King Cricket

July 20, 2020 Extras / Features

Which Test nation’s top five wicket takers would form the most balanced attack?

Thanks to all our Patreon patrons for funding this site. There’s no way this kind of feature would appear in a proper publication. Your crowdfunding makes this pointless cobblers possible. If you enjoy the site and feel it’s worth a quid (or the cost of a pint) each month, you

July 17, 2020 England / West Indies

What can we learn from Dom Sibley’s not-very-exuberant hundred celebration?

Late in the morning session of day two of the second Test between England and the West Indies, Dom Sibley once again awoke from his fitful batting slumbers and actually hit the ball. This particular diversion from his default approach of not hitting the ball took him to a 312-ball

July 15, 2020 England

Looking back on the rarely-that-highs and not-especially-lows of Joe Denly’s Test career

Joe Denly is an unbelievable Test cricketer. You’ll note that we’re saying ‘is’ and not ‘was’ there. That’s because of the specific way in which Joe Denly is/was unbelievable. Sometimes you only need to do so much to get the gig. And sometimes you only need to do so much

July 11, 2020 England / West Indies

Choose Your Weapons with Ben Stokes and Jason Holder

Let’s talk about picking bowling attacks. Let’s use the first Test between England and the West Indies as a case study and, for an extra frisson of excitement, let’s do this halfway through the game – that way any specifics we use can turn out to be very wrong. Because

July 9, 2020 England / West Indies

How much more responsibility could Jason Holder possibly take on?

The answer is ‘none’. None more responsibility. Jason Holder is a parsimonious line bowler of immaculate line and length. He is also a two-metre strike bowler, who seams the ball plenty. He’s a decent bat too, not to mention an absolutely peerless anti-Lumbergh of a captain. Now it turns out

July 8, 2020 England / West Indies

BBC2 Test highlights: First impressions

Tonight was the first episode of the BBC’s new Test highlights show. It’s called Today at the Test, which is a great name (although given today’s rain and its 45-minute running time, this first one should probably have been called Today at the Test Plus Quite a Bit of Other

July 8, 2020 Australia / England / Features

The cult of digging in: The almost impossible psychological trick the batsman must pull off when you want him to play a rearguard

Do you know the only way you can successfully ‘dig in’ as a batsman? Completely and utterly mindlessly. Any other approach is far too much mental hard work and means you’ll make a bad decision sooner rather than later. We wrote a long thing for the Nightwatchman, Wisden’s quarterly publication,

July 7, 2020 England

Three things to watch out for when England play the West Indies this week

Cricket’s back. As in ‘returned’. It hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. England play the West Indies at the Rose Bowl, starting tomorrow (Wednesday). It’s on Sky Sports (which you can get one month at a time via Now TV) with highlights on BBC2 at 7pm. Here are three things

July 4, 2020 India

It’s time to marvel at the vocal stylings of Virat Kohli (and also Rishabh Pant) in this amazing/awful pimple cream ad

It’s hard not to feel that the role of ‘ambassador’ has been somewhat devalued in recent years by the marketing industry. It used to be a high-ranking diplomat. But now… “I am very excited to be a part of Team Himalaya and be the ambassador for their Men’s Face Wash

July 3, 2020 Afghanistan / Features

Can we pause for a moment and try and take stock of Mohammad Nabi’s ridiculous career?

Mohammad Nabi didn’t play for Afghanistan against Scotland in April 2019. Nothing too unusual there. Nabi had been at the IPL, playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad, and they’d qualified for the closing stages. Except it is unusual. It’s highly unusual. It was Afghanistan’s 112th one-day international (ODI) and Mohammed Nabi played

King Cricket

Let’s use Ken Nordine’s word jazz album ‘Colors’ to work out who’s going to win the 2020 IPL

When Mike Atherton was run-out for 99 – was this the worst ‘no’ in the history of cricket?

Behold the rich tapestry of emotions when Stuart Broad dropped yet another catch off Jimmy Anderson but then ran the batsman out

Let’s rate the ‘serious face’ of every England player in the trailer for The Edge

Which Test nation’s top five wicket takers would form the most balanced attack?

Which Test nation’s top five wicket takers would form the most balanced attack?

What can we learn from Dom Sibley’s not-very-exuberant hundred celebration?

Looking back on the rarely-that-highs and not-especially-lows of Joe Denly’s Test career

Choose Your Weapons with Ben Stokes and Jason Holder

How much more responsibility could Jason Holder possibly take on?

BBC2 Test highlights: First impressions

The cult of digging in: The almost impossible psychological trick the batsman must pull off when you want him to play a rearguard

Three things to watch out for when England play the West Indies this week

It’s time to marvel at the vocal stylings of Virat Kohli (and also Rishabh Pant) in this amazing/awful pimple cream ad

Can we pause for a moment and try and take stock of Mohammad Nabi’s ridiculous career?