King Cricket

January 21, 2015 Australia

Batting aggression does not require actual aggression

2 minute readThat’s a straightforward message for Ricky Ponting and all who would make a similar defence of David Warner’s behaviour. Read it, accept that it is a fact and then go away and think through the issues again, Ricky. Ponting’s latest column for Cricinfo features the following assumption, stated as fact.

January 20, 2015 England

The 85mph right-arm seam bowler basket

< 1 minute readWe’re not intending to be a naysayer here, trotting around saying ‘nay’ like a horse that can’t spell (so a horse then). We just want to muddy the unmitigated positivity because one win is not much of a sample from which to draw conclusions. One of our main concerns centres

January 19, 2015 Australia

Being an arsehole gives David Warner special powers

< 1 minute readThat is the subtext of any comment from captain or coach after David Warner has behaved like a bit of a prick. “He’s an aggressive player and we don’t want him to lose that edge,” they say. They say this because they know the truth: picking fights with people as

January 18, 2015 South Africa

AB de Villiers needs Moonraker

< 1 minute readBack in November 2012, AB de Villiers made 33 off 220 balls so that South Africa could save a Test against Australia. In March last year, against the same opposition, he made 43 off 228 balls, but this time South Africa lost. Today it took him all of 31 balls

January 16, 2015 England

Whither James Tredwell?

2 minute readAsked which of his team-mates he least enjoyed facing in the nets recently, Moeen Ali said: “James Tredwell. Annoying. You just try and smack him and you can’t hit him anywhere.” It’s one of the mysteries of the age how Tredders doesn’t go for seven an over, but it’s a

January 15, 2015 Match report

Yorkshire v Middlesex – Scarborough match report

2 minute readBananarama Monkey-Face writes: I’m originally from Pickering, so I always get very excited when I come up to North Yorkshire with Mum, Dad and brother Hippity. All the more exciting this time, because Mum and Dad had arranged, as part of their trip, to go to t’cricket at Scarborough for

January 14, 2015 England

Ian Bell making a half-decent fist of things

< 1 minute readIan Bell made 187 off 145 balls against the Prime Minister’s XI in England’s latest warm-up match. Okay, so it’s not exactly the biggest match ever – Chris Rogers bowled two overs – but what’s more reassuring, making 187 off 145 balls or making 26 off 38? This constitutes further

January 13, 2015 Extras

The best official cricket songs in the world… ever!

< 1 minute readWe know that you’re all looking forward to hearing the official World Cup song, even if it’s inevitable that it will fall some way short of this masterpiece. We’ve looked back on some of the other great official cricket songs from down the years for All Out Cricket. They include

January 11, 2015 England

Ian Bell is not Alastair Cook

4 minute readThere are a lot of optimists in the world and the problem with positive people is that they assume that positivity itself is some sort of positive. It’s all well and good swanning about thinking everything will work out, but really you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment and failure.

January 9, 2015 Australia / India

Declarations unforeseen on paper

2 minute readAustralia will get to declare again. Maybe this is presumptuous on our part. Maybe they were batting for a declaration but have now got a taste for scoring at ten an over and will carry on tomorrow. It seems unlikely though. If there’s one thing Australia like more than scoring