King Cricket

April 2, 2012 Extras

Why was Michael Holding’s over to Geoff Boycott so special?

< 1 minute readIt’s that time of the week when we link to an article at Cricinfo in which marzipan gets a mention and you all scour the comments hoping we’ve been ripped apart by a dissatisfied reader. Nothing yet, but let’s give it time. Pretty sure England’s number one ranking will get

April 1, 2012 England

Tim Bresnan near a pirate’s fantasy

< 1 minute readNot as exciting as it sounds, but probably a little bit funnier. Damith of The Fly Slip drew our attention to a photo of Tim Bresnan standing near a really expensive cake called Pirate’s Fantasy. We’ve always felt that Tim Bresnan isn’t as chunky as people think he is. We

March 29, 2012 England

England haven’t become a bad Test team

< 1 minute readBut there’s a fair distance between ‘bad’ and ‘good’. Even further between ‘bad’ and ‘the best’. England are in that grey netherland now and no-one really cares about shades of grey when you’ve arrived there from somewhere altogether brighter. England’s batting was a lighter shade of grey in the second

March 29, 2012 Sri Lanka

Lahiru Thirimanne makes himself big

2 minute readBrace yourself, we’re going to mention football. One thing we learned from our years watching that soap opera-cum-sport is that a goalie should ‘make himself big’ when a forward is bearing down on him. The purpose of this is not, as you might think, to ward off predators. It is

March 28, 2012 England

Andrew Strauss – Test specialist

< 1 minute readSay what you like about the cheap, oversized banquet that is one-day international cricket – at least it gives batsmen a bit of practice for the matches we give a toss about. When Andrew Strauss played one-day cricket, he scored more Test runs. He’s averaged 25.50 since he decided he

March 27, 2012 England

England’s batsmen give the bowlers a rest

< 1 minute readIan Bell was the only batsman not to be toss today. He said: “We all know we have to get better at playing in the subcontinent. It’s a long-term goal and it isn’t going to just happen overnight.” This is a shame, because England will almost certainly be batting again

March 26, 2012 England

James Anderson’s 30 this year

< 1 minute readThis might not seem all that significant. After all, not a year – not one single year – goes by without some international cricketer or other turning 30. This is different though. James Anderson was one of those players who loomed into view early in life and we still think

March 25, 2012 England / Sri Lanka

Playing the long game in Sri Lanka

< 1 minute readSamit Patel’s cricket statistics are being weighed against his vital statistics even more frequently of late. Is he fit enough for five-day cricket? It’s an interesting question, but we’re actually more interested in how the other England players cope. Even if Patel plays, we can’t see a debutant playing the

March 21, 2012 Bangladesh

Why Bangladesh will DEFINITELY win the Asia Cup

2 minute readOkay, we’ve had a slight about-turn. We’ve decided that Bangladesh aren’t certain to lose the Asia Cup final to Pakistan. We’ve decided they’re definitely going to win instead. This sudden heartfelt belief has come about because we spent four minutes thinking about Shakib Al Hasan yesterday and we remembered how

March 20, 2012 Bangladesh

Bangladesh to lose Asia Cup final to Pakistan

< 1 minute readIn our book, that’s progress. Sri Lanka are knackered, India are emotionally spent and these days Bangladesh can take advantage of that to get themselves into a position to lose to Pakistan. It’s not full-on, double-shifts-at-the-bunting-factory glory, but it’s not bad. Life’s all about taking pride in minuscule progress anyway,