Online Sources and Notes

This page will really only make sense for people who own Young Lions Sometimes Roar (and if you don’t – well, why not?)

Although I listed my references at the back of the book, I ended up taking the live hyperlinks out – they made no sense for the paperback edition, and they just looked messy in the eBook.

Instead, I’ve put them here, along with a few other extra notes, comments and digressions.

All links were checked and live as of 14 August 2026.

1. A Day at the Cricket

‘Colin Graves: Former Yorkshire chairman says he never witnessed racism at the club’ (2023), Sky Sports, https://web.archive.org/web/20240128221734/https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/12899526/colin-graves-former-yorkshire-chairman-says-he-never-witnessed-racism-at-the-club

Hopps, David (2022) ‘“I have moved on with my life”: Andrew Gale refuses to defend ECB racism charge,’ ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/yorkshire-racism-crisis-i-have-moved-on-with-my-life-andrew-gale-refuses-to-defend-ecb-racism-charge-1322293

‘Michael Vaughan cleared of racism charge by ECB disciplinary committee’ (2023), ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/michael-vaughan-announces-that-he-has-been-cleared-of-making-alleged-racist-comment-by-ecb-cdc-1365833

Paley, Tony (2021) ‘Yorkshire part company with entire coaching staff in wake of racism scandal’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/03/yorkshire-part-company-with-entire-coaching-staff-in-wake-of-racism-scandal-cricket

Roller, Matt (2022) ‘Positive cricket and Australian coaches: how Rob Key's vision for England reboot might look’, ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/positive-cricket-and-australian-coaches-how-rob-key-s-vision-for-england-reboot-might-look-1311348

‘Yorkshire: Ex-players found to have used racist language handed fines and bans’ (2023), BBC Sport, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/65723669

‘Yorkshire racism case: Andrew Gale will not engage with disciplinary process’ (2022), BBC Sport, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/61978628

Notes: Young Lions Sometimes Roar is not really about anything to do with the Yorkshire racism case, but given that I was attending the club’s matches during the 2022 season, and it was – rightly – the dominant topic in English cricket at the time, it would have been disingenuous not to mention it.

2. Not So Young Lions

Barker, Philip (2015) ‘Cricket tour that gave Lawton plenty to write about’, Sports Journalists’ Association, https://www.sportsjournalists.co.uk/sports-broadcasting/cricket-tour-that-gave-lawton-plenty-to-write-about/

Johnson, Martin (1993) ‘TCCB orders shaven image for England’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket-tccb-orders-shaven-image-for-england-1497052.html

Sky Sports Cricket (2021) Spinwash ’93, Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX51IxYUrzs

Notes: A good piece here on the background to Sky’s cricket coverage in 1990 and the ‘Young Lions’ promo video. The first time I had heard it was on the 1993 tour to India, and a snippet of this version can be heard in the second episode of the Spinwash documentary – a must watch, incidentally, for anyone interested in this disastrous tour.

Not knowing the history, I imagined ‘Young Lions’ to be a cheaper version of the more famous ‘All New Ball Game’ campaign that foreshadowed the inaugural Premier League season, but it was actually conceived as an English version of the Australian theme ‘C’mon Aussie, C’mon’. (I also hadn’t realised that the latter dated back to the late 70s and World Series Cricket, only having experienced a subsequent 90s version that features Steve Waugh trying to smile and Michael Slater miming a guitar solo on his bat.)

3. Ball of the Century

Moore, Glenn (1993) ‘McDermott a casualty of Border's war of words: Australian captain lays down the law during tourists’ victory while the England selectors prepare to chew over the one-day possibilities’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket-mcdermott-a-casualty-of-border-s-war-of-words-australian-captain-lays-down-the-law-during-tourists-victory-while-the-england-selectors-prepare-to-chew-over-the-oneday-possibilities-2322164.html

Vagg, Stephen (2022) ‘Shane Warne’s standout tour of New Zealand in 1993’, The Roar, https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/03/10/shane-warnes-standout-tour-of-new-zealand-in-1993/

‘Warne’s first act of Ashes deception: The Hick tour game mauling that bluffed England into taking the leggie lightly’ (2021), Wisden.com, https://www.wisden.com/cricket-news/warnes-first-act-of-ashes-deception-the-hick-tour-game-mauling-that-bluffed-england-into-taking-the-leggie-lightly

Williamson, Martin (2005) ‘Mike Gatting’s annus horribilis’, ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/mike-gatting-s-annus-horribilis-141453

Notes: For some reason, an incident between Craig McDermott and Allan Border during a tour match against Somerset in 1993 seems to have entered Ashes folklore – possibly because a TV crew managed to capture Border’s outburst, which rather summed up his no-nonsense attitude and image. (‘Hey, hey, hey, hey! I'm f***ing talking to you... Do that again and you will be on the next plane home, son... You f***ing test me and you'll see.’) As it turned out, McDermott did later go home injured, and the Aussies didn’t seem to need him.

