King Cricket

October 16, 2013 India

An important seat has become vacant

< 1 minute readFrank Skinner often talks about there being different ‘seats’ for public figures. The premise is that there are certain timeless jokes which require a well-known figure with certain characteristics for the punchline and there always has to be someone to fulfil that role. The person may change, but the joke

October 16, 2013 Pakistan / South Africa

Pakistan cricket likes to stay in balance

< 1 minute readThis is the conclusion we’ve reached. Far from being a see-saw on a roundabout in an earthquake, Pakistan cricket is actually very stable. It’s just that different branches of it have to compensate when there’s upheaval elsewhere so that the whole remains perfectly balanced. Last month, Pakistan lost a Test

October 15, 2013 Extras

Remember that cricket newsletter we used to write?

2 minute readIt was a weekly email we wrote to promote a cricket magazine. Some people said it was funny. Other people didn’t say anything about it, but still subscribed anyway. A few people didn’t subscribe at all – but not many. Like many things which are almost entirely about seeing Bob

October 14, 2013 South Africa

Was Graeme Smith overprepared?

< 1 minute readWe assume this was why he was just dismissed for 15 in the first Test against Pakistan. Last week, in the only warm-up match for this series, Smith made two against Pakistan A. The innings before that was for Surrey in May. You might think he’d have wanted a bit

October 12, 2013 Bangladesh

Two days after Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement…

< 1 minute readThere’s only one thing to do. And that’s draw attention to the name of an entirely different cricketer because it’s slightly amusing if you don’t pronounce it correctly. Brace yourselves… Bangladesh have a player called Anamul Haque. Anamul! On top of this, they also have a player called Mominul Haque

October 11, 2013 India

The day after Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement there’s only one thing to do

< 1 minute readAnd that’s make a really obvious and not-particularly-funny joke about something entirely unrelated which would have been timely had it appeared seven months ago, but which probably still wouldn’t have been original even then. Brace yourselves… So, hey, is Justin Timberlake’s ‘new’ album, like, all about Twenty20 cricket or what

October 10, 2013 Extras

Why in blazes do you read this website?

3 minute readWe’d really appreciate a bit of feedback about the site. First, some background and an explanation as to why we’re asking. Background We’ve written this website in one form or another since the start of 2006. We wrote just over a thousand posts on the old .blogspot.com domain and have

October 9, 2013 Match report

England v Australia at Lord’s, day two match report

3 minute readGed writes: It was one of those ridiculously fortunate errors. November 2012. Ged Ladd, distracted, filled in his Lord’s 2013 International Application Form carelessly, failed to tick the box which says “do not send tickets for lesser seats if the area I have chosen is not available”. Naturally, the ticket

October 8, 2013 Pakistan

Pakistan Test preparations as smooth as Stickle Bricks

< 1 minute readNext Monday sees a proper Test series – Pakistan v South Africa. Well, we say ‘proper Test series’ but it’s actually just two Tests, so not a proper Test series at all really. The background Pakistan recently managed to lose a Test against Zimbabwe. For any other nation, this would

October 6, 2013 England

Steve Harmison retires – a tribute to the lolloping ganglatron of mental fragility

3 minute readOdd that it should be Simon Jones who’s last man standing from that 2005 Ashes-winning bowling attack. Ashley Giles retired so long ago we wrote about it on a different web domain, Matthew Hoggard retired last month and while we saw Andrew Flintoff in Didsbury yesterday looking fitter than he