King Cricket

March 12, 2015 England

Counting England cricketers who went to state schools

2 minute readGuardian writer Toby Chasseaud provided us with a shocking revelation the other day. In 1987-88, of the 13 players who represented England on a tour of Pakistan, only one had attended a private school. Did that really happen? Was that really the way things once were? We don’t want to

March 11, 2015 England

How England tried to drink chai but found itself with the hot milky skin draped across its chin

4 minute readWe’ve never been a huge fan of the phrase ‘more than one way to skin a cat’. Cats are decent sorts and while yours would happily eat you if you were dead, that doesn’t mean he wishes you harm – it merely reflects his no-nonsense attitude to the difference between

March 10, 2015 England

In defence of Peter Moores

2 minute readA lot of people – seemingly a majority – are saying that Peter Moores ‘has to go’. There is probably some truth in this because the pressure and scrutiny he will be subjected to should he be allowed to remain would most likely be crushing for the team. However, we

March 9, 2015 England

Five different four-year plans in every World Cup cycle – the illusion of stability in English cricket

5 minute readAfter six months of solid one-day cricket, England started the World Cup with a different side. Chris Woakes had been opening the bowling and doing well – he came on first change. Gary Ballance hadn’t played one-day cricket for six months – he came in at number three. James Taylor

March 9, 2015 England

England World Cup feedback

< 1 minute readYou probably have something to say about England getting bundled out of the World Cup by Bangladesh’s seam bowlers. You can leave your thoughts in the comments of this article while we keep ourself busy writing some sort of… actually, we’re not too sure what you’d call it. To quote

March 7, 2015 Pakistan / South Africa

Pakistan, AB de Villiers, wickets and jeopardy

< 1 minute readCricket needs jeopardy. Jeopardy makes things exciting. You have jeopardy in a tournament – the chance of being knocked out – and lo, the match is exciting. Something is riding on it. Tension’s good. You have jeopardy in an innings – the chance of being bowled out – and you

March 5, 2015 Extras

Breaking 2019 World Cup format news

< 1 minute readSomewhere, in a dark, neglected, cobweb-strewn corner of the Cricinfo homepage, an article of ours was briefly accessible. You may have missed it because Mark Nicholas was hogging all the prime real e-state. The article in question is about the format of the World Cup – same as all cricket

March 4, 2015 Extras / Pakistan

Why the world no longer truly understands the majesty of Shahid Afridi

< 1 minute readWe watched a bunch of sixes today. Well, we say ‘watched’. What we actually mean is that we heard commentators overreacting to sixes while writing something. We didn’t look up once. We live in a different world, nowadays. We’ve tried to take you back to the old one in our

March 3, 2015 England

Mop-up of the day – not really as related to cricket as you might think

< 1 minute readMuch as we enjoy writing about administrative staff, what they think and what they may or may not have meant when they said something in an interview, we rather feel that the World Cup is a time for writing about actual cricket. Colin Graves has said some things, the ECB

March 1, 2015 England

Parties, par, pace and predictability

2 minute readIn a run-chase, pressure doesn’t just come from the bowling you face. It comes from the relationship between the bowling you face and the runs you need. We haven’t yet seen England’s defence of 310, but our initial feeling is that Eoin Morgan’s belief that the bowlers were at fault