King Cricket

November 21, 2015 England

Jos Buttler and the myth of a batsman’s ‘natural game’

3 minute readAfter watching Jos Buttler hit over a third of the deliveries he faced for boundaries against Pakistan, it’s tempting to wonder whether maybe, just maybe, he might do well to shelve his watchful, deliberate approach to Test batting. It seems to us that he’s much, much safer at the crease,

November 20, 2015 England

England retrieve Nick Compton from the freezer

2 minute readBack in 2013, we suggested that England couldn’t refreeze Nick Compton having already defrosted him (this makes fractionally more sense if you read the article). Turns out they did. They stuck him back and now they’re defrosting him for a second time. Nick Compton’s back in the fridge! At least

November 19, 2015 England

Ian Bell will not bat like a prince before inexplicably spooning one to cover against South Africa

< 1 minute readThey’ve only gone and dropped him. Dropped him as if he were a cricket ball and they were him standing in the slips at some point in the last 12 months. There’s a hideous video on the ECB Twitter feed where selector James Whitaker mouths the usual platitudes about Bell

November 18, 2015 Australia

The Mitchell Johnson bowling action – a nasty and effective and unreliable thing

2 minute readMitchell Johnson contributed some extremely interesting cricket and you can’t ask for much more than that from a player. Overall, his record is very good, but that long-term-very-goodness was created by opposing short-term extremes. At his best, Johnson was as exciting to watch as pretty much any cricketer ever. If

November 17, 2015 India / Sri Lanka

Sourav Ganguly, man of a thousand spooky impressions (okay, two)

< 1 minute readWe could write about Mitchell Johnson’s Test retirement. We could write about some actual cricket. Or we could publish some tweets in which Sourav Ganguly looks frighteningly sickly. Hey Sourav, do an impression of a zombie. Top drawer. Now do an impression of a ghost. Not bad. Note Murali’s T-shirt

November 16, 2015 Australia / New Zealand

The Waca – fast bowlers’ graveyard

< 1 minute readAh, the Waca. Fast bowlers love it because it gives them an opportunity to bowl plenty of overs. Batsmen are terrified of it because of the humiliating possibility that they might not make a ton. The pitch has been so challenging in the second Test between Australia and New Zealand

November 13, 2015 England

England – the world’s finest 50-over side

< 1 minute readIt’s the only conclusion to draw from recent history. The question is, what can other sides learn from the way England approach this format and can England stay ahead of them all up until the next World Cup? In the second one-day international against Pakistan, Abu Dhabi played host to

November 12, 2015 England

England’s one-day cricket elicits jaded optimism

2 minute readNot so long ago, we were in a public house with a friend when his neighbour turned up. This neighbour had been to watch Manchester City win five-nil earlier that day. She said it hadn’t been a good game; that City had seemingly lost interest in the second half. How

November 11, 2015 England

James Taylor is busy

< 1 minute readBusy being described as ‘busy’ mostly. The word’s very quickly become a Taylor cliché and today it was used on Sky as early as his first ball – at which point he’d mostly been busy waiting. What does ‘busy’ mean? As far as we can tell, it means the player

November 9, 2015 England / Match report / Regulars

Essex v Australians at Chelmsford – match report

3 minute readMy name is Ivan. I am Ged’s smart phone. One of the few things I cannot do is take a selfie; my friend Ida took this picture. I wear a protective cover in the style of an old-fashioned calculator. I am told that this is a joke. I went with