Jarrod Kimber (born 7 January 1980) is an Australian cricket writer and film-maker. He came to prominence as the founder of the cricketwithballs blog, before working as editor of SPIN Magazine and then as a writer for ESPNcricinfo. He has written five books on cricket and was jointly responsible for the award winning film Death of a Gentleman.

Early life

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Kimber was born and raised in Melbourne and attended Epping Secondary College. He studied film at Footscray City College before moving to London in 2008.[citation needed]

Journalism

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Kimber first came to prominence as the founder of the cricketwithballs blog,[1] which according to Cricinfo: "invented a style that spawned an army of imitators who could never quite match him."[2] He was the editor of SPIN Magazine in 2011, and went on to work for ESPNCricinfo as global writer.[3] For ESPNcricinfo he created many online video shows, such as The Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths,[4] On the Road, #PoliteEnquiries and Two men out (with Andy Zaltzman). For a time he co-hosted Cricket Week [5] a show on Talksport 2.

He was nominated for Best New Writer in the National Sporting Club Book Awards 2010 for his book Ashes 2009: When Freddie Became Jesus.[6] In relation to his 2011 book Australian Autopsy, The Guardian described him as "one of the most original cricket writers around."[7] He also provided the cover photo for P Diddy's album Last Train to Paris.

Kimber has been also been published in Wisden,[8] Dawn, The Ringer, The Independent,[9] The Cauldron[10] and many other publications worldwide.

In 2020 he started hosting his own general sports show on talkSPORT called “The Dive”. [11]

On May 16, 2018 he announced via his Twitter feed that he was taking a sabbatical from ESPNCricinfo to work as an analyst for the St Lucia Stars.[12] Later he would work for several other cricket teams, including being analyst for the Scotland Men's team. [13]

Film-making

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Along with Sam Collins, he co-directed and co-wrote the documentary film Death of a Gentleman (2015) which had theatrical release throughout the cricket world and now appears on Netflix. The film details what the film-makers see as the short-sighted governance of cricket by the leaders of the International Cricket Council, in particular that the sport was being run for the benefit of its richest members: India, England and Australia.[14][15][16] The film won the creators a Sports Journalists award for Best TV documentary.[17]

Commentating

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Kimber was a regular guest on online cricket commentary show Test Match Sofa.[18] He was a member of the ABC Radio Grandstand radio commentary team for the Australian 2013–14 tour of South Africa and India's tour of Australia in 2014–15.[19] He has commentated for talkSPORT 2 for the Champions trophy, IPL and various England tours.[20]

Books

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  • Ashes 2009: When Freddie Became Jesus (2009)
  • The Year of the Balls 2008: A Disrespective (2010)
  • Australian Autopsy: The Gory Details of How England Dissected Australia in the 2010/11 Ashes (2011)
  • Test Cricket: The Unauthorised Biography (2016)
  • The Lillee of Campbellfield (2018)

Podcasts

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Kimber started a podcast on Spotify named "Double Century with Jarrod Kimber" in June 2020. Nick McCorriston has co-produced the series.[21]

He presents unheard stories about history of cricket, and the people who have built the game. Over the years, five seasons have been released with a total of 67 episodes.

References

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  1. ^ "cricket with balls". cricket with balls. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Argus it ain't". Cricinfo. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  3. ^ "The start of a billion-dollar event, really?". 8 March 2016.
  4. ^ "The Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths". ESPN Cricinfo.
  5. ^ Cricket Week
  6. ^ "British Sports Book Awards". Archived from the original on 11 September 2011.
  7. ^ "County cricket – as it happened". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  8. ^ "Jarrod kimber Archives".
  9. ^ "Jarrod Kimber". Independent.co.uk.
  10. ^ "Swimming with the Shark". 12 April 2016.
  11. ^ "Jonny Owen joins Mark Webster at talkSPORT". 25 May 2020.
  12. ^ @ajarrodkimber (16 May 2018). "So I'm taking a short sabbatical from cricinfo…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER: Meet Jarrod Kimber (2019). YouTube.
  14. ^ Bull, Andy (28 July 2015). "Death of a Gentleman: call it optimistic, call it idealistic, but it's right | Andy Bull". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  15. ^ Atherton, Mike (6 August 2015). "Power brokers fail their big screen test". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  16. ^ Heffer, Simon (31 August 2015). "The enemy within cricket is killing the game". Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  17. ^ "Death of a Gentleman scoops prestigious Sports Journalists' Association award". Cricinfo. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  18. ^ Chris, Stocks (10 March 2011). "Test match Sofa: Trust me, you'll enjoy it". Metro Sport.
  19. ^ "ABC Grandstand - Posts". ABC Grandstand Facebook. 6 January 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  20. ^ "How talkSPORT presenter's painful mishap left Ben Stokes in disgust!". talkSPORT. 9 October 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  21. ^ Kimber, Jarrod. "Double Century with Jarrod Kimber". Spotify. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
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