Posted by Send your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Please consider putting the cricket thing in the unusual place yourself. We like those ones.
Doyen of King Cricket reader submissions, Ged Ladd, writes…
Daisy and I chose to take a short, restful winter break in Sri Lanka in early January 2026. Naturally, I took my copy of The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments with me. The photo below highlights a lagoony backdrop behind the book, as seen from poolside. Someone has to do this sort of vacationing; we hadn’t done so for many years.
One of my first dips (into the book, not the swimming pool) found an amusing item on 50 years of women’s Test cricket, in which the authors suggest that Avril Starling was a seminal example of a cricketer being named by a social media name generator: the first name being your favourite female, Canadian pop singer; the surname being the next bird that you see.
Almost on cue, as I smiled out loud in Daisy’s direction with that idea, an ostentation of peacocks showed up on the roof of the next-door villa. Alanis Peacock must be a top rate, all-round cricketer.
Next up, a small flock of bulbuls, singing beautifully. Shania Bulbul would surely be a wicketkeeper, full of chirp behind the stumps.
The bulbuls were soon chased away by a murder of crows. Sheryl Crow? Nah, she’s not Canadian. Let’s try Nelly Crow – a pinch-hitting batter at the top of the order. “Give it some welly, Nelly”.
In truth, I found this whimsy more entertaining than Daisy did. Girls, eh?
That backdrop is very lagoony
Isn’t it.