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Cricket

birchesgreen

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The two division model delivered the England test team that was the best side in the world in the early 2010s...

The model works perfectly fine. It's the ECB breaking it in recent years that's lead us here.
Yes ultimately it is the ECB chasing gold...

Still that is the way of the world now.
 
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DarloRich

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I see the "kill the counties" mob are out in force again, funny how when England are doing well they are quiet.
no - I still think they are an 19th century hold over in the 21st century.

The model works perfectly fine. It's the ECB breaking it in recent years that's lead us here.
DID work. It is fair to ask if it needs to be overhauled for the 2020's. We have got to improve the quality of long form players in England, especially batsmen.

Doubt they'd have got odds which would get them back much more than their initial outlay.
A contact of mine has £20 @ 10-1 on a 5-0 whitwash. I would have done the same if I gambled.

Buckinghamshire, who were invited to become a first class county but declined but are in the minor counties.
minor counties? - Christ, there will be no men and no dogs watching them! It will be worse than the county championship.
 

Pakenhamtrain

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That isn't to say that I don't have problem with The Hundred but my only real qualm is the bizarre decision to introduce another format of the game. Every single objective that the ECB set out to achieve (including the most important of getting the ruddy game back on free to air television) could have equally have been achieved with a T20 franchise competition (which to my understanding is what the BBC thought they were getting). Indeed I imagine, once they've finished their, utterly justified, gloating that @Pakenhamtrain would be able to confirm that the Big Bash ticks the various boxes the ECB were looking for including the biggies of being appealing to families and being available widely on free to air TV. Everything else about The Hundred? Brilliant. Crack on because my god the game needs to stop being hidden behind the Sky paywall.
The BBL worked because it was short over the summer school holidays and every game was FTA.

Cricket Australia cooked the goose that laid the golden egg though.
They've made the season too long.
Last rights deal saw some BBL games go behind the paywall on Fox.

The crowds this year have been horrible.
Sure covid has a role there but 1785 people showed up to the Boxing Day game between Melbourne Renegades and Perth Scorchers across town from the MCG at Marvel.

T20 I think has become stale as well. Its very predictable tactics wise.
 

SteveM70

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More recently Marnus Labuschagne established the credentials in county cricket which directly led to his inclusion in the test squad and his opportunity to replace the concussed Steve Smith at Lords

In the second division, too
 

Busaholic

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In the second division, too
A very good point. The idea that there is a huge gulf between First and Second Division sides is untrue except that the more prosperous sides may have managed to secure the services of an overseas star or two who shine, whereas the Derbyshires and Leicestershires are less likely to be able to. Moving counties 'to improve the chances of being picked by England' can backfire e.g. Sam Northeast ditching the Kent captaincy to move to Hampshire. Ha ha!
 

SteveM70

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A very good point. The idea that there is a huge gulf between First and Second Division sides is untrue except that the more prosperous sides may have managed to secure the services of an overseas star or two who shine, whereas the Derbyshires and Leicestershires are less likely to be able to. Moving counties 'to improve the chances of being picked by England' can backfire e.g. Sam Northeast ditching the Kent captaincy to move to Hampshire. Ha ha!

Second division counties can get decent overseas players but often can’t keep them - I’ve supported Leicestershire my whole life and we’ve had Marcus Harris this season but he’s had a better offer for 2022, the same with Mohamed Abbas the year before.

We also lose our better home grown players to the “big” counties - the underlying problem is the disparity in income between the test ground counties and the others
 

Busaholic

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We also lose our better home grown players to the “big” counties - the underlying problem is the disparity in income between the test ground counties and the others
Surprising how often it doesn't work out for either the player or county involved though, especially for those who move to Yorkshire!
 

Bevan Price

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England's batsmen could do a lot worse than get some old films/videos showing the likes of Geoff Boycott, Colin Cowdrey, Ken Barrington, etc., and study their defensive tactics -- and adopt similar tactics in how to protect their wickets and not make silly strokes.

They also need to find at least two high class spin bowlers, and will soon need to replace Messrs Anderson & Broad. The only really fast bowler (Joffre Archer) is currently unfit, but we could still do with some more really high speed bowlers.
 

Mikey C

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Did you see The Hundred?

