< 1 minute readLancashire’s batsmen were full-on toss last year. Pretty much the sole exception was Paul Horton. Paul Horton is an opening batsman and that’s a position where Lancashire have been short of class for a while now. He’s also 26, which is pretty reassuring in a side which has had a
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.
Ian Bell hits a big hundred
< 1 minute readThat title’s tongue-in-cheek. You know that, right? You do now. Ian Bell hit 172 for Warwickshire as part of his bid to return to the England side. It’s a handy start and we’d be tempted to get ever-so-slightly agitated about it, if it weren’t for the fact that he scored
Continue readingHarold being conspicuously indifferent to the legacy of Michael Vaughan
< 1 minute readEva writes: “This is my cat Harold. Here he is, nonchalantly enjoying a meal. (Don’t question that. Cats can be nonchalant. No-one’s ever questioned a cat’s ability to display indifference.) “In doing this, he made a choice. He chose to ignore the legacy of Michael Vaughan. “He’s actually almost sitting
Continue readingSimon Jones, Worcestershire – one to watch in 2009
< 1 minute readSimon Jones isn’t one to watch for the reasons you think. A lot of English (and Welsh) cricket supporters think Simon Jones is England’s Imran Khan or something; a master of fast swing bowling who can destroy any batting line-up. On top of his game, he’s a great bowler, but
Continue readingRay Jennings and Kevin Pietersen find common ground
< 1 minute readIn any working relationship, there’s bound to be a degree of friction. The important thing is that you respect each other and are working towards the same goals. If you have completely different characters, that’s okay, but ideally you’ll have at least one thing in common. Fortunately for the Bangalore
Continue readingWill Smith, Durham – one to watch in 2009
< 1 minute readWe decided to make Will Smith one to watch this season in August last year. That was before he was made Durham captain. Don’t know whether that will affect him. We’d been keeping an eye on him anyway, but the match that decided it was against Hampshire at Basingstoke. The
Continue readingTim Bresnan, Yorkshire – one to watch in 2009
2 minute readTim Bresnan’s 2007 season saw 34 wickets at an average of 32, accompanied by two hundreds and a batting average of 39. His understated 2008 season saw 45 wickets at 28 and 506 runs at 33. It’s solid stuff. He’s an asset to Yorkshire, but he’s not at the stage
Continue readingAn Ian Bell interview
< 1 minute readIan Bell’s given a monumentally unenlightening interview to the BBC. Summary: ‘I want to play for England’. Towards the end, he says: “I’ve got to make sure that I’m undroppable over the second part of my England career.” You’re undroppable now, Ian. It’s just you’re undroppable in the same way
Continue readingWomen’s World Cup final match report
< 1 minute readD Charlton once again tries to find out the score: As I was heading north, I realised that it was the Women’s World Cup final between England and New Zealand. I had just got into the Arctic Circle, in the village of Jukkasjärvi in Sweden and wanted to know the
Continue readingRobert Key so close to England we can almost taste it
< 1 minute readAt the moment we can merely smell Rob Key being part of England, but soon – oh so soon – we’ll actually get to taste it. It’ll taste like hand-pulled elixir of life and we’ll quaff it like there’s no tomorrow. This is ironic, because the elixir of life kind
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