The cricket thread (incorporating the Ashes)

[firehazard]

Congrats to Glam on winning the RL one-day cup. Well deserved, after a pretty comprehensive win against Essex in the SF.

Meanwhile, England are still crap at test cricket.

[soulfinger]

Meanwhile, England are still crap at test cricket.

But, however bad the test side is, it'll never be as bad as The Hundred.

[firehazard]

Meanwhile, England are still crap at test cricket.

But, however bad the test side is, it'll never be as bad as The Hundred.

I can't be doing with the 16.4 at all. Only the ECB could invent and promote so heavily a from of cricket that's played nowhere else in the world. Which I suppose at least means England can't lose at it.

Unexpectedly, my 90-something-year-old mother is really enjoying it. But that's mostly, I think, about having cricket available on free-to-air TV. Still I don't think she was their target audience.

[soulfinger]

Unexpectedly, my 90-something-year-old mother is really enjoying it. But that's mostly, I think, about having cricket available on free-to-air TV. Still I don't think she was their target audience.

I'm glad your mum likes it! My old fella, who is of a similar vintage, declared it utterly unwatchable.
However I did catch my daughter watching it. She gave me some lecture about viewers having migrated to other platforms so there needed to be something non-traditional brought to free to air in order to attract the yoof. I thought that was just more balls...

[firehazard]

I'm glad your mum likes it! My old fella, who is of a similar vintage, declared it utterly unwatchable.
However I did catch my daughter watching it. She gave me some lecture about viewers having migrated to other platforms so there needed to be something non-traditional brought to free to air in order to attract the yoof. I thought that was just more balls...

The old lady is a lifelong cricket fan, and basically it's about the only form of the game she can get to watch now, as she doesn't do/understand the concept of paying to watch TV, so that sort of explains it. The ECB and the BBC have given it so much hype that it may be drawing in a fair few. And the number of freebie tickets for the games that have been given out means the crowds look good, apparently. I haven't watched more than about 2 minutes of it myself.

Suspicion is that the 16.4 is part of a cunning plan to kill off county cricket as a professional sport, certainly apart from the counties with test-status grounds. Though where they then think England are going to get their test team from is a mystery.

[soulfinger]

I think County cricket has been written off so many times, it's hilarious. The crowds for county games are pitiful for the clubs in financial terms. Mostly older folk who are members (so get minimum price admission), bring their own food and drink and don't buy anything in the club shop. Bloody communists!

I'm no longer a member but may rejoin when I'm 65! As a kid, I knew a gateman at OT, so never paid to get in until I was 16, when I bought a junior membership. It's a pity, in the digital ticket age, that such advantageous terms are no longer available...

[firehazard]

I think County cricket has been written off so many times, it's hilarious. The crowds for county games are pitiful for the clubs in financial terms. Mostly older folk who are members (so get minimum price admission), bring their own food and drink and don't buy anything in the club shop. Bloody communists!

I'm no longer a member but may rejoin when I'm 65! As a kid, I knew a gateman at OT, so never paid to get in until I was 16, when I bought a junior membership. It's a pity, in the digital ticket age, that such advantageous terms are no longer available...

True. Essex have always tended to get comparatively good crowds and a large membership for what to be honest is a smaller county club. Though they used to get a lot more back in the days when they took the show on the road round the county and played at least half their matches on outgrounds. Those were the days. I started off being taken by the old man and the old lady back in the early 70s in the days of the 40-over Sunday league, to places like Ilford, Southend, Leyton, Harlow... and once I'd got my junior membership (annual birthday present) I spent much of the time when I wasn't at school (cough) following them round the county. I always intended, once I could afford it, to buy myself a life membership, but it always seemed to be just out of my reach. And one of the first of my lifetime's ambitions was to be "one of the old blokes who sit and watch the cricket". I gave up my membership, finally, when they stopped playing at Colchester, the last of those outgrounds, and focused everything on Chelmsford, which is an absolutely pit of a cricket ground that should've been demolished or properly redeveloped years ago.

But in the current climate, and especially if ECB resources are being pumped into promoting city-based franchises, it's hard to see the non-test-ground counties surviving in their present form.

[soulfinger]

Meanwhile: “Even when key players are playing we think we can beat anyone in the world – we don’t wait for the opposition to be weak,” Kohli's wise words before India were bowled out for 78!

[firehazard]

Meanwhile: “Even when key players are playing we think we can beat anyone in the world – we don’t wait for the opposition to be weak,” Kohli's wise words before India were bowled out for 78!

Scrub some of my comments above. England are obviously brilliant at test cricket.

Though it helps when you get to bowl first at Headingley.

[Welshie]

Good win for Essex yesterday FH, so well done them.
Still i'm quite pleased that Glamorgan have ended this season with some silverware for the first time since 2004.
Cheers
Aled

[firehazard]

Good win for Essex yesterday FH, so well done them.
Still i'm quite pleased that Glamorgan have ended this season with some silverware for the first time since 2004.

Essex have had a very poor season by recent standards. Typically it looks like they may be coming good for the end of the season, but it's too late to make a difference this time. Watching the county stuff, it seems like many counties already have that end-of-season-don't-care attitude.

Good to see Glammy get a trophy.

And the test series is interesting now.

[Welshie]

Essex got a trophy as well FH, i know its not the one you wanted but better than nothing! You are correct regarding season ending blues, Glamorgan seem to be just going through the motions! Although over 1000 runs scored in the Surrey v Glam game!

[firehazard]

Essex got a trophy as well FH, i know its not the one you wanted but better than nothing! You are correct regarding season ending blues, Glamorgan seem to be just going through the motions! Although over 1000 runs scored in the Surrey v Glam game!

There was a lot of confusion on the Essex forum about whether or not there was an actual trophy for winning the 2nd tier. There used to be a trophy for winning Division 2, but now with this this weird 3 conference system no one seemed to know. Then the trophy wasn't in the right place to be presented at the right time anyway... Suppose it was a factor that the last match of the season at Chelmsford was over before lunch on the 2nd day. Northants were not good. Don't think Essex expected to win by an innings after being all out for 170. It felt more like one of the old 3-day CC matches I used to go and watch back in the 70s.

Looks like we'll be stuck with this stupid 3 conference thing next season too.

[Welshie]

Oh dear FH, not good news!

[firehazard]

I stand corrected. It seems the E&WCB have decided we're going back to a two-division CC next season With a 10/8 split of the counties, which is a tad weird.

So the E&WCB appear (for once) to have seen sense. Meanwhile the devil has been seen buying ice skates.

But it basically looks like good news.