2 minute readThe optimum moment to select a batsman is not when he thinks he deserves a place in the side; it’s when he’s completely irritated because he can’t quite believe he isn’t getting a game. This is probably the main difference between James Taylor now and a few years ago. Taylor
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.
Breaking Kemar Roach news
< 1 minute readHis daughter’s called Kemaria. It’s okay to laugh because she didn’t choose the name herself. This and more in our latest Twitter round-up over at Cricinfo.
Continue readingAre you right about Alastair Cook?
2 minute readWe used to moan about winter. Winter didn’t give a shit. In fact winter didn’t even know we were there because it was night-time. It’s always night-time in winter. That’s the main thing we used to moan about. After about 15 years of raging against the tilt of the Earth,
Continue readingA successful England run chase – but it never would have lasted
< 1 minute readHere’s a joke for you: What do a 35-over a side game in Habantota and a 50-over match in New Zealand or Australia have in common? Pretty funny, eh? In the third match of this series, Sri Lanka were positively blown away by England’s tactic of randomly selecting a load
Continue readingWhy Alex Hales and Moeen Ali would make a great one-day opening partnership
2 minute readThis is going to come across as a gossamer-thinly-veiled plea for Alastair Cook to be given the old heave-ho, but it’s not. It’s literally just about Hales and Ali – Cook’s merely collateral damage. In fact let’s say he can bat at three. There’s still a large part of us
Continue readingThe Kiwi is a fast learner
< 1 minute readIt has to be. Unable to fly and never allowed to play more than three Tests in a series, it has to adapt quickly if it isn’t to be devoured by cats or beaten by Pakistan. Captains and coaches always talk about learning from a defeat, but you rarely see
Continue readingEngland try and sprint to 300 but succeed only in tripping and crawling to 185 all out
< 1 minute readThe ECB media cheat sheet will have been passed around again after today’s performance. All this running talk of attacking batting is understandable, but England repeatedly show a worrying lack of aptitude for walking the full 50-over distance (actually only 45 in this instance). Six times in their last seven
Continue readingJust a few words about Phil Hughes
2 minute readIt’s never easy to cover serious news on a website like this because whatever we write will have to stand alongside something stupid. Our usual way of dealing with this is to just let the serious story completely pass us by. But you can’t write a cricket site and not
Continue readingMoeen Ali foolishly expects other England players to score some of the runs
< 1 minute readThat’s okay. That’s what these tours are for. Moeen will have learnt from this. From now on, he’ll know that 119 off 87 balls simply isn’t enough and he’ll instead score 180 off 110 balls or whatever. Other than that, one of the great joys of the first one-day international
Continue readingJustin Langer’s three golden rules
2 minute readJustin Langer has a philosophy. It’s changed the culture of the Western Australia cricket team and made them successful. Central to his philosophy are the following three rules: Use common sense Keep things simple No mobile phones at training This revelation comes from within an almost transcendentally nauseating interview. Other
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