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
editKimber 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
editKimber 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
editAlong 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
editKimber 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
edit- 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
editKimber 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
edit- ^ "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". Independent.co.uk.
- ^ "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
edit- Jarrod Kimber on Twitter
- List of articles at ESPNcricinfo