King Cricket

June 11, 2015 England

What do you want from your spinner? Control? Magic balls?

2 minute readShortly before Adil Rashid bowled his ninth over in the first one-day international, the 28th of the innings, one of the Sky commentators said that captain Eoin Morgan would be delighted that he had ‘got through his overs’ by this early point. That’s the kind of banality you’ll often hear

June 9, 2015 England

Jos Buttler and Joe Root get the message

2 minute readWhy, England, why? Why do you only now bat with no fear of consequences in this inconsequential one-day game? Why couldn’t you bat with no fear of consequences in the World Cup, back when there were consequences? That’s only partly jaded cynicism It’s mainly just our way of saying that

June 9, 2015 England

England attempt to relight their one-day fire

2 minute readAs the old saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and if the smoke drifts into the dressing room, you should probably exit there as well. A number of England one-day players have exited both kitchen and dressing room for this series, although some

June 8, 2015 County cricket

Glen Chapple is playing cricket and pretending he’s not great at it

< 1 minute readSo we’re calling him out on it. For every Shivnarine Chanderpaul, trying to convince people he’s still got it at the age of 40, there’s a Glen Chapple, sidling into a coaching position and inexplicably trying to convince everyone that he hasn’t still got it. Chapple’s not fooling anyone. >

June 5, 2015 England / West Indies

This is the way a cricket career ends, not with a bang

2 minute readHurray! Friday! Let’s celebrate by writing about melancholy exits! We’ve sadly had two recently. Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s international career ended just as he imagined it would when he first took up the sport as a boy, with a WhatsApp exchange between Test series. Meanwhile, Craig Kieswetter has had to call it

June 4, 2015 County cricket

Leicestershire complete their sentence

< 1 minute readAt some point in 2013, Leicestershire were cut by the thunder. From then on, draws and losses appeared to be the only possible outcomes following four days of championship cricket. That’s a dispiriting world in which to live, sounding almost like something imposed on them by a judge. However, the

June 2, 2015 England / New Zealand / Pakistan

The myths of parity

2 minute readParity on first innings isn’t really parity because one team has to bat last. When England matched New Zealand’s 350, they were behind. Not that this was where the match was decided, but it’s worth noting when so much attention is on fourth innings shot selection. Several days ago… Two

June 1, 2015 England / New Zealand

England’s most influential player puts his hand up and comes to the party

< 1 minute readSometimes the crowd are said to be a 12th man. Sometimes the 12th man is a 12th man. At times, in England, persistent drizzle is the 12th man. Even Brendon McCullum at his most innovative couldn’t get the better of the United Kingdom’s damp, maritime climate today. “What if I

May 31, 2015 England / New Zealand

BJ Watling – not just a weirdly-named man in an oversized jumper

< 1 minute readBradley-John. BJ stands for Bradley-John. We’d have gone with Brad. Or John. Or Bradley. Or Bradley-John. BJ went for BJ. As for the surname, we can’t hear ‘caught Watling’ without thinking it’s some sort of archaic crime. As in: ‘Broad was caught watling behind the keep and was sentenced to

May 31, 2015 England / New Zealand

Adam Lyth and a big noise in Yorkshire

< 1 minute readAfter day two of the second Test, the important question is this: Is Michael Vaughan getting louder? Maybe he was always like this, but it seems to us that he’s crossed the speaking-shouting threshold this season. At the start of Channel 5’s highlights programme, when he’s standing in the middle