King Cricket

December 23, 2011 Extras

A short story about cricket

< 1 minute readWe’ve written an episodic short story about taking rational decisions based on empirical evidence. You’d think that every cricket writer would be jumping on that crowd-pleasing bandwagon, but weirdly they’re not. Short stories about sports administration are in worryingly short supply during this year’s festive period. It’s inexplicable. Part one

December 22, 2011 Regulars

Mark Butcher with scissors and a cup of tea

< 1 minute readNot at the same time – that would be MENTAL. Here he is with the scissors: And here he is with a cup of tea: If you’re wondering what’s going on here, our correspondent said that Mark was at “some sort of thing”.

December 21, 2011 Australia

Ed Cowan and other good Australian batsmen

2 minute readWe told you Australia had bottomed out. Logic has penetrated their camp and infected a handful of people. We’re worried it might spread. First of all, Ed Cowan comes into the side (or “Cricket With Balls’ own Eddie Cowan” as Jarrod would have us refer to him). He replaces Phillip

December 20, 2011 Pakistan

Pakistan: Reliable? Organised?

< 1 minute readA reliable and organised Pakistan cricket team is essentially just a theoretical construct. Nevertheless, Misbah-ul-Haq has got them about as close as they ever get. In recent months, they’ve reached a state of solidity they rarely experience. They’re scoring runs, they’re taking wickets and they’re winning pretty much all of

December 19, 2011 Extras

Gordon Greenidge at Lord’s in 1984

< 1 minute readGordon Greenidge is always worth writing about and his 214 not out in the fourth innings at Lord’s in 1984 deserves better treatment than we’ve given it over at Cricinfo. Stu and Ash are going to take a break for a while now and we’re going to do something a

December 16, 2011 South Africa / Sri Lanka

The deflation of Sri Lanka

< 1 minute readA lot of the life seems to have gone out of Sri Lanka since Murali’s retirement. On the face of it, the team’s much the same, but there’s a wrinkling and lack of solidity about them. They’re like yesterday’s balloon. They haven’t shown much heart according to Russell Arnold. Maybe

December 15, 2011 Extras

An open letter to King Cricket

< 1 minute readDear Sirs, We the undersigned wish to register our not inconsiderable lack of a suitable absence of displeasure with the current state of article writing on your website. In particular, certain facts that are facts go repeatedly unmentioned in some articles, certainly nowhere near enough as they shouldn’t be, viz:

December 14, 2011 Australia

Is everyone TOTALLY PSYCHED about the Big Bash?

< 1 minute readThere’s another Twenty20 league on the horizon. Kieron Pollard’s in it. Shahid Afridi’s in it. Alfonso Thomas is in it. Chris Gayle’s in it too. He’ll be playing in Sydney and he’s really looking forward to being there. “What do you call it: Bond Beach? Bondi? I will be there.

December 13, 2011 Extras

We feel we’ve got away with this one a bit

< 1 minute readWe wrote about Sachin Tendulkar at Cricinfo and, as Bert suggested, we criticised his technique. So far, most people seem to have correctly identified the joke. We feel we’re being sucked in. Next time we’ll write a really innocuous piece about Ian Austin and thousands of people will send us

December 12, 2011 Australia

PJ Hughes c Guptill b Martin

< 1 minute readMaybe if you’re very lucky this Christmas, you’ll get a gift that is so good, you simply don’t know what to do with it. That’s how we feel about Phil Hughes being caught by Martin Guptill off the bowling of Chris Martin for the fourth time in four innings. It’s