King Cricket

March 24, 2010 Bangladesh / England

Bangladesh v England – no protagonist, no narrative, no cephalopods

< 1 minute readGood films come in two forms: The writers are smarter than you and have constructed an ingenious plot where the story slowly unfolds, keeping you rapt The writers are far stupider than you and haven’t a clue about plot structure, so just to keep things moving, every now and again

March 23, 2010 India

Sourav Ganguly – Kolkata Knight Riders’ main man?

< 1 minute readThere can’t have been many sentences written about Sourav Ganguly more damning than this one by ‘Cricinfo staff’: “This is not the end of the road for Ganguly because he remains Kolkata’s brand image.” You’ll always have that, Sourav. You’ll always have your skills as a ‘brand ambassador’.

March 22, 2010 Extras / India

NEW OBSESSION: Danny Morrison commentary

< 1 minute readWe haven’t had a weird obsession with a trivial element of cricket in ages. Luckily Danny Morrison’s bizarrely beguiling intonation has stepped into the breach. Hanging on his every word We don’t dislike Danny Morrison, but he’s not a good commentator. Despite this, we find ourself listening to him far

March 21, 2010 County cricket / England

Ashes on free TV could mean four counties going bankrupt

< 1 minute readSounds good to us. Can we choose which ones? The ECB have felt it necessary to spend half a million pounds on some research that shows how badly off they’d be if the Ashes were put on free TV rather than Sky. We can’t help but think that an organisation

March 20, 2010 Bangladesh

Tamim Iqbal – Bangladesh’s best batsman

< 1 minute readIt’s been good to get to know the Bangladesh players a bit better these last few weeks. There are a handful who stand out and others who seem interchangeable. Shakib al Hasan’s their best bowler and bats reasonably well. Mahmudullah is looking good so far. Mushfiqur Rahim is a very

March 20, 2010 Australia / India

Mongoose in the IPL – most inevitable press release ever

< 1 minute readThere aren’t many things you can rely upon in this world, but the Mongoose marketing department is one. Sometimes Mongoose press releases take unexpected forms, but their arrival is inevitable. After Matthew Hayden used the Mongoose to hit many of the 93 runs he hit off 43 balls for Chennai

March 19, 2010 Extras / India

Mandira Bedi, IPL presenter on ITV4, has a high percentage of her face taken up by eyes

< 1 minute readIt’s astonishing. We’d say that around 10 per cent of Mandira Bedi’s face is eyes. That’s an unusually high percentage, particularly when you consider she’s only got two of them. Imagine if she had three! Also worth imagining is what she’d look like if she attempted the patented Damien Martyn

March 18, 2010 Extras

Cricket podcasts – why they’re better than real life

< 1 minute readYou only have to talk about cricket, meaning you can’t be exposed as the one-dimensional freak who’s lost touch with the wider world that really are Whenever you say something stupid or your brain comes to a grinding halt, Andy Zaltzman takes those bits out Listen to the latest episode

March 18, 2010 Extras / India

Great IPL commentary from Danny Morrison

< 1 minute readDelhi Daredevils’ Dinesh Karthik had just been stumped by his Mumbai Indians counterpart, Aditya Tare. Harbhajan Singh had bowled a wide, but Tare had gone down the legside and flicked it behind him to hit the stumps. It was a brilliant piece of work, deserving of lofty praise. On commentary,

March 17, 2010 Extras

The Cricinfo Hawkeye tool – cricket information until your eyes bleed

2 minute readDear The Internet, You’ve never asked us if we felt you contained too much information. If you asked us now, we would say ‘yes’. The Cricinfo Hawkeye tool lets us see the path of every ball of every over during the whole of a Test match. We don’t WANT to