SHA Small Heath Alliance

He also just wasn't any good especially against pace. We saw him struggle against the likes of Tim Munton, Graham Welch, Charlie Dagnall, Jamie Spires and Allan Richardson let alone Shaun Pollock for a few seasons late 90s/early noughties down Edgbaston. Ian Bell at age 20 was already better than Key by about 2001

My Blue Heaven

Weird you put that about key and the kids. I had the same. During a coaching session in the indoor school at Edgbaston, he came to do some sort of demonstration and was just an arse afterwards when people asked him to sign things.

Really arrogant

I have heard similar stories about teammates really not liking him too. I mean the same can be said of KP but at least he was world class.

Alec Stewart certainly wasn’t a fan, pulled him over his fitness a couple of times

Key was half decent, got a couple of big scores but I’d have him in the nick knight levels as opposed to being true intentional class

Just a bit of tubby arse, over 16 stone he weighed at one point

Going round the houses a bit but along similar lines to what I've been saying regards lack of actual cricket participation in the UK compared to Australia. On about late comers to the professional game being more a thing in Australia and NZ than here. Would Alex London count here?

Bumbles deluded all well and good stripping it down to 3 divisions of 6 and cutting to ten games but there's still no chance of those games being when they ought to be in mid summer. They'd still play 3 in April and 3 in September and in a bad summer half the matches could get wiped out hence one reason we need multiple fixtures

My Blue Heaven

Alec Stewart certainly wasn’t a fan, pulled him over his fitness a couple of times

Key was half decent, got a couple of big scores but I’d have him in the nick knight levels as opposed to being true intentional class

Just a bit of tubby arse, over 16 stone he weighed at one point

I’ve got this memory of Key batting for England. He’d got a big score and so he’d been out there a while. There was a drinks break while he was batting, and I remember a close up of him swallowing some sort of rehydration tablet before resuming his innings. He was fat, bloated, red, sweating, and he looked about the most unfit and unathletic cricketer I can remember in the medium past (ie since the days when it was standard, or at least acceptable, for a batter to be a big fat pisscan).

That will be his 221, his only international century actually. v West Indies I think, summer before the famous ashes.

Yep his only one, got some big scores for Kent and converted well

Fat Buddha OBE

If even a small percentage of the claims made in this article are true the well of sympathy has run dry

[archive.ph]

All but the Harry Brook story have been mentioned in various outlets and on various podcasts before this story I think. When you piece them all together it paints a pretty shit picture.

Harmy reckons there were only 2 questionable incidents. He's seems keen to dig his mate Key out of the mire. Kinda funny to see Harmy of all people being grilled by Martin Keown about drinking cultures given how strict (uniquely so at that time) Wenger was about it

Yep his only one, got some big scores for Kent and converted well

I've found the quote. Matthew Hayden just eviscerated the type of cricketer exemplified by Rob Key (and make up far too to high a proportion of English professional cricketers still in 2026) while praising what he saw of Michael Neser over the series.

Neser is a really good example of what Australian cricket represents and that is that we are blue collar workers there's not a white collar in the house they are all decent hard toil club cricketers coming from largely regional Australia that just get the shit done compared to when you looked at the opportunities that England didn't take with their hoity toity waddle out strut around and they just didn't get it done despite so many opportunities in the series

Bashir gone to Derbyshire. Interested to see how he develops there

Well at least he’s found a county. No idea of they already have a spinner as competition. Can’t think of a county I know less about than Derbyshire.

Yeah this was muted a while ago, they’ve got Morley from lancs, so a little competition but he should get games in division 2