King Cricket

December 3, 2014 England / Sri Lanka

A successful England run chase – but it never would have lasted

< 1 minute readHere’s a joke for you: What do a 35-over a side game in Habantota and a 50-over match in New Zealand or Australia have in common? Pretty funny, eh? In the third match of this series, Sri Lanka were positively blown away by England’s tactic of randomly selecting a load

December 1, 2014 England

Why Alex Hales and Moeen Ali would make a great one-day opening partnership

2 minute readThis is going to come across as a gossamer-thinly-veiled plea for Alastair Cook to be given the old heave-ho, but it’s not. It’s literally just about Hales and Ali – Cook’s merely collateral damage. In fact let’s say he can bat at three. There’s still a large part of us

November 30, 2014 New Zealand / Pakistan

The Kiwi is a fast learner

< 1 minute readIt has to be. Unable to fly and never allowed to play more than three Tests in a series, it has to adapt quickly if it isn’t to be devoured by cats or beaten by Pakistan. Captains and coaches always talk about learning from a defeat, but you rarely see

November 29, 2014 England

England try and sprint to 300 but succeed only in tripping and crawling to 185 all out

< 1 minute readThe ECB media cheat sheet will have been passed around again after today’s performance. All this running talk of attacking batting is understandable, but England repeatedly show a worrying lack of aptitude for walking the full 50-over distance (actually only 45 in this instance). Six times in their last seven

November 27, 2014 Australia

Just a few words about Phil Hughes

2 minute readIt’s never easy to cover serious news on a website like this because whatever we write will have to stand alongside something stupid. Our usual way of dealing with this is to just let the serious story completely pass us by. But you can’t write a cricket site and not

November 26, 2014 England / Sri Lanka

Moeen Ali foolishly expects other England players to score some of the runs

< 1 minute readThat’s okay. That’s what these tours are for. Moeen will have learnt from this. From now on, he’ll know that 119 off 87 balls simply isn’t enough and he’ll instead score 180 off 110 balls or whatever. Other than that, one of the great joys of the first one-day international

November 25, 2014 Australia

Justin Langer’s three golden rules

2 minute readJustin Langer has a philosophy. It’s changed the culture of the Western Australia cricket team and made them successful. Central to his philosophy are the following three rules: Use common sense Keep things simple No mobile phones at training This revelation comes from within an almost transcendentally nauseating interview. Other

November 24, 2014 England

England’s 2015 World Cup Song (to the tune of Waltzing Matilda)

2 minute readSticking with World Cup songs, Bert writes: All proper World Cup campaigns, no matter what the sport, need a World Cup Song, but in the past I think teams have made a tactical mistake. All these songs tell of hope and excitement, of the chance of winning, no matter how

November 22, 2014 Extras

What has the East Asia-Pacific region ever done for cricket? THIS!

< 1 minute readHowe drew our attention to another official song, saying: “Perhaps deserves a post of its own.” You’re not wrong, Howe. Our favourite line is: “Everyone can win it. From the team of PNG to someone else.” Who says the East Asia-Pacific region hasn’t made its mark on the cricket world?

November 20, 2014 England / Regulars

Mop-up of the day – tails and knees

2 minute readFirst up, tail-enders. They’re ace, but they’re a dying breed. Blame professionalism. Now we love lower-order shenanigans as much as the next person, but the key word there is ‘shenanigans’. A textbook forward defensive stroke is not a shenanigan. These are shenanigans. A tail-end innings should bring all the fun