< 1 minute read Apparently Jimmy Anderson once hit Michael Clarke in the head with a pad because Clarke was being a knobhead. It’s a slightly disappointing story overall, but made faintly interesting by the subplots revolving around Damien Martyn. Apparently, Jimmy was sitting in the changing rooms and Michael Clarke was giving off
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.
Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad for the first Test between India and England
2 minute read Right now, the cricket world is concerned with the Champions’ League and whether or not Stuart Broad really would deign to drink one single beer with Kevin Pietersen, so we thought we’d move ahead to something that actually interests us. We thought we might do some half-arsed previews ahead of
Continue readingThe fans want to see lots of boundaries
< 1 minute read Someone stated this as fact during commentary on one of the World Twenty20 games. Can’t remember who. Some idiot. He said that fans didn’t want to see wickets, they wanted to see loads of fours and sixes. He spoke about ‘fans’ as if they were an entirely different species, rather
Continue readingMarlon Samuels v Lasith Malinga
2 minute read We’ll be honest. Sri Lanka were steady-for-one when we got in the shower. We thought we’d timed it well. We hadn’t. The World Twenty20 final was an odd one. Sri Lankan run-scoring was stymied and they appeared to be waiting for a particular bowler to hit. He never turned up,
Continue readingTino Best’s training video – the best bit
< 1 minute read Tino Best has made a video of himself training in the gym. You can watch it all if you want, but for those who can’t be bothered, this is the best bit. “This is cake!” Shortly after that, Tino goes into ‘animal mode’ and then ‘super animal mode.’ We are
Continue readingKevin Pietersen’s reintegration process
< 1 minute read Kevin Pietersen has signed a four-month contract with England. If the ‘reintegration process’ goes okay, he might even play during that time. Whatever happens, it’s pretty laughable to see so much self-important business speak used in the ECB statement. We were going to satirise it, but what’s the point? The
Continue readingPakistan’s spin bowling all-rounders exploit a weakness and the Twenty20 format
< 1 minute read Australia faced two overs of pace bowling during their defeat today. Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez saw that it was not broke and therefore declined the opportunity to attempt repairs. It’s interesting how a very specific batting weakness can be exploited in Twenty20. If spin causes some damage, the incoming batsmen
Continue readingSome other reasons why England were knocked out of the World Twenty20
< 1 minute read Articles about Kevin Pietersen are very boring and entirely overlook all England’s other mistakes and problems. Dropping the captain who won the tournament Paul Collingwood is a bit of a forgotten man, but we do wonder why there was such haste to ‘build for the future’. We’re not saying that
Continue readingSky’s World Twenty20 studio pundits
2 minute read There is a very different feel to Sky’s coverage of the World Twenty20. It’s not the usual Test match team of presenters and pundits and we’re quite thankful for that. It’s not that Sky’s coverage is normally bad. It’s just very familiar. That David Gower and Ian Botham world can
Continue readingThere have been worse run chases
< 1 minute read By England. This week. It’s always tempting to lay into England when they lose, but we’re going to resist today. We slagged them off for their hollow-skulled approach against India, but this was fairly respectable in its own way. You don’t have time to overcome too many obstacles in Twenty20.
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