4 minute readGed writes: It was a strange, bittersweet day, 10 April 2015. I woke up looking forward to buying in provisions ahead of Monday, which was to be my first day of cricket of the year – a traditional early season visit to Lord’s with Charley The Gent Malloy. Indeed, this
Continue readingAuthor: King Cricket
Otherwise known as Alex Bowden, a lapsed cricket journalist who has written for ESPNCricinfo, wisden.com, Cricket 365, The Cricketer and plenty of other places.
Links to some non-cricket writing and a bit more background here.
Next week on King Cricket
< 1 minute readBrace yourselves. We’re taking a week off. Apparently it’s not just fast bowlers who need to recharge from time to time. As ever, we’ve got stuff lined up for next week: match reports, summat about New Zealand and stuff we’ve done for other people that you may have missed. Those
Continue readingWhat do you want from your spinner? Control? Magic balls?
2 minute readShortly before Adil Rashid bowled his ninth over in the first one-day international, the 28th of the innings, one of the Sky commentators said that captain Eoin Morgan would be delighted that he had ‘got through his overs’ by this early point. That’s the kind of banality you’ll often hear
Continue readingJos Buttler and Joe Root get the message
2 minute readWhy, England, why? Why do you only now bat with no fear of consequences in this inconsequential one-day game? Why couldn’t you bat with no fear of consequences in the World Cup, back when there were consequences? That’s only partly jaded cynicism It’s mainly just our way of saying that
Continue readingEngland attempt to relight their one-day fire
2 minute readAs the old saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and if the smoke drifts into the dressing room, you should probably exit there as well. A number of England one-day players have exited both kitchen and dressing room for this series, although some
Continue readingGlen Chapple is playing cricket and pretending he’s not great at it
< 1 minute readSo we’re calling him out on it. For every Shivnarine Chanderpaul, trying to convince people he’s still got it at the age of 40, there’s a Glen Chapple, sidling into a coaching position and inexplicably trying to convince everyone that he hasn’t still got it. Chapple’s not fooling anyone. >
Continue readingThis is the way a cricket career ends, not with a bang
2 minute readHurray! Friday! Let’s celebrate by writing about melancholy exits! We’ve sadly had two recently. Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s international career ended just as he imagined it would when he first took up the sport as a boy, with a WhatsApp exchange between Test series. Meanwhile, Craig Kieswetter has had to call it
Continue readingLeicestershire complete their sentence
< 1 minute readAt some point in 2013, Leicestershire were cut by the thunder. From then on, draws and losses appeared to be the only possible outcomes following four days of championship cricket. That’s a dispiriting world in which to live, sounding almost like something imposed on them by a judge. However, the
Continue readingThe myths of parity
2 minute readParity on first innings isn’t really parity because one team has to bat last. When England matched New Zealand’s 350, they were behind. Not that this was where the match was decided, but it’s worth noting when so much attention is on fourth innings shot selection. Several days ago… Two
Continue readingEngland’s most influential player puts his hand up and comes to the party
< 1 minute readSometimes the crowd are said to be a 12th man. Sometimes the 12th man is a 12th man. At times, in England, persistent drizzle is the 12th man. Even Brendon McCullum at his most innovative couldn’t get the better of the United Kingdom’s damp, maritime climate today. “What if I
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