King Cricket

January 27, 2018 India

We checked who bought Rishabh Pant and it reminded us of something about the IPL

2 minute readRishabh Pant is a player we keep an eye on. We don’t write about him much at the minute, but we get the sense that we will. We were therefore interested to see where he ended up in the IPL auction and whether the teams valued him as highly as

January 26, 2018 Australia / England

Joe Root goes big, Australia fall short

< 1 minute readBefore the fourth one-dayer between Australia and England, the at times nauseatingly partisan BT Sport Twitter account asked which of three England batsmen would “go big” – Jason Roy, Joe Root or Jos Buttler. ✅ Roy ✅ Root ✅ Buttler Who will be the man to go big tonight? ????

January 25, 2018 India / South Africa

South Africa v India is not boxing, it’s racing

< 1 minute readWith wickets falling every 10 or 20 runs in the South Africa v India series, it’s tempting to resort to the heavyweight boxer cliché. This has the two combatants going toe-to-toe, knocking lumps out of one another with neither taking a backward step. It’s odd to think of wickets as

January 23, 2018 Australia / England

What does Lloyd Pope’s hair say about his leg-spin?

2 minute readLloyd Pope took 8-35 to knock England out of the Under-19 World Cup and he’s done a bunch more eye-catching stuff since. This is Lloyd Pope’s hair. You may also notice something hanging off the bottom of it. That thing is Lloyd Pope. You may feel that a man’s hair

January 22, 2018 Extras

We got someone who’s been off work sick to report on the Under-19 World Cup for us

2 minute readBudgets 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

January 20, 2018 Extras

Newsflash: most cricketers enjoy all forms of the game and don’t actually want to choose between formats

< 1 minute readIt’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

January 19, 2018 Australia / England

England’s one-day bowling strategy shows up everything that’s wrong with their Test approach

< 1 minute readSpeaking about England’s Test bowling attack this week, Steve Harmison managed the rare feat of deploying the word ‘unit’ in a halfway meaningful way. He told Sky Sports that England have to, “make sure that at any one given time they’ve got skill factor with the new ball, an X-factor

January 18, 2018 Match report

Charity cricket in Regent’s Park – match report

4 minute readTwo reports on the same August 2000 charity match. Nigel writes: My friend, Lefty-Righty, sent an e-mail to me and Chas recently, which read: “I uncovered a note about a charity match in Regent’s Park, 24 August 2000, against [massive global communications corporate] about which I had more or less

January 17, 2018 England

Ben Stokes has been charged with a crime which apparently means he should become available for England again

< 1 minute readBen Stokes was suspended from international cricket while the Crown Prosecution Service decided whether or not to press charges relating to the Bristol scuffle. Now that they have decided to charge him, he’s once again become eligible for selection. We have no real opinion on whether or not Stokes should

January 16, 2018 India

Remember when Virat Kohli was a limited overs cricketer?

2 minute readNick Hoult wrote the case study we couldn’t be bothered writing in The Telegraph yesterday. The short version is that between now and England picking their first Test squad to face India in August, Jason Roy will have at most one first-class match in which to make his case for