< 1 minute readEvery sports competition needs a narrative. People who run these sorts of tournaments always think that the narrative should be one of glory. ‘Ours is the best competition and our champions are the best team in history’. Triumphant music plays. Slow motion video soaks up the splendour. That’s balls. What
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.
Graeme Swann loves dismissing left-hand batsmen
< 1 minute readWe dare say Graeme Swann quite likes dismissing right-hand batsmen as well, but he doesn’t do it half as often. Of his six wickets in this match, only one was right-handed – Jerome Taylor. This is by no means unusual for Swann. Against right-handers he looks an everyday bowler. Against
Continue readingWhy Graham Onions’ five-fer ain’t all that
< 1 minute readAfter being clean bowled for a golden duck and then seeing his first ball carted for four, Graham Onions didn’t immediately knock Test cricket sideways with his brilliance. A bit later, after three wickets in an over and 5-38, things looked a bit better. But… Have England found a great
Continue readingWho are England’s best bowlers at the moment?
2 minute readGraham Onions and Tim Bresnan come in. One’s already done well, but wouldn’t it be nice if they were clearly – CLEARLY – the best men for the job? The truth is everyone’s mostly just hoping for the best. This has long been the problem with English cricket. There are
Continue readingRavi Bopara celebrates
< 1 minute readIt’s nice to have a batsman who celebrates his hundreds through the lost art of mime. In Barbados he did a funny bow and arrow thing upon reaching three figures. Yesterday, he outlined the Lord’s honours board and scribbled his name on it. Ravi Bopara could have played flawlessly for
Continue readingAdvice for Fidel Edwards
< 1 minute readMaybe just bowl at the stumps, eh? Surely by now you’ve realised that your team mates have tiny, rigid, Lego man hands with unbending fingers that can’t catch cricket balls. Give it up. They’re only going to let you down. Fidel Edwards took 4-53 today and could quite realistically have
Continue readingA cricket bat in an unusually HORRIFYING place
< 1 minute readOh shit, oh shit. Oh no, oh no, oh no. This is quite simply the worst picture of all time. We are properly terrified of dead animals. We can’t stress this enough. Show us a grizzly bear and we’ll be scared. Show us a dead grizzly bear and we will
Continue readingIPL match report/ongoing feud with the ECB
3 minute readBert of ‘sports administration is like looking after your neighbour’s cat‘ fame writes: Last year I booked to go to see the IPL in India. Since then, I’ve not really taken much notice of the news. My travel agent – Clarke’s 20/20 Adventures – assured me that everything was tickety-boo,
Continue readingPaul Horton masters one-day cricket
< 1 minute readIn his first 23 one-day innings, Paul Horton passed 50 once. Now he’s got the format cracked. Take that The Friends Provident Trophy! Consider yourself and any other 50-over competitions CRACKED. It seems like only last week we were writing about Paul Horton’s first one-day hundred and now here we
Continue readingIan Bell finds something amusing in the field
< 1 minute readThat’s the caption to this picture on Cricinfo. We’d rather this were a slip from a Cricinfo staff member, but we suspect it was done knowingly. Thanks to Sam for pointing this out, although we’re increasingly concerned by the frequency with which he sends Ian Bell pictures to us.
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