4. Flipping Excellent Chap

Johnson, Martin (1993) ‘Cricket: England share Dexter’s resigned air: The Test and County Cricket Board begins searching for new chairman of selectors as Australia take 4-0 lead in the Ashes series’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket-england-share-dexters-resigned-air-the-test-and-county-cricket-board-begins-searching-for-new-chairman-of-selectors-as-australia-take-40-lead-in-the-ashes-series-1460341.html

Notes: This was mainly to confirm my memory that Ted Dexter’s resignation as chairman of selectors was announced during the Edgbaston Test of 1993 and greeted by cheers from the crowd.

6. That’s Out!

Campbell, Paul (2012) ‘From the Vault: Kevin Keegan resigns in a Wembley toilet’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/oct/09/from-the-vault-kevin-keegan-resigns-wembley-toilet

Edwards, Paul (2022), ‘Yorkshire's lower-order recovery cannot heal club's self-inflicted wounds’, ESPN, https://www.espn.com/cricket/series/8052/report/1297759/day/1/yorkshire-vs-hampshire-51st-match-county-championship-division-one-2022

Notes: I was very sad to hear the news that Kevin Keegan had passed away. Keegan always seemed like a decent sort, his earnestness and honesty rather setting him apart from an increasingly cynical sporting environment in the 90s and 00s.

The piece linked to here captures the tone of the press criticism in the aftermath of his resignation as England manager. I had a memory that he referred to himself in the third person during his on-screen resignation, but none of the quotes I could find quite tally with what I remembered him saying. He probably didn’t say it, in that case: what’s more likely is that I had combined his remark here (‘I just feel that for Kevin Keegan there is nothing more in football I want to do’) with that of then-FA chief executive Adam Crozier: ‘I think Kevin Keegan knew he was making the right decision for Kevin Keegan.’

8. Stumped

Petropoulos, Thrasy (2000) ‘White built for speed’, BBC Sport, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/911483.stm

Notes: I couldn’t quite find the right way to fit this into the book, but I loved Craig White, and nothing delighted me more than his early-00s success upon earning an England recall. It irritated me when he was continually referred to as a medium-pacer, of the same ilk as mid-90s rivals Ronnie Irani and Mark Ealham, when his slingy pace was common knowledge in county cricket. It was only when speedometers became a common feature of TV coverage that people seemed to accept that White could bowl genuinely fast.

9. Dirt in the Pocket

Coverdale, David (2021) ‘England must start with a bang in Brisbane to win back the Ashes urn... Sadly, they have a history of day-one DISASTERS at the Gabba, with Phil DeFreitas, Nasser Hussain and Steve Harmison all culpable’, Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.com/sport/cricket/article-10255533/England-start-bang-Brisbane-win-Ashes-history-against-them.html

Oliver, Scott (2017) ‘I saw some of the so-called tough guys of world cricket tremble’, Wisden Cricket Monthly, https://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1111590/i-was-there-devon-malcolm-s-match-winning-nine-wicket-haul-at-the-oval-against-south-africa-in-1994

Notes: I was reluctant to say that the South African batting line-up were scared of Devon Malcolm’s bowling during the 1994 Oval Test without at least some kind of backup from those who were there. There’s also a great little detail from Phil DeFreitas (I don’t mean his comments to the Daily Mail about Mike Gatting ‘probably having 10 sausage rolls for breakfast’) in the Wisden Cricket Monthly piece about receiving contradictory advice from coach Keith Fletcher and chairman of selectors Ray Illingworth as he made his way out to bat earlier in the same match.

10. The Muppet Show

Hayter, Peter (2006) ‘Next Botham: the quest ends’, ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/248047.html

Johnson, Martin (1995) ‘Atherton advocates youth movement’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/atherton-advocates-youth-movement-1572112.html

Tennant, Ivo (2020) ‘Keith Fletcher: “We only had four or five Test players - the rest weren't good enough”’, ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/keith-fletcher-we-only-had-four-or-five-test-players-the-rest-weren-t-good-enough-1222888

Turberville, Huw (2021) ‘Ashes Chronicles - Part 14: A tour too far for Gooch and Gatting as Atherton blames system failure for Warne-out England in 1994/95’, The Cricketer, https://www.thecricketer.com/topics/features/ashes_chronicles_part_14_tour_too_far_for_gooch_gatting_atherton_blames_system_failure_1994_95.html

Notes: The Peter Hayter piece (which, by the looks of things, was originally published in Wisden) is a pretty good summary of the struggles experiences by various ‘New Botham’ candidates in the 80s and 90s, although it doesn’t mention Darren Gough, who was briefly considered a possible candidate after some batting heroics in the 1994/5 Ashes.

