King Cricket

June 24, 2016 England

England cricket greats to be reclassified as “bad immigrants” in wake of referendum

2 minute readLarge numbers of England cricketers, both past and present, will be recategorised as non-England players as a result of plans being drawn up in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the EU. A member of the Leave campaign explained: “One thing this referendum has told us is in

Mop-up of the day – in, out and not out

< 1 minute readAn inadvertently topical but quite possibly inaccurate-by-the-morning headline for UK readers. In Anil Kumble’s… well, he’s not exactly back. He’s back in the public eye, we suppose. He’s India’s new coach. Kumble is a hard, smart and determined man. Coaching India demands more than those qualities, but it’s a fair

June 22, 2016 Match report

England v Australia at Edgbaston – day two match report

3 minute readGed Ladd’s smartphone, Ivan Meagreheart, writes: It can be quite exhausting being Ged Ladd’s smartphone; day one of the Edgbaston Test had been such a day. Normally a good rest overnight and I recharge my batteries without difficulty, but I had a bad night and in the morning I felt

June 21, 2016 England / Sri Lanka

The next Ben Stokes

< 1 minute readEngland have long been on the lookout for someone who might one day fill the gigantic, timeless boots of Ben Stokes. Ever since the combative all-rounder suffered a knee injury in May 2016, they have yearned for a frontline bowler who can also play memorable major innings. In many ways,

June 20, 2016 England / Sri Lanka

England are eight up with 12 points still available

< 1 minute readIs that the score in the Super Series? Cricinfo helpfully – and somewhat surprisingly – provides a points table for Sri Lanka’s current tour, but you then have to check the fixture list and guess at each match’s value to work out what’s still to come. We’ve said that a

June 16, 2016 England

Following the protagonist through the formats – players and audience in the T20 era

2 minute readWe had an interesting (to us) chat to Charles Dagnall of Test Match Special (TMS) via Twitter yesterday. At one point he said something closely related to a number of our recurrent themes/hobby horses on this site and we were faintly annoyed with ourself for not having put the thought

June 15, 2016 England

How many players choose to become a one-format specialist?

2 minute readStuart Broad wants to state his case for inclusion in England’s one-day side. Unfortunately for him, this is difficult as he doesn’t actually play one-day cricket. According to Ali Martin, Broad’s played one 50-over game for Nottinghamshire in the last 18 months. The opposite applies to Jos Buttler, who is

June 13, 2016 England

Alex Hales’ disappointed face after being dismissed

< 1 minute readYesterday Alastair Cook played far and away the most entertaining reverse sweeps and ramp shots we’ve ever seen. Proof, if it were needed, that context is everything. With 10,000 runs of back story, this was a proper plot twist. In contrast, Alex Hales’ daddy fifties are a new story. This

June 10, 2016 Match report

England v Sri Lanka at Lord’s, day one – match report

4 minute readWe weren’t going to do this, but when we started writing something else we sort of felt obliged to ‘fess up that we’d actually been at the ground yesterday and by that point a match report seemed unavoidable. New rule We always include a brief italicised outline of what we

June 8, 2016 England / Sri Lanka

It’s the Lord’s Test – you know what that means, right?

< 1 minute readIt means it’s time for great swathes of flowery sentimental guff about what is, at the end of the day, a load of grass surrounded by plastic seats, overlooked by blocks of flats. The only way we can get through the misty-eyed paeans to Lord’s these days is to turn