Resources

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This is far from being a complete collection of all the cricket resources that are out there. It's just a list of the places I go, the things I watch, and the stuff I read the most.

This page will be updated often as I continue to find resources that'll help you enjoy the game more.

Web Sites

The International Cricket Council has been the global governing body of the sport -- under various names -- since 1909. The organization's site is the got-to for the latest team and player rankings. It's the official voice of the sport, so any news about international series and tournaments or team sanctions and player suspensions will show up here first. Since the ICC only governs international events involving the 100-plus full and associate member nations, you won't find much mention of franchise T20 leagues like the India Premier League.

ESPNcricinfo is an incredibly deep resource for just about anything cricket. In addition to the latest scores and schedules, there are reports and opinion pieces from some of the best cricket writers in the world. It's a little more profiles- and stats-happy than the ICC site, but that's a good thing. Just about everyone playing for the twelve full member nation teams has a profile page with a bio, stats, and links to cricinfo articles that mention them. If you're into the game, you can easily lose yourself in this site for days.

USA Cricket is the governing board for cricket in the US. Its site has the latest up-to-date information about Team USA and its players on both the men's and women's sides. Just as importantly, it's also largely focused on growing the game from the ground up in this country through participation at the youth level. And it's the only site I've found where you can order official USA Cricket shirts, hats, etc.

Emerging Cricket covers the tier of cricketing nations that haven't quite earned full international Test status. As a result, you'll probably read more about USA Cricket here than at the ICC or ESPN site. So, if you've had your fill of hearing about India, Australia, and England, head over to EC and find out what's going on in Namibia, Oman, and in your own backyard.

Streaming Services

Willow is the primary app for cricket fans in the US. It streams a good percentage of the international cricket that's going on and shows major T20 franchise leagues like the India Premier league (IPL), the Australian Big Bash League (BBL), and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). There's also a ridiculous amount of archived matches and highlights. A Willow channel on many cable systems lets you watch cricket directly on your big screen without a Roku, Chromecast, etc. And if you pay for the cable channel, you can access the app for free. The app is ten dollars a month. The cable channel is around fifteen bucks a month. (Willow is the wood that cricket bats are made from.)

With its recent five-year deal with West Indies Cricket, ESPN+ has now become a must-have for cricket fans in the states. In addition to Windies cricket, the service also gives you access to most of the matches involving the New Zealand men's and women's teams (although a lot of that action takes place when most people are sleeping). It's a relatively cheap service at six dollars a month or sixty bucks for the whole year that'll also give you nine-million college football and hoops games and a ton of original ESPN content.

 

The West Indies Cricket site has links to free live matches in the region's domestic cricket season and links to lots of archived games. The West Indies are in the Eastern and Atlantic time zones, so whether it's all-day Test cricket, a 50-overs match, or an evening T20 game, it'll happen in normal waking hours. The Windies are the only international Test team in the western hemisphere. So until the US team reaches that level, the Windies are the home team.

Magazines

For cricket fans, the name Wisden is synonymous with the 1,500-ish page annual almanac that compresses the entire previous year in world cricket into a single volume. Wisden Cricket Monthly delivers the same global view of the game in far-less-daunting magazine size. It's a good mix of previews of upcoming series, recaps of recent action, and profile and historical pieces that even a newcomer to the sport can pull something from. Depending on the rate-of-exchange, single issues are about thirteen bucks including shipping and a year's subscription is around $90. A digital version will get you the magazine faster and cheaper -- about four dollars for a single issue and less than 25 bucks for the year.

The Cricketer has been published since 1921. Like Wisden Cricket Monthly, it comes out of England, but where Wisden takes a pretty wide worldview, The Cricketer is far more focused on the local game. There are some pieces about the international game, but the gist of the content is about the men's and women's national teams and domestic county cricket scene. If you're into English cricket, this is your magazine. Single issue and subscription prices are the same as for Wisden. A year's subscription to the digital version runs around sixty bucks.