2 minute read If good things come to those who wait then what do we get when we’re not allowed to wait? (Readers in the UK might recognise the music in that video from something else.) This England tour of India started well, with three warm-up matches, but now we’re back in the
Continue readingAuthor: King Cricket
Otherwise known as Alex Bowden, a lapsed cricket journalist who has written for ESPNCricinfo, wisden.com, Cricket 365, The Cricketer and plenty of other places.
Links to some non-cricket writing and a bit more background here.
Who’s your favourite cricketer?
< 1 minute read And why? We think we might be interested, but we reserve the right to change our opinion should you write 3,000 words without any line breaks. Our favourite cricketer was Waqar Younis, as you’ll know if you used to read what was then The Wisden Cricketer. We don’t think the
Continue readingWill England improve in the second Test?
1 minute read These days, there’s a lot of rubbish spoken about ‘doing your best’ and ‘aiming high’. How does anyone hope to improve with a mentality like that? You should always set the bar as low as possible and put in only a token amount of effort. That way you’ve got plenty
Continue readingThe aggregation of marginal losses
< 1 minute read Following on, with plenty of time left in the game, it was a day for slow twitch muscle fibres. England needed batsmen to show endurance and so it was perhaps unsurprising that the cyclist (Matt Prior) and the player they say is England’s fittest (Alastair Cook) were the ones to
Continue readingBell and Pietersen bat for no-one
< 1 minute read Sometimes you bat for your team-mates. Let’s imagine there’s only one threatening bowler in the opposition attack. If you can put some mileage into his legs, you make it easier for the batsmen who follow you. To some extent, it doesn’t really matter how many runs you score. You are
Continue readingCheteshwar Pujara brings a future of runs
2 minute read The Wall is gone! Long live this broad, robust replacement structure made out of bricks and mortar! The retirement of great cricketers often leaves less of a hole than people imagine. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman recently left the game and many wondered how they could ever be replaced. The
Continue readingDon’t even think about complaining about flat pitches
3 minute read Because you can’t fully assess a five-day pitch on day one. Besides, Gautam Gambhir was dismissed by one that kept low. Virender Sehwag was bowled by one that spun. This looks like a result wicket. A win for India then? Well, yeah, probably. They’re favourites anyway and batting first hasn’t
Continue readingEngland are in a spin
2 minute read Terrible headline. Terrible, terrible headline. You’ll see it again at some point in the next few weeks and minus a billion points for the guilty publication. Don’t worry though. We’ve got an angle on ‘England are in a spin’ and so we’re going to salvage our pride in the final
Continue readingSouth Africa don’t really get spin bowling
< 1 minute read Do you see what happens, Larry? Do you see what happens? This is what happens. This is what happens when you pick an all-pace attack. Always pick a spinner. No matter how good your fast bowlers are, if the batsmen get into a rhythm, you can find yourself on the
Continue readingAustralia stick to their plans against Amla and Kallis
< 1 minute read The plan was to target Jacques Kallis with lots of short stuff. Kallis has now faced lots and lots and lots of short stuff. Meanwhile, we dread to think how much verbal aggression Hashim Amla’s had to counter over the course of his 207-ball unbeaten innings. We imagine that verbal
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