King Cricket

It’s the India cricketers we feel for

2 minute read Imagine you work in accounts for a biggish company that leases out some of its office space to other firms. Imagine that one of your company directors inexplicably removes the coffee machine from the shared kitchen and places it in the middle of your firm’s office. Now imagine that you

March 15, 2016 India / New Zealand

World T20 begins with ‘six and out’

< 1 minute read Then a dot ball. Then another six. Post-qualifying kicked off as if it had a bit of catching up to do. It was almost as if the tournament had begun a couple of weeks ago without the majority of teams being present until now. India are playing New Zealand. Martin

March 15, 2016 West Indies

Some of you may remember Omari Banks…

< 1 minute read He was a West Indies off-spinner. He averaged 117 against England in 2014. Here’s his Cricinfo profile page. As that record suggests, Omari wasn’t the greatest spinner of all time. However, somewhat miraculaously, he can now boast an even worse record – his godawful single Me & You, which makes

March 14, 2016 Extras

What is pre-qualifying?

< 1 minute read We’ve seen a number of people this week referring to the first phase of the World T20 as ‘pre-qualifying’. The word they are looking for is of course ‘qualifying’. Yes, it takes place before the tournament – or pre-tournament if you will – but that’s what qualifying is. It’s qualifying

March 12, 2016 Afghanistan / Associates

Somehow Afghanistan have qualified for the World T20

< 1 minute read The ICC are calling this ‘the group stage’ of the World T20. Everyone else is correctly referring to it as the qualifiers. Afghanistan have qualified. Despite the best efforts of the organisers, someone had to. Afghanistan did of course have the good fortune to be in Group B. It’s not

March 11, 2016 South Africa

Turns out AB de Villiers is rubbish at T20 cricket

1 minute read There’s only so many times you can hear how wonderful something is before you want to hit it with a hammer or push it down a flight of stairs at the luxury five-star hotel at which it’s staying ahead of its team’s first match at the World T20. However, this

March 10, 2016 Extras

We wouldn’t call ourself a staunch defender of Twenty20 cricket but…

< 1 minute read We were going to draw together a bunch of our articles about the nature of Twenty20 cricket for today’s update as a kind of ‘easy win’. However, when we started searching the site to put this together, we discovered we already had such a thing. Hurray! Even easier win! Then

March 9, 2016 Extras

A mankad prevents batsmen from taking the piss

< 1 minute read Before the Asia Cup qualifying round, the Asian Cricket Council is said to have met with the four Associate teams and told them not to mankad. Oman’s Aamir Kaleem was having none of it. He did for Hong Kong’s Mark Chapman in precisely that manner. Oman won. There’s now been

March 7, 2016 County cricket

A committee of cooks designing a horse for broth

2 minute read They’ve had a meeting about renovating the entire structure of county cricket. They’ve resolved to repaint one of the bedrooms and maybe replace some of the sealant around the bath. In 1890, it was suggested that county cricket be divided into first, second and third classes with eight teams in

March 6, 2016 Bangladesh / India

Is Bumrah ever-living?

< 1 minute read This is the question everyone’s asking. Mumm-Ra was ever-living – and therefore presumably still is. It therefore stands to reason that Jasprit Bumrah is ever-living too, what with his name sounding slightly similar and all. Bumrah bowled well in the 15-over-a-side Asia Cup Final. He did a lot to ensure

When was the last time you saw a bus conductor? Do such jobs still exist? I thought they'd gone the…

I thought Beau Webster was a Regency dandy, the inspiration for Lord Percy Percy in Blackadder the Third.

Great test turn-around by Pakistan. Never have I enjoyed an England test defeat than this one (that's coming from someone…

Vertical clapping - schoolboy error - trying to play such a technically difficult game without the extra protection that the…

Huh! Interesting cricket in Western Australia... https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/one-day-cup-aus-2024-25-1444469/western-australia-vs-tasmania-10th-match-1444479/match-report Meanwhile, in India...

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