The cricket thread

scrumhalf · October 2017

So, we've got Ben Foakes and Ben Stokes.

Some hair dye, a few temporary tattoos, anyone else see what I'm suggesting?

Gassage · October 2017

Very proud to have the co-lead in this month's Cricketer with Gideon Haigh.

Barry Richards and Packer.

camf · October 2017

Nice work!

crunchman · January 2018

No-one seems to have commented on the England Squad for the NZ Tour.

My thoughts:

Livingstone over Ballance has to be an improvement.

Think Vince will get found out in NZ where the ball moves around a lot more than Australia.

Would have liked a backup opener.

scrumhalf · January 2018

Given how everyone else has done why not give Hales another chance at opening?

crunchman · January 2018

Is he even opening for his county now? Thought they dropped him down the order. Think he'd make a better number 3 than Vince though.

scrumhalf · April 2018

Dear lord, will they never learn?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43824037

It wasn't so long ago that we had a 40-over competition when the entire world's one-day format was 50 overs. Result: we stank at 50-over cricket.

This is really going to help our T20 effort.

And with innings going down from 120 balls to 100 the spectator will get hosed as well, you can guarantee that the prices won't be 1/6th cheaper.

crunchman · April 2018

scrumhalf said:

Dear lord, will they never learn?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43824037

It wasn't so long ago that we had a 40-over competition when the entire world's one-day format was 50 overs. Result: we stank at 50-over cricket.

This is really going to help our T20 effort.

And with innings going down from 120 balls to 100 the spectator will get hosed as well, you can guarantee that the prices won't be 1/6th cheaper.

It appears not.

One the subject of wall to wall pyjama cricket, I complained to Cricinfo that the English edition of Cricinfo should have the County Championship above the IPL. I got an email back from what appeared to be the private account of quite a well known cricket journalist suggesting that I get a few hundred of my friends to make the same complaint.

If you have 5 minutes it might be worth going to the feedback section of Cricinfo and letting them know what you think.

Heartfeltdawn · April 2018

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/668162/ecb-presents-100-ball-domestic-game-for-men-and-women

"The competition will be based on the simple format of 100 balls for each team.

Featuring aligned competitions for both men’s and women’s teams - sharing a common format, brands and identities in their own leagues - it received unanimous support at today’s meeting at Lord’s and the board of the new competition.

Supporting the aims of the game-wide strategy of Cricket Unleashed, the new 100-ball format will meet key aims for the new competition, including:

Attracting a wider audience – its simplicity helping to appeal to families and a more diverse and younger audience.
Promotion for the game – a five-week window in the middle of summer showcasing cricket at major venues, promoted across Sky and BBC and linked to participation.
Clear differentiation from other competitions – distinct from the popular Vitality Blast with a fresh approach to broadcast coverage and promotion.

---------------------------

It sounds horrific. A English professional summer season will consist of five different formats of cricket.

So "Attracting a wider audience" - how this ties in with the games being played at grounds that currently have international cricket is beyond me. Three venues across London and Hampshire: If you're in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Berkshire, fuck all. So a more diverse audience also means "You're in luck if you live in a city, tough shit country folk".

Now that it's 100 balls long... who the fuck is going to want to travel a serious distance for 32.3 overs? If you live in Bristol and are prepared to shuffle over to Cardiff, then you're talking an hour's train journey plus walking time to the ground from the station. Games surely won't be scheduled for a Saturday because that'd be taking players out of league cricket and scheduling for a Sunday would affect a number of female leagues.

"Promotion for the game" the bit about being linked to participation is curious. What do they actually mean by this? Are we talking a link to All Stars Cricket?

"Clear differentiation from other competitions" - this is going to throw up the comedy moments. Sadly I doubt they'll be getting Dave Stewart in to do a theme tune again.

