I’ve decided to make it a regular Saturday feature on the blog where I gather my favourite stories from the week. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the media focus this week has been on the deaths of Peter Roebuck last Saturday and Basil D’Oliveira earlier today.
Jarrod Kimbler at Cricket With Balls wrote an excellent piece about Roebuck being the lone dissenting voice in the Australian press corps during their years of dominance and how the manner of his death may affect how he is remembered. (As an aside, I am very glad that CWB is back up, the style is unmatched.)
Peter English wrote for Cricinfo about the irreplaceability of Peter Roebuck.
Vic Marks wrote about both for the Guardian – Roebuck last Sunday and D’Oliveira today. Both are excellent pieces; the Roebuck one is a more personal tribute, whereas the D’Oliveira piece gives some fascinating background to D’Oliveira’s move to England and his role is starting South Africa’s isolation.
Jonathan Agnew wrote for the BBC about D’Oliveira showing that sometimes sport and politics must mix, with a lovely reminder that racism in sports used to be much worse than it is now.
Other things did happen in cricket this week too, and King Cricket wrote about the absurdity of Australia being out of a Test series after only three days.
Defensive Indifference 