King Cricket

February 4, 2014 England

Kevin Pietersen and the lost specifics

2 minute read Granted, we work for them, but we’ve been very impressed with Cricinfo recently – specifically with regards to their near-refusal to report on the latest ‘Kevin Pietersen situation’. They’ve pretty much restricted themselves to one ‘it’s being reported that senior figures are to meet on Tuesday to decide the future

February 3, 2014 Australia / England

Travelling without wheels

2 minute read It’s hard to pinpoint precisely when the final wheel fell off. It was probably a couple of months ago, but England’s cricketers have had to continue shoving “it” along anyway. No wonder they ended up going round in circles. It’s not been the best tour. In a vain effort to

January 31, 2014 England

Honestly, you go for one lunchtime pint…

< 1 minute read And England give their coach the boot. At least that’s the case according to ‘reports’. We’re not actually suggesting that the two events are linked. We’re just struck by the fact that we’ve been sitting around checking the cricket news once every four minutes for the whole of the last

January 30, 2014 Australia / England / India

Where are we up to with ‘the draft proposal’?

< 1 minute read We ask that not even knowing whether it’s still a draft or not? When does a draft proposal become an official proposal? When they actually come to vote on it? Presumably that’ll only happen once everything’s been thrashed out, in which case official proposal status will be a transient and

January 29, 2014 Australia / England

Of entrenchment and disillusion

< 1 minute read It doesn’t really matter which format gave rise to it, no-one wants to see a headline reading ‘Australia’s mastery entrenched’, which is what we just saw over at Cricinfo. Nothing good is ever entrenched. Tuesday night pub night isn’t entrenched, despite having persisted for over a decade. Nor is our

January 28, 2014 India

Return of the bits and pieces cricketer

< 1 minute read India picked Ronnie Irani. Hurray! The Ronnie Irani in question is Stuart Binny. Speaking at the toss, MS Dhoni said that he would give India a lower order batsman and an additional bowling option. Needless to say, Binny bowls a bit of medium-pace. How appropriate that he should make his

January 27, 2014 Australia / England

Specialism or dilution? Questions for this latest month of Australia v England matches

< 1 minute read On the face of it, there should be plenty to say about the fifth one-day international, but shortly after watching it we didn’t feel moved to write anything. A day later, we’re left with one abiding truth: we should feel a little more strongly than ‘peeved’ when England throw away

January 24, 2014 Australia / England

England beat some Australian players

2 minute read Although, admittedly, you could just as easily say that some England players beat some Australian players. England were down a Pietersen and an Anderson, but Australia were down a Clarke, a Warner, a Watson, a Haddin and we can’t actually be bothered working out who else would be in the

January 23, 2014 Extras

The other article about that draft proposal

< 1 minute read We like the way people are talking about ‘the draft proposal’ as if that’s in some way a unique label. The damn thing needs branding. We need some shorthand so that Cricinfo don’t have to invest a paragraph at the start of every article explaining what it is. The other

January 21, 2014 India

Why relegation for India would be a good thing

2 minute read A draft proposal regarding the structure of international cricket will be presented to the ICC Executive Board during its quarterly meeting in Dubai on January 28 and 29. One of the elements is a two-tier Test system in which India, England and Australia would be protected from relegation. (So a

I can't help feeling that a flimsy cardboard thing with four holes in it is not a device. By definition,…

His nickname at Northern Districts was "flatline", good to see he's living up to it: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ind-vs-nz-pune-test-mitchell-santner-peaks-with-virat-kohli-wicket-1457007

Kohli career was destroyed by his wife.

Santner has got to be the least expressive man I've ever seen. Is he going through a divorce? His potm…

Great test turn-around by New Zealand after their drubbing by Sri Lanka. Never have I enjoyed a test series victory…

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