King Cricket

August 26, 2008 England

Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy secret

< 1 minute readFirst there was the win, then there was the other win and then there was the cold, dead-eyed, relentless slaughter. England have murdered a top order before, but they rarely follow it by sweeping up the tail and leaving everywhere really nice and tidy. South Africa 85 all out and

August 26, 2008 Australia

Somebody likes Matthew Hayden

< 1 minute readAs you probably know, that person is Usain Bolt, a Jamaican giant who can run quickly. Matthew Hayden has responded, which rather pleasingly means he’s had another go at ‘talking’. First of all, we’ll remind you why it is FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG to like Matthew Hayden. The first thing he said

August 22, 2008 Regulars

Laurence Elderbrook bolsters the middle order

2 minute readOur fragile top order frequently lands the middle order in trouble. In a bid to rectify this, I am asked to bat at five to add a bit of experience and resilience. On this occasion I am fortunate enough that the top four all get good scores, so when the

August 22, 2008 County cricket

Lancashire batsmen who are good

< 1 minute readPaul Horton. That is all. Put it this way, Iain Sutcliffe has been keeping Mark Chilton out of the side and Sutcliffe’s been batting so unbelievably wretchedly that he’s actually gone so far as to retire from cricket. His season average of 14 is superior to Chilton’s 12. However, both

August 21, 2008 England / Extras

Mike Selvey leaves TMS

< 1 minute readOr rather, Mike Selvey is asked to leave TMS. We’ve had a few goes at writing this where we’ve tried to compare Selvey to his likely replacements, but that’s not the point. The point is simple. Mike Selvey has spent a lifetime thinking about cricket. He has interesting thoughts on

August 21, 2008 County cricket

Mark Ramprakash reverts to type

< 1 minute readThree hundreds in as many innings for Mark Ramprakash now – the middle one a double and he hasn’t been dismissed in any of them. He’s 133 not out overnight against Sussex. Mark Ramprakash must be the only batsman in history who can cause people to mull on his mental

August 20, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

Zaheer Khan wins an ODI with the ball

< 1 minute readAnother one-day international is decided with the ball. Huzzah. It went the other way this time, however. Zaheer Khan took 4-21 and Sri Lanka crumpled like a supermarket receipt to 142 all out. We’re increasingly thinking that if there’s swing, you want Zaheer Khan in your side. Bowlers continued to

August 20, 2008 England

We made Kevin Pietersen answer a question with the word ‘pie’

< 1 minute readWe’ve never been so proud. The Wisden Cricketer requested questions from their readership and we asked: ‘Why haven’t you adopted a comedy English accent, like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins?’ After some thinking out loud, Pietersen concluded that he says ‘pie’ with a northern accent. Sometimes the stars align

August 19, 2008 England

Who is England’s best one-day opener?

2 minute readThat’s a rhetorical question. We were experimenting with lots of ‘suck it and see’ type headings, but couldn’t find one that wouldn’t give rise to unsavoury comments. We touched on the ‘suck it and see’ selection policy the other day. Essentially, we think England’s selectors take a look at players

August 18, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

India change their batting faces to no great effect

< 1 minute read‘Bye bye Sachin, Rahul, Sourav and VVS, the new generation are here now. You guys are past it, but we’ll conquer Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan with ease.’ This is what India’s glittery one-day batting line-up might have said, but it would have been followed by a bit of a