Managing editor Matt Thacker introduces issue 49 of the Nightwatchman…
We’re mid-Champions Trophy, an event which feels like it encapsulates where cricket is at today. In some ways the whole thing feels like something of a throwback. The tournament itself hasn’t been played since 2017 and since then, or the 2019 World Cup more accurately, very little 50-over international cricket has been played as Twenty20 has muscled out the longer formats.
The event is taking place in Pakistan (mostly), which last hosted a major international cricket tournament, the World Cup, with India and Sri Lanka in 1996. The country was originally scheduled to host the Champions Trophy in 2008 but the whole thing was postponed for a year and moved to South Africa due to security concerns partly stemming from the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Of course, India refused to play in Pakistan. Pakistan dug their heels in but there was only ever one outcome when money talks and India are rich as Croesus. So in a totally predictable plot twist, India are playing in Dubai, meaning there is a strong chance that nobody will know where the final will take place until the eleventh hour. A farce of course but, in a world that has become inured to powerful regimes doing what they like, knowing their financial muscle will ensure the kowtowing of less wealthy participants, it’s no real surprise.
Fortunately here at the Nightwatchman we don’t have to worry about the commercial and political realities of modern-day cricket and politics. We can glory in cricket’s past, its reach, its magnificence. We do have a nod to the modern day, as Dubai Capitals newest recruit gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the modern game, but we’re on firmer territory digging into the archives as we cover murderous deeds; the dying embers of a northern league; cricket just after the Second World War; Aussie (lack of) swing bowling in the 1970s; missing archives at Lord’s; a mysterious signed piece of willow; and the celebration of a half-century for an iconic bat.
But we’re not all about the past. We salute SF Barnes; have a paean to a stolen cricket ball; visit Porto, an unlikely cricketing hotbed; profile a young Zimbabwean making his way in the UK; tell a fishy tale; find out about our flourishing cricket societies; discover Rishabh Pant’s back story; and hear how a press pass for England’s New Zealand tour helped one writer cope with mid-life malaise.
And finally we have a piece that ties a lot of our themes together, illustrating how cricket can change, even save, your life. It’s the remarkable tale of Waleed Khan, left for dead after being shot repeatedly in the face during a terror attack in Peshawar in 2014, but now living in the UK with cricket having played a huge part in his rehabilitation. It’s an amazing story.
As ever, if you would like to write for us – poetry and prose accepted! – or just let us know what you think about the Nightwatchman, good or bad, please get in touch at editor@thenightwatchman.net. We read every submission (but promise nothing) that fulfils our criteria: that articles should touch on cricket (however tangentially) and are original, well-written and thought-provoking.
Matt Thacker, March 2025