< 1 minute read668 Neighbour of the Beast writes: Cricket festival season and so to the outground of Guildford – a venue where you and the boundary rope can become acquainted. It’s quite spiritual to sit on the grass and not look at the back of an advertising hoarding. Sadly, on a less
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.
Mushy came, Mushy saw, Mushy took a million wickets, Mushy got a bad knee
< 1 minute readMushtaq Ahmed may not quite have been THE BALLS, but he was most definitely ‘the county balls’. Every match he’d stumble in and take as many wickets as there are atoms in the universe (about nine) and every season he’d decide The County Championship. It is very, very bad that
Continue readingStuart Broad wins a match
< 1 minute readStuart Broad hasn’t really been taking wickets in Tests, but in one-day internationals he’s been increasingly incisive. Even so, 5-23 against South Africa is a Will Jefferson step for him. He hasn’t got any more talent than he had this time last week, but hopefully this kind of domination of
Continue readingKevin Pietersen’s captaincy secret
< 1 minute readFirst there was the win, then there was the other win and then there was the cold, dead-eyed, relentless slaughter. England have murdered a top order before, but they rarely follow it by sweeping up the tail and leaving everywhere really nice and tidy. South Africa 85 all out and
Continue readingSomebody likes Matthew Hayden
< 1 minute readAs you probably know, that person is Usain Bolt, a Jamaican giant who can run quickly. Matthew Hayden has responded, which rather pleasingly means he’s had another go at ‘talking’. First of all, we’ll remind you why it is FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG to like Matthew Hayden. The first thing he said
Continue readingLancashire batsmen who are good
< 1 minute readPaul Horton. That is all. Put it this way, Iain Sutcliffe has been keeping Mark Chilton out of the side and Sutcliffe’s been batting so unbelievably wretchedly that he’s actually gone so far as to retire from cricket. His season average of 14 is superior to Chilton’s 12. However, both
Continue readingMike Selvey leaves TMS
< 1 minute readOr rather, Mike Selvey is asked to leave TMS. We’ve had a few goes at writing this where we’ve tried to compare Selvey to his likely replacements, but that’s not the point. The point is simple. Mike Selvey has spent a lifetime thinking about cricket. He has interesting thoughts on
Continue readingMark Ramprakash reverts to type
< 1 minute readThree hundreds in as many innings for Mark Ramprakash now – the middle one a double and he hasn’t been dismissed in any of them. He’s 133 not out overnight against Sussex. Mark Ramprakash must be the only batsman in history who can cause people to mull on his mental
Continue readingZaheer Khan wins an ODI with the ball
< 1 minute readAnother one-day international is decided with the ball. Huzzah. It went the other way this time, however. Zaheer Khan took 4-21 and Sri Lanka crumpled like a supermarket receipt to 142 all out. We’re increasingly thinking that if there’s swing, you want Zaheer Khan in your side. Bowlers continued to
Continue readingWe made Kevin Pietersen answer a question with the word ‘pie’
< 1 minute readWe’ve never been so proud. The Wisden Cricketer requested questions from their readership and we asked: ‘Why haven’t you adopted a comedy English accent, like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins?’ After some thinking out loud, Pietersen concluded that he says ‘pie’ with a northern accent. Sometimes the stars align
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