The cricket thread

Gassage · May 2023

In my role as GrayNics’ oldest and worst fully sponsored player, this just arrived from Alex at GN.

Absolutely stunning- 2.9/2.10 ish- pings like a bastard, Kane Williamson shape!

Unbelievable piece of wood - a one in 10000 piece.

-

Far too good for me!

Gassage · May 2023

Hosting an Evening with Straussy tonight.

Here's my questions for him for the interview- thoughts?

Sir Andrew Strauss Q&A

Welcomes- Sir A. One of only three captains (Brearley and Hutton) to win home and away, a man who played 100 tests, scored 7000 runs with 21 hundreds at an average of 41.

Summer of Ashes beckons- for both men and women- the ultimate test.

1. When we look back at our cricket careers we all have a regret or two- if you could change one thing about yours would you a) play a shot to Shane Warne’s leggy or b) press mute on your comms mic when talking about KP?!

2. The Ashes is an incredible series- it energises cricket here- but cricket is an ever congested marketplace- what impact do you expect it to have and where do you place its importance in the cricket calendar?

3. The Ashes series- 2009 and 10/11 and beyond to the WC 2019:- Your former Middlesex team-mate David Nash wrote a book that spelled out why Andrew Strauss was/is different. He said, and I quote ‘Strauss left no stone unturned in his preparations. “Tiny margins, huge attention to detail and an ability to make the big calls,” Whether that came to the triumphant 2010/11 Ashes tour or taking England’s men to No.1 in the Test rankings as captain, or – once retired – putting the building blocks in place for the 2019 World Cup win. just how did you plan your assault on those series and the level of attention to detail you employed? How do you manage the implementation? How do you switch from a directive style to allowing the players to own your plan and to execute it?

4. Monty Panesar is with us tonight in the room- tell us honestly if him batting out a session at Cardiff with Jimmy Anderson in 2009 was ever part of your grand planning?! And what sort of energy does heroics like that that give to a team moving into a series?

5. In terms of English hopes, is it fair to say England have one of their best chances in ages? What are our key advantages? Talk about one batting spot at opener- who are the candidates? Keeper issue? How key is fitness management?

6. In parallel to the Mens Ashes, we have the Women’s Ashes taking place - one 4 day test and four ODI’s. How exciting has been the roller coaster ride of the Women’s Game? And when is the time to give them a fuller long form series badged as the Ashes?

7. Bearing in mind the continued drop off in recreational cricket what do you put that decline down to? And how do we try and turn that around? Will the Ashes get people out playing again?

8. Your personal journey- The new regime at the ECB, Richards Thompson and Gould, have been keen to protect the reputation of his High Performance Review, pointing out that 15 of his 17 recommendations have been implemented. A reduction in County Championship and T20 Blast rounds were not, however, and it appears that the competition that you fought to defend – The Hundred – is indeed on its way out, troubled by declining income and TV viewership. What does the landscape of English cricket now look like and do we need to refocus efforts on promoting the Blast?

9. Floor Q & A- roving.

10. Thx to Anna, all, SAS and wrap.

guitars4you · May 2023

@gassage - Hi James - ref point 2 and 8 - Could also bring into this the potential of IPL franchise holders wanting to buy into other leagues - Believe some owners already own other 'teams' in the world - IPL is now the 2nd largest league in the world, behind the NFL, regarding TV revenue and I believe viewing figures - So does this mean they will be coming to the UK in some form or another - Add to that the income that players can now earn from various T20 tournaments around the world and even the USA are wanting to create a league, so will this dilute the pool for test players, as the likes of the ECB can only pay so many players on a central contract

Then ref the county championship - 4 day matches - surely the days of 18 teams in 2 leagues is numbered, as a financial model - I believe only 2 counties, actually make a profit - Middlesex and Surrey and that is partly due to the corporate facilities that Lords and Oval can offer - Otherwise all other counties only survive thru' ECB hand outs thanks to TV/Test match revenue - An 8 team 'area' format will be the outcome, played at the existing test match grounds inc Durham, Cardiff and Hampshire

guitars4you · May 2023

So Archer out again - for the whole summer - A recurrence of the same issue

crunchman · May 2023

guitars4you said:

So Archer out again - for the whole summer - A recurrence of the same issue

I suspect he's done. A lot of fast bowlers have had short careers. Simon Jones comes to mind, or Frank Tyson if you go back in time.

