King Cricket

March 20, 2023 India

The IPL’s ‘Impact Player’ substitutions are another step in the wrong direction

2 minute readThe 2023 IPL will see the introduction of the Impact Player. This is a player outside the starting XI who can come in to bat, bowl or both – a sub in other words. We put it to you that tactical substitutions make cricket worse. This year’s IPL starts on

March 17, 2023 Extras

Cricket Wordles: Crickdle, Crickle, Nurdle and Stumple

2 minute readWordle has inspired a whole slew of similar puzzle games. Here are four cricket-themed ones we’ve tried: Crickdle, Crickle, Nurdle and Stumple. Crickdle Crickdle’s creator, a British student called Ayush, emailed us about this one. It’s a player of the match guessing game where you’re given the match result and

March 15, 2023 Extras

The BBC wants you to vote against us

2 minute readThe BBC again finds itself mired in conflict after asking people to vote for its cricket podcasts instead of our one. We’re on the shortlist too, you know. How about a bit of balance and fairness? It’s been a turbulent time for the Beeb. First the leader of the world’s

March 13, 2023 New Zealand / Sri Lanka

That game when Kane Williamson’s most exciting contribution was a bye

2 minute readCricket is a mad and contrary sport. In a Test where he masterminded a successful fourth-innings run-chase with 121 not out, Kane Williamson’s most exciting contribution was to completely bloody miss the ball and run a bye. For those that don’t know, Williamson faced the scheduled final ball of the

March 10, 2023 Australia

The Travis Head look is complete

< 1 minute readWe suppose you could plonk him in an 18-wheeler and ask him to drive from Madisonville to Baton Rouge, but other than that, the Travis Head look has basically reached its logical destination. Head’s had a moustache for a while now. We didn’t think to document the history of his

March 8, 2023 England

Joe Root? Dawid Malan? Harry Brook? Which batter isn’t in England’s first choice World Cup XI

5 minute readDo you know England’s first-choice XI for the upcoming 50-over World Cup? Do England? There’s a lot of job sharing in the various England teams these days. Players flit in and flit out to the extent that it’s actually pretty hard to identify the first choice XI. That’s mostly okay

March 7, 2023 Regulars

A fox being conspicuously indifferent to Being Geoffrey Boycott

< 1 minute readIf you’ve got a picture of an animal being conspicuously indifferent to cricket, please send it to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Daisy writes… Ged and I went to a supper and talk at Lord’s about the book Being Geoffrey Boycott. Ged has written up the evening. On arrival, when we first looked out

March 3, 2023 Australia / India

What is a fair Test pitch? Aussie pundits grapple with seemingly unanswerable question

2 minute readAustralian pundits have been left with a lot of difficult questions after their team beat India on a Test pitch that turned from day one. Can a pitch be doctored or unfair when Australia win on it? We invited two high profile Aussie cricket personalities to try and come to

March 1, 2023 England

Moeen Ali’s backlift v Moeen Ali’s follow-through

4 minute readFew England players have deployed the long handle as delightfully as Moeen Ali. But which element is the more lovely – his backlift or his follow-through? Like all sentient humans, we make a point of devoting one day each month to appreciation of Brian Lara’s backlift. A byproduct of this

February 28, 2023 England / New Zealand

Jimmy Anderson, majestic island of chuntering irritation and sadness

3 minute readJimmy Anderson has played 179 Test matches and he was completely pissed off to lose this one by a single run. Jimmy Anderson is a quite majestically irritable cricketer. The penultimate ball of the second Test between New Zealand and England could, and probably technically should, have been called a