King Cricket

May 23, 2022 County cricket

Hampshire: second and still cheating

2 minute readIt is hard to think of a bowler better tailored to the the high workloads and nibbly conditions of the County Championship than Hampshire’s Keith Barker. Hampshire’s Mohammad Abbas maybe. We’ve reached the point in the season where we’ll drop our coverage of the County Championship like a hot Le

May 19, 2022 County cricket

This week’s big county match is the one in which Surrey will make zero points

2 minute readWelcome to King Cricket’s vital County Championship coverage where this week we’ll be talking about a match that isn’t taking place. Surrey are currently top of the table. This week they’re not playing Gloucestershire – and not just because they’ve already played them. As a reminder, here’s our lowdown on

May 18, 2022 England / Uncategorized

Why we’re celebrating the first England Test squad of the summer

4 minute readIt was the first England Test squad announcement of the summer today. You may well have something to say about some of the specifics, but can we please first just stop and celebrate the annual ritual of picking apart the coming Test season before it’s even begun. Near the start

May 16, 2022 Australia

Andrew Symonds: “Not every day is about work”

2 minute readAndrew Symonds was killed in a car crash over the weekend. We feel an urge to state that this is dreadful news, which is just a fantastically redundant thing to say. We remember a few years ago reading a cricketer’s obituary and thinking to ourself that one day we’d feel

May 16, 2022 County cricket / England

Runs and running things – mop-up of the day

2 minute readOur loosely-held editorial guideline of “no-one cares what you think” isn’t necessarily one that drives productivity at what is, fundamentally, an opinion website. It means there’s a whole bunch of recent news stories we haven’t covered because no-one cares what we think. The County Championship Let’s start with the latest

May 12, 2022 County cricket

Harry Brook v Lancashire

2 minute readYorkshire’s Harry Brook is averaging 158.75 so far this season. But can he make runs in the WHITE HOT CRUCIBLE of a Roses Match? This week’s WHITE HOT CRUCIBLE of a Roses Match is being played at the ground that is now – quite genuinely – known as Clean Slate

May 11, 2022 West Indies

The day Dad faced (and caught) Roy Gilchrist

2 minute readWe sent Special Correspondent Dad some footage of Roy Gilchrist this week because we knew he’d played against him once. If you don’t know Gilchrist, he was summed up in his Guardian obituary as a, “West Indian fast bowler whose temper was even quicker and more fiery than the speed

May 9, 2022 England

England batters: mystery of the odds

2 minute readWe have in recent years aimed for coherence, clarity and accessibility in our opening paragraphs. It’s tough to take that approach today though because we’ve accidentally written a headline that reads like the title of an obscure B-movie or computer game. It’s the tagline bit that does it. It’s got

May 6, 2022 County cricket

You see what happens? You see what happens? This is what happens when you give Ben Stokes the England Test captaincy and then invite him to return to action in the County Championship

2 minute readBen Stokes played his third Championship innings for Durham in four years today. He made 161 off 88 balls. It took him 64 balls to reach three figures. Stokes brought up his hundred with what was his fifth six in five balls. The sixth ball of the over went for

May 5, 2022 County cricket

No James Anderson and no Saqib Mahmood as Lancashire and the Birmingham U-Bears rehash the Bob Willis Trophy final

< 1 minute readLancashire’s best team in years didn’t last long, did it? They’re without both James Anderson and Saqib Mahmood for county champions Warwickshire’s visit to Old Trafford this week. Hassan Ali must be running on fumes by now as well. We have to say that the return of crack fielder and