King Cricket

January 5, 2009 Australia

Are Australia the worst team in the world?

2 minute read You’d be forgiven for thinking so with some of the things you read. The fact is Australia are still a feisty outfit and England in particular shouldn’t be fancying their chances against them too much. Australia may have slid a bit, but they’ll never implode. It’s not the Aussie way.

January 4, 2009 England

Why have Peter Moores and Kevin Pietersen fallen out?

< 1 minute read The seeds of the fall-out were sown during a conversation between Peter Moores and Andrew Strauss. The pair were discussing manufactured pop bands and Moores branded Liberty X ‘derivative’ and ‘lacking in true vocal talent’. As Kevin Pietersen is married to ex-Liberty X chanteuse, Jessica Taylor, Strauss felt moved to

January 3, 2009 Australia

Doug Bollinger lacks for effort

< 1 minute read Doug Bollinger’s making his debut for Australia. How much effort is he going to put in? “If I happen to play I’ll put 150,000 percent in.” That’s the bare minimum these days. Remember when Damien Martyn retired because he could only muster a puny 100% dedication. That was a long

January 1, 2009 West Indies

Lord Megachief of Gold 2008

2 minute read 2007’s Lord Megachief of Gold was Shivnarine Chanderpaul, but who will be given the most exalted title in all of cricket for 2008? The contenders Gautam Gambhir came of age as a Test batsman and averaged 70.87 during 2008. Graeme Smith did his things and averaged 72. Ajantha Mendis took

December 30, 2008 Australia / South Africa

Graeme Smith does his things

< 1 minute read Graeme Smith’s things are hitting the bulk of the runs in a fourth innings chase and winning Test series. There were no miracles from Australia’s bowlers, because the bowlers who could perform them are gone. South Africa chased down 183 for the loss of one wicket, won the match, won

December 29, 2008 Australia

Ricky Ponting – an admirable batsman

< 1 minute read Ricky Ponting, eh? He’s not likeable, because of the face, the face and also the face. However, he is admirable as a batsman. Look Ponting in the face and it’s tricky to know whether to sigh and hope he goes away or to start with the punching. Watch him bat

December 29, 2008 Australia / South Africa

Neil McKenzie: brave, stupid or mental

< 1 minute read Neil McKenzie did something. Tony Greig called him brave, Mark Nicholas branded him stupid. We’d like to add ‘mental’ to the equation as well. Of course, Neil McKenzie is known to be a bit mental, but this was a different kind of mental. He took up a fielding position maybe

December 28, 2008 Australia / South Africa

JP Duminy shows South Africa’s resilience

< 1 minute read JP Duminy’s Test record is improving: one in his first innings, 50 not out in his second and 166 in his third. The 166 kicks in the balls that he gave Australia’s bowlers were particularly useful as they helped produce 275 ball kicks for South Africa’s last three wickets. Those

December 27, 2008 Australia

Peter Siddle’s bowling speed

< 1 minute read Arch woodchopper cum fourth choice Australian quick, Peter Siddle, can whang the ball at speeds up to about 150kph, which is about 93mph in old money and officially makes him a fast bowler on the King Cricket scale. In light of this, we now want to see all young English

December 27, 2008 Bangladesh

Shakib al Hasan takes five

< 1 minute read Shakib al Hasan’s taken five wickets in three Test innings in a row. 5-70 against Sri Lanka follows 5-130 and 6-99 against South Africa. He’s currently ranked the 27th best one-day bowler and the eighth best one-day all-rounder. The earth can consider itself safe from shattery, nor is it in

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.

It was a classic of the genre. Not sure we've ever seen one go further.

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