By putting so much into this tournament, it's clear they want Big Bash success and the BBL is the model. But how is success measured? The Big Bash lost $33m AU in the first five years. The recent signing of a new TV deal will flood the coffers and it appears that this will mean the BBL runs a profit. But there's one major detail in that: the BBL has been expanded to include another 16 games. Watch as schedules get even more compacted.

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/cricket-australia-broadcast-deal-media-channel-seven-fox-sports-tv-guide-how-watch-bbl-television/2018-04-13

Money chasing makes cricket boring.

shrinkwrap · April 2018

WTFing Fing F bollicking shit fuckfest?
Send the ECB a rude - but non threatening - email.

scrumhalf · April 2018

The game used to be run by the TCCB - the Test & County Cricket Board. The ECB seem to be less interested in those forms of the game.

Heartfeltdawn · April 2018

scrumhalf said:

The game used to be run by the TCCB - the Test & County Cricket Board. The ECB seem to be less interested in those forms of the game.

At the end of March a new board was announced by the ECB.

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/651365

Many of the names aren't household names to the average punter but it's clear how commercially orientated this board is.

Heartfeltdawn · April 2018

Y'know, during the KP saga I was inclined to think that Andrew Strauss was very hard done by. Since he became ECB head honcho, he's been quite a twat.

sixstringsupplies · April 2018

Lifelong/die hard cricket fan here.

when I heard the news earlier today, my initial reaction was similar to the above....what a joke!

having read a little more about it - I actually think it’s not so bad.

1) the 8 team city format competition will be on terrestrial tv (this is so needed)
2) for those not interested in cricket/don’t understand, having a 100 ball count down makes sense. Not to mention for sponsors and marketing.

my concerns:

die hard traditionalist (I used to book days off work just to listen to the cricket on TMS)

They should revamp the 20/20 in England to city based. Scrap this whole 100 ball thing and replace the current 20/20 competition with a city based franchise and glorify it like the IPL
and Australian BBL. Im sure a few rich investors would see the potential.

too many formats....and sadly test cricket is dying.

they should do that test championship that they have talked about for years yet not done anything about it.

As for Ed Smith as selector - I enjoy his commentary. He can’t do any worse than the outgoing selector. We are all better selectors than those in charge....but some very funny selection decisions the past few years.

earwighoney · April 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

Y'know, during the KP saga I was inclined to think that Andrew Strauss was very hard done by. Since he became ECB head honcho, he's been quite a twat.

Agree.

Heartfeltdawn · April 2018

sixstringsupplies said:

Lifelong/die hard cricket fan here.

when I heard the news earlier today, my initial reaction was similar to the above....what a joke!

having read a little more about it - I actually think it’s not so bad.

1) the 8 team city format competition will be on terrestrial tv (this is so needed)
2) for those not interested in cricket/don’t understand, having a 100 ball count down makes sense. Not to mention for sponsors and marketing.

my concerns:

die hard traditionalist (I used to book days off work just to listen to the cricket on TMS)

They should revamp the 20/20 in England to city based. Scrap this whole 100 ball thing and replace the current 20/20 competition with a city based franchise and glorify it like the IPL
and Australian BBL. Im sure a few rich investors would see the potential.

too many formats....and sadly test cricket is dying.

they should do that test championship that they have talked about for years yet not done anything about it.

As for Ed Smith as selector - I enjoy his commentary. He can’t do any worse than the outgoing selector. We are all better selectors than those in charge....but some very funny selection decisions the past few years.

1)Yes, cricket is needed on terrestrial television. When the new tournament starts in 2020, it'll have been 15 years since the 2005 Ashes. 15 years of limited exposure.

2) If people are that uninterested in cricket that 100 balls is needed to keep it sensible for them, why would they then pay out for tickets? The BBL has KFC as their principal sponsor, the IPL had Pepsi, current IPL sponsors include giants like Nokia and Hewlett Packard. None of those sponsors have asked for a 100 ball countdown.