I was also interested to read Keith Fletcher’s assertion that picking Mark Ramprakash ahead of Nasser Hussain in the 1993/4 series in the West Indies was a source of regret. Some good stuff too on Graeme Hick and Chris Lewis, and Fletcher’s relationship with Ray Illingworth.

11. What You Have to Say Now, Atherton?

McRae, Donald (2011) ‘Alastair Cook: Who wouldn't want to captain England's Test team?’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/oct/10/alastair-cook-england-cricket-interview

Notes: Despite appearances, the title of this chapter has absolutely nothing to do with Atherton’s remarks about Alistair Cook being a ‘plodder’ and a ‘donkey’. Atherton wasn’t the most dynamic performer in one-day cricket (‘It takes one to know one, I suppose,’ remarked Cook at the time), but the unified captaincy and supremacy of Test cricket meant that his status as captain in that format was rarely questioned and he remained in the team until he resigned in early 1998.

13. Sick on the Pitch

Culley, John (1996) ‘Reeve’s antics backfire on Warwickshire’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/reeve-s-antics-backfire-on-warwickshire-1348511.html

Llewellyn, David (1996) ‘Illingworth may face disciplinary action’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/illingworth-may-face-disciplinary-action-1348656.html

‘Michael Atherton Comes Under Attack’ (1996), ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/michael-atherton-comes-under-attack-10-nov-1996-72583

O’Hagan, Simon (1996) ‘Cricket: Illingworth shuts door on Botham’, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket-illingworth-shuts-door-on-botham-1306072.html

‘Reeve admits to cocaine addiction’ (2005), ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/reeve-admits-to-cocaine-addiction-209774

‘Reeve warned by Channel 4 bosses’ (2004), ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/reeve-warned-by-channel-4-bosses-141221

Notes: Quite a bit on Dermot Reeve, both on and off the field, here: Reeve was one person who actually did come out and criticise Atherton in the media after a tepid showing in the 1996 World Cup. His odd behaviour while commentating during the 2004 Test series against New Zealand and the evident irritation of colleague Simon Hughes (‘Come up with something more original, Dermot’) have also always stuck in the memory.

14. Bumble, Ian and Roger

Mitchell, Kevin (2005) ‘Brown left behind by new breed of hitter’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2005/may/08/cricket.ashes2005

Notes: Surrey’s Alistair Brown was another of my unsung 90s favourites. Although I think the attempt in this piece to describe Kevin Pietersen as a ‘new breed’ of ODI batsman is slightly overstated, it was a good reminder that Brown was quite an orthodox, clean-striking hitter (Surrey team-mate Trevor Ward: ‘He should get 12 for some of those sixes’) despite being branded ‘a clown’ by The Times after his England debut in 1996.

15. We Flippin’ Murdered ‘Em

‘Cork's a show pony! Geoff Boycott's damning verdict – but Dominic hits back’ (1997), The Sunday Mirror, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Cork%27s+a+show+pony!%3B+Geoff+Boycott%27s+damning+verdict+-+but+Dominic...-a061146858

Dobell, George (2001) ‘Giddins delighted with Surrey deal’, ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/giddins-delighted-with-surrey-deal-100091

Nicholas, Mark (1997) ‘Botham puts his weight behind the team’, The Telegraph, https://i.imgci.com/db/ARCHIVE/1996-97/ENG_IN_ZIM/ARTICLES/BOTHAM_WEIGHT_TEAM_30DEC1996.html

Notes: The fact that Geoffrey Boycott called Dominic Cork a ‘show pony’ is fairly well documented, although Cork’s (likely not entirely serious) suggestion that the two could hammer out their differences live on TV perhaps slightly less so. The reference to Ronnie Irani in the Mark Nicholas piece as Ian Botham’s ‘prodigal boy’ captures that brief moment when Botham was touting Irani as a possible successor, which I think is often forgotten. And maybe most people don’t need confirmation that Ed Giddins once sold Christmas trees with Nadeem Shahid, but I do.

16. Hopes Turned to Ashes

Oliver, Scott (2014) ‘It burnt to be told I didn't have the heart to play as a bowler’, The Cricket Monthly, https://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/725159/dean-headley-it-burnt-to-be-told-i-didn-t-have-the-heart-to-play-as-a-bowler

Notes: An interview with Dean Headley, a fine bowler whose career was cut short by injury just prior to the introduction of ECB central contracts. He struggled, along with Andy Caddick, on the 1997/8 tour of the West Indies, and several team-mates later contrasted his willingness to accept responsibility for poor bowling with Caddick’s reluctance to do the same. In retrospect, both were valid reactions to public criticism, and it seems a little harsh for Caddick’s response to have been held against him in selection: there is something to be said for maintaining an iron-clad belief in your own abilities, even if Headley’s honesty may have gone down better with his team, the media and general public.

