Cricket - Matches & General Discussion Thread

[Futtocks]

17 minutes ago, Josef K said:

Remember when test matches were not played on a Sunday over here. 

Yes! That was a tradition that really had to go.

I love a lazy Sunday's pottering about, with TMS burbling away in the background. 

[DavidM]

Beefy’s barbecues were a great tradition ….as was going off for a Sunday league game then coming back to continue another game 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

On 06/01/2022 at 15:57, JonM said:

As you said in your post though, it's about tv revenue, and Bangladeshi tv doesn't provide any, which is why they get a 2 game test series once per decade or so. We go there March next year, but only for ODI & T20 games.

Not sure that's right as Star Sports the Indian Pay TV operrator, has the rights for Bangladesh Cricket with a potentail audience of some 164.7 million in Bangladesh. it's a little known fact that both the ECB and Cricket Australia make more money from the overseas broadcast rights to a series against India than they do for the Ashes. The overseas broadcast rights for an England v Bangladesh series may well prove to be higher than for series between England v New Zealand, West Indies or South Africa

Kent in their latest correspondence state that 55% of county revenue comes from commerical activities and ticket sales but the remaining 45% comes from the broadcast revenue for international cricket and had India not toured last year "it would have put the wider game including Kent Cricket under increased financial pressure"

On to Hobart and much as there is joy in not being 4-0 down. The sober reality is that if had not rained England would be 4-0 down. England were second best again in Sydney in every facet of the game. Will that result in changes, not if the current mob can help it with players and coaches confirming their faith in each other and Harrison and Giles marking their own homework.

Much talk about England and the IPL. Firstly Joe Root and the IPL auction. This is something he intended to do pre-Ashes so not new . I suspect he wants to cash in like everyone else though his stint at Sydney Thunder was nothing to write home about. But we were told earlier in the week of England players time in the IPL being curtailed.

There are two points about this. Firstly as with pre-2015, to have players available only for part of the IPL season which now covers April and May. The probability is that if you are a multi-format Test player you will not be picked up by an IPL franchise.

Secondly, If you are a Jason Roy or Chris Jordan, Moeen Ali or whisper it Jos Buttler, and not a Test player your availability and earning power, will be unaffected.

Sam Billings who is predominbantly a white ball player makes his debut with the gloves at the same time tat an article in The Cricketer laments his absence from Kent's championship side and thereby his Test Chances. You could say the same for Liam Livingstone who chose to go to the IPL rather than join Lancashire's Championship quest late last season.

I have absolutely no problem with any sportsman or woman who wishes to maximise their earnings when at their peak.  But in doing so players need to realise they cannot have their cake and eat it, in the sense that multi-format players will need to make a choice as to wherether they are red ball (Test / ODI) or white ball cricketers (T20 / ODI). Traditionally the route to T20 riches has been through establishing yourself as an international cricketer and then play out your career on the T20 franchise circuit as Moeen is doing. Few pure  T20 players are remembered such is the transient nature of Crickets answer to a McDonald's Happy Meal.

PS - It is still the plan that England players should play in the directly prior to the South Africa Series. there has been no announcement otherwise.

The provisional domestic season fixtures are with the Counties, now and should be out post the Fifth Test.

The pitch in Hobart looks lke an English greentop. Bellerive Oval is based bang on the River Derwent. It's cool and it will seam around so no front-line spinner would be an acceptable punt. If England are not in with a punchers chance here well... Though as I recall James Anderson went into a game in the 2019 Ashes at Edgbaston carrying an Injury and it did not bode well for him or the side. England may roll the dice with Stokes and Bairstow.

 

[Futtocks]

Rum old match, this.

[phiggins]

While Wood's performance was disappointing, have to ask when will England give up on Woakes as a frontline bowler away from home?

[Bob8]

Well, as expected so far.

[Futtocks]

It wasn't too bad when I woke up this morning at 60-odd for no wicket. We are now 107 for 7.

[Futtocks]

Hats off to the Aussie bowlers, though. They've barely had a bad session all series.

[phiggins]

All this talk of red ball reset, why does it have to be a question of either/or in terms of format?

We spent decades treating the one day game as an afterthought, then spent the last 7 years treating first class cricket as an afterthought. Is it really impossible to put time and effort into both?

[gingerjon]

8 minutes ago, phiggins said:

All this talk of red ball reset, why does it have to be a question of either/or in terms of format?

Quite.

It seems some very well paid people at the ECB are actually thick as mince.

[DavidM]

44 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Quite.

It seems some very well paid people at the ECB are actually thick as mince.

Well they had the great idea of prioritising the 100 and marginalising the county championship . Surely they can’t be surprised by the results 

[phiggins]

17 hours ago, DavidM said:

Well they had the great idea of prioritising the 100 and marginalising the county championship . Surely they can’t be surprised by the results 

While the 2021 schedule was an absolute shocker, I don’t think it can be directly attributed to this mess, so quickly. I’d like to know what the coaches in the England setup are doing, because they are making players worse. Ollie Pope is the prime example. Comes into the team, does well with as good an off side game as anybody to come into the team for a long time. Then has a lean spell, and then inexplicably starts to take guard in front of a 4th stump.

