2 minute readYou may or may not know that once upon a time we wrote a satirical weekly newsletter for a cricket magazine. It was fully excellent and almost everyone said so. Then the magazine’s new owners gave us the boot. At this point, we started doing almost exactly the same thing
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Define ‘dibbly-dobbly medium pace’
< 1 minute readWe all feel that we know it when we see it, but what exactly is dibbly-dobbly medium pace? Is it just non-spin bowling of a certain velocity (less than 75mph, say)? Or is it something more specific than that. When we asked people to identify the greatest dibbly-dobbly medium-pace bowler
Continue readingAre ODIs irrelevant or a unifying force?
< 1 minute readAll this talk of a possible divorce between Test and T20 cricket greatly underestimates cricket’s ability to plough on with much the same structure even though no-one’s really happy. Radical change is not really cricket’s thing. The sport is more of a gelatinous goop that gives to accommodate whatever happens
Continue readingA report on a 2016 England v Sri Lanka match on which we’ve already reported
2 minute readGed writes: It was the first day of the 2016 Lord’s Test between England and Sri Lanka. I was honoured to have His Majesty, King Cricket, among my guests that day in the Lower Compton – as reported here by His Majesty himself. As the predictable shower of champagne corks
Continue readingWhich nation is best at cricket? Combined rankings
2 minute readThe ICC rankings are a much-maligned attempt to derive some sort of meaning from the international cricket schedule. However, it strikes us that they no longer answer the question for which they were devised. Who’s the best in the world? We now have three different answers: the best Test side,
Continue readingA match report from the 2017 Women’s World Cup Final
3 minute readGareth writes: The last time I’d been to Lord’s I’d found the place a bit stifling, and an incredibly drunken young man had capped Glamorgan getting spanked by Gloucestershire by “singing” on the bus the whole way back. That had not been a fun day. This time, I was off
Continue readingA cricket bat in the back of a van
< 1 minute readEdwardian writes: Here’s a conspicuous cricket bat in the back of a van. Send your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk
Continue readingA report from a 2016 Lord’s match between Middlesex and Lancashire
2 minute readGed writes: I was joined for the afternoon by Escamillo Escapillo. Actually, the fact that we were together watching Middlesex v Lancashire was a noteworthy matter in itself, as our previous attempts to do so had been thwarted: In 2009 by circumstances beyond our control – i.e. the perennially lousy
Continue readingDo England attack too much? (and other questions) – mop-up of the day
2 minute readSteve Smith says England’s one-day international (ODI) tactic of ‘going really hard the whole time’ is risky because sometimes they might get bowled out. He doesn’t seem to acknowledge that England play this way because they pick 10 batsmen. Nor does he seem to realise that his hypothetical scenario in
Continue readingWe got someone who’s been off work sick to report on the Under-19 World Cup for us
2 minute readBudgets and time constraints being what they are, this seemed a smart way to go about things. The Under-19 World Cup is definitely a tournament where you want to hear the views of someone who’s had a very heavy cold – particularly if that person also happens to harbour an
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