Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Write About It

I thought this was interesting.

I agree with some of what Ryan says - Brearley and Atherton are both fine writers - but I think he might have been better off keeping his powder dry.

While it's easy to understand the professional journalist with a limited playing background being frustrated by the rapid advances of those who could really play the game - especially if they think they can't write - it seems a tad hubristic to set yourself up, as Ryan appears to have done, as some sort of arbiter of journalistic quality and taste.

For a start you leave yourself open to the sort of comment which appears after the article from someone who clearly doesn't think much of Ryan's writing either, and, if you're talking about cricket, I think it's ill-advised to get superior with an ex-Test cricketer. Because, at the end of the day, they've been there and done it (even if they can't describe what they've done very well), while you never did and never will. No matter how much cricket you've watched you're always going to come up short against someone who's played the game at the highest level, even for the briefest period. And many people who follow the game, but who may not be connoisseurs of cricket writing, will set more store by the opinions of someone they've seen play than those of someone they've never heard of but thinks they can write well.

My favourite cricket writers - Alan Ross, David Frith, Gideon Haigh, Scyld Berry, Andrew Miller - don't have a Test cap between them, but I wouldn't dream of dismissing the efforts of many of those who do, especially the superb Ed Smith.

Now, where's my thesaurus?

Saying Nothing, Saying It All

I found the inane interviews given by Steve Harmison after play yesterday depressing and infuriating and I was pleased to see that Gideon Haigh has written about them in his Cricinfo blog.

Harmy was obviously determined to stick to the England team's party line of refusing to acknowledge that there might be any identifiable reason (least of all lack of preparatory cricket) for anything which has happened in Australia, but when you hear somebody stating that everything has, basically, 'just happened', you tend to feel that your intelligence is starting to be insulted.

To use one of the oldest sporting journalistic cliches in the (very large) book, Harmison is quite an enigma. But he often seems so bereft of spirit, desire and nous that you have to start to wonder whether Rod Marsh's recent prediction in The Observer that he will have retired from all cricket by 2009 (when he will only be 30) might turn out to be very accurate indeed.