King Cricket

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

April 2, 2011 India

We’re supporting Zaheer Khan

< 1 minute readWe’re supporting India, but we’re struggling with that because we’ve got quite a big reservation. A win for India would, to some extent, be a victory for batting over bowling and we hate batsmen. For us, much of the joy of cricket is in the fall of wickets and we

April 1, 2011 India / Sri Lanka

Tendulkar v Murali

< 1 minute readWe wrote about the various World Cup storylines during the quarter-finals. The stories of Tendulkar and Murali, two ageing greats, seem to be the strongest now, but that’s mostly due to hindsight. All the same, it makes for a good narrative. There’s also a minor subplot that no-one will care

March 30, 2011 India / Pakistan

Misbah-ul-Haq shot down in a blaze of bathos

< 1 minute readChasing 261 against India, Misbah-ul-Haq didn’t panic. As the run-rate climbed, Misbah kept his cool and as wickets fell, he stood firm, maintaining an almost tangible air of lack-of-intent. Dead-batting the ball again and again, Misbah sought to wear down the Indian attack to the extent that the match had

March 30, 2011 India / Pakistan

Seven-match series suck out all the jeopardy that will make this match so exciting

< 1 minute readWe might have made our point in the title. The first match of a seven-match one-day series nobody cares about. There are plenty of matches in which to recover, even if your team loses. The second match of a seven-match one-day series nobody cares about. There’s still plenty of time

March 30, 2011 Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka owe us a fiver

< 1 minute readSri Lanka were definitely going to win for most of their run-chase, then they went all cagey and it got interesting and we had to give the match our full attention, then they won anyway. The point is, we had work to do and we couldn’t do it because Sri