3) Why should our T20 tournament be city based? As a Somerset fan who lived in Bristol, I know that both Gloucestershire and Somerset got good crowds in, and not just for the derby games. Somerset may well be the best T20 wicket in the country for run making. Bristol is also a really booming city, somewhere that links Taunton and Cardiff. Keeping everything at Cardiff means a huge swath of the country would have no franchise games under your notion where the London-Hampshire region would have three venues in a comparatively small geographical region.

4) "Sadly Test cricket is dying" - and why is that? it's because the Test format has been eroded thanks to people who are going for money first through the shorter formats. Touring sides get close to no decent acclimatisation time on tour now (in the good old days, a touring side would play counties and Minor County sides. These were excellent ways for players to get used to conditions, bed themselves in, and the games were frequently played at non-first class venues and brought good punter numbers in. Instead you get tours where you play a few composite sides with 13 players per side and then bang straight into a Test series. It's why most sides are rubbish away from home now: we get smashed in India and Australia, we smash them over here.

Our 2005 Ashes winning side were better than any side England have had since and the high quality of Championship cricket was the reason for it. It bred the right mentality for Test cricket. It's why you had openers like Trescothick and Strauss go from county cricket and succeed internationally. In Tresco's case, he was averaging mid 30s in Championship cricket but Duncan Fletcher thought he had the right stuff to succeed. Compare their career to some of those who have come and gone at the top of the order. A list of Cook's partners makes for some long reading. The County Championship has been butchered. England players seldom play, the quality is poor, and the scheduling is utterly ludicrous.

This might sound grumpy but Australia suffer from the same problem. Look at how many openers they've been through in recent years. The Sheffield Shield ran from 26th October to the final starting March 23rd. There are six sides who play 10 games each before a final match between the top two. On paper that seems a very long time period to play 10 to 11 games but they shut up shop this year and had a break. From December 19th to Feb 4th, it was the Big Bash. Just as in England, the shorter format tears up the longer format.

Now many have advocated we do away with some county teams and that a smaller number of teams will make for better quality of players produced. I say bullshit to that and point to Australia. Six state sides, a grade system that is far weaker than before, a focus on T20 cricket, a fucked about first-class fixture list, and the end product is a men's team that is very inconsistent. In short, just like us.

A Test Championship is simply pissing in the wind if you don't respect the first-class game.

crunchman · May 2018

Not impressed with the new selectors.

Buttler in the test team?? Malan at 3??

They would be better off relieving Bairstow of the gloves so he can concentrate on batting, and playing Foakes.

Bring back David Graveney or Geoff Miller.

earwighoney · May 2018

ECB selectors make the FA seem sensible.

Dom Bess - a spinner who has taken 1 wicket this season is the sole spinner in the squad.

earwighoney · May 2018

crunchman said:

Not impressed with the new selectors.
Buttler in the test team?? Malan at 3??
They would be better off relieving Bairstow of the gloves so he can concentrate on batting, and playing Foakes.
Bring back David Graveney or Geoff Miller.

Joe Root at 3, Malan at 4, BStow 5, Stokes at 6 is what I have read.

Agree about Foakes though.

crunchman · May 2018

earwighoney said

Joe Root at 3, Malan at 4, BStow 5, Stokes at 6 is what I have read.

Agree about Foakes though.

The Cricinfo article on it said Malan would bat 3.

I can't see Buttler doing much against a moving red ball in May.

earwighoney · May 2018

crunchman said:

earwighoney said

Joe Root at 3, Malan at 4, BStow 5, Stokes at 6 is what I have read.

Agree about Foakes though.

The Cricinfo article on it said Malan would bat 3.
I can't see Buttler doing much against a moving red ball in May.

My source was BBC, so I imagine cricinfo is more likely to be correct.

Some very odd decisions in the squad.

scrumhalf · May 2018

Root won't bat at 3. They were talking of Malan moving to 3 for the New Zealand tour earlier this year.

