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