A quick look back at 2025
Doing a year-in-review feels lame—but it’s the law. So here are a few favourite snippets from 2025, and a conservative wish for the year ahead.
There’s clearly a rule, or law, that somewhere says every newsletter, platform and brand must pause in late December to produce The Year That Was. I’m deferring. Cricket has taught me that musing over yesterday’s scorecard is a reliable way to lose confidence. I’d rather look ahead, take guard again, and see what 2026 might offer.
But, rules are rules, so here are my favourite SpeakingCricket snippets of 2025 in no particular order. Please share this post with any cricket-minded friends.
South Africa’s qualification for the World Test Championship (WTC) final was greeted in some quarters with scepticism, most notably from Michael Vaughan, who claimed they qualified by beating “pretty much nobody.” Vaughan’s view is not widely shared.
The WTC is an uneven, confusing competition—poorly scheduled, commercially compromised, and challenging to explain to anyone—the ICC do a great job of confusing the obvious. But the flaws apply to every team, not just South Africa. The Proteas played their hand, and played it better than the rest.
They won away in the West Indies, secured their first series win in Asia in a decade, and swept Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home. Their record stands up against teams that beat England and, in some cases, Australia. Temba Bavuma has eight wins from his first nine Tests as captain; his side has produced more centuries than England or Australia, and their bowling attack is top-drawer.
The format may be broken. South Africa wasn’t. They are WTC champions.
Read the full post here.
I paywalled this post, which says a lot about my appreciation of Virat Kohli. If you peel back the layers of self-abuse and the reluctance to take my cricket thinking seriously, Kohli stands out as a beacon of pure technical genius.
Virat Kohli is no longer the batter he once was. But his decline is less a personal failing than a signal that cricket itself is moving in a direction, particularly the art of batsmanship. (There’s no other way of saying that.)
At his peak, Kohli dominated all formats simultaneously, combining classical technique with relentless run-scoring across conditions and continents. By the end of 2019, his numbers placed him on a trajectory that seemed destined to eclipse every modern benchmark. More importantly, he redefined chasing down totals, turning pressure into routine and improbability into habit.
Since 2020, the erosion has been gradual but unmistakable. The margins are thinner, the slips fuller, and the certainty that once surrounded King Kohli has faded. His recent struggles in Australia were a reminder that even the greatest are not immune to time—or to a game now shaped by T20 priorities.
Kohli may be cricket’s last classical batter in an increasingly impatient world. If so, his twilight marks the end of an era, not the diminishment of a legacy.
I don’t love easily anymore, but I do love watching King Kohli wield the willow.
Read the full post here.
A very good friend, and subscriber (Paid), said a while back, “Coach, don’t promise the world and deliver an Atlas.” I listened, digested, and subconsciously disregarded his measured advice—or should we have received it more as encouragement? Doemer wasn’t telling me what to do, but just guiding. Oh, he has S Tendulkar on his Test match mantlepiece!
So this is the first chapter in the story of the Melbourne Cricket Club’s 2009-10 premiership year. The second is here, and the third, and the fourth. And, I hope there’s more to come
This post is my favourite non-cricket effort. Forgive me the pleasure, those who bark when I dare to wander!
A barroom exchange with the legendary “Slim” Pat Donnelly becomes a way to interrogate what still makes March Madness matter. Beneath the profanity and nostalgia sits a straightforward argument: college basketball remains one of the last places in American sport where effort, urgency, and consequence still dominate.
The NCAA tournament works because it is unforgiving. Single-elimination games demand defensive pressure, emotional commitment, and collective purpose—qualities increasingly absent from the NBA’s long, managed regular season. While college basketball is now openly commercial and functions as a de facto feeder system, its chaos still allows underdogs to win and meaning to emerge.
The danger is not money or modernisation, but imitation. As NIL deals, transfer portals, and one-and-done careers accelerate, the tournament risks drifting toward a professional showcase rather than a cultural event. Preserve the structure, slow the conveyor belt to the NBA, and protect the stakes.
March Madness endures because it still feels like something matters, according to Pat Donnelly, and who would argue!
Read the full post here.
Statistically, “The Fab 4 and a Martin Crowe story” was the popular post of 2025. I enjoyed writing this, as it took me right back to the start of my professional journey—haha, some of my New Zealand friends might challenge the ‘professional’ side of my time there! Three winters in Napier taught me so much about life, cultures, and the game. And to spend time with the likes of Martin Crowe at such an early age was everything I could have dreamed of growing up in South Manchester.
Read the full post here.
A review wouldn’t be that without mention of Bazball. The genesis of what it is still haunts cricket’s corridors. I have sided with the sceptics and hope, for the sake of England’s younger talent, that they are allowed to learn the intricacies and nuances of Test cricket in a more normal environment. Whether this happens is still unclear. Anyway, like many, I was drawn into the broader debate and here’s one of my takes.
Read the full post here
Australia ripe for the picking.
To be clear, this isn’t just about self-promotion! I get things wrong, all the time—and not just on paper, everywhere, believe me!
I genuinely believed Australia were vulnerable coming into this Ashes series. They had injury concerns for their bowlers, the batting looked like a 16-hand in Blackjack—stick or hold —and the experience/leadership seemed less combative than previously. England missed opportunities, and Australia rallied when needed, as they inherently do. It’s 3-1, and the Ashes are safe, but there are holes to fill and talent to bring along if Australia want to extend their hold on Test cricket.
Read the full post here.
OK, that might do it. And for 2026?
Simply, I wish that I am pulling together ‘a year in review’ for 2026, enjoying looking back over a great year in cricket and life, and that I am looking forward to 2027 with the same enthusiasm that I feel now.
Sorry, I have to say this. If you are a subscriber, great, it is so good to have you here. If you are still considering taking up a paid subscription and might be in a position to do so, I can’t tell you here how much that will help me keep SpeakingCricket moving forward. All I can promise back—not an Atlas—is that I will continue to look for the stories within stories and bring them to you the best I can.
Best Regards,
Nick