King Cricket

March 2, 2017 County cricket / England

A new source of images – so obviously we just went and found a load of Rob Key photos

< 1 minute read Getty has got a thing that allows us to embed images. They say it’s free to use and entirely legal – although with Getty being famously litigious when it comes to unauthorised use of their photographs, we still feel a little nervous, like they’re luring is into a trap or

March 1, 2017 Australia / India

A poor pitch? And Australia won?

< 1 minute read The Pune pitch on which Australia beat India was rated poor on the grounds that it gave too much assistance to spinners. This is a paradox. Australia made 260 and 285. Australia did. Australia. Australia, with their leaden hands and their be-aggressive-but-patient-and-show-a-bit-of-mongrel-and-play-in-this-one-specific-way-but-find-your-own-method approach to facing spin bowling. They managed to

February 28, 2017 England / West Indies

How much does Rahkeem Cornwall weigh?

2 minute read All across the UK, people are waking up and asking: ‘Who is Rahkeem Cornwall?‘ after the majestic blob of cricket damn near beat England in a tour match. It is for precisely this reason that we always try and stay abreast of the world’s fat cricketers long before they rise

February 27, 2017 Australia / India

Australia and spin bowling – all of their problems are completely solved

< 1 minute read It’s hard to see how India’s batsmen could possibly learn to play Steve O’Keefe any better than they did on the one occasion they’ve faced him. Compounding this is the 100 per cent true fact that they’ve already committed to playing on pitches identical to that used in the first

February 24, 2017 Australia

The experts say Steve O’Keefe doesn’t spin it enough

2 minute read Terry Jenner said that Steve O’Keefe bowled blancmanges. If you for some reason think that was intended as a compliment, O’Keefe himself recalls: “He’d just look at me in disgust about how putrid these things were that were coming out of my hand.” Jenner’s greatest protégé Shane Warne feels similarly.

February 23, 2017 Australia / India

Matt Renshaw retires hurt because of the wild shits

< 1 minute read Matt Renshaw might think that ‘while batting during day one of a Test match’ is the worst time to realise that you’ve been struck down by a case of the wild shits. All we’d say is at least it wasn’t the start of an overnight train journey with no hotel

February 22, 2017 Extras

A cricket book in an unusual place

< 1 minute read It’s been a while since we had a cricket thing in an unusual place – so long, in fact, that many of you won’t even know that it’s supposed to be a regular feature. Ged sent us the following photo and said only: “Sphere Of Influence By Gideon Haigh, spotted

February 21, 2017 England / India

Why did Tymal Mills go for so much at the IPL auction? Because he’s fit for purpose

2 minute read Tymal Mills has been signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore for £1.4m. In response, many have felt inclined to ask what Ian Botham, Viv Richards or Ian Austin might have gone for. This seems to us to be somewhat missing the point. In the UK, the phrase ‘Twenty20 specialist’ still has

February 19, 2017 Extras

Innovative T20 scorecards – new ways to tell the story of a cricket match

3 minute read We were talking T20 scorecards on Friday and this led to a discussion about whether the traditional form is actually fit for purpose. Our point was that in a T20 match, it’s not just ‘how many’ and ‘how quickly’ – it’s also about when runs are scored and when wickets

February 17, 2017 Extras

Do you click through to T20I scorecards?

2 minute read We’ve just realised we quite often don’t. Unlike some, we’re actually into Twenty20 cricket. Its formulaic nature means that a team’s strategy is easier to perceive and assess. But at the same time, unless we’re actively following a series it seems we don’t have any interest in looking at a

He certainly has land.

Slight bus conductor vibe c/w an absence of said vibe? I think not. I think of those two spinners in…

Only one phrase can describe this day's cricket: it's astounding.

Time will tell. Indeed, I am shivering with antici…pation.

Three spinners currently feels a lot, in that three bowlers might actually leave a team overstocked.

Hats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills

Let’s pick the All-Time Greatest Middle-Aged XI

Less than the sum of their parts: Six Test batting partnerships that invariably disappointed

Five Graham Thorpe innings that were equal parts silly, brilliant and vital

Show me the money. Inattention and monetisation in Major League Cricket, The Hundred and Test cricket