 

[GeordieSaint]

Agnew’s plan:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60016410

[gingerjon]

16 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Agnew’s plan:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60016410

Laughable

[JonM]

It's the same sort of magical thinking that makes out that the England RL team will be improved by a smaller SL, or a different play-off format, or adding/removing relegation.

 

[JonM]

If you look at the England team today, the players mostly come from a small number of sources. 

1 People who went to Private or Public schools (Zak Crawley, Jos Buttler, Ollie Robinson etc.) 
2 Sons of immigrants from cricket playing countries (Haseeb Hamed, Ben Stokes etc.) 
3 People who learned to play cricket abroad but who came to England to play professional cricket (Dawid Malan, Jofra Archer). 
4 People who are the sons of professional cricketers (Stuart Broad, Jonny Bairstow). 
5 People who came through club cricket, usually in the north (Joe Root, Jimmy Anderson, Mark Wood).

There's people like Sam Cowan who fit more than one of those categories.

Long term problem we have is that the numbers from categories 2,3 and 5 are falling and category 4 is a pretty small number of people. 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Someone in the party has been talking to Nick Hoult of The Daily Telegraph - The salient points

• Shambolic Intra-Squad warm up at Ian Healy Oval
• Undercooked batsmen and bowlers practiced indoors before Brisbane Test
• Anderson and Broad left out of Brisbane test due to fitness
• Root decided to bowl first at Brisbane against an equally undercooked Australia to send a message
• England bet the farm on the Pink ball test at Adelaide with Anderson, Broad and Woakes playing to repeat the second innings performance from 2017-18. The curator warned England the ball would spin.
• Robinson's alack of fitness and conditioning an issue throughout the tour
• Robinson declared himself fit to bowl at Hobart , having played a round of golf the day before in spite of a shoulder injury. He then broke down with a back spasm early on the first afternoon.
• England had a drinking culture pre- Brisbane Test (Time to bring out the old T-Shirt "our Drinking Team has a Cricket problem")
• Chris Silverwood left senior players out of the discussion on tactics. One senior player only found out he was dropped from the press and another had only 48 hours notice he was playing.
• The Team tactics for Brisbane was that England would set a defensive field for Jack Leach when he came on. Root changed this on field bringing the field in and attacking when he brought Leach on . Leach was mauled by the Aussie batmen to the extend that it took hima couple of weeks to regain confidence.
• Tension between batsmen and bowlers started after the post Adelaide test Team meeting
• Rory Burns was not just dropped over form but also his reluctance to speak in team meetings as an experienced player and Surrey captain.

https://twitter.com/telecricket/status/1483028797805019139

This is a good read

https://beingoutsidecricket.com/2022/01/16/blind-hope-blind-visions-blind-centre-blind-hell/

On a brighter note.....

Cricket Australia

 

https://twitter.com/CricketAus/status/1481774930694131712

 

Quote

The  total reach across the series tallies more than 10.9 million people on Free To Air TV and 2.1 million on Subscription TV, making this Ashes the most watched Test series since the 2013-14 Ashes Series in Australia

 

Which proves the value of FTA exposure to all sports

 

And I will be saving money cancelling BT Sport after having watched every ball overnight of this series...

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by THE RED ROOSTER

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Yorkshire Post article nails it

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/cricket/chris-waters-ecbs-obsession-with-money-spinning-white-ball-formats-has-led-to-ashes-humiliation-and-parlous-state-of-test-cricket-3529512

[Futtocks]

Australia really rubbing it in by actually being classy in victory. Even including David fricking Warner!

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by Futtocks

[gingerjon]

7 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Australia really rubbing it in by actually being classy in victory. Even including David fricking Warner!

 

England did exactly the same after winning the World Cup in 2019.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/15/diversity-strength-england-win-cricket-world-cup

[THE RED ROOSTER]

It gets worse

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ashes-ecb-investigates-after-joe-root-and-james-anderson-are-seen-among-intoxicated-people-in-hobart-team-hotel-1297388

[DavidM]

2 hours ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

It gets worse

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ashes-ecb-investigates-after-joe-root-and-james-anderson-are-seen-among-intoxicated-people-in-hobart-team-hotel-1297388

Ashley Giles is writing a report eh ? I wonder what it’ll say about Ashley Giles’s role in all this 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

From Graham Thorpe's cell phone to The Sydney Morning Herald's pages

https://twitter.com/MailSport/status/1483352274273550338

The investigations going on is not so much about drinking, Wwhich has always happened post series, but into how a video gets from a batting coach's mobile to the SMH and who has been fuelling stories of discord in the camp to Nick Hoult (Daily Telegraph) and Simon Wilde (The Sunday Times)

[JonM]

2 hours ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

It gets worse

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ashes-ecb-investigates-after-joe-root-and-james-anderson-are-seen-among-intoxicated-people-in-hobart-team-hotel-1297388

Meh. I'm OK with the players drinking together at the end of a tough tour. Although drinking with Nathan Lyon might have been a step too far. This is just media muckraking. 

[gingerjon]

15 minutes ago, JonM said:

Meh. I'm OK with the players drinking together at the end of a tough tour. Although drinking with Nathan Lyon might have been a step too far. This is just media muckraking. 

Agreed. No issue with this at all.

And if they've been told they can't have a night out at the end of the tour because they should be in hairshirts or something then I think that's another strike against a management that doesn't know what it's doing.

(Caveat: From the description, it sounds like they were being proper annoying but there's no law against that)