Richie Benaud signing books

We have a friend who works in Waterstone's in Manchester. Richie Benaud's there today signing books. Meanwhile we're snowed under with work at a job from which we're being made redundant - work that one out.

We're insanely jealous that our friend's going to get to meet the world's greatest living human and probably won't even appreciate it. It's probably for the best that we're not there however. We would almost certainly say something weird. We don't know what it would be. We never do.

You can buy his book, My Spin on Cricket, here, or if you're a bit mental and don't mind spending extra money on what is essentially the same thing, you can get a hardback version. Personally, we recommend getting a signed copy because there's every chance that he touched it with his other hand while he was writing his name.

Rob Key masters Twenty20

Rob Key hit 41 not out off 33 balls against Middlesex. Try telling us that wasn't why Kent won. Go on - try. We won't have it. Rob Key's innings was the SOLE reason that Kent emerged victorious even if Matthew Walker hit 58, also off 33 balls.

We have no idea if Kent or Middlesex are any good at Twenty20. We don't know how the competetion's going. We don't even know how it works really.

We'd better go and check the table now. (Is there a table?)

Previous Rob Key posts:
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The Alternative Test Cricket World Championship

This is how it works. People often have a bit of a problem coming to terms with it, but it's really quite simple. Basically, the Alternative Test Cricket World Championship works like a boxing title. To win the title, you must beat the current champions in a Test series - not in a match - in a series. If the series is drawn, then the champions retain their title.

So who are the current Alternative Test Cricket World Champions? Well big thanks to The Scientician because working this out is just the kind of thing that we can't be bothered doing. (We wouldn't have known where to start - so we didn't.) 

The Scientician traced the path of the title from the very first Test series between England and Australia back in 1877. The full table can be seen in this post.

Pakistan are currently the Alternative Test Cricket World Champions having beaten England late last year - England having prised the title off Australia in the Ashes. The Scientician is 98% certain that Pakistan are the current holders, which is more than good enough for us because even after our very best effort we'd only be about 4% certain that we were right.

The upshot of this is that the upcoming Test series between England and Pakistan is an Alternative Test Cricket World Championship bout. If England can win, they will reclaim the title.

Come on. That's better than it being 'an indicator for the upcoming Ashes series'.

This whole thing was inspired/stolen from the Unofficial World Championship which does much the same thing for football. We should probably mention that.

Some Alternative Test Cricket World Championship analysis

Statistic-tastic. Let's all work out standard deviation and do some hypothesis testing. Come on... Everybody...

Maybe we should start simply. Here's a table of all the Alternative Test Cricket World Champions down the years:


And here's a pie chart of how long each nation has held the title:

So what stands out? For us there are three major talking points:

1: New Zealand have never been Alternative Test Cricket World Champions

2: Zimbabwe have! They beat then champions, India, in 1998 and held on until Australia beat them in 1999

3: The Windies held onto the title for a whopping 14 years between 1981 and 1995. Whopping, you hear.

How the Alternative Test Cricket World Championship works.