Record crowds with thousands upon thousands of children in attendance that were clearly enjoying themselves. Huge audience numbers at home on TV. Record numbers of children participating in cricket over the summer through events related to it. In excess of a two fold increase in competetive junior fixtures.

Whilst many traditional cricket fans seem to hate it it's very hard to argue that it didn't make a huge impact.
From a London perspective, Lord's and The Oval will sell out for T20 Blast matches anyway, so it's hardly a big achievement to do that for the Hundred. Especially with the MASSIVE promotion the ECB put behind this, and the generous number of comp tickets given out elsewhere.

Women's cricket has benefited from the 100 and double headers, but that only came about due to Covid. The original plan was to play them elsewhere, e.g. the Oval Invincibles women's team would have been based at Beckenham (Kent's London base)

for the millionth time: that competition is tied up in a broadcast deal. ECB clearly thought they couldn't get out of that deal and offer terrestrial coverage.
It's the ECB who chose to sell everything to Sky in the first place. It pays for the massive group of support staff, doing such a great job with our Test side

They could have decided that when the next Blast contract was coming up, to make part of it FTA.
 

75A

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Second division counties can get decent overseas players but often can’t keep them - I’ve supported Leicestershire my whole life and we’ve had Marcus Harris this season but he’s had a better offer for 2022, the same with Mohamed Abbas the year before.

We also lose our better home grown players to the “big” counties - the underlying problem is the disparity in income between the test ground counties and the others
I live in Leicestershire (just) but avoid going to Grace Road, where the facilities are poor and the staff rude. Trent Bridge is on a different planet and even the Concrete Edgbaston is better than Leics.
 

Typhoon

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Former New Zealand skipper, Ross Taylor, has announced his retirement. Seems like a genuinely decent bloke who just set about doing his job, no 'celebrity'. Others might do well to follow his example.

(Mind you, the whole NZ squad seem to act in a similar way. They can usually be relied on to put in a decent performance with limited resources. When they appear as overseas players in UK tournaments, I find they always give of their best while not having an inflated idea of their importance - they act as team players in a team game.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/59826555
 

SteveM70

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Mind you, the whole NZ squad seem to act in a similar way

Absolutely. A team far greater than the sum of its parts, in stark contrast to England at the moment. For a country of its size, its remarkable how well they do
 

Class800

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Surprised the series isn't called off with no result - due to the cases in both camps. And in case any one thinks I'm a biased Englishman, if England were 4-0 up in a series against say Zimbabwe with one test to play (not that we play 5 test series against them currently) and the final test was called off due to Covid cases, I would say it should be series abandoned with no winner, as it would be an incomplete series. 'Mathematically won' doesn't cut it for me. But I think the Ashes is going to continue, even though it probably shouldn't
 

Busaholic

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Surprised the series isn't called off with no result - due to the cases in both camps. And in case any one thinks I'm a biased Englishman, if England were 4-0 up in a series against say Zimbabwe with one test to play (not that we play 5 test series against them currently) and the final test was called off due to Covid cases, I would say it should be series abandoned with no winner, as it would be an incomplete series. 'Mathematically won' doesn't cut it for me. But I think the Ashes is going to continue, even though it probably shouldn't
The result of the series is there to see already. England have only two matches to play, could win each by an innings (gosh, those mushrooms tasted lovely :D )and it'd make no difference, it'd be a 3-2 loss as opposed to a 3-0.
 

birchesgreen

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Surprised the series isn't called off with no result - due to the cases in both camps. And in case any one thinks I'm a biased Englishman, if England were 4-0 up in a series against say Zimbabwe with one test to play (not that we play 5 test series against them currently) and the final test was called off due to Covid cases, I would say it should be series abandoned with no winner, as it would be an incomplete series. 'Mathematically won' doesn't cut it for me. But I think the Ashes is going to continue, even though it probably shouldn't
Let us not forget that the Eng-India series is still to be completed...
 

Class800

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Let us not forget that the Eng-India series is still to be completed...
It doesn't sit well with me that a series is split over 2 years. I may be too traditional for the modern game, and certainly for the commercially driven way it is run these days, but to me if the series isn't completed in its scheduled slot, it should be a no result regardless of any predictions or what looked likely, or even being 4-0 up with one to play.
 

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