King Cricket

August 5, 2015 England

Bread in the toaster, kettle on and OH DEAR LORD NO!

2 minute readYou can run out of some foods without too much of a problem. You can always use a different kind of vinegar. You can make that marinade without oregano. Chilli con carne without kidney beans is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, playing a Test match without James Anderon is

August 4, 2015 Regulars

A budgerigar being conspicuously indifferent to cricket

< 1 minute readBalladeer writes: Recently my friend acquired a budgerigar, named Amigo. The second photograph I saw of said budgie was this: Crammed himself into his feeder. An Australian species of parrot, wearing the green-and-gold, with David Warner’s intelligence. Could you get more of an obvious Australian fan? I asked my friend

August 3, 2015 Match report

England v Australia Edgbaston in 2005 – a 10th anniversary match report

2 minute readDandy Dan writes: The week before this Test, Will and I had been on a stag WEEK in Dublin. During the planning stages of this trip we had both been excited about this prospect. However, the reality was somewhat disappointing. The kindest thing to say is that the rest of

August 1, 2015 Extras

Cricket needs to embrace independent governance rather than allowing itself to be run like some sort of 19th Century gentlemen’s club

2 minute readA couple of months ago, jaynefrancis pointed out to us that large parts of our bleak dystopian episodic cricket story about cricket administration had actually come true. As satire goes, it wasn’t the most subtle. Again and again, short term decisions are taken by caricatured men in suits with godawful

July 31, 2015 Australia / England

The latest Ian Bell update has been released and it’s full of bugs and new features

< 1 minute readWe’re way past Ian Bell 2.0. Being as he’s 33 and batting at three, we’re going to call this incarnation Ian Bell 33.3. Hopefully that won’t prove to be its batting average. Most of the previous Ian Bells have looked solid only to get out in infuriating fashion when you

July 30, 2015 Australia / England

Mitchell Johnson rocks England, Steven Finn rolls Australia

2 minute readOnce again, Mitchell Johnson rocked England. He took 2-66. (Wickets taken via bouncers count double, it seems.) After that, it was back to England dismissing clueless Australian batsmen, which was really rather delightful. This Test has brought back memories of the magical folding Australia side of a few years ago.

July 29, 2015 Australia / England

James Anderson dismisses Australia’s motley crew

2 minute readWe’re playing squash tonight. One thing you notice with squash is that the ball’s momentum doesn’t always carry it in the same direction. Quite often it alters course quite markedly upon contact with what is known as ‘the wall’. The momentum in this Ashes series is similar, it would seem.

July 28, 2015 Australia

The mythology of Johnson

2 minute readThat sounds a little like a crude and edgy, deliberately controversial Off-Broadway show. But it isn’t. It’s a reference to the eldest Mitchell; the man who apparently compels English batsmen to dash their own brains out in fear. Mitchell Johnson is currently the man with the fifth-best bowling average and

July 27, 2015 England

Ian Bell is only 33

2 minute readThis isn’t really about Ian Bell. It’s about English cricket’s attitude to age and the impact of the international schedule as it is now. When an England player has a spell of poor form, it is generally described in one of two ways. Young players are ‘found out’ while older

July 23, 2015 Regulars

Two dogs being conspicuously indifferent to cricket

< 1 minute readDandy Dan writes: These are my two labs, George and Rufus. They’re just over one year old. I’ve been meaning to introduce them for a while but I’ve been busy. Anyway, their thoughts about Gary Ballance being dropped are difficult to ascertain. They simply don’t appear to be interested. If