Jump to content

We need a cricket thread here


DieselDaisy

Recommended Posts

Is anyone into this Natwest Blast business? (I see Warwickshire made a successful run chase against Durham by the way). Durham Jets!Mascots! Cheerleaders! Rock/pop music! WG Grace would turn in his grave. Get your white flannels on and play for four-five days in front of a bunch of pensioners you bastards.

I think it is a rather lame ECB ploy, to imitate the IPL and the Big Bash. Thing is though, they do not operate city-based franchises: it is still built around the county system. English cricket is inherently conservative. It is never going to break the county monopoly (because, in essence, the ECB is the county monopoly: it would be suicidal to support city-based franchises).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How is the Blast this year different to the previous years of T20 competition?

I haven't kept up with national level cricket, real downer since the Ashes last summer and just not been enjoying the games.

I think it's a lack of test cricket, I am not a big fan of ODI's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How is the Blast this year different to the previous years of T20 competition?

Before the knockout stages, 18 counties are in two leagues divided regionally (north and south), with the rather curious and illogical arrangement of playing six teams in that league, twice (home and away), and the remaining two, only once! The Friends Lifet20 was divided into three six-team divisions. The rest of the changes are superficial, a fancy title, website, etc - a few of the clubs have rebranded themselves; Durham Dynamos for instance have become, Durham Jets. I think, at least speaking from a Durham persepective, there is a real effort to draw in kids with fan clubs and mascots and things.

There is a new OD competition also, 'Royal London One-Day Cup'. The overs have been increased from 40 to 50 (as per, internationals) and the Scottish and Dutch have been axed. That competition is yet to start.

I haven't kept up with national level cricket, real downer since the Ashes last summer and just not been enjoying the games.

I think it's a lack of test cricket, I am not a big fan of ODI's.

Well there is always CC. It has been fun this season because most of the national players, the big names, have been playing for their counties (offering a big opportunity for autograph hunters), but unfortunately the season has been a bit of a washout (thus far), a lot of rained-off draws. Last season, we really had the weather on our side of course.

England v Sri lanka starts up, Thursday (which is also the day the FIFA World Cup starts). New era for England. a re-building.

Edited by DieselDaisy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Fun game going on at Headingley. Lyth/Lees Yorkshire batting dominance for the majority of the first day, total Geordie despair, then Durham tear through the white rose taking 7 wickets for 70 odd runs. Yorkshire are still on 350 or something or other - so they would probably claim, ‘the better day’ - but, an incredible turn around certainly and now, a competitive match. Important match also because, with Warwickshire beating Notts and opening the Championship up, any team could claim the Championship.

You can listen to it on 5 Live Xtra - that is, if the cyclists do not interfere (bloody, Tour de France)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

All of the wickets in England this season are flat and dry. I just watched Durham try and bowl Warwickshire out. According to Colly the ball dies after 20 overs. What is going on with our wickets?

It is ECB policy, they like flat tracks, I remember a few years ago (actually quite a long time ago now) that they docked Northants points (or threatened to anyway) for preparing "spin firendly" wickets for Monty and Jason Brown to bowl on, which was ridiculous because this was the same year that Mike Hussey was making all those centuries including his famous club record treble century!

Besides which why shouldnt a county prepare a pitch that suits their stregnths, because the blazers at the ECB are all former batsmen?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had no idea that Phil Neville used to play cricket and captained the England Under-15s

"It's an ambition of mine and Gary's to go to the Boxing Day Test in Australia. At the age of 31, I went to David Moyes and told him I wanted to retire. He gave me two weeks to decide on my footballing career, and the first thing which crossed my mind was that I could play cricket again and maybe get picked up by Lancashire again."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Picked up International Cricket Captain 2010 for the bargain price of 4.99 (since I couldnt find my old copy of ICC2002 and wanted to play it) and started a new game as Northants. I'd forgotten how good this game is, I have gotten off to a good start so far. My top order is pants, but I have a good lower-middle order who score plenty then my bowling attack, particularly the spinners are bowling sides out cheaply. I dont have good backup bowlers though so a couple of injuries and i'll be fecked

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to have a copy of Brian Lara for the PS2. It was, alright. The AI was ridiculous and made the game incredibly easy; you could be declaring on 600/0 on the first day of a test match. I used to try and circumnavigating this by playing as Scotland and playing against Australia but it still did not work! Graphics, of the venues, were nice mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still have CWC '99 on the PC, I dunno if I could get it to play on a windows 7 machine, but I always used to play as Pakistan in that game because of the insane bowling attack: Wasim Akram, Waquar Younis, Saqlain Mustaq, Shoaib Akhtar and Saheed Afridi. I'd bowl teams out for about 12!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My season at Northants is ticking along quite nicely, haven't been beaten in the county championship yet, just the one draw which wasn't caused by the rain but because I waited too long to declare in the second innings.

My batting line up has been very inconsistent, especially in the one dayers, and on a couple of occasions have had to be bailed out by the bowlers. Luckily my bowling attack is pretty good in the 4 day game, but not as good in the short game (seamers too expensive, spinners not as effective) so even though it is still very early in the season I think I might give up on the one day league and focus on getting promoted to division one of the CC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...