Cricket

Great display of power hockey - the skills of the India players were nullified.

I think some of it is fuelled by the rivalry coming from the ashes. But don’t worry Pete, as an England fan there is plenty of booing of the England team that comes from the Welsh, Scots, Irish etc…. It’s all good natured and you have to take it with a smile :smiley:

3 Likes

I saw a quote on social media this morning that said, I’m paraphrasing, that all forms of cricket help us prepare to win the Ashes.

Not even a close contest – the Aussies played with structure & pace. Great to watch.

Meanwhile, Jos Buttler’s run as a T20 (I include The 100 here) captain is going from not very successful to worse, as his Manchester team came a distant 2nd yesterday. 0-2 now.

1 Like

Perhaps he needs to get back behind the stumps?
But I appreciate the thinking - new perspective and closer to the bowlers (see management speak thread).

I hope he is not one of those unfortunate people who the gods of captaincy rarely smile on, no matter their individual brilliance – and I don’t include Root in this category.

2 Likes

Buttler even managed to lose 8 tosses in a row. Quite a feat.

2 Likes

Just seen this, very sad.

2 Likes

Sad to see Trent Boult take what appears to be a step back from Test cricket but as has been raised above, it’s an entirely understandable move in today’s cricket world – the question which begs though is how many others could follow this path?

p.s. glad to read on the BBC some of the LIV golf joiners have lost their legal case to play in the imminent Fedex finals – cake and eat it, and all that.

2 Likes

The Kiwis are definitely going to miss him.

We should probably change the name of this thread to “cricket-and the news just gets worse” :grin:

4 Likes

Well, Pete, there is good news in that according to Auntie Beeb Dawid Malan hit a ‘sublime 88n.o.’ in The 100 yesterday evening. More than a tad of hyperbole here, in that he used his edges and could have been out 2x – but it’s still sublime. I would venture sublime can be used for a classical test innings but rarely is a ‘hit & giggle’ innings a thing of beauty, even from DM :frowning:

2 Likes

I was glad BBC got a good match for free to air broadcast .

Milan appeared to be mainly playing proper cricket shots.

Monstrous six from the Superchargers’ lad - it landed on the roof of the main stand.

Is this the end of central contracts.

I think it depends on central contracts for which form of the game?..hence why in TB’s case I suspect it’s the Test arena he will miss, where he is still very capable.

I’m unclear what terms and what the respective negotiating positions are between the parties e.g. the ECB may say if you don’t play x, then you cannot play y? And does a player even have to have a club to play IPL, be in some way affiliated to the national body? IIRC, I think Pietersen was playing IPL having ceased to play domestic & international games.

When Bairstow pulled out from the Welsh Fire, some comments suggested this was influenced by England team management, perhaps with the view that he’s contracted to the national side and side-show cricket has to be passed-over if workload has to be eased?

2 Likes

I was musing … good points from @HappyListener.
I suppose I was thinking of the days of gentleman and players, where I like the security of a contract whilst wanting the freedom to roam.

The late Tom Graveney fell foul of such licence when he played in a benefit game on the (rest day) Sunday of a Test match. Banned for 3 games and at age 42, never played for England again. He said he told Alec Bedser (CoS) before playing the Test that he was committed to this as it was his benefit year but that appeared to generate no mitigation.

I’m still not convinced today’s players are more active than those in the 1970s and 80’s (i.e. pre-Packer), when the CC season was a slog, noting the Sunday JPL married (as best possible) to the CC arrangements. This said, as batsmen, their RPOs and other stats are far higher than the days when 2.5 RPO was considered brisk at Test level.

2 Likes

My memory is that the JPL was played on Sundays, on the day off during CC matches.

It was, with limited run-ups. 40 overs per side and shown on BBC2 – yes, the whole match (2pm onwards IIRC), which often finished in the gloom, as did many B&H and Gillette Cup games.

Ken Higgs of Leicestershire used an elliptical run up, which started at the line!

Watched lots of such games. My cricket heroes back then were Messrs, Richards, Greenidge and Roberts. The words a bowler never wanted to hear ‘Gordon has a bad knee today so doesn’t want to run much’, which was code for a hard-hitting boundary fest is coming.

3 Likes