King Cricket

October 13, 2008 Australia

Shane Watson reckons he’s aggressive

< 1 minute readHere’s a quote from raving metrosexual, Shane Watson: “It’s a good way to challenge them [the Indians], physically and mentally. Not sledging but having an aggressive persona about you – and that’s the way I play my cricket.” Watson’s always saying things like this about how he plays aggressive cricket.

October 13, 2008 India

Ishant Sharma’s hair

< 1 minute read‘I’m gangly, awkward-looking and appear to be halfway through swallowing a Rubik’s cube – how could I make myself look worse?’ This, presumably, is the thinking behind Ishant Sharma’s strange, effeminate mane. Good bowler, great slower ball, but it’s a dire situation indeed when going back to a mullet would

You’re reading about the Test when there’s Twenty20 on?

< 1 minute readThere are two articles. One says Twenty20’s clearly going to kill Test cricket. One says that probably, on balance, that won’t happen. Newspaper editors will tend to publish the first one. The former’s punchier and it provokes debate, so we get to read a disproportionate number of articles about how

October 10, 2008 Australia

Michael Hussey loves having the runs

< 1 minute read‘Give me the runs’, he says. Michael Hussey feasts on dodgy bowling and then he has the runs. At the end of the day, he’s exhausted with it all, but he can still muster a weak smile, because that’s how much he likes having the runs. You’ve got to make

October 10, 2008 Bangladesh / New Zealand

Mashrafe Mortaza takes New Zealand to the cleaners

< 1 minute read“Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram – this is the cleaners. The washing powder’s over there. It’s a quid for a full cycle and 20p for the dryers.” “Thanks Mashrafe.” Mashrafe Mortaza’s 4-44 today set up Bangladesh’s win. Mashrafe now has 116 ODI (one-day international) wickets at 31.78. He’s very

October 9, 2008 Australia / India

Ricky Ponting isn’t a different batsman when he’s in India

< 1 minute readThe thing people often fail to understand about batting averages is that they only describe what’s already happened. Ricky Ponting’s average in India was famously bad, but yet he hit a hundred. That’s the thing about historical precedents – they only tell you about the past. The Australians came up

October 9, 2008 Australia / India

Who to support – India or Australia?

< 1 minute readWe know that there are a number of English readers out there who are having trouble picking sides for this series, so we thought we’d help you out. Normally this would be an easy one. You never want to support Australia, whoever they’re playing, because they’re the best. You usually

October 8, 2008 Australia

Why Beau Casson fakes injury

< 1 minute read“I’ve had [physio] Pat Farhart weave some of his magic and the groin has responded really well.” We move that from now on Pat Farhart should be crow-barred into any conversation about Australia – whether it’s justified or not. As far as Australian physiotherapists who take advantage of young spin

October 8, 2008 Match report

Nottinghamshire v Durham Pro40 match report

< 1 minute readJo-Fitz writes: The eagerly awaited official switching-on of our new floodlights. Rain. Bugger. Not enough rain to get rained off (unfortunately, given the eventual result) but enough to turn the match into a mutant spawn ThirtyFive25. I arrived at half time (sorry, came over all 5Live there) and marvelled at

October 7, 2008 India

Sourav Ganguly taking his bat in

< 1 minute readNo-one ever slinks out the back door, do they? They give you four Tests’ notice so that they can be lauded to the high heavens for a month. Some players don’t even get four Tests in their careers, but now there are retirement articles about players who’ve still got that