2 minute readOne of the most annoying things about the Australian cricket team is not its verbal aggression but the players’ relentless self-righteousness about it. Here’s a quote from Michael Clarke that you’ll feel like you’ve read a thousand times before. “I think we play our cricket hard on the field but
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.
Sharpen the England Test team pencil
< 1 minute readThird seamer – Chris Jordan? Can we start assuming this now, or is that going too far? It’s just it would mean one less thing to keep track of, and the less we have to keep track of, the more we can concentrate on the important stuff, like moaning about
Continue readingEngland players are better than county players
2 minute readWe know that’s kind of the point, but it’s worth cementing this notion while everyone’s moving in similar circles. It’ll prevent confusion later in the season. There will come a point – probably at some point in July – when Ian Bell will have made a couple of ducks against
Continue readingA template for a new England team
< 1 minute readCricinfo piece. Peter Moores. Lancashire. England. Read it by clicking here.
Continue readingSteve Magoffin and MacGuffins
< 1 minute readIn film, a MacGuffin is something characters strive for which rather conveniently drives the plot. As often as not, its exact nature is unimportant. What matters is that at least one of the characters wants it. People aren’t fighting to acquire Sussex’s Steve Magoffin, so he doesn’t really fit the
Continue readingOne batsman and a bit of pace bowling
2 minute readRefreshingly manageable levels of information this week with very little of note happening with regards to candidates for the England squad. Gary Ballance This is probably the headline event. Gary Ballance made 174 against Northamptonshire. Reading between the lines written by better-informed people than us, it’s possible that England have
Continue readingWe wrote about Twenty20 commentary
< 1 minute readThe headline promises something of a barrel-dwelling fish shooting exercise, but hopefully it’s more than that. It’s not so much ‘T20 commentators talk utter rot‘ as ‘some T20 commentators are occasionally slow to pick up on tactical trends and they therefore assess match situations according to outdated notions of how
Continue readingEngland hire a Maxonian
< 1 minute readIs it a good idea for a team that can’t bat to hire the coach of a team that can’t bat? It’s probably okay. The England coach is basically just a management figure, after all and Peter Moores seems pretty good at that side of things. He brought in many
Continue readingBen Stokes and the cure-all that is ‘passion’
< 1 minute readOne worrying, but entirely predictable, revelation from Ben Stokes’ recent interview in the Guardian is that he’s broken bones punching inanimate objects before. He reckons he’s going to learn this time. “I don’t think punching lockers is the way forward for anyone. There’s only going to be one winner there.”
Continue readingIndia v Australia, 2004 Mumbai Test – match report
2 minute readRaaj writes: I didn’t even want a mobile phone but, after conceding that my post-Uni employability depended upon being contactable, I caved in and took on my schoolboy cousin’s chunky, silver Ericsson when he upgraded. It worked; I got a job and earned enough money to fly to Bombay to
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