No run Walking cricket gives over-50s a taste of Bazball and bonhomie

In Lawrence Booth and Nick Hoult's terrific book on the subject, James Anderson is asked what Bazball means to him. "Bazball is trying to encourage people to get back to the kid in you," he says.

- Rob Smyth

"How you imagined the game would be: exciting, fast and fun." Some of the purest forms of Bazball are being played in leisure centres up and down the country. Walking cricket has given thousands of older people the chance to reconnect with their inner child, to remember how exciting and fun (OK, maybe not fast) cricket can be and, like any self-respecting Bazballer, to hit sixes. While 50-over cricket is having a bit of an existential crisis, over-50s cricket is thriving. If he's not still taking wickets at Test level, Anderson will be eligible to play himself in September 2032.

The one fast thing about walking cricket is its growth. Participation numbers are rising rapidly and last year The One Show sent Angela Rippon to Yorkshire to do a feature on it. More recently, in March, the indoor school at Lord's hosted the inaugural intercounty walking cricket festival. "It was an amazing day at Lord's," says Aimee Illidge, a project officer with Kent Cricket Community Trust, the charitable arm of Kent CCC. "We realised then how big walking cricket is becoming. All the counties have thriving teams." At the end of last month, on a brisk Monday morning, I visited the Three Hills Sports Centre in Folkestone, Kent, to see how walking cricket works. As you'd expect there are a few adjustments to the official rules, but it is recognisably cricket. Everyone has the same involvement - if you are out, you keep batting but the bowling team is awarded five runs.