King Cricket

December 5, 2009 County cricket / England

Mark Davies’ England call-up demands some new exclamations

< 1 minute readOne to watch veteran, Mark Davies, has finally been called into the England squad. If he plays a Test, it is not acceptable to use mundane exclamations like ‘well bowled!’ The obvious substitutes are ‘hammer of Thor!‘ and ‘great Odin’s raven!‘ but if you tire of shouting those, here are

Three ways in which we’ve been right in the last 24 hours

< 1 minute readThis is quite unusual. We’re not usually right about stuff. Normally, you can ask us questions about things that have happened to us and we’ll get the answers wrong. “Did Dan tell you he was moving to Australia?” “No!” [Long pause] “Don’t think so.” [Another long pause] “Well, maybe…” Dwayne

December 4, 2009 India

Virender Sehwag is a bastard and here’s why

< 1 minute readVirender Sehwag is a bastard because he plays too many good innings to keep track of and there aren’t enough superlatives to spread among them. Consider this: Sehwag’s last Test innings was 131. That was a failure. His first four Test hundreds were all under 150; all failures. After that,

December 4, 2009 India

Virender Sehwag is what Test cricket is all about

< 1 minute readVirender Sehwag: 284 not out overnight. This was Test cricket. The Sri Lankan players couldn’t just soak it up for 20 overs before seeing if they could do better. This problem wasn’t going away. But what they had to endure almost all day, the crowd got to enjoy all day

December 3, 2009 Bangladesh / England / West Indies

The five best all-rounders over the next five years

< 1 minute readNot sure we’ve got Imran Khan or Garry Sobers on the cards, but it’s not looking bad. Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh, age 22 As a cricket-writer, we’re worried there’ll be no words left in a few years time, because they’ll all have been eaten by Bangladesh criticisers. Shakib Al Hasan

December 2, 2009 County cricket

Beware the fury of Sussex County Cricket Club

< 1 minute readThe BBC are reporting that Sussex are furious with Surrey because the latter approached one of their players. Sussex chairman, Jim May, was red-faced with fury, ranting: “The approach is unwelcome and the timing very unfortunate.” Peppering the interviewer with flecks of spit and bile, May’s rage later reached its

December 1, 2009 Match report

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Cape Cobras match report

2 minute readDapper Dan writes: My day began as most of my days have begun recently: Girlfriend’s alarm goes off at 6.15am, she gets up, goes in shower, I go back to sleep. Girlfriend leaves for work approximately 7.15am, wakes me up to say goodbye, I go back to sleep. Sunlight in

November 30, 2009 Cricket books | reviews and recommendations

Ask Bearders by Bill Frindall | book review

2 minute readWe were supposed to review this ages ago. Note to publishers: don’t push cricket stuff during the Ashes. We know it’s the cricket Christmas, but everyone’s a bit busy. Ask Bearders is subtitled Answers to the World’s Most Challenging Cricket Questions. It’s a compilation of Bill Frindall’s columns for the

November 30, 2009 South Africa

Mark Boucher at six? This isn’t South Africa

< 1 minute readWhen England took the fourth wicket of what seemed like a mesmerisingly unstrenuous dismantling of the South African batting line-up, we wondered where the real South Africa were. Mark Boucher at six? Where was the breathtaking conservatism for which South African cricket is so renowned? Think back to the glory

November 29, 2009 Australia / India / New Zealand / Pakistan / Sri Lanka / West Indies

Innings victories in cricket – good or bad?

< 1 minute readIt’s good if it’s your side that’s won, but if you’re impartial, it means that a Test has been one-sided. Australia’s innings victory over West Indies also raises uncomfortable and unwelcome questions about the future of the West Indies as a Test team, even if their best player, Adrian Barath,