Jarrod Kimber (born 7 January 1980) is an Australian cricket writer and film-maker. He came to prominence as the founder of the cricketwithballs blog, before working as editor of SPIN Magazine and then as a writer for ESPNcricinfo . He has written five books on cricket and was jointly responsible for the award winning film Death of a Gentleman .
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.[ citation needed ]
Kimber first came to prominence as the founder of the cricketwithballs blog, [1] which according to Cricinfo: "invented a style that spawned an army of imitators who could never quite match him." [2] He was the editor of SPIN Magazine in 2011, and went on to work for ESPNCricinfo as global writer. [3] For ESPNcricinfo he created many online video shows, such as The Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths, [4] On the Road, #PoliteEnquiries and Two men out (with Andy Zaltzman). For a time he co-hosted Cricket Week [5] 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. [6] In relation to his 2011 book Australian Autopsy, The Guardian described him as "one of the most original cricket writers around." [7] He also provided the cover photo for P Diddy's album Last Train to Paris .
Kimber has been also been published in Wisden, [8] Dawn, The Ringer, The Independent, [9] The Cauldron [10] and many other publications worldwide.
In 2020 he started hosting his own general sports show on talkSPORT called “The Dive”. [11]
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. [12] Later he would work for several other cricket teams, including being analyst for the Scotland Men's team. [13]
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. [14] [15] [16] The film won the creators a Sports Journalists award for Best TV documentary. [17]
Kimber was a regular guest on online cricket commentary show Test Match Sofa . [18] 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. [19] He has commentated for talkSPORT 2 for the Champions trophy, IPL and various England tours. [20]
Kimber started a podcast on Spotify named "Double Century with Jarrod Kimber" in June 2020. Nick McCorriston has co-produced the series. [21]
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.