King Cricket

January 11, 2009 England

Was Kevin Pietersen wrong?

2 minute readIt may surprise you to learn that Kevin Pietersen is not actually evil. He may even want England to win some matches. People can at times forget that real life isn’t actually a drama scripted by halfwits. The characters involved aren’t ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Kevin Pietersen polarises people, or at

January 10, 2009 England

Every person involved with England cricket is an eight-year-old child‏

< 1 minute readTurncoat players; fringe squad members ‘leaking’ information; nameless ECB officials also leaking information and accusing players of having oversized egos; not to mention a media solely interested in column inches, badgering anyone and everyone for more information. Fucking stop it. Belt up. Who cares who says and thinks what about

January 9, 2009 Australia

Matthew Hayden – sport’s greatest orator

< 1 minute readNever mind cricket. Matthew Hayden’s the greatest speaker in sport, full stop. “Ultimately it will be my call to look at the bloke that talks to yourself every day in the mirror and say ‘mate it is time to go’ or ‘saddle up, pull your socks up and get on

January 8, 2009 Australia

Matthew Hayden, please don’t retire

< 1 minute readThere are those of you who may think we’d be pleased to see Matthew Hayden retire. Nothing could be further from the truth. For one thing, it’s fun to watch his futile attempts to scrabble runs, but more importantly, we’d hate to see the cricket world lose one if its

January 8, 2009 England

Andrew Strauss, England captain

< 1 minute readThroughout history, the British have had a fail-safe method for dealing with times of crisis. They find the most sensible person among their number and they tell them that they’re in charge. A new era has dawned. An era of stoicism. An era of doing the decent thing. An era

January 7, 2009 England

Kevin Pietersen’s resignation

< 1 minute readKevin Pietersen did not resign this morning. He wants to be very clear on that, okay? He did NOT resign this morning. He resigned this afternoon. From his resignation statement: “Contrary to media speculation today, I wish to make it very clear that I did not resign as captain of

January 7, 2009 England

Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores resign

< 1 minute readMaybe we don’t need Pakistan cricket after all. We’ve got England for back-stabbing and intrigue now. Officially, Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores both resigned. Unofficially, well, does it matter what really happened, does it? Those halcyon days of long-term planning under Duncan Fletcher seem longer ago and more valuable by

January 7, 2009 West Indies

Viv Richards – hero of cricket

2 minute readIs there anyone who doesn’t know Viv Richards? Are there any of our readers who never saw him bat? If there are, you need to get this month’s issue of The Wisden Cricketer which has a special Viv Richards ‘Heroes of Cricket’ supplement with it. There is a profound gap

January 6, 2009 Australia

Michael Clarke is a proper batsman

< 1 minute readMichael Clarke and Ian Bell. Two munchkin-faced, thimble-sized men who’ve made knowledgeable cricket folk go all quivery with their batsmanship. They’re much the same age and apparently both have “natural talent” instead of a skeleton. However, one’s dithering along the same as he always has done, while the other’s a

January 5, 2009 Australia

Are Australia the worst team in the world?

2 minute readYou’d be forgiven for thinking so with some of the things you read. The fact is Australia are still a feisty outfit and England in particular shouldn’t be fancying their chances against them too much. Australia may have slid a bit, but they’ll never implode. It’s not the Aussie way.