King Cricket

April 29, 2026 County cricket

Ralphies, Surrey spin and why winning a game is either the best or worst thing you can do in the County Championship

2 minute readFour weeks into the County Championship and most teams have only played three times. It’s therefore no surprise that four-match Warwickshire find themselves top of the table. They have achieved this after notching one win – exactly the same number as Hampshire, who are bottom. That isn’t to say that

April 23, 2026 County cricket / England

Clamour model: Can’t James Rew just carry on breathing down people’s necks for a bit?

2 minute readEngland always say they want competition for places, but whenever they actually have it, everyone gets all impatient and demands that they hurry up and make the change right now. Somerset’s James Rew will wind up in England’s Test team eventually. Is there any harm in waiting for the right

April 14, 2026 County cricket

If you want to bat for England, bat for Surrey. If you want to bowl for England, bowl for Sussex. And if you want to open for England…

3 minute readA fortnight into the County Championship and it’s hard to weigh the performances of several England Test hopefuls. In many cases who they play for seems to have had almost as much influence on outcomes as how they’re playing. Take, for example, Jamie Smith. This time last week we pointed

April 9, 2026 Regulars

A black standard poodle being conspicuously indifferent to a very good cricket book that you should definitely buy

< 1 minute readIf you’ve got a picture of an animal being conspicuously indifferent to cricket, please send it to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Chess grandmaster and commentator, Peter Svidler, submitted this really quite magnificent photo of a black standard poodle being conspicuously indifferent to The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments, the cricket book we wrote with

April 7, 2026 County cricket / England

Skullwatch: Jamie Smith looks safe then

3 minute readJamie Smith earned himself a mention in our previous article about which England Test players might get the boot for the next Test. We had him down as someone who’d need to play very badly in early season to lose his place, so a match-saving 132 for Surrey presumably keeps

March 31, 2026 England

It’s time for some unsettling disloyalty: If England’s leaders aren’t being ejected then some of the players will be… but which ones?

5 minute readWe are absolutely adamant that England cannot possibly withstand public and media appetite for change in the wake of the Ashes drubbing. (Does 4-1 actually qualify as a drubbing given the three previous scorelines Down Under were all worse than that?) One way or another, rightly or wrongly, action must

March 26, 2026 England

How can you, as an England fan, possibly tolerate this world without skulls?

3 minute read“In terms of skulls… how many skulls? Do you think?” There are plenty of England fans and a good few in the cricket press who have a Tom Wambsgans-esque appetite for skulls right now. England lost the Ashes and no-one has been sacked. It’s an unusual scenario. The boring story

March 20, 2026 England

Why didn’t Liam Livingstone get the message that “Who cares?” wins?

6 minute readTop level cricketers really care about what they do. Caring is the basic fuel for their careers. But whether it’s an Iranian gasfield, a Tesla Cybertruck battery or merely the giving of shits, sometimes fuel can also finish you. Part of an international coach’s job is therefore to protect players

March 18, 2026 Regulars

A very high quality cricket book with a lagoony backdrop

2 minute readSend your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Please consider putting the cricket thing in the unusual place yourself. We like those ones. Doyen of King Cricket reader submissions, Ged Ladd, writes… Daisy and I chose to take a short, restful winter break in Sri

March 13, 2026 England

The ECB has exhibited frankly insane levels of confidence in its players this week

3 minute readThe ECB briefly banned all players with England central contracts from speaking to the media this week. What did they think would happen? Did they honestly expect one of them to say something interesting? The ban’s since been lifted – probably on the basis that its mere existence made the