When John Player and Sons were rolling out cigarettes at the rate of 14,000 a minute, and every other bicycle seemed to be a Raleigh Chopper, the Radford area of Nottingham was a thriving community with a neighbourly atmosphere and work for almost everyone who wanted it. Nowadays, Raleigh bicycles are made in the Far East, the Player factories have been demolished and Radford is blighted by street crime and high unemployment. The Lord's Taverners, the cricket charity that specialises in providing opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, could not have chosen a much more appropriate setting to promote the expansion of their Street Elite scheme, nor could their bringing together of four England captains to give the occasion the desired high profile have ... Continue reading →

West Indies 243 and 120 for 4 (Chanderpaul 34*) trail England 398 (Strauss 122, Bell 61, Trott 58) by 119 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball commentary It is perhaps no surprise that Shivnarine Chanderpaul inhabits his own little world. It must be much safer there. When he made his Test debut 18 years ago, West Indies were No. 1 in the world. Now Test match victories are a rarity and the sound of Caribbean cricket is a prolonged lamentation for what has gone before. West Indies, trailing by 155 runs on first innings, and already widely dismissed as no-hopers after the first two days of a three-match series, lost three top-order wickets for no runs in nine balls on the verge of tea and until Chanderpaul put ... Continue reading →