King Cricket

December 12, 2013 England / Extras

The state of the cricketing nation

2 minute readWe’ve a growing problem with what might be called the ‘dissection of the nation’s cricket system’ piece. More specifically, we’ve a problem with the increasing readiness to publish such articles. The state of the cricketing nation piece is when a writer draws far-reaching conclusions about the way the sport is

December 10, 2013 Match report

Ireland/England v England/Ireland match report from Malahide

2 minute readChuck writes: I have never been to a cricket match of any description, level or length, even though it is my all time favourite sport. Despite that, or maybe because of it, I had absolutely no intention of attending the Ireland/England versus England/Ireland one-day international in Malahide in person. (Old

December 8, 2013 Australia / England

England’s batting improves a bit

2 minute readLet’s not go overboard. There are two ways to look at England’s second innings. The first is to see it as indicative of an upward curve, which gives hope for the rest of the series. The second is to say that standards are now so low that it would actually

December 7, 2013 Australia / England

The tufty-haired boulder and the blancmange

< 1 minute readThe escape route outlined in yesterday’s article? England evaded it perfectly, opting instead to stand their ground, whereupon they were flattened by the giant, tufty-haired boulder which has been rumbling after them since they landed Down Under. The most frustrating thing is that, for all the devastation, Mitchell Johnson only

December 6, 2013 Australia / England

Same faces, different players – but an opportunity for England

3 minute readToday was a nice little primer in how to approach Test cricket in Australia. It called for extremes. England didn’t really have any. It was all a bit fast-medium. We blame Steven Finn for this. On England’s last Ashes tour, he was exactly the right kind of bowler for Australian

December 5, 2013 England

Who is Ben Stokes?

< 1 minute readAnd what does he look like? Just Google it… You can always rely on Google.

December 5, 2013 Australia / England

Scrawniness and self-floggery

< 1 minute readSo where are we? No-one knows – which is the way it should be. What we do know is that England could have had one, two and, in theory, three more wickets if they’d caught better. We also know that England’s batting looks lighter than Michael Rasmussen. Stop going on

December 4, 2013 England

Jimmy Anderson doing an impression of Nasser Hussain

< 1 minute readWe can only do one impression and it’s an impression of our friend Neal doing an impression of himself. Not only are there very few people who could potentially appreciate it – it also isn’t particularly good. We are therefore filled with admiration for Jimmy Anderson and his note-perfect mimicry

December 4, 2013 Cricket books | reviews and recommendations

Tutenkhamen’s Tracksuit and other Christmas cricket books

4 minute readA quick bit of housekeeping before the second Test. We received a review copy of Alan Tyers’ new book a few weeks ago and haven’t yet said anything about it. On a related note, we’ll freely admit to not having read all of the cricket books, so if you’ve any

December 3, 2013 New Zealand

Brendon McCullum hits an actual hundred

< 1 minute readBrendon McCullum is a man whose batting achievements don’t exactly tally with his profile. He’s bolstered his reputation with captaincy and wicketkeeping and the peculiar nature of his one-day assaults, but he basically has a very middling record with the bat. However, he has just scored his eighth Test hundred