The Cricket Thread

[3offTheTee]

Treat myself to BT Sport for 1 month £27. Started watching the highlights this morning and knew it was going to be bad after they had shown around 10 overs in The first 30 minutes.

Totally outplayed and through gritted teeth, “Well played Aussies”!
Batting was inept and Boland 6 for 7 on debut. When was that beaten?

Total rethink required and heads have to roll

 

[Bunkermagnet]

If we want to be a quality Test nation, we need to stop bunting the county championship around making it second class to T20.
If we are following most other nations and going to T20 as crickets big thing then so be it, and lets stop deluding ourselves we produce test batsmen. If we really want Test cricket to be our pinnacle (like Aussie do) then lets make our county champs reflective of that and give it the prominence it needs to develop our test players, and lets start picking players because they can stay at a crease longer than 2 overs without getting out or getting flusterred because they haven't hit 2 sixes already. We also need to pick players for that psoition and place, not because they look good in the camera or can smack 40 of 3 overs with a white ball.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1475641312993071110

The worst year of test cricket - 9 defeats !!

Bin off Silverwood- clearly not good enough

But the ECB need to shoulder a significant amount of the blame

The County game should be played during the best months

Sack of the Hundred and play the T20 early and then late season

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Ashes over in 12 days.

Squad spent longer in quarantine.

maybe it’s the wake up call for the ECB….oh, wait, who am I kidding?!

There seems to be a logical answer but it would need buy in from the ECB and the counties so clearly a non-starter. Have a red ball squad and white ball squad per county (hence the need for major investment by the ECB to support this). Play the county champs alongside the white ball so having a full season in different conditions. Most counties have several grounds so it wouldn't impact fixtures. There will be some players that can play both formats and so they would need to make judgement calls on which format they put these players into depending on whether they are in contention in whichever format. That way at least a nucleus of players would get a regular and consistent exposure to four day cricket.

Far too radical a solution and it would mean the ECB spending some of the massive profits they are getting. Binning the 100 would be a step forward. Enough other formats that work

 

[fundy]

There seems to be a logical answer but it would need buy in from the ECB and the counties so clearly a non-starter. Have a red ball squad and white ball squad per county (hence the need for major investment by the ECB to support this). Play the county champs alongside the white ball so having a full season in different conditions. Most counties have several grounds so it wouldn't impact fixtures. There will be some players that can play both formats and so they would need to make judgement calls on which format they put these players into depending on whether they are in contention in whichever format. That way at least a nucleus of players would get a regular and consistent exposure to four day cricket.

Far too radical a solution and it would mean the ECB spending some of the massive profits they are getting. Binning the 100 would be a step forward. Enough other formats that work

you do realise you will make the standard of red ball cricket ten times worse overnight and it a permanent second class format (more so than currently) with this as almost every player chooses the white ball gravy train and red ball cricket is never shown on tv again?

the logical answer is a balanced calendar at county level, scrap the vanity project and at international level players to only play 2 formats; test and odi or odi and T20 and a separate red and white ball coaching set up. a proper schedule constructed (county and international) to better the players and the game (not line the pockets of the ECB, BCCI etc)

the number of games of each format and proper rest/practise periods need to be addressed within the schedule, theres has been some good proposals put forward but ultimately none will keep all the stakeholders happy so the ECB keep plodding ahead with their muddled, short term financial agenda driven views


what will actually happen is the ECB will go further in the other direction, marginalising the counties even further in support of franchise cricket front and centre and further destroy the game I used to love

 

[Deleted member 15344]

you do realise you will make the standard of red ball cricket ten times worse overnight and it a permanent second class format (more so than currently) with this as almost every player chooses the white ball gravy train and red ball cricket is never shown on tv again?

the logical answer is a balanced calendar at county level, scrap the vanity project and at international level players to only play 2 formats; test and odi or odi and T20 and a separate red and white ball coaching set up. a proper schedule constructed (county and international) to better the players and the game (not line the pockets of the ECB, BCCI etc)

the number of games of each format and proper rest/practise periods need to be addressed within the schedule, theres has been some good proposals put forward but ultimately none will keep all the stakeholders happy so the ECB keep plodding ahead with their muddled, short term financial agenda driven views


what will actually happen is the ECB will go further in the other direction, marginalising the counties even further in support of franchise cricket front and centre and further destroy the game I used to love

perfectly put ?

