Jarrod Kimber

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, which according to Cricinfo: "invented a style that spawned an army of imitators who could never quite match him." He was the editor of SPIN Magazine in 2011, and went on to work for ESPNCricinfo as global writer. For ESPNcricinfo he created many online video shows, such as The Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths, On the Road, #PoliteEnquiries and Two men out (with Andy Zaltzman). For a time he co-hosted Cricket Week 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. In relation to his 2011 book Australian Autopsy, The Guardian described him as "one of the most original cricket writers around." He also provided the cover photo for P Diddy's album Last Train to Paris.

Kimber has been also been published in Wisden, Dawn, The Ringer, The Independent, The Cauldron and many other publications worldwide.

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

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. Later he would work for several other cricket teams, including being analyst for the Scotland Men's team.

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. The film won the creators a Sports Journalists award for Best TV documentary.

Commentating

Kimber was a regular guest on online cricket commentary show Test Match Sofa. 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. He has commentated for talkSPORT 2 for the Champions trophy, IPL and various England tours.

Books

• Ashes 2009: When Freddie Became Jesus (2009)
• The Year of the Balls 2008: A Disrespective (2010)
• Australian Autopsy (2011)
• Test Cricket: The Unauthorised Biography (2016)
• The Lillee of Campbellfield (2018)
• Overthrowing Cricket's Empire (2024)
• The Art of Batting (2024)

Podcasts

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

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

References

1. "cricket with balls".
2. (10 November 2011). "Argus it ain't".
3. (8 March 2016). "The start of a billion-dollar event, really?".
4. "The Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths". ESPN Cricinfo.
5. [https://talksport.com/cricket-week-podcast Cricket Week]
6. "British Sports Book Awards".
7. "County cricket – as it happened". The Guardian.
8. "Jarrod kimber Archives".
9. "Jarrod Kimber".
10. (12 April 2016). "Swimming with the Shark".
11. (25 May 2020). "Jonny Owen joins Mark Webster at talkSPORT".
12. (16 May 2018). "So I’m taking a short sabbatical from cricinfo…".
13. "T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER: Meet Jarrod Kimber (2019)".
14. Bull, Andy. (2015-07-28). "Death of a Gentleman: call it optimistic, call it idealistic, but it's right {{!}} Andy Bull". The Guardian.
15. Atherton, Mike. (2015-08-06). "Power brokers fail their big screen test". [[The Times]].
16. Heffer, Simon. (2015-08-31). "The enemy within cricket is killing the game". Daily Telegraph.
17. (2016-02-22). "Death of a Gentleman scoops prestigious Sports Journalists' Association award".
18. Chris, Stocks. (10 March 2011). "Test match Sofa: Trust me, you'll enjoy it". [[Metro (British newspaper).
19. (January 6, 2015). "ABC Grandstand - Posts". ABC Grandstand Facebook.
20. (2018-10-09). "How talkSPORT presenter's painful mishap left Ben Stokes in disgust!".
21. Kimber, Jarrod. "Double Century with Jarrod Kimber".