King Cricket

Cricket’s Champions Leagues

2 minute readThe Board of Control for Cricket in India, the BCCI, wishes to run a Champions League featuring Twenty20 sides from around the world. The BCCI backs the IPL Twenty20 league and says sides featuring players from the rival ICL can’t appear in its Champions League. Various county cricketers have played

July 29, 2008 South Africa

More Andre Nel depravity

< 1 minute readWhat is it with Andre Nel and this sort of quote? If he’s not saying it himself, someone else is saying it about him. South Africa coach, Mickey Arthur, said: “Any time Andre plays for South Africa he’s fired up. I can’t wait to see him bowl hard.” It doesn’t

July 28, 2008 County cricket

Why Rob Key is the man

< 1 minute readSome of you are doubtless under the impression that we like Rob Key because he’s a ruddy-faced barrel of a man, but that’s not why at all. That’s just a bonus. The real reason why we like Rob Key is because we think he’s a fantastic batsman. One of his

July 28, 2008 County cricket

Middlesex win Twenty20 Cup

< 1 minute readA last ball win is never bad, even if it condemns your hero to defeat. To be honest, we’re a bit disappointed that Rob didn’t have some anger to vent. He vented well enough last year and Kent won then. Owais Shah doesn’t seem to be getting sufficient recognition for

July 27, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan tactics

< 1 minute readSri Lanka have always had a good plan when playing at home, but it did have one slight flaw. Someone had to bowl at the other end. If you’re a touring side batting in a Test in Sri Lanka, you effectively play two different matches. At one end, you counter

July 25, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

It’s Mahela Jayawardene at the SSC. Again.

< 1 minute readIf Sanath Jayasuriya’s catchphrase would be ‘ha-haaaa‘, then Mahela Jayawardene’s ought to be just silence. He’s not speaking because he’s concentrating. Jayawardene averages near enough a hundred at Galle, but it’s at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground that he REALLY likes batting. No-one’s ever scored more Test runs at a

July 24, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

Malinda Warnapura’s hundred unexpectedly delights us

< 1 minute readWe think we might have subconsciously adopted Malinda Warnapura and we’ve no real idea when it happened or why. All we know is that he scored a hundred against India today and we thought ‘well played our guy’. At that point we stopped. ‘Wait a minute, why are we thinking

July 24, 2008 County cricket / Match report

Durham v Leicestershire Twenty20 match report

2 minute readMatch reports are still welcome. The guidelines are: don’t write much and don’t mention the actual cricket. 668 Neighbour Of The Beast writes: Seduced by advertising? Never! But the comfy retro chairs looked inviting. To Riverside, home of the Durham Doodahs. The scorecard stated entertainment provided by the Durham Allstarzz.

July 23, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

Ajantha Mendis to make his Test debut

< 1 minute readLet’s close our eyes to England’s filthy performance and instead imagine we’re in Sri Lanka. The sun is shining, monkeys are rife, you’re having string hoppers for breakfast and Sri Lanka are playing India in Colombo. They’ll already have started by now and Ajantha Mendis should be playing. Unfortunately, Lasith

July 22, 2008 County cricket

Liam Plunkett does more than enough to earn a Test recall

< 1 minute readLiam Plunkett took 3-16 as Durham FINALLY made it into the Twenty20 Cup semi finals. With three superlative overs behind him, Plunkett’s surely in line for a Test recall. That’s a whole opening spell for England these days.