King Cricket

July 3, 2011 England

Scoring enough runs in one-day cricket and defending not quite enough runs

< 1 minute readIdeally, a one-day side should be able to do both of those things. England can do neither. They’re not a hundred million miles away from competence, but combine both those shortcomings and you’ll struggle to win many matches. We’re starting to think that it’s nothing to do with players, tactics,

July 1, 2011 England

Predictable scheduling of Test matches

2 minute readIf 922 people turn up for a day at a Test match when you’re offering free entry, you’re going to struggle to raise the £2.5m you bid for the match in question. Dark skies poison people’s enthusiasm for watching cricket, but even so, very few tickets for this year’s Cardiff

June 30, 2011 India

What does Dhoni’s incorrect dismissal tell us?

< 1 minute readDhoni was caught off Fidel Edwards, but umpire Iain Gould thought it was a no-ball and asked the third umpire for confirmation. It was a no-ball, but the broadcaster showed the third umpire the wrong footage and Dhoni was wrongly given out. What does this tell us? It tells us

June 30, 2011 England / India

Five-Test series between England and India

< 1 minute readHave we updated the site today? No. Did we forget? Yes. Will this be one of our all-time greatest updates? Definitely not. India and England will play five-Test series in 2014 and 2018. That’s good, isn’t it? Five-Test series allow for a proper narrative to develop. The term ‘five-Test series’

June 29, 2011 Sri Lanka

Sanath Jayasuriya’s last match

< 1 minute readSanath Jayasuriya has finally bowed out of cricket just three days short of his 70th birthday. He departed how he had thrived, with a ferocious cut shot. Asked to reflect on his career, Jayasuriya may or may not have said: “Eh? What? Speak up. Why does everybody mumble these days?

June 28, 2011 England

Alastair Cook as a one-day opener

< 1 minute readDunno. Give him a chance? The best players are adaptable, but we can’t shake the feeling that even if Alastair Cook can survive as a one-day batsman, he isn’t an opener. Batsmen sometimes get branded as being ‘openers’ in England, but one-day opening is different. Successful one-day openers generally come

June 27, 2011 Extras

Batsmen not allowed runners in international cricket

< 1 minute readThis is a sad development. The ICC have said that batsmen are no longer allowed to have someone run on their behalf when they get injured or suffer cramp or forget to bring the right shoes. The runner serves a valuable purpose in cricket. He helps create the misunderstandings that

June 26, 2011 Extras

Win India v England tickets for the Oval Test

< 1 minute readCompetition closed. See here for Oval cricket tickets. We hate doing competitions. Sorting through all the entries sucks hours from our life and we always get stressed out that the winners aren’t going to receive their prizes. This is a good one though. You could win a pair of tickets

June 24, 2011 Cricket books | reviews and recommendations

Crickileaks by Alan Tyers

< 1 minute readDo you know Alan Tyers’ work? You can probably make your own mind up about this book if you do. Crickileaks is what you would expect from him. The fake diary is Alan Tyers’ thing. He’s done them for Cricinfo and The Wisden Cricketer (now The Cricketer) many times before

June 22, 2011 India

Call Rahul Dravid if you need a grown-up to do a job for you

2 minute readGambhir, Sehwag, Tendulkar and Yuvraj aren’t playing against the West Indies, so there were plenty of chances for India’s up-and-coming batsmen to make their mark. Suresh Raina got 82 in the first innings and Harbhajan 70, but other than that it’s all been eights, twelves and fifteens. But batting’s been