King Cricket

April 14, 2015 England

The England cricket team is slightly diseased

2 minute readWe’re not sure what the disease is called. Nor can we tell whether it’s a mild virus that you soon overcome or a more serious illness, like rigor mortis. Either way, symptoms include caution, timidity and a fear of failure. Observing these qualities, relatives yearn for the patient to display

April 13, 2015 England

Who do England rely on? And is that a problem?

3 minute readWith live cricket broadcast at a reasonable hour, a Test tour of the West Indies is one of our favourites when it comes to watching the game on TV. It’s a shame it comes hot on the heels of the World Cup, ahead of an Ashes and in conflict with

April 10, 2015 Extras

Richie Benaud – the greatest commentator of them all

2 minute readMourning everyone. Richie Benaud has died and a small part of our brain that responds to blue skies, lengthening days and Test cricket has also died. You can’t spend as long in someone’s company as most of us have spent listening to Richie and not feel like you know them.

April 9, 2015 England

Bring out your dead – the mortician’s cart rolls by the ECB

2 minute readWe’ve a slight concern that the ECB’s new chief executive referred to ‘the England Cricket Department’ in announcing Paul Downton’s sacking, as if English cricket really were a corporation in which broad, curved desks were every bit as important pieces of equipment as bats and balls. Nevertheless, it’s hard not

April 8, 2015 County cricket / England

The multi-coloured Excel monster that is the English domestic season

2 minute readEach year, The Cricketer produces a wall chart detailing all of the summer fixtures. It works well as a visual representation of the way the English domestic game is organised. White space is in short supply. It is as much an assault on the senses as a paper wall chart

April 7, 2015 Match report

Middlesex v Durham at Lord’s – match report

3 minute readGed writes: Late season, I always try to take in a day of county cricket with my old friend, Charley “The Gent” Malloy. It helps us both to prepare for the inevitable winter withdrawal symptoms to come. The cricket season starts earlier and ends later each year, yet it seems

April 6, 2015 England / West Indies

Who is Rahkeem Cornwall?

< 1 minute readHe’s this guy. And here’s his Cricinfo page which currently features a spectacularly poor headshot (and we of all people know one when we see one). It’s rather as if the photographer has instructed the Antiguan: “Make a sad face. Now do some mouth-breathing. Perfect!” According to Tony Cozier, Rahkeem

April 2, 2015 Extras / West Indies

The man who wrote his own textbook in illegible handwriting

< 1 minute readOur final King of Cricket appeared on the All Out Cricket website a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t link to it at the time because we thought it would get lost amid all the World Cup stuff. We didn’t want that to happen because it’s Shiv and you all

April 1, 2015 Match report

Middlesex v Warwickshire at Lord’s – match report

2 minute readGed writes: As the end of the season approached, it dawned on me that the pile of reading I had hoped to take with me to Lord’s and read on sunny days was mostly still waiting to be read. Not that there had been a shortage of sunshine in the

March 31, 2015 Extras

Four men outside the circle – should the 2015 World Cup fielding restrictions be changed?

3 minute readIn this World Cup, the fielding team was allowed four men outside the thirty-yard circle. It’s different in Powerplays – it’s two outside in the first one and then three in the second – but let’s not worry about that. For the purposes of this article, we’re focusing on what