King Cricket

January 12, 2012 County cricket / West Indies

Chris Gayle to play Twenty20 for someone

< 1 minute readIn a not-entirely-surprising move, Chris Gayle has signed to play for Somerset in next season’s Twenty20 Cup. Gayle’s ‘people’ released a statement quoting him as saying: “I’m delighted to be heading to [insert name of cricket team]. Hopefully I can make a key contribution to their T20 campaign this year.”

January 11, 2012 England

How bad were England in the Nineties?

< 1 minute readWe’re concerned that some English people don’t fully appreciate their team’s success. Specifically, we worry that younger cricket fans don’t have perspective. We want to provide that perspective by documenting English cricket in the Nineties. Why would we do this? Well maybe if these people can appreciate how bad the

January 10, 2012 County cricket

Travel time reclaimed from County Championship

2 minute read“Hi, I’ve only got seven quid. Could you cut 80 per cent of my hair?” Some things have to be done in full. Incompletion is unsatisfactory. As another example, if you have some sort of sports competition, it’s preferable to have everyone competing on an equal footing. If each team

January 9, 2012 England

When did England last have to deal with good spin bowling?

2 minute readEngland are overrated. We’re not saying they don’t deserve to be considered the best Test side around at the minute; we’re saying the best Test side isn’t automatically the favourite to win a given series. While England have mullered most sides in home conditions, it’s been a while since they

January 9, 2012 Extras

Still ahead of the curve

< 1 minute readThe fourth instalment of our episodic short story has been published over at Cricinfo and there’s still little sign of administrative fiction becoming a popular new literary genre. Part one Part two Part three Part four The final part should appear later in the week.

January 8, 2012 Extras

Giles Clarke given CBE

< 1 minute readWe know this isn’t ‘news’ as such, but Giles Clarke was named in the New Year’s honours list. We believe he was awarded with a CBE for associating with known felons. Some might say that we shouldn’t hold one mistake against a man, which is true. It’s all the other

January 6, 2012 South Africa

Jacques Kallis is fitter than he looks

< 1 minute readJacques Kallis bowled a ball at about 90mph today. Generally speaking, he was bowling faster than Philander, Steyn and Morkel. Despite looking more like a rugby player, Kallis has always been pretty slippery when the mood’s taken him. It’s astonishing that he can still do this when he’s 36-years-old. Few

January 5, 2012 South Africa

Vernon Philander takes wickets for fun

< 1 minute readOther than Angus Fraser, few bowlers have appeared to do it as penance. Many people’s definition of an all-rounder is that they should average more with the bat than they do with the ball. Vernon Philander isn’t a million miles away from that and his batting average is only 7.75.

January 4, 2012 Australia

Ricky Ponting earns a hundred

< 1 minute readThere have been times when we’ve thought that a fat man doing naked limbo in the office would have more dignity than Ricky Ponting. However, he can have his moments. He often speaks well these days and he seemed dignified when he reached 100 against India at the SCG as

January 3, 2012 Australia / India

Fit and misfiring

< 1 minute readWe don’t try and steer clear of stupidity altogether – that would be unrealistic – but we do generally try and avoid saying anything too moronic until both sides have batted. Even so, we’re tempted to get in early today after India were again bowled out easily by Australia. India