17. The Gaffer

Martin-Jenkins, Christopher (1998) ‘Salisbury is the key to unlocking South Africa’, The Telegraph, https://i.imgci.com/db/ARCHIVE/1998/RSA_IN_ENG/ARTICLES/CMJ_ENG_TEST_SQUAD_26MAY1998.html

Smyth, Rob (2017) ‘“The nastiest match I ever played in”: England v South Africa, Headingley 1998’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jul/04/england-south-africa-1998-the-spin

Notes: My memory is that several cricket correspondents believed that the summer of 1998 was when leg-spinner Ian Salisbury would finally come good in an England shirt. This is the kind of broadsheet article that I would have eagerly lapped up prior to a Test summer: confident, reasonable-sounding, written by a seasoned and respected journalist, and also – as it turns out – quite wrong on a number of counts. Nothing against the late CMJ (none of us can predict the future!) but quite an amusing piece to look back on in hindsight: spin played little part in the series, with England’s slow bowlers, Salisbury among them, taking only one wicket between them.

Also a great overview of the bad-tempered decider at Headingley from Rob Smyth. Various English accounts of Mark Butcher/Mark Boucher incident seem to dance around the nature of the abuse directed at Butcher, although interestingly Boucher’s team-mate Allan Donald seemed pretty clear it was something unacceptable in the context of being ‘a South African, representing a new country’.

19. Life is a Carnival

Atherton, Mike (2019) ‘The story of England’s 44-year World Cup journey by those who were there’, The Times, https://www.thetimes.com/sport/cricket/article/the-story-of-englands-44-year-world-cup-journey-by-those-who-were-there-86356lr8r

Harman, Jo (2019) ‘Nightmare of ’99: Lloyd, Stewart, Hollioake recall disastrous Cricket World Cup campaign’, Wisden Cricket Monthly, https://web.archive.org/web/20230604180426/https://www.wisden.com/stories/magazine/cricket-world-cup-the-nightmare-of-99

Notes: I was sure I had heard someone tell the tale of Darren Gough referring to himself as ‘the David Beckham of cricket’. In the end I had to pay for a subscription to The Times to receive confirmation, via team-mate Angus Fraser, in this piece by Mike Atherton. (I also established that, if you buy a subscription to The Times, you have to phone up to cancel it.)

20. The Worst Team in the World

BBC Sport (2002) ‘Colly confused by walkout’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/1781767.stm

Hughes, Simon (2021) ‘When cricket got better: A revolutionary time’, The Cricketer, https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/features/channel_4_2005_ashes_memories_simon_hughes_when_cricket_got_better.html

Le Saux, Graeme (2007) ‘How gay slurs almost wrecked my career’, The Times, https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/how-gay-slurs-almost-wrecked-my-career-0q5cm5g92sr

Selvey, Mike (1999) ‘Graveney in limbo after England shake-up’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/1999/aug/12/cricket

Notes: Lots of quite grim detail about the realities of 90s football in the extract from Graeme Le Saux’s autobiography, but I was interested to read about the aftermath of his clash with Robbie Fowler, specifically Kevin Keegan’s apparent assumption that the situation would be quickly resolved with a handshake and a photo when they were subsequently both called up for England duty.

21. What an Innings, What a Player!

Miller, Andrew (2021) ‘Hot house to dog house: James Bracey may struggle to escape shadow of torrid England debut’, ESPNCricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/eng-vs-nz-2021-james-bracey-may-struggle-to-escape-shadow-of-torrid-england-debut-1266628

Notes: Watching James Bracey play – and play quite well – for Gloucestershire in 2022, I recalled his difficult England debut the previous year and the parallels with his 90s equivalent, Yorkshire’s Richard Blakey. Andrew Miller makes the same connection here in a piece that now seems sadly prescient. I thought of Bracey again after James Rew endured a tricky time under similar circumstances (and against the same opposition) earlier this year: another case of England wanting to look at a promising young batsman, unexpectedly giving him the gloves as well, and hoping for the best.

22. Tired of the Nineties

Shemilt, Stephan (2024) ‘‘‘Arguably we shouldn't have gone” – Root on 2021-22 Ashes’, BBC Sport, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cd1rkmmvpd4o

Notes: Possibly not a popular opinion, particularly among Australians, but I agree with Joe Root (and Stuart Broad) on the COVID Ashes series: a grim and entirely unnecessary spectacle, carried out under duress.