And ultimately you are right - the ECB will see the money from the Hundred as a way to “grow the game”

 

[fundy]

perfectly put ?

And ultimately you are right - the ECB will see the money from the Hundred as a way to “grow the game”

the problem with that is they will continue to marginalise the counties whilst expecting them to be the ones that develop players (in all formats) through age group cricket all the way up to first class level, when the franchises then cherry pick from them and leave the counties picking up the pieces

 

[Deleted member 15344]

the problem with that is they will continue to marginalise the counties whilst expecting them to be the ones that develop players (in all formats) through age group cricket all the way up to first class level, when the franchises then cherry pick from them and leave the counties picking up the pieces

Yep 100% agree - the ECB clearly don’t care about the counties and in fairness the counties were quite happy to take the “bribe” money from the ECB in regards the Hundred

 

[fundy]

Yep 100% agree - the ECB clearly don’t care about the counties and in fairness the counties were quite happy to take the “bribe” money from the ECB in regards the Hundred

yep signed their own death knell, especially those not at the "international grounds"

 

[Grizzly]

So the long and short of this is, England manage Ashes series like Yorkshire manage racism investigations - get every conceivable decision wrong, then sack everyone?

One can only hope.

I think I have written before that this was one of the most inevitable calamities yet seen - take the same attack that was treated like net bowling four years ago with all the extra miles on the clock and a team that had sacrificed half of its batting to awful coaching (Jonny) and retirement (Sir Cook). Oh, and make sure that none of them have seen a red ball in almost a year to boot.

Hopefully the fact that next years calender has not been announced will be seen as an opportunity to move first class cricket back into the Summer months. Its a small step, but one which will at least start to move things in the right direction. I'd say - if the two remaining tests go ahead - that some changes to give younger players a go would be wise, but I'd really limit that to bringing in Dan Lawrence and maybe Craig Overton from the squad. No point having any more Scott Borthwick/Mason Crane type incidents that just scar young players.

 

[Mudball]

Watched the 90 min highlight package.. that is longer than how long Eng lasted.
feel sorry for the video editors The package was packed with shots of batsman talking, 3 replays of leaving the ball, crowd having fun interspread with wickets falling. So little material to work with.

 

[Piece]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1475641312993071110

The worst year of test cricket - 9 defeats !!

Bin off Silverwood- clearly not good enough

But the ECB need to shoulder a significant amount of the blame

The County game should be played during the best months

Sack of the Hundred and play the T20 early and then late season

I wont watch that clip but interested know if Coach Silverwood expanded on these positives??

 

[PhilTheFragger]

 

[Mudball]

 

[Blue in Munich]

 

[SteveJay]

No chance that the ECB will give the red ball county game the required time, focus and investment, as its not what the viewing public want.

Look at attendances at county games compared to the white ball game (in whatever bizarre format they want to invent!).

 

[Junior]

I do wonder what "action plan" they'll put in place to address the first class game.

Always the call to reduce the number of teams but that'll never happen. I'm not sure the 2 league structure works. The main issue the ECB have got themselves in is fitting in all the formats t20, 100 and 40 over. The first class game has taken a back seat due to the money it generates compared to the rest.

How can they rejuvenate the longer format whilst it brings in the least amount of cash ?

 

[3offTheTee]

Just watched alright Sydney 6’s v Brisbane Heat. Exceptional game and recommend watching a re run later today. You need to wait until the end. Fundy will appreciate this as an odds man which changed from 70/30, 50/50, 20/80 and then… Sound a bit like Mama Mia!

 

[3offTheTee]

Excellent Interview on Sky today with Nick Compton on Sky today, talked sense and thought Silverwood should be replaced and was wrong man initially. Captain Ron would approve of whom he suggested should now be in charge.

 

[Grizzly]

Silverwood was never a great choice - his coaching resume may as well have read "signed Simon Harmer on a Kolpak and prepared pitches to suit", which is an effective way of winning titles but no sign of the ability to improve elite players and all the other things that are required of a top international coach. I'd like to see them steer well away from the jobs for the boys network, which probably means they will need to look abroad again - I'd love to see them try someone like Kumar Sangakkara who has unimpeachable credentials as a player and a great cricket brain (or if we must have an English coach, give it to Wor Colly who at least has credibility). I'd also like to see them make more use of the knowledge base of players who have succeeded in various conditions - Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen might not be "down with the cool kids" in the ECB but they succeeded more in Australia than any other English batsmen this century, so ask then how they went about it.