Joe Root over bowling him didn't help.

crunchman · May 2023

The selectors are idiots.

Foakes averaging 52.8 in division 1. Bairstow averaging 27.7 in division 2.

Bairstow took advantage of a bad batch of balls last year that went soft and didn't move by the time he got into bat. He will not repeat that this season. He's nowhere near as good as a keeper. Absolutely idiotic.

guitars4you · June 2023

Not long to go - Got my ticket for Headingley, 1st day - But bring it on from Friday - Hoping it will be exciting and my gut feeling is that it will be a close run thing

crunchman · June 2023

I must say I'm not optimistic.

We do have a chance, but it will require everything to go our way. We need to take advantage of their geriatric opening pair (combined age 73) and get at Labuschagne and Smith with the new ball. We probably need to prepare greenish pitches as well. The likes of Cummins will be far more dangerous on a flat pitch than our bowlers, and Lyon is a far better spinner than Moeen.

guitars4you · June 2023

crunchman said:

I must say I'm not optimistic.

We do have a chance, but it will require everything to go our way. We need to take advantage of their geriatric opening pair (combined age 73) and get at Labuschagne and Smith with the new ball. We probably need to prepare greenish pitches as well. The likes of Cummins will be far more dangerous on a flat pitch than our bowlers, and Lyon is a far better spinner than Moeen.

The weather will have an impact as well, especially if it stays like this - Jimmy will be hoping for more cloud cover etc

crunchman · June 2023

Just saw this. Made me properly laugh:

Image: https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/353006424_759450146183956_5252861098683222607_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296&_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=kEFv99trZuoAX_MFdlg&_nc_ht=scontent-man2-1.xx&oh=00_AfCWYARRhUn73R_i5T15UUuSKubYGfMh9uIqMjwwBHOmHQ&oe=648EC1EC

guitars4you · June 2023

Unless rain issues, then you won't bet on a draw in any of the 5 matches

guitars4you · June 2023

So the summer starts now - Friday 11am - Have TMS on and SKY Go available, but will watch what I can when I can - 25 days to look forward to

crunchman · June 2023

Zaltzmann on TMS has some database on how much the ball is deviating (swing/seam). Apparently it's the smallest amount of deviation for any test in England since they started collecting data. Not likely to make for good cricket. It will probably end up 600 vs 900.

Gassage · June 2023

Australia are employing so many sweepers I'm somewhat surprised they've not picked Koeman, Beckenbauer, van Dijk and Matthäus as their middle order

Gassage · June 2023

Imagine saying to Dennis Lillee with new nut first ball as skipper "I think we'll start with a deep point"

I can only guess as to his reply….

RandallFlagg · June 2023

Good contest in Day 1. The commentary team on Sky are hard going for me, quite boring and I find Pietersen irritating but quite pointed in his observations. I miss David Lloyd's humour. Crowd are a bit tame as well.

crunchman · June 2023

Don't see us rolling the Aussies cheaply on this. What are the odds that Labsuchagne and Smith bat until tea on day 4 and we start the second innings with a deficit of 400?

Might be reliant on the dodgy weather forecast for Sunday.

guitars4you · June 2023

RandallFlagg said:

Good contest in Day 1. The commentary team on Sky are hard going for me, quite boring and I find Pietersen irritating but quite pointed in his observations. I miss David Lloyd's humour. Crowd are a bit tame as well.

agree about KP - Yes miss DL and of course miss Shane - Today I've mainly had R5 on and caught snippets on Sky - will watch the BBC2 hi lights around 7

Maybe Sunday I can do a full day in front of the screen but maybe weather to restrict that option

sev112 · June 2023

I see Warner and Khawaja font have their rear helmet head protectors on? Has the compulsory law been changed? Or at least I thought they were compulsory following the Phil Hughes tragedy

