King Cricket

December 13, 2010 Australia

What is Troy Cooley doing?

< 1 minute readWhen England were given a comprehensive shoeing in 2006-07, everyone in England was up in arms that they’d let their bowling coach, Troy Cooley, leave for a post with Australia. Now that Australia’s fast bowlers have turned into long hop machines set at 80mph, we’ve all forgotten about him, but

December 12, 2010 Australia

Shane Warne and Liz Hurley in the News of the World

< 1 minute readWe had rather foolishly assumed that the ‘Shane Warne might make a comeback’ story would be the stupidest Shane Warne story of the week. But no. Apparently, model and actress-who-gets-by-pretty-much-solely-on-her-looks, Liz Hurley, has been having ‘an affair’ with our favourite swollen-looking Antipodean cartoon character. What constitutes an affair? If people

December 10, 2010 Australia

Who is Michael Beer?

< 1 minute readWho is Jason Krejza? Who is Xavier Doherty? Who is Michael Beer? Those post titles sum up Australia’s spin selection policy pretty well. Michael Beer is a blah-de-blah-de-blah. Who even cares? What’s the point? Shane Warne said he thought he might be okay last week and that seems to be

December 9, 2010 Match report

England v Australia, Adelaide 2010 match report

3 minute readDandy Dan writes: Some months ago myself, Price and the so-called ‘Will’ (from String’s Oval match report) organised a weekend of watching some comedy Scottish football and staying up through the night to watch something happening on the other side of the world. Unfortunately, whilst Price was able to catch

December 8, 2010 Australia

Australia’s Ashes team can sort themselves out

2 minute readWe’ve spent the morning reading obituaries of Australian cricket. An England innings victory in Australia is a monumental thing, but it’s not suddenly become the norm. Australia do tend to pick themselves back up again. It’s generally just a matter of how soon. One of the wisest things Special Correspondent

December 7, 2010 Australia

Who are Australia’s best bowlers?

< 1 minute readProbably Shaun Tait, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark – but being as they’re all out of the reckoning one way or another, which bowlers will Australia pick for Perth? Having made a point of undermining Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Hauritz by dropping them, these players are sure to

December 7, 2010 England

England’s innings victories in Australia

< 1 minute readThere will be younger England fans who have seen their team win two of the last three Ashes series who really won’t get the significance of a win like this. For England, Ashes series down under aren’t ordinarily cricket. They’re more like visits to a lab where they can carry

December 6, 2010 Australia

Marcus North has plenty to think about

2 minute readWatching England bowl on a wearing Adelaide pitch, it was apparent that while batting might not be treacherous, there is plenty for the batsmen to think about. The ball turns from certain spots, tempting gaps are left and when even Paul Collingwood can prove dangerous, you know you’ve got to

December 5, 2010 Australia

Australian bowlers under threat

< 1 minute readThe Test before last, Australia fielded a bowling attack of Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Hauritz and George. In this Test, they have Harris, Bollinger, Siddle and Doherty, who have barely taken a wicket between them. What happens now? Go back to the first lot? The players can’t enjoy this selection drama. They’re

December 4, 2010 England

What use is a flat track bully?

2 minute readThe term ‘flat track bully’ isn’t so popular these days. It’s because it’s no longer indicative of a weakness. A batsman who makes the most of flat pitches, bullying bowlers into submission, is basically what you want in Test cricket where 19 pitches out of 20 are basically pretty lifeless