Each week cricketing stalwart Bill Frindall MBE will be writing a very special column on all kinds of topics relating to one of Britain's most popular sports, especially for the Gazette and Herald.

Keep abreast of the movers and shakers and hot topics in cricket by checking in below each week for his latest installment.

www.beardedwonder.co.uk

New headstone is a fitting tribute to the ultimate all-rounder 9:25am Thu 1 May 08 Very few men are rewarded with a new headstone 52 years after their burial and even fewer would have a service dedicating that edifice attended by senior clergy and an entire MCC team, in addition to famous cricketers, administrators and writers. Indian slogathons and other balls 5:31pm Wednesday 23rd April 2008 John Arlott was the first to assess the potential power of television when the BBC began broadcasting Test cricket in 1946. County curtain up 10:17am Thu 17 Apr 08 The County Cricket Season that began yesterday with a full round of LV Championship matches will run until 27 September. Kiwis search for players 5:21pm Wednesday 9th April 2008 New Zealand's player base has been the hardest hit of all the major cricketing nations by defections to the two Indian Twenty20 leagues. Tour allowed me to catch up with two New Zealand greats 9:22am Thursday 3rd April 2008 A major bonus of touring abroad is the chance to catch up with some outstanding players of the past. Series triumph at Napier 10:51am Thu 27 Mar 08 One of the most entertaining series I have scored ended in a blaze of sixes from a nineteen-year-old debutant. Tim Southee's 29-ball fifty was the sixth-fastest in Test history and the quickest by a Kiwi. Only four batsmen - Wasim Akram (12), Nathan Astle and Matthew Hayden (11), and Wally Hammond (10) have exceeded his tally of nine sixes. A tall, strongly-built lad who has excelled at rugger, he twice cleared the roofs of vast stands and lost one ball in a distant garden. Triumph at the Basin Reserve 9:45am Thu 20 Mar 08 England's victory in Wellington on Monday ended a barren run of seven Tests and was their first success overseas for two years. It vindicated the selectors' dramatic axing of Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard. The first was inevitable but the second was a surprise considering the Yorkshireman's ability to swing the ball. Both suffered from lack of match practice and were frustrated by a slow, low pitch at Hamilton. Harmison has lost all confidence and, with Stuart Broad's enthusiastic performance in Wellington, he is unlikely to regain his place. Hoggard will be back at Napier if Anderson's ankle, damaged during a ridiculous game of warm down' soccer, has not fully recovered. Sidebottom's premonition 5:23pm Wed 12 Mar 08 Arnie Sidebottom had never attended a ground to watch his son play for England. He thought it might bring Ryan bad luck. In fact he had only watched him play county cricket a couple of times in his early days with Yorkshire and before his move down to Trent Bridge. New Zealand's most scenic cricket ground 9:41am Thursday 6th March 2008 Without doubt the most scenically beautiful cricket ground in New Zealand is Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. Farewell to one-dayers 9:20am Monday 3rd March 2008 My worst nightmares involve having to score a cricket match from a box with a grotesquely restricted view of play. None has approached the scenario confronting me at Lancaster Park last Saturday. More ...

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