Simon Peter Hughes (born 20 December 1959), also known as The Analyst, is an English

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and journalist.

Background

He is the son of the actor Peter Hughes, and the brother of the classical historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes.

Cricket career

Latymer Upper School Latymer Upper School is a public school in Hammersmith, London, England, on King Street. It derives from a charity school, and is part of the same 1624 Latymer Foundation, from a bequest by the English legal official Edward Latymer. There ...

he was an outstanding fast medium bowler of away-swing and captained the school XI. He went on to study general arts at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

, and played for the university. He joined

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

in 1980 and played for them for 12 seasons, culminating in his benefit season of 1991. He subsequently spent two seasons (1992–1993) playing for Durham. Hughes also played for

Northern Transvaal Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

in South Africa during the winter of 1982–83, and the Grafton United Cricket Club in Auckland in the 1987–1988 season. Part of a successful Middlesex side, Hughes helped them win the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

in 1980, 1982, 1985 and 1990. Hughes also appeared in Middlesex victories in the finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1986, the Refuge Assurance Cup in 1990, and the

NatWest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

in 1984 and 1988. In the latter final he took 4–30, and he was often entrusted with bowling overs late on in the innings (sometimes called "death bowling") in limited-over cricket. He had a less happy experience in the final of the

in 1989, bowling the last over as Middlesex were defeated by

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

Journalism

Hughes retired in 1993 to concentrate on a writing career which had begun as a player for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' with the widely acclaimed Cricketer's Diary. In 1994 he joined ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' as a columnist and became the BBC's roving reporter on Test matches. He has worked as a journalist for ''The Independent'', ''

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. He edited '' The Cricketer'' magazine for seven years (2014–2021). He has written ten books, including the autobiographical '' A Lot of Hard Yakka'' (for which he won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 1997), ''Yakking Around the World'' (which dealt with his experiences as a county cricketer during and between cricket seasons), ''Jargonbusting'' (a guide to

cricket terminology This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in c ...

) ''Morning Everyone: An Ashes Odyssey'', ''And God Created Cricket'', (a history of the game) and ''Who Wants to Be a Batsman?''. He is also known for his work as The Analyst on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's cricket coverage (from 1999 to 2005), winning the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

's Sports pundit of the Year award in 2002, where he spent matches in a VT trailer, watching replays and drawing viewers' attention to particular details. Channel 4's cricket coverage won 28 awards in its seven-year span, including six

Bafta The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

s. He was a commentator/analyst on Cricket on 5 with Sir Geoffrey Boycott and

Mark Nicholas Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas (born 29 September 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer and broadcaster. He played for Hampshire County Cricket Club, Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retireme ...

(with whom he worked on Channel 4). He originally signed up for the programme from 2006 to 2010 when the deal expired, with the ECB. On England's December 2007 Test match tour of Sri Lanka he was a summariser on the BBC's ''

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...

'', and a commentator for the ODI series against the West Indies in 2009. In 2010 he again joined the ''Test Match Special'' team commentating on the tour of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and the One Day Series against Australia. He has commentated on many home and overseas series for the BBC since and was the analyst for ITV4's coverage of the 2010 Indian Premier League up to the 2015 Indian Premier League. Until 2018, he was The Analyst on Channel 5's evening highlights programme' until he was replaced by Alison Mitchell. He commentates on

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

and

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

and writes for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

''. He also produced the analysis segments for the international coverage of the 2019 ICC World Cup including the final. In 2021 he produced a tenth book, ''A New Innings'', co-written with Manoj Badale, owner of the Rajasthan Royals, detailing how the IPL reinvented the game and provides lessons for the business of sport. He presents and produces a regular podcast – The Analyst Inside Cricket – with the BBC's

Simon Mann Simon Francis Mann (26 June 1952 – 8 May 2025) was a British officer in the Special Air Service (SAS), and later a mercenary. He trained to be an officer at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Scots Guards. He later became a member of t ...

. Most recently he has formed a media production company, Starfield Films, with his next-door neighbour, the director Ashley Gething. In partnership with Sylver Entertainment they have produced a cinematic documentary, ''The Greatest Game'', retelling the story of England's 2019 World Cup triumph through the prism of the players and their families.

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

called it "one of the best sporting documentaries I have ever seen".

Mobile application

To bring together content in a digital form previously only available in his books and to consolidate his news, views and insights, prior to the

Cricket World Cup The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial world cup for cricket in One Day International (ODI) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is one of the world's most viewed sporting events and consid ...

(March 2011) he launched the Cricket Analyst

mobile application A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

on the

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Android. devices in partnership with Anton Christodoulou.

Bibliography

*''From Minor to Major'' (1992),

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H ...

( Teach Yourself), "the story of Durham's first first-class season from the inside", *'' A Lot of Hard Yakka'' (1997), Headline Book Publishing, *''Yakking Around the World: A Cricketer's Quest for Love and Utopia'' (2001),

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...

, *''Jargonbusting'', (2002), Channel 4 Books, *''Morning Everyone: An Ashes Odyssey'' *''And God Created Cricket'' *''Cricket's Greatest Rivalry: A History of the Ashes in 10 Matches'' (2013),

Cassell Illustrated Cassell is a British book publishing house founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell plc acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell plc wa ...

, * ''Who Wants to Be a Batsman?'' (2015) * ''A New Innings'' (2020) with Manoj Badale.

References

External links

Cricinfo Player Profile : Simon Peter HughesProfile of Simon Hughes and the Five Cricket Team
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Simon 1959 births Living people English cricketers Durham cricketers Alumni of University College, Durham Middlesex cricketers Northerns cricketers English male journalists English sportswriters English cricket commentators Cricketers from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames People from Kingston upon Thames Cricket writers Test and County Cricket Board XI cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen