Product details
- ISBN 9781801509008
- Dimensions: 144 x 222mm
- Publication Date: 25 Mar 2024
- Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Batting for Time: The Fight to Keep English Cricket Alive is the exploration of a sport in existential crisis. In a rapidly changing sporting and social landscape, county cricket - an institution whose history spans more than 150 years - finds itself confronted with the most uncertain period in its long history.
The proliferation of lucrative global franchise leagues has threatened to leave behind a member-owned English structure deep-rooted in the Victorian era. Pitting traditionalists against modernisers, and romantics against pragmatists, the need for change has sparked a host of civil wars, creating deep divisions among those who care for the English game.
Using the 2023 season as a backdrop, Batting for Time explores the precarious state of English cricket, asking what it is we expect from our domestic game, who it primarily exists for and where things might go in the future. What must English cricket do to survive?
Ben Bloom has been a sports journalist on national newspapers since 2010. He spent 11 years at The Telegraph where he wrote on a range of sports, including international and domestic cricket, and led the paper's coverage of three Olympic Games. His work saw him nominated for a British Sports Journalism Award. As a freelance reporter, he has written for the BBC, The Guardian, The Times, Daily Mail, and numerous other outlets.
