Welcome to Twenty Two Yards, a weekly newsletter celebrating cricket's culture and characters.

In this issue:

• Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and astroturf pitches

• Building a new cricket fashion empire

• 500 for Kohli

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England’s Uncapped Potential

By Ollie Goodwin

As Chris Woakes and Mark Wood knocked off the winning runs last week in another Ashes nailbiter, it made me think about my cricketing experiences.

Two players, born, raised, and educated for free in England. Comprehensive School cricketers. Did they also play on astroturf wickets covered in dog shit? Uneven football pitches re-purposed during the summer months? Sharing 3 sets of kit and other people's sweat soaking the gloves and helmet?

In my time, people didn't have whites. They pretended to know all the field names, "silly mid-off mate, yea!". Tatty, covered in grass stains, but the game was ours all the same.

On those astroturf pitches, those comprehensive schools, those uncovered wickets, lies an uncapped potential. It's where Mark Wood came from, Jimmy Anderson (a gentle reminder he's England's greatest, just to make sure), Jofra, Woakes, and so many more. A badge of honour.

If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere. We'll come to your thousand-pound term school and take five wickets. We'll score a ton with a kit that doesn't fit properly. I don't care if that bat cost £400, mate. You won't be getting any runs with it today.

Cricket has a paywall
45% of the men employed to play county cricket educated in the UK come from a private school. 7% of the population attend independent schools. The latest ECB reports another flashing red light and indictment to the UK's establishments and systems that govern the game. A bare look into just how elitist the game is in England.

But there's got to be hope
Not only did Woody and Woakes keep the Ashes alive, but they offered an alternate universe where the catchment for England players isn't a pool of 7 or 8 prestigious private schools. Mark Wood bowls cricket balls at 96.5mph. 96.5mph! Woody ripped through the Australians on the first day producing the 'fastest' spell from an Englishman. From Leeds to London, North to South, England fans loved it.

Population 27,000
Mark Wood grew up in Ashington, once the centre of the north-east's coal mining industry and one of the largest pit villages on earth. A bloke from Durham played his cricket every week for Ashington CC. Woody's whole demeanour isn't that of a privately educated man. Thick geordie accent, loves a laugh, hardcore labour supporter, oh and is absolutely rapid. He symbolises what people who don't pay for schooling in this country can achieve, and it's not half bad.

Cricket Country
If we're going to be serious, you need the money, the kit, and access to nets, balls, and coaches. All things that come at a premium. The reality is that there are so many young people out there who never get the chance. It's different from football or rugby when you can let your work do the talking.

The juxtaposition of the Headingley crowd to the Lord's Long Room was stark. Swapped out the port for pints. No brogues and colourful chinos, just people obsessed with cricket who love it for what it is. It was a perfect example of what cricket could be in this country if we give it to everyone. That spinner we've been looking for, a new opener, all-rounders. They're out there. We just need to find them.

Building a New Cricket Empire

By David Scipione

You're sitting at home - cricket is on. You notice that batsmen have begun to armour themselves like they're taking fire.

Enter James Barker just before lockdown, glued to England v South Africa. "I noticed players were getting a football shinpad and carving it up, then trying to wear it under a sweatband."

Three years later, Barker is sitting down with TTY for a behind-the-scenes look at Hard Yards, the company he co-founded, and the journey of David taking on the Goliaths of cricket apparel.

You're rolling the dice on this company, going all-in. How'd that come about?
I went to work for many sports companies like Adidas and Canterbury. Adidas were all about football shoes or running trainers, and Canterbury were all about rugby shirts.

I wondered, "Why do people spend £150 on a pair of trainers? But then they go and put their foot in a £2 sock. It makes no sense. If you try to get performance gains, why would you completely neglect the only bit of material between your foot and your trainer?

Who else got involved?
My friend, Harry Carr, who I played cricket with growing up. He's a doctor, so he's all over this. He thinks in stats, numbers, and human performance. We were having a beer and thinking, can we completely change the cricket market in a really small category?

Harry's dad, Chris, has 40+ years of manufacturing experience. We explained what we were trying to do, and he was on board. So there's three of us involved.

What was the first product?
We started putting together a sweatband with this non-Newtonian protective material, and we sent it to a few players who were all playing local professional cricket with us and liked it.

So we then took it to another stage. We started developing it, and before we knew it, we got Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett and Marnus Labuschagne all wearing it in the latest Ashes. It's like, wow, okay, maybe there is something in this, a niche, a really niche thing, but people love a quality product.

And are you paying for marketing with these athletes?
We haven't paid anyone, which is a testament to the quality of what we do. I saw Marnus Labuschagne had made a sweatband - and so I messaged him, and overnight he came back to me, and we've built a rapport from there.  

What's the next product you're getting into cricketer's hands?
Grip socks. We sent Marnus some grip socks, and he said, 'Look, I don't really wear grip socks.' He tried them one day in training, and I got a message saying, 'Hey, I tried these socks. I don't think I can wear a normal sock again. These are awesome. Can you get me some before I go to Pakistan?' So we shipped them to Australia within a week.

What's the advantage of grip socks for cricketers and other athletes?
We work with Newcastle University to put our products through testing. We want to make sure that we've tested, we've learned, we've adapted - we've done everything that we need to do to get the best product in the hands of the best players at whatever level.

We're going to spend the summer in the labs just quantifying exactly what the benefits of wearing grip socks are. We've worked with a professional basketball team in the UK to develop a basketball sock, which we'll launch later this year.

And if people are spending £150 on a pair of trainers...
This is the interesting bit because, from a Nike and Adidas point of view, if you came to them and said, 'I've got an opportunity within grip socks for fast bowlers, ' - there's a problem. It's too small.

Big brands are focusing on hero items. There is so much opportunity within the other spaces as well. I read by 2031, the athletic and grip sock market is expected to grow to $12.4 billion.

What's the current grip sock market value?
I think it's about $6 or $7 billion.

How'd you land on the name Hard Yards?
Let's face it, socks aren't sexy - but neither is a shuttle run at 5 a.m. Adidas will pay solely to get a shot of a team lifting a trophy. It's ultimately all they care about. Brands want to be involved when you're winning - and we're like - we're fine being the brand that's there when you're doing the hard yards.

Note: This interview was edited for clarity and brevity***

The Slip Corden

• Quit messing with Ben Duckett
  Did you see Ben Duckett during the national anthem? Of course, you didn’t. The camera floated over Duckett as he stood next to giants Stuart Board and Zac Crawley. Fans suggested getting him a stool for the fifth test.
  

• 500 for Kohli
  Virat Kohli is set to become the fourth Indian with 500+ international caps. Easy trivia, Tendulkar, Dhoni, and Dravid are the others. Most impressive, in those 499 international matches, he’s scored 25,461. A standing ovation is deserved for the King.

Issue: Get Up, Stand Up: The State of the West Indies
Publisher: J. LaLonde
Editor-At-Large: Angus Wilson
Contributing Writer: David Scipione
Contributing Writer: Ollie Goodwin
Illustration: Sidney Secolo