King Cricket

August 22, 2023 England

Is Ben Stokes definitely a better pick than Harry Brook in England’s World Cup squad?

3 minute readBen Stokes came out of one-day retirement and immediately got picked for England’s World Cup squad. Of course he did – he’s Ben Stokes. Except he’ll be playing only as a batter. While he’s obviously extremely good at batting and capable of innings few others are… is he definitely, definitely

August 18, 2023 Extras

Five reasons we miss Test cricket

5 minute readWe do enjoy limited overs games, because variety is one of cricket’s greatest strengths. However, the action’s all limited to one end of the cricket spectrum, so it offers less variety when ‘consumed’ in isolation. Test cricket has greater scope – a wider range of possibilities – and so that’s

August 16, 2023 Match report

Old Trafford pitch messaging (a match report)

3 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Bert writes… Last year, the Old Trafford test led to

August 14, 2023 County cricket / Match report

A new fan at the London Spirit v Southern Brave washout – a match report

2 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Irrepressible King Cricket match reporter Ged writes… I have known

August 10, 2023 England / Features / Uncategorized

Stuart Broad: Titan of Ridiculousness

6 minute readAnd so the greatest Test batter of all time has departed the game just four ducks short of Courtney Walsh’s all-time record with 39. To put that in context, the next highest tally by someone with a Test hundred to their name is Marvan Atapattu’s 22 – and that was

August 8, 2023 England / Extras

But what about The Alternative Test Cricket World Championship? Who holds that title?

2 minute readThe what now? Come on, you remember: The Alternative Test Cricket World Championship. We did two or three blog posts about it on a different domain back in 2006. It’s the one that’s decided like a boxing title, where you can only become champions by beating the current champions. That’s

August 7, 2023 Extras

Stuart Broad saved this man from expensive audible Australian smugness

3 minute readBert writes… Regular readers of this website will be aware that I have a standing bet with a good friend of mine, an Australian, on the outcome of each Ashes series. The Bet was established while drunk in late 2002, in The Craic pub in Whakatane NZ, a fine boozer

August 3, 2023 England

In Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley England finally have an opening partnership that doesn’t play each ball on its merits

7 minute readPlayers and commentators talk a lot about playing each ball on its merits, but actually it’s not always that good an idea. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley gave an illustration why in the 2023 Ashes. It’s a mad but completely true fact that England haven’t had a settled opening partnership

August 1, 2023 Australia / England

Ashes predictions that were very wrong

3 minute readIt’s almost time to start looking ahead to the Ashes again, but before we get back to that, let’s first look back on the Ashes. Specifically, let’s look back on ‘looking ahead to the Ashes’ by revisiting our 10 things to watch out for from before the series, so that

July 31, 2023 Australia / England

Pretty sure that was a fantastic Ashes, but what do you actually remember of it?

3 minute readThe 2023 Ashes has sogged and then at the last moment unexpectedly fizzled to its conclusion. With five Tests in 46 days, immediately following on from the World Test Championship final, it’s been a lot to take in. What do you actually remember of it? The series itself resulted in