King Cricket

December 2, 2020 England / South Africa

Dawid Malan has used ‘being the best batsman in the world’ as a stepping stone to competence

< 1 minute readIt’s like they always say: being the top-ranked batsman in the world can be a real confidence-booster and may even help you secure a place in the first team. When Dawid Malan became the number one batsman in T20 internationals in September, the general reaction could be summed up as,

November 30, 2020 England / South Africa

Temba Bavuma’s ramp shot is not polished

2 minute readTemba Bavuma has contributed all of 18 runs to the current T20 series between South Africa and England, so it’s odd that he should be responsible for one of the recurring highlights. His ramp shot is undeniably that though. This is how Temba Bavuma played a ramp shot in the

November 28, 2020 England / South Africa

Jonny Bairstow proves he should open and also bat at four

2 minute readOur rule with white ball cricket is that if you’re bearing down on a World Cup, you pay attention to that particular format, and then immediately stop paying attention afterwards. The competition currently known as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is due to take place in October 2021. Being

November 25, 2020 Australia

The real motivation for Steve Smith’s elaborate pre-delivery fidgeting routine REVEALED

< 1 minute readSteve Smith’s pad-tapping, box-adjusting pre-delivery fidget routine is really quite something. And now, finally, we know why he does it. “I think it’s left pad, right pad, box, one tap in the middle, two behind my foot, look up, two behind my foot, look up, one… good to go.” That’s

November 24, 2020 England / Features / Zimbabwe

The Awkwardest Squad: Why the 96/97 “flippin’ murdered ’em” tour of Zimbabwe was peak 90s England (a net bowler’s story)

9 minute readBig thanks to everyone who funds the site through our Patreon campaign. We couldn’t justify spending this much time on a King Cricket article without you. Remember 1996? Things were very different in 1996. Back in 1996 Leonardo Dicaprio from The Revenant and Claire Danes from Homeland seemed like a

November 23, 2020 Extras

What exactly did Matthew Hayden say when he was “in conversation with the mystic”?

3 minute readIf you don’t know Indian yogi and author “Sadhguru” (Jaggi Vasudev), he’s kind of a big deal. The Isha Foundation that he set up in 1992 is said to have over nine million volunteers. A lot of people like Sadhguru. They think he’s wise. In August 2019, Sadhguru agreed to

November 18, 2020 Features

Goldenarms: The best part-time bowlers in the history of Test cricket

5 minute readAll-rounders are great, but part-time bowlers are more entertaining. Bowlers have to bat in Test cricket, even though they are not picked as batsmen – but only very occasionally is a batsman asked to bowl. Let’s try and work out which Test cricketer who wasn’t picked for his bowling was

November 17, 2020 Australia

The (sole) pro and (many) cons of the Big Bash League’s mad new rules

3 minute readThe videogamification of short format cricket continues with the announcement of a series of BOOSTS and POWER SURGES in the Big Bash League. (Why don’t they ever use genuinely entertaining videogame mods, like Sensible Soccer’s reduced gravity or Goldeneye’s giant heads mode?) The new rules are predictably puzzling and –

November 16, 2020 Uncategorized

How did Mumbai Indians celebrate their IPL win?

2 minute readBy being on the receiving end of an agonisingly protracted lecture from Nita Ambani, of course! Regular readers will be well aware of our morbid fascination with Nita’s breath-taking commitment to interminable public speaking. As soon as we realised that Mumbai were going to win, our thoughts immediately turned to

November 12, 2020 India

Let’s find out exactly what went on at Chennai Super Kings this season

3 minute readChennai Super Kings (CSK) had a well-publicised very terrible IPL season. It’s interesting to see how they dealt with that. CSK hold the records for most appearances in the play-offs (ten) and final (eight), but this year they were just about the worst team in the competition. This also makes