King Cricket

June 17, 2012 England

Ian Bell wants to play one-day cricket

2 minute readIn a parallel universe, players and fans care about one-day internationals – or, more accurately, one-day internationals are worth caring about. In this universe, we’ll have to muddle through, making the best of flukes and serendipity. Kevin Pietersen retired from one-day internationals because on the morning of a game, he

June 14, 2012 West Indies

Allen Stanford’s sentence

< 1 minute readMoustachioed Texan supervillain, Allen Stanford, has been sentenced to 110 years in prison. We’re pretty sure he hasn’t been ‘jailed for 110 years’ as the headlines read at Cricinfo and the BBC. That seems to imply he’ll serve the entire sentence. He won’t. Prosecutors will be gutted though. They were

June 13, 2012 Match report

Under-11s match report

2 minute readBert writes: While the opening weeks of the 2012 County Championship season have brought continued glory for champions Lancashire, in the Ted’s Roofing (All your roofing needs met, by Ted) Mid-North Cestrian Third Division Championship League West, Old Filchonians Under 11s have made a somewhat less impressive start. Bert Junior

June 12, 2012 England

England’s bowling captain

< 1 minute readMike Selvey made an interesting point in his third Test match report cum series review. “No captain of any consequence does so in isolation. Instead he is a facilitator relying heavily on the sort of input of ideas from his bowlers that cannot come from elsewhere.” When he isn’t scoring

June 11, 2012 West Indies

Highest Test score by a number 11 batsman – Tino Best

2 minute readIt’s very difficult to be both arrogant and likeable, but Tino Best manages it. It’s something to do with having just the faintest awareness of how absurd you are – and make no mistake, Tino best is ludicrous. He’s like a cartoon character. His answer phone message proclaims him the

June 8, 2012 England

England once had a player called Jack Crapp

< 1 minute readSeriously. Why did no-one tell us about this? Jack Crapp! Is this common knowledge? How did we miss a name like that? 319 Test runs at an average of 29 seems appropriate. Crapp later became an umpire. There was also a guy called Dick Spooner.

June 6, 2012 England

We would like to see Graham Onions play another Test match

< 1 minute readIt’s very easy to blank out the finer details of sportsmen’s injuries. Getting knee-knack and gammy-hammy are occupational hazards, so we tend to only really take in the word ‘injured’ before wondering who’ll replace the player in question. But Graham Onions had spinal surgery. Think about that. Someone tore a

June 6, 2012 County cricket

Count Cricket’s county round-up – June 6th

< 1 minute readGood day to you all. Last week, I, Count Cricket, attended Durham v Lancashire at Chester-le-Street. Lancashire won and lifted themselves to mid-table respectability. Some damp weather caused me to seek shelter in the toilets for a time. While there, I met a pleasant woman who informed me that King

May 31, 2012 England

Kevin Pietersen retires from the shorter international formats but not from Tests or the IPL

< 1 minute readWith his finishing school posture and his languid prancing, Kevin Pietersen always looks fine when he’s ambling around the outfield. But who knows what’s going on inside those 30-something limbs? Maybe he’s got age-related shitty knee. You need to rest your stupid, failing joints for longer as you get older.

May 30, 2012 England

Something about squad rotation

< 1 minute readThere’s plenty of talk about resting England’s bowlers now that the series is won. We predicted squad rotation years ago and while we don’t disagree with the practice, we do disagree with the world that necessitates it. If the first XI were exactly that in every international cricket match, the