King Cricket

May 6, 2021 India

So who is ‘playing for humanity’ now then?

The thing about talking grandiose self-serving bollocks is that not only does it expose your fundamental hollowness, but the fundamental meaninglessness of what you said may well also be exposed. Late last month, as the IPL scrabbled towards its inevitable postponement, the most eye-poppingly you-don’t-even-believe-this-yourself justification for continuing came from

May 4, 2021 County cricket

Making sense of the County Championship 40% of the way through the group stage

It’s very early May and it basically feels like winter, but we’re already well on the way to establishing the three divisions that will comprise the second phase of this year’s County Championship. (Here’s an explanation of how the Championship and other competitions will work this year.) 18 teams is

April 30, 2021 India

Prithvi Shaw hit six fours in an over and part of us thinks that’s better than six sixes in an over

Look, obviously six fours in an over is not better than six sixes in an over. But also it is. That’s what we’re going to argue here. Delhi Capitals were chasing 155 against Kolkata Knight Riders yesterday and it’s fair to say they got off to a pretty solid start.

April 29, 2021 Extras

King Cricket email news

A sizeable proportion of you are signed up for our emails. We’ve good news and bad news about that. The bad news is that the email sending service we’ve always used – which has generally worked pretty well – ends in July, so we’re having to switch to another one.

April 28, 2021 County cricket

We’re mostly talking about Matt Parkinson this week

Matt Parkinson bowled someone with a ball-of-the-century-esque leg break earlier this month. He is also the man responsible for the slowest delivery in the entire CricViz database. Last week he took 7-126 in Lancashire’s innings victory over Kent, meaning he now has 15 wickets at 16.80 this season – despite

April 26, 2021 Australia / England / Features / Pakistan

Three great bowlers’ run-ups – but do you have a favourite?

Can we talk about bowlers’ run-ups? We’ve picked out three great ones. They’re not necessarily our favourites, but we feel like each one says something in particular about how bowlers get to the crease and what we as viewers feel as they’re doing so. But before that, please can we

April 23, 2021 Regulars

Omelette being conspicuously indifferent to the highlights of the 2011 England v India Test series

Rob writes: “Hello King Cricket. (Long time listener, first time caller.) Here is a picture of a cat named Omelette giving me a judging expression for watching the highlights of the 2011 England v India Test series (mainly to remind myself of an era where RP Singh was considered the

April 21, 2021 England

How will Ed Smith, England national selector, be remembered? We’ll tell you how Ed Smith, England national selector, will be remembered

“How can ideas have a positive and elevating effect on a practical sphere?” said Ed Smith when we played a Financial Times video about him from an entirely random starting point just now. It turned out that, when he said that, Smith was talking about an article he’d read by

April 19, 2021 India

Did you see… Virat Kohli’s vertical clapping?

If Virat Kohli has a defining quality, it is faintly-unnerving intensity. Remember that time he was basically livid about beating Australia? Or all of those very many times when he celebrated a hundred with incandescent rage? We’re if not quite numb to these displays by now, then at least acclimatised

April 16, 2021 Australia / England

Get ready for a ridiculous fucken Ashes

Last month we asked which series we should cover next on our Ridiculous Ashes podcast. The results are in. (The results were in a month ago.) We’re going to be doing the 2013/14 series. We nominated 2009 and 2013 as the other possibilities and for a long time the three

Three great bowlers’ run-ups – but do you have a favourite?

Danish Kaneria or Dane Vilas – who is most Danish?

England’s eight most surprising double hundreds since Graham Gooch’s 333

Why it is only now dawning on England fans that their team plays way too many games

Four of the weirdest eight-fors of the last 25 years (plus one nine-for and one ten-for)

So who is ‘playing for humanity’ now then?

Making sense of the County Championship 40% of the way through the group stage

Prithvi Shaw hit six fours in an over and part of us thinks that’s better than six sixes in an over

King Cricket email news

We’re mostly talking about Matt Parkinson this week

Three great bowlers’ run-ups – but do you have a favourite?

Omelette being conspicuously indifferent to the highlights of the 2011 England v India Test series

How will Ed Smith, England national selector, be remembered? We’ll tell you how Ed Smith, England national selector, will be remembered

Did you see… Virat Kohli’s vertical clapping?

Get ready for a ridiculous fucken Ashes