All out Cricket (AOC) is a relative newcomer to the sports magazine market, and according to its web site, sets out to deliver a more informal, ‘contemporary lifestyle’ approach to the game. AOC also promises to use it’s close links to the Professional Cricketers’ Association to give ‘unprecedented access to the players’, and put forward their views.

That all sounds good, but in reality AOC is a bit of a mixed bag.

Increased player access turns out to mean a couple more interviews than normal with current country pros, who, lets face it, are unlikely to say anything too exciting whilst still under contract. In addition AOC’s idea of a ‘contemporary lifestyle’ doesn’t appear to include being interested in match reports and scorecards. You’re left wondering if part of that is due to a publication linked to the PCA being reluctant to be overly critical of players.

Many of the articles - player profiles being a good example - are overly brief, with space taken up by photos and/or eye-catching illustrations. This gives the writer little chance to cover the subject in enough depth to give it real impact. Perhaps this ‘keep it light’ attitude explains occasions when the depths of ‘Lad Mag’ culture are plumbed. Such as the three pages devoted to a “Food & Drink Ashes”, which could have been lifted straight out of an issue of ‘Loaded’ from ten years ago. Elsewhere ‘guest editor’ Darren Gough recreates the Karachi 2000 test with a table top cricket game and darkened room - an item so amateurish it would embarrass a teenage fanzine.

What’s frustrating is that there are good articles on offer, but they get lost in the filler. There’s an excellent piece comparing the technique of Ponting & Bradman, but it’s restricted to a single page. Similarly news of the “Chance to Shine” project takes up just 200 words in the midst of a seventeen page section called “The Bumper” that is so lightweight it threatens to float off the page.

Given some of the stuffiness surrounding the game, there is nothing wrong in turning the tables and not taking cricket too seriously. But you need to understand where the line is, over which you have started to treat your readership in the same way. If a cricket magazine wants to introduce humour, it can be done within the framework of articles that are relevant to understanding the game, without having to go down the route taken by AOC.

Verdict: There is potential here for a good magazine, and one with a slightly differing slant on the game: the players view. But to achieve that, quality control needs to be tightened up, and the humour improved out of sight.

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