4 minute readWho has the worst Test bowling average of all time? This is, on the face of it, a very simple question. There are, however, two different answers, neither of which get to the nub of why the question is interesting in the first place. Answer 1: Bangladesh’s Naeem Islam averaged
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What Ben Stokes, Jack Leach and Headingley 2019 tell us about Test cricket
5 minute readEngland v Australia, third Test, day four It’s six or out… … It’s six! Jonathan Agnew, Test Match Special Have you seen No Country For Old Men? You should watch No Country For Old Men. No Country For Old Men is a striking and excellent film and while the ending
Continue readingLet’s try and identify England’s purest and greatest bits and pieces cricketer
8 minute readA bits-and-pieces cricketer is a player who wouldn’t warrant a place in the side as a batsman or a bowler but somehow gets picked anyway based on cumulative all-round ability. Let’s try and find England’s purest and greatest bits and pieces cricketer. Before we get into this, you may be
Continue readingThe Awkwardest Squad: Why the 96/97 “flippin’ murdered ’em” tour of Zimbabwe was peak 90s England (a net bowler’s story)
9 minute readBig thanks to everyone who funds the site through our Patreon campaign. We couldn’t justify spending this much time on a King Cricket article without you. Remember 1996? Things were very different in 1996. Back in 1996 Leonardo Dicaprio from The Revenant and Claire Danes from Homeland seemed like a
Continue readingGoldenarms: The best part-time bowlers in the history of Test cricket
5 minute readAll-rounders are great, but part-time bowlers are more entertaining. Bowlers have to bat in Test cricket, even though they are not picked as batsmen – but only very occasionally is a batsman asked to bowl. Let’s try and work out which Test cricketer who wasn’t picked for his bowling was
Continue readingWhich Australia player was least happy about rewatching their Headingley 2019 nightmare?
3 minute readThe day after Ben Stokes and Jack Leach at Headingley in 2019, Australia coach Justin Langer forced his players to watch the footage. Thanks to Amazon’s documentary, The Test, we can see how that went down. It did not go down very well. Who was least happy about it? Cricket
Continue readingOur very favourite thing about Netflix’s Cricket Fever: Lasith Malinga lurking in the background of every scene like a highly conspicuous ghost
3 minute readWe’ve finished watching Cricket Fever, Netflix’s documentary series about Mumbai Indians’ 2018 IPL campaign. It’s good, and personal experience revealed that even people who don’t especially like cricket may well enjoy it. It’s not a huge and revelatory experience or anything, but we’d say that people who don’t normally enjoy
Continue readingWhich England all-rounder has the worst record as captain – Botham, Flintoff or Stokes?
6 minute readTony Greig captained England 14 times and managed three wins – all of them in India in a series victory. But we’ve already said too much, because there is only one rule when you talk about England all-rounders, and that is that you must always neglect to mention Tony Greig.
Continue readingLet’s use Ken Nordine’s word jazz album ‘Colors’ to work out who’s going to win the 2020 IPL
5 minute readIf there’s a simple and obvious way of predicting the 2020 IPL that for some reason hasn’t yet been done, it’s this… We’re going to look at all of the team kits; we’re going to establish the main colour of each one; and then we’re going to listen to what
Continue readingWhen Mike Atherton was run-out for 99 – was this the worst ‘no’ in the history of cricket?
6 minute readThe most powerful ‘no’ in film is the one in Rise of the Planet of the Apes when Caesar reveals that he is far more than a “damn dirty ape”. It happens a surprisingly long way into the film, which allows for quite a lot of emotional build-up. It’s well-timed
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