King Cricket

April 12, 2011 India

Has anything happened in the IPL yet?

< 1 minute readNo, nothing has yet happened in the IPL. Matches have been played, teams have won, teams have lost, but nothing of any importance has taken place. Teams who have won a match are probably about one-seventh of the way to a play-off place. If you are excited about a particular

April 11, 2011 Australia

Shane Watson is a batsman

< 1 minute readIf you want to be taken seriously as a batsman, one of the worst things you can do is bowl. Every team is desperate for all-rounders, but the label gets misapplied so much it tars those who actually warrant it. Shane Watson probably just about qualifies as an all-rounder –

April 10, 2011 County cricket / England

Adil Rashid is getting worse

< 1 minute readHow much worse? One worse. Having taken 6-77 in Worcestershire’s first innings, Adil Rashid could only manage 5-37 in their second innings. This grave loss of form is deeply worrying. Ben Stokes is getting better How much better? 125 better. Having scored 10 in Durham’s first innings, Ben Stokes then

April 8, 2011 County cricket / England

Adil Rashid has day one of the County Championship

< 1 minute read“Day one of the County Championship?” thought Adil Rashid. “I’ll have that.” So he did. Rashid has kicked off with 6-77 against Worcestershire. That’s called ‘being better than everyone else,’ that is. We recognise it well from all the millions of times we’ve been one small part of the ‘everyone

April 7, 2011 County cricket / England

County Championship players to watch in 2011

< 1 minute readCounty Championship only. First division only. We’re also lumping them all together in one post this year, because multiple posts feels like quite a big commitment. Adam Lyth, Yorkshire Our reasons for picking batsmen to watch are invariably the same: they’re young and we’ve got a general sense that they

April 6, 2011 Extras

One-day internationals don’t matter

2 minute readThe World Cup matters – let’s clarify that first of all – but other one-day international (ODI) series don’t. That is a new, official King Cricket editorial stance. Why ODIs don’t matter Between squad rotation, experimentation, dead rubbers and lack of interest from fans and players, we no longer see

April 6, 2011 Extras

Good news everybody…

< 1 minute readWe’re being insulted on Cricinfo again. Qasim has branded our latest piece “a staggeringly unfunny article”. You’ve got to love an article that’s so lacking in humour that not only are readers unmoved by it, they are actually blown away by the unfunniness. We meant to ask that this piece

April 4, 2011 Associates

Why 10 World Cup teams won’t make the tournament any better

< 1 minute readIn sport, excitement comes from tension. In a knock-out competition, the excitement comes from the danger of being knocked out. You can’t just have India play every other day and expect people to get worked up about it. Something has to be at stake. This is the basic principle behind

April 4, 2011 Regulars

Cover drive | Batting lessons

< 1 minute readAll save the clearest technician must rein themself in when essaying a cover drive, lest they founder betwixt active and passive. Wise words and worth remembering when attemping this shot for this is almost entirely wrong. Should a delivery pitch six inches short of overfull and a similar distance wide

April 2, 2011 India

MS Dhoni is a big match player

< 1 minute readGautham Gambhir played very well, but MS Dhoni is unique. He wasn’t Lord Megachief of Gold for no reason. People talk about big match players all the time, but they often mislabel matches as being big when they’re no such thing. Genuine big matches are rare and genuine big match