King Cricket

August 18, 2008 India / Sri Lanka

India change their batting faces to no great effect

< 1 minute read‘Bye bye Sachin, Rahul, Sourav and VVS, the new generation are here now. You guys are past it, but we’ll conquer Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan with ease.’ This is what India’s glittery one-day batting line-up might have said, but it would have been followed by a bit of a

August 18, 2008 County cricket / England

Kevin Pietersen on Mark Ramprakash

< 1 minute readNot literally. That would be hideous. (No, we’re never going to spurn an opportunity to make that joke.) In this month’s issue of The Wisden Cricketer, Kevin Pietersen is asked whether Mark Ramprakash deserves a place in the England side. “You have a look at his results since the media

August 17, 2008 County cricket

Essex win Friends Provident Trophy

< 1 minute readBit disappointing that lots of southern Africans hit runs and pretty much nobody English did. Bit disappointing that Rob Key didn’t get to celebrate. Rob’s had a lot of near-misses this season, what with this, the Twenty20 Cup and his being mentioned regarding the England captaincy. Near misses are still

August 15, 2008 Regulars

Laurence Elderbrook accommodates an extra opener

2 minute readWe have one too many openers in this match, so I offer to move down to number four to allow one of them to bat at three. He doesn’t have the range of shots to profit in the middle order, whereas I do. The second wicket falls and the slight

August 14, 2008 Extras

Summer’s not over

< 1 minute readThe Tests are over, the weather’s cooling down, we’re nearly out of bank holidays. It’s about this time of year that all our thoughts turn to suicide – but wait! Before we wade through the pessimism of another laboured one-day series, there’s a redeeming feature. There it is, midway down

August 14, 2008 Match report

England v South Africa match report

2 minute readOur inbox is perilously close to empty. One of you better go to a cricket match or something. D Charlton writes: I have recently become an associate member of MCC. This means I can sit in the pavilion at Lord’s and watch all but the biggest match days. I can’t

August 13, 2008 County cricket

Rikki Clarke resigns Derbyshire captaincy

< 1 minute readEven by our knee-high standards Rikki Clarke’s selection as ‘one to watch’ has been ill-judged. He has been worth watching in a faintly soap opera kind of way, we suppose. It’s one thing to play badly (in the second division), it’s another to resign the captaincy, but it’s really going

August 13, 2008 County cricket

Lancashire get shot of Simon Marshall

< 1 minute readThis is perhaps a more interesting development than you might think. You might not have heard of Simon Marshall. He’s a leg-spinning all-rounder whose particular brand of non-spinning spin gave him great success in this year’s Twenty20 Cup: 14 wickets at 13.57 at 7.26 an over. He’s a snappy fielder

August 13, 2008 County cricket

Lancashire get shot of Dominic Cork

< 1 minute readA slightly callous post title that we’re not that proud of, but what are we going to do? Rewrite it? As if. Lancashire have finally decided that they have too many ageing fast-medium all-rounders in their side and Dominic Cork, as the elder of the two, is the man to

August 12, 2008 England

Kevin Pietersen’s outrageous natural talent

2 minute readWe’re always suspicious of ‘natural talent’. Kevin Pietersen always seems to attract this commendation – usually from Mark Nicholas. Nicholas closes his eyes and purrs every time KP hoicks one to leg and it’s surely only a matter of time before he affixes himself to the captain’s leg like a