King Cricket

July 9, 2024 England

All we ask of James Anderson in his final Test match is that he loses his temper at some point

3 minute readWe’ve written about James Anderson a lot over the years. He has a lot of qualities, but one of his finest – to our mind – is his irritability. We named James Anderson in an England XI that comprised the players we have invested in the most and we also

July 8, 2024 England / Features

The James Anderson Rubbish Team-Mates XI

4 minute readLoads of people have been picked for England since James Anderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May 2003. This XI comprises some of the least successful – plus Jimmy himself. Just imagine the exasperated head shaking! 1. Adam Lyth – 265 Test runs at 20.38 Surprisingly few of

July 4, 2024 England

How many ‘big’ England Test careers can you cram into the span of James Anderson’s?

3 minute readJames Anderson plays his final Test next week, having made his Test debut in 2003. There was a bit of a fallow ‘bowling at a single stump during the lunch interval’ period early on, but even then he did play at least one Test match every year. It struck us

July 1, 2024 India

‘Enough’ runs from Virat Kohli for India, Jasprit Bumrah the ventriloquist, South Africa’s theoretical snowball + more from the T20 World Cup final

4 minute readDon’t know if you saw, but India beat South African in the T20 World Cup final at the weekend. Numb Virat Kohli makes ‘enough’ runs T20 strategy is shaped by statistics, but if there’s one thing they don’t measure too well, it’s the likelihood a player’s entire muscle memory will

June 28, 2024 Afghanistan / England / India / South Africa

Is Virat Kohli “due”? Jos Buttler misplaces Bowling Ali, a naughty pitch + more in our T20 World Cup semi-finals round-up

4 minute readIn a colossal miscarriage of justice, England (one win from four versus Test-playing nations) were knocked out of the T20 World Cup by unbeaten India after not playing anywhere near as well as them in the semi-final. India will meet the similarly-unbeaten South Africa, who triumphed over both Afghanistan and

June 25, 2024 Afghanistan / Australia / Bangladesh

Who shot Gulbadin Naib? Jonathan Trott’s happy face, synchronised singles + more in our latest T20 World Cup round-up (an Afghanistan special edition)

5 minute readThe Afghanistan v Bangladesh match was a limited overs cricket tournament classic. It had all the staples of the genre: three possible winners despite only two teams being involved; chaotic running enhanced further by hapless fielding; frequent confusion over who was actually “winning”; and a slip fielder getting shot in

June 24, 2024 Afghanistan / Australia / England / South Africa

Unbeaten South Africa, spectacular deaths, all the hat tricks, Gulbadin gusto + more in our latest T20 World Cup round-up

4 minute readIt feels somewhat bizarre that South Africa have only just made it through to the semi-finals, unbeaten, when England – with two defeats and a no result to their name – had basically already qualified from the same group. The week’s biggest highlight came elsewhere however. Spectacular deaths Jos Buttler

June 20, 2024 England / South Africa

The Quality-Assessment-Pending 8s: Bairstow’s bat, a Salt assault, South Africa finally top a run-a-ball + more in our latest T20 World Cup round-up

3 minute readWhat if the Super 8s aren’t actually that super? Can they get downgraded? The So-So 8s? The Subpar 8s? The Shit 8s? They’re the Solid 8s so far, but it can probably still go either way. Does anyone know why they’re plural, by the way? As far as we can

June 17, 2024 Bangladesh / England

England’s NRR miss, Jofra Archer’s rough sleeping, Tanzim Hasam Sakib’s batting v bowling, Uganda’s three-figure quest + more in our latest T20 World Cup round-up

3 minute readThe Super 8s phase of the T20 World Cup starts on Wednesday, and Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka will not be in it. The Super 8s actually comprise parallel groups of four. Two Super 4s you might say. Or does this round require eight teams before it qualifies as

June 14, 2024 Afghanistan / England / New Zealand

Not-so-flukey Farooqi, (Phil) Salt consumption, The 99 + more in our latest T20 World Cup round-up

2 minute readThe big news since yesterday is that Afghanistan are through to the next phase of the competition and New Zealand are out. England aren’t NRRly finished though after successfully chasing down Oman’s 47 all out in just 3.1 overs. Salt consumption Oman’s flakey performance meant the entire match only lasted

We need a Venn diagram showing the intersection of ‘Crowd knobheads’, ‘Beer snake-istas’ and ‘The corporate box, champagne and prawn…

We do get good crowds for Women's ODIs at Lord's now and we'll be giving it a go with a…

Women's football has done well out of promoting a more 'family-friendly' environment and cricket could do the same with some…

If you fly from Liverpool Airport, all the branding says stuff like, "Easier, quicker, quieter," and it's very obvious that…

More Women's Tests please, everyone. If the ECB want to grow the game and open it up to more people,…

Are we already watching peak Harry Brook?

Suffering centuries: Six bowlers who conceded extraordinary Test hundreds

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