King Cricket

February 11, 2025 England / India

Are we crazy or is McCullum shaping an old-fashioned and outright bad England ODI bowling attack?

3 minute readEither Brendon McCullum’s ahead of the curve on this one, or he’s found a brand new road to a very familiar destination. England have moved quite some way from one of Eoin Morgan’s central principles when it comes to putting together a one-day international (ODI) bowling attack. “Pace just adds

February 6, 2025 England / India

Champions Trophy: D’ya eye these ODIs or did ya already OD on those ODIs?

3 minute read“I’ve always enjoyed 50-over cricket,” said Jos Buttler this week. “It’s always been one of my favourite formats.” Really, Jos? You don’t say. One of your favourites? Would it make your top three? Speaking of third-bests, the Champions Trophy looms, well, not large exactly, given its status as very much

February 4, 2025 County cricket

The Hundred sales: What do these billionaires honestly hope to get out of their investment?

7 minute readHundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on 49% stakes in tinpot teams that play a niche format of cricket watched by hardly anyone in the host country. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this, but if there’s one group of people we’d like to hear from, it’s

January 31, 2025 Australia / England

Not enough weekend beach sport? Jon Lewis needs to have a proper think about why England grassed seven chances in one day

3 minute readDid England drop seven chances today because the British idea of beach sport is going down the arcades and spending half an hour on one of those penny pusher games? Probably not, but there must be some reason why they’ve arrived at the wheelless phase of an Ashes tour. Lack

January 30, 2025 Australia / Features

In praise of the matter-of-fact dynamism of Travis Head

7 minute readIs there a less showy attacking batter than Australia’s Travis Head? Australia picked a new opener not so long ago – a couple of them actually. The second one was Sam Konstas, who quickly concluded that the best way to counter the world’s best fast bowler was by repeatedly attempting

January 27, 2025 Pakistan / West Indies

Where does Jomel Warrican’s pioneering work as a number 11 all-rounder leave Pakistan’s Test cricket?

3 minute readYou’ve seen a rum old Test match when the team that was 38-7 before drinks on the first morning ends up winning easily. That’s what Jomel Warrican helped the West Indies achieve against Pakistan this week though. To recap Warrican’s match, he walked in to bat at 95-9 and promptly

January 24, 2025 Australia / England

‘Fitness? Actually we’re inferior in loads of areas’ says Jon Lewis after England lose the Ashes

3 minute readWe’re not sure this is the effective rebuttal he thinks it is. England have been criticised for their fitness both before and during this Ashes capitulation, but head coach Jon Lewis says they didn’t lose because of that – there are in fact loads of other reasons why they’ve lost

January 22, 2025 Extras

The 2025 King Cricket Essentials Calendar

2 minute readWe do this every year now as a means of navigating the heavingly confusing cricket schedule. We draw up a month-by-month guide to the series and tournaments we’ll (most likely) be focusing on in the coming year so that we don’t accidentally piss away some of our enthusiasm on whatever

January 20, 2025 Australia / England

Heather Knight’s slightly odd reaction to failing to reclaim the Ashes

3 minute readEngland don’t change captains too often. The previous one, Charlotte Edwards, made her international debut in 1996 and served as captain from 2005 until 2016 when current captain, Heather Knight, took over. Knight has previously said she’s grown more relaxed as a leader over time because she believes that’s what

January 16, 2025 England / Features

Mark’s wood: Talking joinery and timber with England’s fastest bowler

5 minute readWe may or may not have caught up with Mark Wood to talk about his interest in wood. It’s a little known fact that England fast bowler Mark Wood is in fact called Mark Rudd. Team-mates began calling him Wood near the start of his career in mocking acknowledgement of