RandallFlagg · June 2023

Ballsy declaration from Stokes, need a couple of early wickets in the morning to make it stick

RandallFlagg · June 2023

guitars4you said:

RandallFlagg said:

Good contest in Day 1. The commentary team on Sky are hard going for me, quite boring and I find Pietersen irritating but quite pointed in his observations. I miss David Lloyd's humour. Crowd are a bit tame as well.

agree about KP - Yes miss DL and of course miss Shane - Today I've mainly had R5 on and caught snippets on Sky - will watch the BBC2 hi lights around 7

Maybe Sunday I can do a full day in front of the screen but maybe weather to restrict that option

I nipped out and had R5 on in the car and much prefer the TMS commentators, Isa Ghuha, Michael Vaughan & Jim Maxwell's exuberance!

guitars4you · June 2023

RandallFlagg said:

guitars4you said:

RandallFlagg said:

Good contest in Day 1. The commentary team on Sky are hard going for me, quite boring and I find Pietersen irritating but quite pointed in his observations. I miss David Lloyd's humour. Crowd are a bit tame as well.

agree about KP - Yes miss DL and of course miss Shane - Today I've mainly had R5 on and caught snippets on Sky - will watch the BBC2 hi lights around 7

Maybe Sunday I can do a full day in front of the screen but maybe weather to restrict that option

I nipped out and had R5 on in the car and much prefer the TMS commentators, Isa Ghuha, Michael Vaughan & Jim Maxwell's exuberance!

Radio commentary for cricket works better IMO than any other sport - So many sports just don't work on the radio - Cricket is brilliant - Can't do it now, but years ago I could listen to the radio and watch TV (sound down) at the same time so best of both worlds - But now a time delay

guitars4you · June 2023

Can't help feeling that 393 is 50-100 runs to low - I don't mean to low today - But to low for the innings - Obviously we'll have to see their 1st innings - Yet it is our highest Ashes score for some while - Just a gut feeling we needed to have a couple of wickets in hand and bat until 12.30 ish tomorrow, at least

pigface · June 2023

RandallFlagg said:

The commentary team on Sky are hard going for me

I like them, generally, although I wish Eoin Morgan (and Mel Jones) would eschew the use of the word 'mantra'. Since when is 'mantra' a cricketing term? TMS is great, but since I am in Germany and have not (yet) found an official source I am compelled to use unofficial ones and the timing issues preclude the use of TMS and the video stream simultaneously. I wish also that Nasser Hussein would forget the word 'incredible'. It was just a good shot, Nasser.

RandallFlagg · June 2023

guitars4you said:

Can't help feeling that 393 is 50-100 runs to low - I don't mean to low today - But to low for the innings - Obviously we'll have to see their 1st innings - Yet it is our highest Ashes score for some while - Just a gut feeling we needed to have a couple of wickets in hand and bat until 12.30 ish tomorrow, at least

I agree, I understand the declaration in a way, with just 2 bowlers left to go scoring maybe a dozen runs vs the chance to put the Aussies under pressure and take the bat for 1/2 hour after a day in the field (which didn't amount to anything), but England seem to be a decent Stokes innings short on the scoreboard.

With not a lot of swing in the pitch, the bowlers need some sound tactics and variations to put pressure on this Aussie batting line up. The fielding needs to be tight with no dropped catches. Moeen could be key here, as Lyon was for Aus.

I have a fear that we could see the Aussies at 400+ with maybe 5 down at close of play and add another 100+ day 3...or, on the other hand...maybe...

Tantalising prospects for day 2.

guitars4you · June 2023

Is Jimmy licking his lips now - overcast conditions with probably cloud cover most of the day

scrumhalf · June 2023

I have a horrible feeling that with three of the best batsmen on current form to come and a flat wicket we may be in for a long couple of days in the field.

scrumhalf · June 2023

Harry Brook on first change?

Well, it's going to be interesting.

RandallFlagg · June 2023

1st test Day 2 stumps - match is evenly poised, this series may come down to which team makes the most mistakes, lack of concentration with the bat or dropped catches etc. Good stuff.

chris78 · June 2023

Proper test match day but the decision to not play Foakes looks a shocker after that.

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