Percy Fender - Cricket Journalism

Cricket Journalism

While still a cricketer, Fender wrote for several London newspapers and magazines, and also broadcast on the radio. Although remaining in England, he commented on the 1924–25 Ashes series for the Sunday Express and became involved in an argument which arose during the tour over the merits of professional captaincy; Fender believed professionals would make good captains. He also wrote about the 1926 series, and drew criticism from Australians when he called their sportsmanship into question. He later wrote regularly for the Evening News and The Star; to the irritation of other journalists, he became the first man to use a typewriter in the press box.

Fender wrote four books on cricket tours: his 1920–21 account Defending the Ashes, an account of the 1928–29 tour which he covered as a journalist, and books about the 1930 and 1934 Australian tours of England. A fifth book, more autobiographical in nature, followed later. The Times described Fender as "an astute critic of the game" whose accounts were "well-observed and analytical". Wisden found his writing outspoken at times, but rated his four tour books as among the best available. In 2012, the cricket journalist Steven Lynch wrote that Fender "can probably be credited with revolutionising the tour book. Previously they were often travelogues, but Fender included serious in-depth analysis of the play, backed up with copious statistics".