< 1 minute read When asked about the make-up of England’s bowling attack for the second Test at Trent Bridge, Andrew Strauss said it was a ground where the ball tended to swing, so they’d selected the three best swing bowlers. This begs the question, just what is the optimum number of eggs to
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.
Three reasons to like Marlon Samuels
2 minute read We’ve really warmed to Marlon Samuels a short way into a short series. There are three main reasons for this. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, his favourite cricketer is Nasser Hussain. Anyone with such an inexplicably unlikely role model is someone to be admired. Secondly, he’s funny. Jimmy Anderson is
Continue readingSomething about Steven Finn that isn’t really worth saying
< 1 minute read We’ve been meaning to say this since the middle of the last Test, but having just seen “Steven Finn can provide England with the answer to Chanderpaul problem | Mike Selvey” on our home page, we’ve realised we’ve probably missed our window. Unfazed, we’re going to say our bit anyway.
Continue readingWhy the County Championship is like a good Test match
2 minute read A good Test match should change in character as the pitch changes character. Early on, there might be a bit of moisture for seam bowlers to exploit; then it might flatten out, favouring the patient batsmen; and eventually the pitch should deteriorate so that there’s uneven bounce and plenty of
Continue readingThey’re going to broadcast county cricket in Asia
< 1 minute read The ECB have sold the rights to broadcast county cricket in Asia for about £135m. It seems oddly vague to talk about ‘Asia’ in this way. It’s an entire continent. We can’t imagine people in Japan or Mongolia are particularly interested in Arul Suppiah’s back foot defence right now, but
Continue readingA second Shiv
< 1 minute read For all that cricket is a team game, West Indies are only one Shiv away from being literally unbeatable. England basically took wickets at one end only throughout this match and Marlon Samuels gave an indication what would happen were a second Shivnarine Chanderpaul to come to the crease. In
Continue readingAndrew Strauss and his cravings for nonsense
< 1 minute read Andrew Strauss is so painfully sensible, he’s allowed to engage in a bit of nonsense every now and again. Over the last year or so, he’s tended to crave nonsense round about the point that he’s scored 22 runs in a Test match. “The underpants are ironed, the silverware’s nicely
Continue readingLuke Pomersbach’s done something else
< 1 minute read When we saw that Luke Pomersbach had been accused of molesting an American woman before punching her fiancé, we thought ‘Luke Pomersbach has done something else’ – but we couldn’t remember what. Luke Pomersbach HAS done something else. He’s been involved in two stories you’d think we’d have remembered without
Continue readingSo this is England v West Indies
< 1 minute read Like salt and pepper chicken wings from a tried and tested Chinese takeaway, today’s play was hugely enjoyable and entirely predictable – although it was far less likely to result in heart problems later in life. Mad swing from Jimmy Anderson early on, promising starts from a couple of Windies
Continue reading
Brian Lara’s backlift
< 1 minute read They were talking about similarities between Darren Bravo and Brian Lara on Sky this morning. (They’ve a lot of time to fill. They can’t always keep you guessing.) We were quite glad they did this however, because we got to see Brian Lara’s backlift. We’re not one of those people
Continue reading