Cricket

Give that man a cigar and shout him a beer. He’s just gone up in my books.

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Thank you :pray:

I think it’s a good move too although I can see the sponsors and team management not being overly happy. I wonder what type of engagement commitment the players sign (?), as many have opted not to play in various tournaments, inc. the IPL — obviously, the strong suspicion being the Indian Test team left in 2021 without playing the last Test, this down to the imminent IPL and the Covid quarantines etc (another example per @Ian2001 's post above).

Above said, the financial rewards are such nowadays, that picking & choosing where and when one wants to play is seen as highly sensible.

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Couldn’t agree with you more, I hope the central contracts offered to the elite players provide compensation for not competing in the likes of The Hundred & The Big Bash.

Player burnout with insufficient time to recover from the niggles and injuries (especially finger injuries) should be of concern .

Also dare we say it? Cricketers need to maximise their earnings potential whilst at the top .

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Interesting development: I’m in favour of players being able to choose where they play. Not only in the commercial short form games but also internationals. Players should be encouraged to manage their own workloads and physical and mental health, avoiding pressure from captains, management, and pundits to put out the best team available.

Attached is a good article from a player’s perspective on the 100. It’s hard to over estimate the importance of these short form competitions for the journeyman player.

And here is a balanced view from The Cricketer.

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Abject performance from Welsh Fire in the 100. Perhaps it was the hybrid pitch?

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Watching Welsh Fire in the first 100 just now reminded me of the dog days of Sunday League in the 1970s (Laker: that’s yet another wonderful shot from Fletcher…zzzzzz). Dullsville. Hopeless batting. Everyone can play the ramp! Except, er, they can’t.

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Southern Brave don’t appear to have a problem with the wicket.
Even the 100 is tame when it’s not competitive.

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Ah, I was very cross about that performance, Bairstow pulled out of the team yesterday.

Miller also pulled out, though I don’t know if he was scheduled for Welsh Fire, as an opener the only fireworks , were the fireworks at the start.

Very unfair on Welsh Fire, if it was the English cricket :cricket: management forcing Mr Bairstow out Perfidious Albion is all I can say

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Just watching the Spirit v Invincibles game and it seems very much like 2nd XI cricket compared to other comp’s. The Big Bash and IPL are so far above this competition in terms of quality. But they bowl 5 ball ‘overs’, so that makes it so much better :scream:

Meanwhile, we have no Test matches in the height of the summer season. Go figure.

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Just back from the Essex/Derbys Royal London game. Sour grapes perhaps but of our expected 11 Chef and Harmer were absent (bad back Saffer call up respectively) plus we had 5 in the 100 squads (some of whom may not get a game). Effectively by design the ECB have reduced the premier domestic one day tournament to a 2nd XI competition. I imagine the likes of Surrey. Yorkies and Lancs are even worse off. A lot of a big crowd were very pissed off.

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God every time I visit this thread I feel like I’m reading an obituary for English cricket. It’s depressing. :pensive:

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People have been writing English cricket :cricket: off for years, do you know they once burned some wickets to mark the demise of English cricket :cricket: :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry: and stuck them in an urn :funeral_urn:?

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I’d forgotten about that, so very true. But it is depressing though.

Apols for being a pedant but the ‘ashes’ of England cricket (post losing a series in 1882 - remember it well :slight_smile: ) was a mythical concept announced in the media of the day. The urn, with a burnt ball inside (not a bail), appears to have originated in Australia in 1883, after the ‘ashes’ were won back.

As @BlueCanary alludes, it was always recognised The 100 was going to heavily impact domestic competitions, hence why the counties wanted money from it. But for a crowd of paying punters, when you rock up to see a county team (name over the gate and all that), you don’t expect to see a ~2nd XI game being played. Through one lens, one might think The 100 is just another competition to fill the diaries of the global white ball players (specialists), and if these people don’t play, you’re left with thin resources all around.

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Just in case you have any doubt about the place of cricket in the sporting heirarchy here;

The Guardian newspaper today had 16 separate football storylines (three about the Lionesses). Plus an additional Premier League club by club supplement with more articles.

It had precisely none about cricket. All this before the second Test Series of the summer (against SA) has even started.

Bruce

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I think the ECB are running two competitions at once …

There are no easy answers , it’s a game that needs full time employees , which is only played in five months .

It’s a juggling act that leaves plenty of opportunities for dropping the items being juggled , and as you told me even the Ashes seem to have originated as a marketing ploy…

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As highlighted before in this thread, it seems 50-overs comps are now heavily relegated in importance, even at international level. The world seems to be orientating to money-spinning T20 & equivalent formats, with Test matches being economic for only the top tier nations – which sadly excludes WI and SL.

A bit like the debates around LIV golf, where do the feeder and base long-form formats exist to seed the Test side? Without a decent sub-structure, we might begin to see Test matches populated by shorter-form specialists which, arguably, is where the current England side has landed?

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Well the lack of coverage of the ECB’s ‘revolutionary’ Hundred suggests that isn’t exactly flying!

Bruce

It doesn’t help when Sky/BT are now focused on the bl**dy football, noting the BBC have quite a bit on The 100, as they have rights for 8 live games (IIRC).

Time was when football didn’t start until very late August (Charity Shield) and cricket petered out in late September, noting the one-day final was often in mid-Sep, hence why considered better to bowl first.

From what I could see on TV, there looked to be quite a few empty seats in the London-centric game a couple of evenings back. Same with the Welsh Fire match – more like Welsh smouldering ashes in the way they batted.

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