Simon Peter Hughes (born 20 December 1959), also known as The Analyst is an English cricketer 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 At Latymer Upper School he was an outstanding fast medium bowler of away-swing and captained the school XI successfully. He went on to study general arts at Durham University, and played for the university. He joined Middlesex 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 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 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 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 NatWest Trophy in 1989, bowling the last over as Middlesex were defeated by Warwickshire. Journalism Hughes retired in 1993 to concentrate on a writing career which had begun as a player for The Independent with the widely acclaimed Cricketer's Diary. In 1994 he joined The Daily Telegraph as a columnist and became the BBC's roving reporter on Test matches. He has worked as a journalist for The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, for The Times and for the BBC. 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) Morning Everyone: An Ashes Odyssey, And God Created Cricket, (a history of the game) and Who wants to be a batsman?. He is perhaps best known for his work as The Analyst on Channel 4's cricket coverage (from 1999 to 2005), winning the Royal