< 1 minute readMatthew Hayden’s been getting a few rough decisions of late, as batsmen often do when the ball’s missing the bat time and time again. Hayden says: “Hawkeye I think gives you a pretty good understanding of what line the ball pitched at, but take my lbw decision in the second
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.
Australia’s selection policy
2 minute readJust what do they think they’re doing? There was a sign that the wheels had come off when Ricky Ponting said: “We’ve really got to pick horses for courses with our selections,” when the Australians were in India. Selection is one of the Aussies’ greatest strengths. Historically, they’ve actually planned
Continue readingAB de Villiers follows Graeme Smith
2 minute readSouth Africa could never have chased down 414 without a hundred from Graeme Smith. After he was out for 108, they couldn’t have won without a hundred from AB de Villiers. What’s really impressed us about this South African win is not that they chased down such a huge total
Continue readingKevin Pietersen’s switch hit
< 1 minute readWe’d bet that there aren’t many reading this site, but there are nevertheless a great number of people out there who’d brand Kevin Pietersen’s switch hitting ‘irresponsible’. It really isn’t. He doesn’t just do it on a whim. He decided it was a good way of scoring runs with a
Continue readingShivnarine Chanderpaul bats and bats and bats
< 1 minute readBat and bat and bat. That was Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s advice to Jerome Taylor last week when the latter got a hundred. Shiv followed his own advice against New Zealand yesterday. He made 126. He was not out, obviously, because that’s the way Shiv rolls. Not that Shiv could ever roll.
Continue readingGautam Gambhir’s worth getting out
< 1 minute readSome said that England were unlucky in the first Test that three great batsmen – Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh – all fired at the same time. It wasn’t bad luck. Those batsmen fire as often as they don’t and even if they don’t fire then Rahul Dravid
Continue readingIan Bell attempts to grow a beard
< 1 minute readSam writes: “Here is a picture of Ian Bell attempting to grow a little beard. “Look at the concentration on his face. It’s dedication like this that shows just how far English cricket has come.” We asked Sam if he had a beard. Sam never got back to us about
Continue readingMitchell Johnson – Australia fast bowler
< 1 minute readPerhaps the most striking thing about Mitchell Johnson is his ridiculous cartoon character tufty hair. After that it’s his bowling. We watched quite a bit of Johnson when Australia toured India. He was their best bowler. For all the talk about Brett Lee being the fast strike bowler, Johnson’s not
Continue readingSir Allen Stanford disbands his ‘legends’
< 1 minute readIn more brand ambassador news, Sir Allen Stanford has done away with his team of ‘legends’ that he used to promote his shamtastic cricket event. A spokesperson said: “He has disbanded the legends group, but at this stage no decision has been taken on the future of the Super Series.”
Continue readingTest average maintenance
< 1 minute readMatthew Hayden 12, Ricky Ponting 0, Mike Hussey 0. Bring ’em down. Bring ’em down to a sensible level. Those three think they’re so good. They think they can bat in any conditions against any bowler. They think they’re ‘all that’, but they’re not ‘all that’. They are, at most,
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