2 minute readHere’s a question: if all records and memory of Test history were erased, how would you select your playing XI for the next match? Would the side differ from the one that would take the field normally? There’s always context. There are always past Test achievements to go off. Many
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.
Alan Mullally to Craig McMillan – dot ball
< 1 minute readWelcome to the third and final part of Cricket’s Greatest Dot Balls. We hope it’s been worth the wait as we now revisit perhaps the greatest dot ball of them all. The backdrop It was the fourth Test of the 1999 Test series between England and New Zealand, a momentous
Continue readingRonnie Irani to Matthew Bell – dot ball
< 1 minute readHello and welcome to part two of our three-part feature, Cricket’s Greatest Dot Balls. The backdrop It was the fourth Test of the 1999 Test series between England and New Zealand, a match in which Ed Giddins was making his Test debut. England had yet to make a breakthrough in
Continue readingEd Giddins to Matt Horne – dot ball
< 1 minute readWelcome to our new, three-part series, Cricket’s Greatest Dot Balls. We hope you like it. The backdrop It was the fourth Test of the 1999 Test series between England and New Zealand. Ed Giddins was making his Test debut and no-one knew quite how significant that was going to prove.
Continue readingNext week on King Cricket
< 1 minute readOn the radio, they call this ‘throwing forward’. That’s a good thing on the radio, but it’s a crime in rugby. You can decide for yourselves what it is on a cricket blog. Monday to Wednesday will see something we’re really excited about. It is a short, three-part feature looking
Continue readingThe next Chanderpaul
< 1 minute readNormally, when someone talks about ‘the next so-and-so’ it’s a load of old cobblers, but there really is another Chanderpaul – it’s Shiv’s son. Even better, he’s almost, but not quite, named after a fruit. Tagenarine Chanderpaul is set to make his first-class debut in February, even though he’s only
Continue readingAcquiescence and the art of securing an unremarkable defeat
< 1 minute readEngland scored not-enough-runs and then India made slightly more. England’s wasn’t so much a one-day innings as an impression of a one-day innings; an approximation involving steady accumulation and later acceleration, only without either segment being quite what it should have been. We get the impression that Alastair Cook had
Continue readingNew Zealand beat a South Africa team
< 1 minute readWell played Kane Williamson for scoring 145 not out and well played the rest of you for fielding competently. We’re sure he’ll be delighted about it, but we’re not too sure that Captain Brendon McCullum can take enormous pride in beating a South Africa side featuring the following luminaries: Quinton
Continue readingRavindra Jadeja, school cricket and playing for the turn
2 minute readIn some parts of England, they talk about ‘schools cricket’ – note the plural. This is a bizarre, alien form of the game in which posh 15-year-olds play on immaculate grounds in exquisite locations having been expertly coached by former internationals. ‘School cricket’ (singular) is rather different. In school cricket,
Continue readingSri Lanka’s new ball attack
< 1 minute readAustralians aren’t always particularly polite about the standard of the opposition. In a way, this is okay, because they’re equally happy to wheel out brutal opinions about their own team when they don’t do well. On the other hand, it does mean that the rest of us can portray dismissive
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