2 minute read You may or may not know that once upon a time we wrote a satirical weekly newsletter for a cricket magazine. It was fully excellent and almost everyone said so. Then the magazine’s new owners gave us the boot. At this point, we started doing almost exactly the same thing
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Define ‘dibbly-dobbly medium pace’
< 1 minute read We all feel that we know it when we see it, but what exactly is dibbly-dobbly medium pace? Is it just non-spin bowling of a certain velocity (less than 75mph, say)? Or is it something more specific than that. When we asked people to identify the greatest dibbly-dobbly medium-pace bowler
Continue readingAre ODIs irrelevant or a unifying force?
< 1 minute read All this talk of a possible divorce between Test and T20 cricket greatly underestimates cricket’s ability to plough on with much the same structure even though no-one’s really happy. Radical change is not really cricket’s thing. The sport is more of a gelatinous goop that gives to accommodate whatever happens
Continue readingWhich nation is best at cricket? Combined rankings
2 minute read The ICC rankings are a much-maligned attempt to derive some sort of meaning from the international cricket schedule. However, it strikes us that they no longer answer the question for which they were devised. Who’s the best in the world? We now have three different answers: the best Test side,
Continue readingDo England attack too much? (and other questions) – mop-up of the day
2 minute read Steve Smith says England’s one-day international (ODI) tactic of ‘going really hard the whole time’ is risky because sometimes they might get bowled out. He doesn’t seem to acknowledge that England play this way because they pick 10 batsmen. Nor does he seem to realise that his hypothetical scenario in
Continue readingWe got someone who’s been off work sick to report on the Under-19 World Cup for us
2 minute read Budgets and time constraints being what they are, this seemed a smart way to go about things. The Under-19 World Cup is definitely a tournament where you want to hear the views of someone who’s had a very heavy cold – particularly if that person also happens to harbour an
Continue readingNewsflash: most cricketers enjoy all forms of the game and don’t actually want to choose between formats
< 1 minute read It’s often said that young players are choosing T20 over Tests because of the huge financial rewards on offer. We happen to think that’s bullshit. Yes, there are undoubtedly a few players who set out to specialise, but a far greater number find themselves doing so unwillingly. It is something
Continue readingScandal, the Ashes and moaning about England – looking back on 2017 on King Cricket
3 minute read We thought it might be fun/easy to look back on some of the more popular posts on this site from last year. Sometimes it’s surprising what draws people’s attention. (Sometimes it isn’t.) The first thing to say is that far and away the most popular page on this site, other
Continue readingJames Anderson: Lord Megachief of Gold 2017
4 minute read Our annual Lord Megachief of Gold award is the highest honour in cricket. The title is recognition of performance over the previous calendar year. Here are all the winners. From a personal perspective, one of the great tragedies of modern Test cricket is that we don’t draw the curtains, switch
Continue readingIn praise of part-time bowlers
2 minute read We’ve always loved part-time bowlers. Just as many of our favourite batsmen are tail-enders, so many of our favourite bowlers are occasional fill-ins, such as Gary Ballance, Alastair Cook and James Vince. Sadly for us, it always feels like England are far more part-timer-averse than the other Test-playing nations. Michael
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