King Cricket

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

January 14, 2018 Australia / England

We’re not going to write about Jason Roy

< 1 minute readJust read last week’s Wisden piece again with this innings in mind. Jason Roy played five first-class matches last season.

January 13, 2018 India / South Africa

Ajinkya Rahane must be shit-hot at making drinks

2 minute readWe’ve always liked Ajinkya Rahane. He’s always struck us as a batsman who can adapt to different situations and different conditions. India like him too. They like him to be 12th man. Rahane’s case for inclusion in the second Test against South Africa wasn’t undeniable, we’ll admit. He had a

January 11, 2018 England

England’s worst-ever run of Test debutants?

< 1 minute read“Not so much a lack of good players, as a lack of opportunity for many good players to gain the experience needed to become very good.” Slippery and awkward as it is, we can see this becoming a new catchphrase of ours. It’s about recent efforts to select viable England

January 9, 2018 Australia / England

A guy who may or may not truly be called Bert fills us in on the latest instalment of his long-running Ashes bet with some Aussie

2 minute readBert writes: OK, hold onto your hats. I can now reveal the result of the latest Ashes Bet between me and my Aussie mate. The result is… He Won! Yeh alright, since the bet is on the outcome of the series this has been known since December, but why should

January 8, 2018 Australia / England

Shoulda, coulda, woulda – five things England got wrong ahead of the 2017-18 Ashes

4 minute readWe were originally going to present this article as being the views of Captain Hindsight, but when we started to write it we realised that half of England’s problems were actually fairly easy to see in advance. So while some of what follows comes with the benefit of knowing how

Stranger things have happened. This is English cricket after all. You might come to Rew the day you wrote this…

We keep wilfully suppressing the urge to write more equivocally on this. But yeah, that would be a corker.

To be fair to the ECB, they also haven't been averse to picking Second XI Somerset players over the first-teamers.

England now have the opportunity to do the funniest, funniest, funniest thing possible and pick Zak Crawley again.

It has to be said that those who suffer the neck-breathing are presumably the least likely to willingly open the…

Did you see… Harry Brook’s first ball in Melbourne? Unquestionably the 2025/26 Ashes’ finest moment

Sky Sports has boiled its Ashes coverage down to its purest and greatest form: Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain standing there talking about what’s gone wrong

The 2019 Ridiculous Ashes (podcast)

The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments is definitely out now – you should buy it for someone! (Possibly yourself)

51. Michael Vaughan Declines A Crushing