King Cricket

August 20, 2009 England

Are England annoying enough?

< 1 minute read Not in the sense that they vex you with their occasional incompetence. We mean, are they annoying enough to truly challenge the opposition? We’ve always been a great believer that you can achieve a lot through being really annoying and we don’t see why that wouldn’t apply in international cricket.

August 20, 2009 England

Are England going to win the Ashes?

< 1 minute read What? It’s a simple enough question, isn’t it? Are England going to win the Ashes? The players are all saying that they can. None are saying that they will and obviously none are saying that they won’t. The pundits are weighing things up and talking about pressure and weather and

August 19, 2009 England / Extras

Overly dramatic headline of the week

< 1 minute read The BBC go with “Strauss makes Ashes rallying call”. England’s captain is geeing up the troops with fist-pumping lines such as: “You have to earn the right to be on top in a match and that is why what we did at Headingley was a bit of shocker. We have

August 19, 2009 England

Andy Flintoff reinstated as Hero Number One

< 1 minute read It’s his last Test, so we’re going back to calling him ‘Andy’. That’s what he always used to be, before the media started calling him ‘Andrew’ and then ‘Freddie’. Andy is a good, functional name. It gets the job done. It’s the kind of name you’d be happy to buy

August 18, 2009 Uncategorised

Supporting an Australian who’s seemingly willing to defect

< 1 minute read The Barmy Army are playing Australia’s Fanatics tomorrow. Among the Barmy Army team is, somewhat inexplicably, The Australian, who seems destined to be ‘The Australian’ even when involved in a cricket match featuring a whole team of his kinsmen. You can sponsor him and implicitly condone his defection here. Money

August 18, 2009 County cricket / England

Joe Denly earmarked for summat

< 1 minute read Joe Denly has been picked in England’s Fewer Overs squads for the arse end of the summer. This is pretty good. We get the impression England’s selectors have identified him as an attacking opening batsman who’s actually an opening batsman and not just a sloggy all-rounder who has a bit

August 17, 2009 Australia

Brett Lee chasing the birds

< 1 minute read From the BBC: “Liam Plunkett was cleaned up by Lee for a breezy 34. The dismissal sparked a bizarre incident when a seagull swooped on one of the dislodged bails, escaping with its plunder with Lee in hot pursuit.” Many people would let the bird have the bail and gone

August 17, 2009 Bangladesh / Zimbabwe

Charles Coventry has an ODI world record score

< 1 minute read Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry hit 194 not out against Bangladesh. Zimbabwe lost. This equals the world record individual one-day international score. How do we all feel about that? The original 194 not out was scored by Saeed Anwar against India 12 years ago. Even in these days of tree-sized bats and

August 16, 2009 County cricket / West Indies

Dwayne Smith makes use of his beach cowboy expertise

< 1 minute read The theme of Twenty20 Finals Day 2009 was The Magnificent Seven on account of it being the seventh Twenty20 Finals Day. They played music from westerns, there was a bucking bronco thing and there were cowgirls. Between the second semi and the final, the entire Edgbaston crowd recreated the campfire

August 16, 2009 County cricket / England

Response to England’s fifth Ashes Test squad

< 1 minute read Jonathan Trott, who is being dropped into a deep end infested with piranhas from a great height for his debut, said: “I’m chuffed.” Mark Ramprakash, writing on Twitter, (genuinely) said: “Defecating in a package to send to Geoff Miller.” Quite bizarrely, Trott seemed to echo Ramps’ thoughts when speaking about

Three cheers for England playing three spinners. You should always play three spinners.

Dammit.

I am now hugely>i< confused Enjoyed Into The Tangled Bank very much, Mr P/fiendishly cunning imposter.

@Lev the imposter (maybe). What we do in private stays private ;-) ...and apologies for taking credit for being the…

@KC. Ahh, bu**er. Yes, confused by the birding reference.

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