King Cricket

March 21, 2014 Associates

That Tom Cooper thing’s turning out to be a good move

< 1 minute readNefariousness can be a virtue, it seems. Tim Gruijters and his bad-but-by-no-means-debilitating back probably wouldn’t have hit 45 off 15 balls, vaulting the Netherlands from third place in their group into the Super 10 stage of the World T20. However, his replacement, Tom Cooper, managed it – just like that.

March 20, 2014 England

Six reasons why England will win the World T20

< 1 minute readEveryone likes a list. Unless it’s for the big shop. We never use a list when food shopping and last week, planning on doing a roast followed by cheese, we bought everything bar the chicken and the cheese. So it goes. But away from the fluorescent-illuminated stationary trolleys of dawdling

March 19, 2014 England

The unpredictability of Twenty20 plays right into England’s buttery hands

< 1 minute readIf there is to be any drama in England’s T20 World Cup campaign, it seems likely that it will come in the form of a very formulaic, second-rate sitcom. We’re expecting the most noteworthy performance in every match to be one of the batsmen making 40-odd off as many balls.

March 18, 2014 Cricket books | reviews and recommendations

Start the Car: The World According to Bumble – book review

3 minute readWe finally got round to reading this. Oddly, this hasn’t clarified whether it’s worth reading or not. A friend who follows cricket fairly closely but who at the time hadn’t watched much of Sky’s coverage, once asked us about David Lloyd. He’d got the impression that Bumble was this self-consciously

March 17, 2014 Associates

Tim Gruijters’s back…

< 1 minute readIs better than it’s been in a while. Apparently. You may not know much about Tim Gruijters. In fact, you may not know much about Tim Gruijters at all. Gruijters plays for the Netherlands. Or at least he would do if he hadn’t been sent home from the World T20

March 14, 2014 England

Jade Dernbach bowls two balls the same

< 1 minute readWhen a sweaty-palmed Jade Dernbach bowled a wide with West Indies needing seven to win off one delivery, it was easy to forget that his opening spell had been sort of all right. It’s not a big thing, but it’s definitely progress. Someone seems to have persuaded Dernbach that variations

March 13, 2014 South Africa

More Test cricket for South Africa

< 1 minute readThat’s not a chant. There are too many syllables. You’d have to rush through the ‘Test cricket’ bit to make it work and Test cricket ain’t for rushing through. No, ‘more Test cricket for South Africa’ actually comes about because it looks like there is going to be more Test

March 12, 2014 England

Should Jos Buttler bat at five?

2 minute readLet’s overlook all the trivial details, like the omission of England’s best Twenty20 batsman and the retirement of their best-ever Twenty20 bowler (one name in particular crops up very frequently in this list) and instead focus on whether Jos Buttler should emerge with England 26-3, 32-4 or 38-5. It might

March 11, 2014 Extras

A bit of housekeeping

< 1 minute readJust to let you know that the answers to the Ashes 2013/14 crossword are now available. The link’s at the bottom of the page and there are explanations as well so that you can see how you’re stupid as well as how stupid you are. If you think that’s insulting,

March 10, 2014 England

Vivisection on England’s World T20 squad

2 minute readIt’s not dead yet, but let’s take our cleaver and dice it anyway. It’s only a matter of time. Batting No Kevin Pietersen, the man of the tournament the only time England won a big competition, so who’s going to pick up the slack? Well not Joe Root. He’s got