Posted by 
Dawid Malan is the Ann Veal of English cricket. For a man who deploys a W so ostentatiously, he’s weirdly easy to overlook.
Malan has an Ashes hundred to his name and he’s also made England’s fastest T20 hundred, but still there’ll be people saying, “Dawid Malan – which one’s he?”
He’s the one who plays for Yorkshire.
Malan’s comments about leaving Middlesex earlier this week were slightly odd.
“I’ve been captain for two years and I’ve been banging my head against a wall for a wee while,” he said. ” I didn’t really enjoy the cricket as much as I’d have liked to.”
Sounds bad.
“The new coach [Stuart Law] has come in and you want the club to move in the right direction. [But] I didn’t really know what was going on and what the plans were and so on, and that frustrated me.”
Also sounds bad.
But then Ali Martin reports that, “Malan discovered [Law’s] vision in fact matched his own but only after resolving to leave.”
Which makes his departure sound completely unnecessary.
Since signing for Yorkshire, Malan has coincidentally started playing for England again. He has made 11, 39, 55 and 103 not out in that order, and even though it’s been in T20, quite a few poeple are thinking that he wasn’t that bad in the Test team and that ‘not that bad’ from an England batsman is currently quite desirable.
Do we credit Yorkshire for Malan’s buoyant profile? What if he plays so well for England that he never actually plays for Yorkshire? What then?
Should we get more England fringe players to sign for Yorkshire in the hope that they too become too good to be available for any of the county’s matches?
Similar deliveries:
Dawid Malan has used ‘being the best batsman in the world’ as a stepping stone to competence
Is Dawid Malan the new Jonny Bairstow? Always on the hunt for doubters to prove wrong
Dawid Malan, selfish gambles and why the T20 rankings don’t seem fit for purpose
Joe Root? Dawid Malan? Harry Brook? Which batter isn’t in England’s first choice World Cup XI
Daisy is apoplectic with rage on this topic, so I’m going to change the subject.
I mean, fair enough, Dawid Malan hit some stunning shots this morning, as did Eoin Morgan of course.
But has either of them ever beaten a chase of half-a-yard by landing better than half-a-yard on the floor? Thought not.
http://ianlouisharris.com/2019/10/30/the-dedanists-society-annual-handicap-doubles-agm-dinner-the-queens-club-30-october-2019/
Champagne moment, it was. And if you thought that Lord’s is the home of corks, that’s only because you’ve not visited Queen’s.
The importance of punctuation.
‘I’ve been captain for two years and I’ve been banging my head against a wall for a wee, while I didn’t really enjoy the cricket as much as I’d have liked to.’
“A wee while”, is definitely not a Middlesex expression (unless you’re Eoin Morgan or Josh Davey, I guess)
Too many square brackets for my liking. Next we’ll be looking at memory allocation and array usage.
Please don’t do that. Sad smiley face punctuation. :o(
If only this Dawood guy subscribed to King Cricket’s Edge, he’d have known all about Jack Leach and Specsavers and how ridiculously simple it is to correct your vision in case it doesn’t match the Coach’s.
Never let it be said that we don’t use convoluted reasoning to prop up King Cricket’s Edge.
King Cricket’s Edge. Despite the name, it’s quite good.
The Edge. The finest twice monthly satirical cricket email – bar none!
https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/youve-found-king-crickets-edge-a-fortnightly-email/
Got round to watching the Edge (the film, not KC’s twice monthly email)
I agree with some others who felt the voiceover from (the great) Toby Jones was a bit much: “Forget everything you THINK you know”, “Time…..is a dimension of the physical universe”, “It’s the outback…. and you’re gonna get BIT”, and so on. Some of the wistful staring out at the sea/striding across a field in full whites/etc was similarly overblown.
Also, Ian Bell’s hair 10 years or so ago was an absolute travesty.
My Ogblogging has reached the day in February 2011 when, amongst many other things, I was pressganged into doing some cricket commentary. This was reported on King Cricket at the time (the piece below includes a link to that KC classic).
I thought some folk might be interested in the actual diary notes, the other intriguing events of that day and also links to many photographs:
http://ianlouisharris.com/2011/02/06/more-bastar-visits-nayannar-bison-horn-maria-people-jagdalpur-commentating-on-interstate-cricket-match-pamela-market-more-6-february-2011/
Bastar State truly is a weird and wonderful part of India.
Some top King Cricketry from Mominul Haque recently:
‘I like to play aggressively. I want to be an aggressive captain, which I feel brings more success. I think, according to the situation, I will be defensive within my aggressive mindset.’
The best defence is a good aggressive defence, or something.