2 minute readThe Wall is gone! Long live this broad, robust replacement structure made out of bricks and mortar! The retirement of great cricketers often leaves less of a hole than people imagine. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman recently left the game and many wondered how they could ever be replaced. The
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.
Don’t even think about complaining about flat pitches
3 minute readBecause you can’t fully assess a five-day pitch on day one. Besides, Gautam Gambhir was dismissed by one that kept low. Virender Sehwag was bowled by one that spun. This looks like a result wicket. A win for India then? Well, yeah, probably. They’re favourites anyway and batting first hasn’t
Continue readingEngland are in a spin
2 minute readTerrible headline. Terrible, terrible headline. You’ll see it again at some point in the next few weeks and minus a billion points for the guilty publication. Don’t worry though. We’ve got an angle on ‘England are in a spin’ and so we’re going to salvage our pride in the final
Continue readingSouth Africa don’t really get spin bowling
< 1 minute readDo you see what happens, Larry? Do you see what happens? This is what happens. This is what happens when you pick an all-pace attack. Always pick a spinner. No matter how good your fast bowlers are, if the batsmen get into a rhythm, you can find yourself on the
Continue readingAustralia stick to their plans against Amla and Kallis
< 1 minute readThe plan was to target Jacques Kallis with lots of short stuff. Kallis has now faced lots and lots and lots of short stuff. Meanwhile, we dread to think how much verbal aggression Hashim Amla’s had to counter over the course of his 207-ball unbeaten innings. We imagine that verbal
Continue readingBrace yourselves – Australia have a dossier
< 1 minute readAnd it’s been leaked! We don’t really know what a dossier is. Is it just a piece of paper with a list on it? Whatever it is, it contains some staggering revelations: Australian bowlers are going to bowl some bouncers Australian cricketers are going to call an opponent names Apparently,
Continue readingThe site is back and hopefully faster
< 1 minute readThe site has been offline for a day. We were moving it to new hosting. Thank you to Prince Stickball for his assistance in this. Hopefully the site will run a bit more quickly and reliably now. Apologies to those of you who’ve been repeatedly checking the site for updates
Continue readingNick Compton is up and ambling
< 1 minute readAfter nought and then one, Nick Compton is finally up and running for England. Well, he’s up and ambling at any rate, having made 64 runs off 162 balls in their second warm-up match. We entirely approve of this complete lack of urgency. Hopefully the majority of his six fours
Continue readingJoe Root shouldn’t play England’s second warm-up match
< 1 minute readNot unless he’s down the order. Some have suggested resting Alastair Cook because he made a hundred in the first warm-up match and so presumably doesn’t need the practice. Being as Nick Compton made a duck, it is felt that England might now want to see how Joe Root fares
Continue readingLaszlo is indifferent to Chris Gayle
< 1 minute readMichael sent us this picture, the title above and nothing else: Our unquenchable thirst for information led us to ask whether Laszlo was named after a fictional character mentioned by Troy McClure in a Simpson’s episode. Michael replied: “He’s indirectly named after the cinematographer, but mostly I just liked the
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