyed Peter Roebuck’s columns. I don’t always agree with his conclusions (although I do mostly), but I admire his poetic and noble interpretation of the great game.


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