King Cricket

June 14, 2011 Match report

South Africa v Zimbabwe World Cup warm-up match report

3 minute read Ged writes: Daisy and I happened to be staying near Chennai on the day of the South Africa v Zimbabwe warm-up match. It must have been fate. At least, that’s what I told Daisy. We had arranged to tour Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram that day, with a recommended early start and

June 13, 2011 Australia

Simon Katich dropped – the understated reaction

< 1 minute read This is a quote from Australia’s federal defence minister, Stephen Smith. And yes, you read that job title correctly. “Well historically of course there have been a series of atrocities committed by the Australian Cricket Board or Cricket Australia or the Australian selectors against Western Australian cricketers but this one

June 11, 2011 Match report

Hampshire v Surrey CB40 match report

2 minute read Sam writes: It was a bank holiday, the latest in what seemed like a never-ending string of bank holidays. The weather was clear and breezy. We put our washing out to dry using a makeshift washing line running from the window of our first floor flat and tied to an

June 10, 2011 Sri Lanka

Benevolent Uncle Sanath is back

< 1 minute read At the age of 41. Sam emailed to say: “I might write something about how he’s really old and he’s like everyone’s uncle and he’s, like, properly old.” We asked what he might conceivably add to that sentence. Sam concluded that there was nothing to add.

June 9, 2011 Regulars

Edwin being conspicuously indifferent to plenty of cricket

2 minute read Got this ages ago. Didn’t dare ask what ‘OnZud’ meant in case it was something cool that we should have known. However, we also don’t want people to think we haven’t done our editing properly, so we’re having to draw attention to our ignorance in this opening paragraph anyway. Jayne

June 8, 2011 England

Broken-window-at-Lord’s-gate – the truth

< 1 minute read Matt Prior: I feel a profound sense of frustration at the cruel manner of my dismissal. What ought a man do to combat this uneasy sensation? Andrew Strauss: Smash that window, innit, brother. Matt Prior: Alas, my calm disposition prevents me from committing such brutish acts. At that exact moment,

June 7, 2011 Extras

Some players won’t get to play a Test at Lord’s – who cares?

< 1 minute read The West Indies won’t be playing at Lord’s in 2012. Forget the rights and wrongs of Cardiff being the beneficiary, the issue here relates to the accessibility of live Test cricket. Cricket matches aren’t played for the benefit of the players. They’re played for spectators. As such, it makes little

June 6, 2011 England

Jonathan Trott bats too quickly

< 1 minute read In scoring at 77.33 runs per hundred balls, Jonathan Trott careered out of control, like a giant rubber ball belting down Snowdon. That’s the only reason we can come up with as to why he might have got himself out for 58. Or maybe he’s got a weakness against left-arm

June 5, 2011 Sri Lanka

Tillakaratne Dilshan pans a hundred and is arsed about it

< 1 minute read Tillakaratne Dilshan celebrated enthusiastically when he reached his hundred. Some will say it was because he’d got his name on the honours board at Lord’s, but we doubt that. Dilshan is the Sri Lanka captain and his team had embarrassed themselves in Cardiff and then done little to repair their

June 4, 2011 England

Alastair Cook fails to respect the sequence

< 1 minute read Cook, Trott, Cook, Trott – we’re just starting to get the hang of writing about the England Test team when Alastair Cook spazzes one straight up in the air on 96. The idiot. Now what have we got? A load of half stories, that’s what. Alastair Cook scores most of

When was the last time you saw a bus conductor? Do such jobs still exist? I thought they'd gone the…

I thought Beau Webster was a Regency dandy, the inspiration for Lord Percy Percy in Blackadder the Third.

Great test turn-around by Pakistan. Never have I enjoyed an England test defeat than this one (that's coming from someone…

Vertical clapping - schoolboy error - trying to play such a technically difficult game without the extra protection that the…

Huh! Interesting cricket in Western Australia... https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/one-day-cup-aus-2024-25-1444469/western-australia-vs-tasmania-10th-match-1444479/match-report Meanwhile, in India...

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