King Cricket

February 8, 2010 South Africa

By the gods of Olympus, Dale Steyn can swing a cricket ball

< 1 minute readStumps. Everywhere. Shaun Tait might have notched 160kph this week, but Dale Steyn’s shown that if you add swing to the mix, you’re sorted. In fact, he didn’t even need to resort to scorching pace against India. It’s good to have scorching pace to fall back on when you aren’t

February 7, 2010 South Africa

Hashim Amla beards 253 not out

< 1 minute readHashim Amla bearded India all round the park in bearding 253 not out. Bearding for most of the day, his bearding was immaculate throughout. Amla did struggle to beard against Amit Mishra for a while, but he bearded that problem by bearding his head down and bearding before bearding other

February 4, 2010 Match report

England v Australia, third Test, day four – match report

3 minute readLisa writes: I was sitting upstairs on the bus with TMS on my headphones on my way to meet some friends in the pub when a middle-aged gentleman came up the stairs and started handing out what looked like flyers. Grateful that the headphones meant I didn’t have to say

February 4, 2010 England

England’s next bowling coach

< 1 minute readA lot of big names are being bandied about – Allan Donald, Jason Gillespie, Darren Gough and Shaun Pollock, to name but a few – but why is no-one talking about Ian Austin? Ex-Lancashire medium-pacer, Ian Austin, could bring a lot to the job. Imagine a fabulous foursome of rotund

February 3, 2010 Extras

What is a good cricket pitch?

2 minute readDon’t be alarmed, but we’re taking a stance on something. It’s to do with semantics though, so we’re not overstretching ourself. In cricket, what people describe as a good pitch is invariably one that is good for batting. It is flat, offers even bounce and little spin. Batsmen score hundreds

February 1, 2010 County cricket

Chris Schofield produces a little bit of magic

< 1 minute readAll those who’ve had the privilege of watching the Lancastrian long-hop machine turn his arm over will be not in the least bit surprised to discover that this magic involves cards and not cricket balls. There is a video of Chris Schofield doing a magic trick on Surrey’s website. It

January 31, 2010 Pakistan

What is it like inside Shahid Afridi’s head?

< 1 minute readVery few cricketers combine stellar brilliance with all three major types of retardation. Update: We’ve done some slightly lengthier writing on this subject for The Wisden Cricketer. Update update: The Wisden Cricketer doesn’t exist any more, so we’ve had to remove the link.

January 29, 2010 Match report

England v Australia 5th Test match report – day four

3 minute readDandy Dan writes: This match report has been written some months after the event so apologies if the details are a little hazy. Whilst holidaying at my friend Ben’s parent’s house this August, in rural France, about two hours east of La Rochelle, we decided to have a Test of

January 28, 2010 South Africa

What to think about Mickey Arthur not being South Africa coach

< 1 minute readDid he really resign? Was he pushed? Was it Graeme Smith? Was it political pressure? Was it to do with quotas? Was he marginalised by the use of Duncan Fletcher? So many questions and you’ve come here for the answers. We will tell you what to think, so you don’t

January 27, 2010 County cricket

Worcestershire sign Avatar director, James Cameron

2 minute readAn exodus of playing staff has led Worcestershire to make some unusual signings. Their latest recruit is 55-year-old Canadian, James Cameron, who recently directed the hugely successful film, Avatar. “I have always dreamed of being a professional cricketer and I am thrilled to take up this opportunity with Worcestershire.” Cameron