< 1 minute readEngland just couldn’t quite get the 85 runs they needed off the final ball. However, while we give Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith enormous credit for the faultlessness of their hitting, South Africa’s monumental Twenty20 total of 241 was perhaps one step too close to slogging. We defend Twenty20 cricket
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.
Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith should play on ‘hard’ now
< 1 minute readLoots Bosman and Graeme Smith today batted in international cricket as if they were playing an overfamiliar cricket computer game on easy setting. Simply aim at cow corner and press the six-hit button. It was astonishingly clean hitting. Almost robotic. Alastair Cook erred hugely in not positioning a fielder on
Continue readingEoin Morgan is the England Twenty20 batsman you most want to watch
< 1 minute readWe’d rate Eoin Morgan’s 85 not out off 45 balls as the best Twenty20 performance we’ve seen from an England player. The six that he ever-so-gently placed onto the roof of a three-storey building outside the ground would ordinarily have been the most remarkable shot played in the match. We
Continue readingNo Ashes on Sky means no money for English cricket
< 1 minute readThis seems to be the crisis facing the ECB as it seems increasingly likely that home Ashes series will be shown on free TV from now on. We’ve a few thoughts about this. Sponsorship of the England team If we were sponsoring England, we’d pay more if we thought four
Continue readingYounus Khan resigns, quits, rests, stands down, walks
< 1 minute readYounus Khan has had another captaincy wobble. It seems half the team think he’s a tool and won’t do what he says. This is a bit annoying for Pakistan supporters, because when Younus has been in charge and the players have made half an effort to follow him, the team
Continue readingReviews of No Boundaries by Ronnie Irani
< 1 minute readAt what point does a book become so bad that you actually find yourself wanting to read it? There are some great reviews of Ronnie Irani’s book, No Boundaries, on Amazon: “I once bought a Man United shirt with the name of Keith Gillespie on the back days before the
Continue readingEngland losing warm-up matches at the start of a tour
< 1 minute readSeasoned England watchers know that England losing warm-up matches is just an unpleasant fact of life. It’s like that gnawing sense that something’s very, very wrong when you wake up in the morning. Just reach for your bottle of supermarket brand gin that you keep on the bedside table and
Continue readingWe went to the Sky offices
3 minute readWe popped into the Sky offices last weekend to go and see some people from The Wisden Cricketer. Where are Sky’s offices? The address is the not-at-all-made-up-sounding 123 Buckingham Palace Road. We were confronted with a large glass wall with a small glass revolving door in the middle of it.
Continue readingMohammad Aamer becomes a fully-fledged Pakistani cricketer
< 1 minute readNot many countries can pick 17-year-olds to open the bowling for them, because not many countries have 17-year-olds who can scythe the ball past international opening batsmen and swing it both ways. Even that’s not enough to make Mohammad Aamer a fully-fledged Pakistani cricketer though. There’s more to it than
Continue readingAustralian cricketers are generally ready for international cricket
< 1 minute readAustralia have managed a cracking one-day series victory over India, particularly considering they’re down to Clint McKay and the likes. There’s a core of first-choice players, but if you were in the vicinity of the Australia side at some point recently and happened to be wearing a yellow T-shirt, chances
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