King Cricket

September 21, 2023 Extras

For the avoidance of doubt the 2023 Cricket World Cup absolutely does not “take one day”

2 minute read“History will be written and dreams will be realised at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023,” is the claim. “All it takes is just one day.” This is manifestly untrue. The winning of the World Cup will take one day in much the same way as it will take

September 20, 2023 Match report

Two sports, three days and five bagels at the Home of Rain Interruptions (unless you’re playing real tennis)

4 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.) Regular King Cricket contributor Ged Ladd’s report from the 2022

September 18, 2023 England

No-one’s making Jason Roy stronger here with the way they’ve gone about this

5 minute readAin’t no bad news like the retraction of previously issued good news. Jason Roy had already given his relieved response to being included in England’s World Cup squad when he was later excluded from it. How are you feeling since the change of heart, Jase? Not great, we’d wager. Squad

September 14, 2023 England / West Indies

Viv Richards deserves a respectful nod after Ben Stokes’ latest record

2 minute readA few weeks ago we asked whether Ben Stokes was definitely a better pick than Harry Brook in England’s World Cup squad. We drew no firm conclusions. Smashing 182 off 124 balls to break the record for the highest score by an England batter in a one-day international (ODI) probably

September 13, 2023 England / Sri Lanka

Did you see… Achini Kulasuriya run out for 0?

2 minute read“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” said Daniel Norcross on BBC commentary. “The throw’s come in at the non-striker’s end and there is dawdleage.” It’s hard to improve on that assessment. What was so remarkable about this dismissal is that it felt like the textbook, “yadda yadda yadda… and there’s

September 11, 2023 England / New Zealand

Did you see… Glenn Phillips catch Moeen Ali?

2 minute readWe’re in the era of the boundary juggler. It was therefore quite refreshing to deploy an ‘oh wow’ for a good old diving catch yesterday, as Glenn Phillips briefly turned into a glider to dispatch Moeen Ali. England levelled the one-day series against New Zealand yesterday and in so doing

September 7, 2023 County cricket

At least Josh de Caires is keeping things unpredictable – unlike Essex

2 minute readYou could definitely have AI report on Essex victories. Or maybe you couldn’t. Maybe the reports would get too samey. How would this latest one go for the win over Middlesex? ChatGPT reckons: “Essex’s opening pair, like a well-rehearsed comedy duo, set the tone for the day. Nick Browne, steady

September 6, 2023 County cricket

Surrey’s Dan Worrall maybe should have become “English” before he was in his 30s

2 minute read“I’ve always had the ambition to play in England as an Englishman,” said Dan Worrall last year, shortly before becoming a ‘local player’ for Surrey thanks to the British passport he was entitled to through his father. It’s gone okay. He may wish he’d done it sooner. County cricket has

September 5, 2023 Ireland / Match report

A Malahide beer tent report (Ireland v India, 2023)

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.) Thanks to Chuck for this match report and apologies for

August 31, 2023 County cricket

Let’s have a 2023 County Championship catch-up

3 minute readLike many people, we haven’t paid much attention to the County Championship since the first batch of matches finished in May. This was not unexpected. It was, in fact, the plan – as drawn out in our 2023 “essentials” calendar. Back then, table-toppers Surrey had only played six games and

"As with several other things, they saw one possible sequence of events where he would become a more threatening option…

At the risk of being unnecessarily reductive, the England players aren't very good and the Australian players are.

They often don't look dumb in hindsight, but if Travis Head hadn't played brilliantly, they'd have played out the first…

Not sure Australia's decisions can be characterised as dumb. Their backroom staff seem to plan for pretty much any eventuality.…

Emphasis increasingly on 'while stocks last' in this hemisphere, pleasingly-yet-also-frustratingly.

Sky Sports has boiled its Ashes coverage down to its purest and greatest form: Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain standing there talking about what’s gone wrong

The 2019 Ridiculous Ashes (podcast)

The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments is definitely out now – you should buy it for someone! (Possibly yourself)

51. Michael Vaughan Declines A Crushing

14 England things that happened in the summer of 2025 – do they tell us anything?