King Cricket

December 14, 2020 England / Features

Let’s try and identify England’s purest and greatest bits and pieces cricketer

8 minute readA bits-and-pieces cricketer is a player who wouldn’t warrant a place in the side as a batsman or a bowler but somehow gets picked anyway based on cumulative all-round ability. Let’s try and find England’s purest and greatest bits and pieces cricketer. Before we get into this, you may be

December 11, 2020 Regulars

A cricket bat in a wrestling match

2 minute readSend your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Feel free to put the cricket thing in the unusual place yourself. (In fact please, please, please do. No-one sends us any of those and they’re our favourite ones.) Today’s cricket bat in an unusual

December 9, 2020 Australia

Australia might again be poor enough that they’ll feel like they have to pick Shaun Marsh

2 minute readSometimes there’s a man. We won’t say a hero, because what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man – and we’re talking about Shaun Marsh here. Sometimes there’s a man… well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s Shaun Marsh. If there’s

December 7, 2020 Regulars

A cricket bat lurking on a street corner

< 1 minute readSend your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Feel free to put the cricket thing in the unusual place yourself. (In fact we actively encourage it – we don’t get anywhere near enough of those ones.) Daisy writes: Ged and I were driving

December 5, 2020 New Zealand / West Indies

Double talk with Kane Williamson

< 1 minute readIt’s a Lord Megachief of Gold-fest down at Seddon Park this week. Neil Wagner (2019) is doing his usual thing, while Jason Holder (2018) has had a slightly less wonderful time. But it’s Kane Williamson (2015) who has been most influential. We’ve been thinking about double hundreds a bit recently

December 4, 2020 Extras

We’ve tweaked the King Cricket crowdfunder – and you might want to make a tweak too

3 minute readMost of you know that this website is largely funded by donations. There are a few ads, but most of the good stuff that appears on the site appears because a few dozen patrons pledge a bit of money each month and that money gives us an excuse to spend

December 2, 2020 England / South Africa

Dawid Malan has used ‘being the best batsman in the world’ as a stepping stone to competence

< 1 minute readIt’s like they always say: being the top-ranked batsman in the world can be a real confidence-booster and may even help you secure a place in the first team. When Dawid Malan became the number one batsman in T20 internationals in September, the general reaction could be summed up as,

November 30, 2020 England / South Africa

Temba Bavuma’s ramp shot is not polished

2 minute readTemba Bavuma has contributed all of 18 runs to the current T20 series between South Africa and England, so it’s odd that he should be responsible for one of the recurring highlights. His ramp shot is undeniably that though. This is how Temba Bavuma played a ramp shot in the

November 28, 2020 England / South Africa

Jonny Bairstow proves he should open and also bat at four

2 minute readOur rule with white ball cricket is that if you’re bearing down on a World Cup, you pay attention to that particular format, and then immediately stop paying attention afterwards. The competition currently known as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is due to take place in October 2021. Being

November 25, 2020 Australia

The real motivation for Steve Smith’s elaborate pre-delivery fidgeting routine REVEALED

< 1 minute readSteve Smith’s pad-tapping, box-adjusting pre-delivery fidget routine is really quite something. And now, finally, we know why he does it. “I think it’s left pad, right pad, box, one tap in the middle, two behind my foot, look up, two behind my foot, look up, one… good to go.” That’s