Heartfeltdawn · May 2018

All this talk of change, the heralding of Ed Smith possibly going with the Moneyball approach, and we end up with an unproven spinner who doesn't play for his county on non-turning wickets and who only did alright on the England A tour and a guy who plays limited overs cricket.

Dominic Bess has some real potential but he's not an attack leading bowler. His first class career has mostly been on turning tracks at Taunton. Once again we seem to have gone for a young spinner when our track record with young spinners is absolutely bloody awful, from Schofield to Borthwick to Kerrigan. One thing that needs to be crystal-clear is what England expect from him, whether it's a real containing job or if he's got the backing to mix it up.He really needs to have the confidence to set out what he wants as I don't get the feeling from Root that he is that great as a bowler's captain.

Buttler is clearly being seen as the number 7 powerhouse.

Cricinfo says Root will bat at 3 with Malan at 4, Beeb says the same.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23509854/jos-buttler-dom-bess-earn-england-calls-james-vince-dropped

One wonders whether Root volunteered to go 3 or whether he's been rather shoehorned into it. Woakes and Wood fight it out for the last spot, Wood should win that.

RandallFlagg · May 2018

100 ball countdown? might as well just leave it at the coin toss and whoever wins that wins the match.

WALOFS

scrumhalf · May 2018

Bowling in England in May in a Test match is usually the province of a certain type of bowler, and it isn't Bess. He's probably along for the ride, and t give him some sort of assurance that if he plays well this season he could be in the frame for future Test call-ups.

However, since we wil stop playing red-ball cricket in about ten minutes and will be playing tip-and-run for, oooh, months, he's not actually going to get much red ball game time.

Heartfeltdawn · May 2018

scrumhalf said:

Bowling in England in May in a Test match is usually the province of a certain type of bowler, and it isn't Bess. He's probably along for the ride, and t give him some sort of assurance that if he plays well this season he could be in the frame for future Test call-ups.

However, since we wil stop playing red-ball cricket in about ten minutes and will be playing tip-and-run for, oooh, months, he's not actually going to get much red ball game time.

The weather forecast is mostly dry for the next 10 days (Test starts 24th) here in London. On a ground that has good drainage with a forecast like that, it'd be daft to go into a Test match without an out and out spinner.

Stuckfast · May 2018

Can't see them playing Bess, Wood and Anderson as that would mean no runs from the tail. I suspect Bess is in the squad for 'experience' of carrying drinks and that they'll actually play Woakes, Broad, Wood and Anderson, with Root doing what little spin duty might be required.

Heartfeltdawn · May 2018

Stuckfast said:

Can't see them playing Bess, Wood and Anderson as that would mean no runs from the tail. I suspect Bess is in the squad for 'experience' of carrying drinks and that they'll actually play Woakes, Broad, Wood and Anderson, with Root doing what little spin duty might be required.

Bess scored his maiden ton for MCC earlier in the year and 92 in his last CC innings a few days ago, and Mark Wood has shown he can bat as well for England and Durham. At some point we have to stop thinking of the reinforced tail and get the top order performing.

Lords isn't always seam friendly as the last CC match showed. Going into a Test with Broad, Jimmy, Woakes, Wood, and Stokes would be very one-dimensional. If it tips it down for days before the game, then all seam is a possibility but it's been lovely here in London the last few days and more is promised.

Heartfeltdawn · May 2018

Loving the Somerset streaming with the BBC radio commentary. Hildreth's batting like magic right now and Taunton has looked an absolute picture. Extra marks for the commentators today slagging off the Rose Bowl. Shite venue, shite pitch.

Heartfeltdawn · May 2018

Stuckfast said:

Can't see them playing Bess, Wood and Anderson as that would mean no runs from the tail. I suspect Bess is in the squad for 'experience' of carrying drinks and that they'll actually play Woakes, Broad, Wood and Anderson, with Root doing what little spin duty might be required.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/44223609

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