King Cricket

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

November 8, 2015 Cricket products

Death of a Gentleman’s out on DVD

2 minute readWe’ve all bought films on DVD because we feel guilty about going to Croatia instead of attending the premiere, haven’t we? To be honest, we’d have bought it anyway. It’s a great film. Weirdly lovely, despite the somewhat bleak subject matter. Plus, as an added bonus, owning the DVD allows

November 6, 2015 India / South Africa

Is a turning pitch a bad pitch?

< 1 minute readIn our book, all pitches are acceptable unless they result in boring cricket. For what it’s worth, our book is entitled The Book of Unarguable Facts. Some dude in Mohali has curated a cracker (curators curate, yes?) for the first Test between India and South Africa. Flat on a seamer’s

November 5, 2015 England / Pakistan

England cricketers never last – why learn lessons when you’ll probably never return?

2 minute readIt’s a truism that the England players will learn from this series defeat to Pakistan. You could actually see it happening before your eyes at times: Jonny Bairstow fighting his impulses or Ben Stokes seemingly devising a batting method on the fly. We just wonder whether these players will ever

November 4, 2015 England / Pakistan

England poised to make some sort of history

< 1 minute readIt might be an unlikely series-levelling victory; more likely it’ll be a defeat. Either way, someone somewhere will make a note and history will be made. History is always being made. On a personal level, we have a history of drinking tea and typing that stretches back at least as

November 3, 2015 Pakistan

Shoaib Malik adds to the rich tradition of Pakistani cricketer retirements

< 1 minute readNo-one does retirement quite like a Pakistan cricketer. Mohammad Yousuf’s was a textbook departure, entirely equivocal such that his absence can perhaps only now be considered permanent, some five years later. Or at least it could have been considered permanent if he hadn’t played a number of international matches after

November 2, 2015 England / Pakistan

James Taylor – middle order giant

< 1 minute readEngland in UAE middle-order partnership shocker. Who’d have Liam Plunkett (thunk it)? Fours and sixes are all well and good, but it’s important to cater for fans of the nurdle as well. Today was a most nurdlesome day. Nudges, leaves, jabs into the offside, works to the legside – all