The Official Cricket Thread

[Enzedder]

Bugger me Mitchell. Go to the (spit) Cantabs and turn into a useless dork. That's what they do to you down there.

[Kiwias]

Three wickets thrown away by stupid decisions. Nothing to do with provinces, Enzed.

[Enzedder]

Ravindra gets us home.

Where's he from?

[Kiwias]

Ravindra gets us home.

Where's he from?

He is playing for the BCs, province is totally fucking irrelevant.

[Kiwias]

Take the win, despite the hilarity of the final over.

[Enzedder]

Ravindra gets us home.

Where's he from?

He is playing for the BCs, province is totally fucking irrelevant.

Gotcha - knew you'd bite.

[Jb1981]

Bugger me Mitchell. Go to the (spit) Cantabs and turn into a useless dork. That's what they do to you down there.

Is this the type of abuse usually reserved for buck-toothed Prime Ministers and is it because he is from the wrong province .

Anyway, they scraped home in the end.

[Guy Smiley]

Bugger me Mitchell. Go to the (spit) Cantabs and turn into a useless dork. That's what they do to you down there.

Is this the type of abuse usually reserved for buck-toothed Prime Ministers and is it because he is from the wrong province .

Anyway, they scraped home in the end.

Poor Beaudy

[Kiwias]

Ravindra gets us home.

Where's he from?

He is playing for the BCs, province is totally fucking irrelevant.

Gotcha - knew you'd bite.

Getting slow, old fella. I had already commented in an earlier post.

[Enzedder]

[Paddington Bear]

Interesting stuff and bore out something I'd suspected anecdotally - that numbers playing cricket in England have been rising meaningfully for the first time since probably the 60s.

[Biffer]

The fixtures are out for the Cricket World Cup Final Qualifier in Zimbabwe starting 18th June.

The mystery format has now been revealed (ICC waiting until they knew who was in it so they could make sure the schedule didn't disadvantage any major test nations). Two groups of five teams, seeded on World rankings, top three from each group go to a super six. Top two in the super six go to the Cricket World Cup.

Significant games to look forward to include Zimbabwe v Netherlands 20th June, Ireland v Scotland 21st June, Zimbabwe v West Indies 24th June, Ireland v Sri Lanka 25th June, Netherlands v West Indies 26th June, Scotland v Sri Lanka 27th June. Nepal and UAE could potentially surprise someone in any of their games. Bad weather is the x factor here really.


HOWEVER

the bigger issue, which most of you won't give a toss about, is player availability. The Netherlands have named their squad and most of their county players are unavailable. In theory mandatory release exists, but players often choose to stay with their counties as they won't get a contract renewal if they're away playing for their country. Doesn't help that the ICC organises associate internationals and tournaments randomly outside of international windows because they don't give a fuck about it.

You may think this is just the downside of being small - yep, that's right. But all of you are going to face this in the next ten years, because you're ALL small when compared to the IPL and other franchise leagues. And as they grow, exactly the same thing will happen with international players from England, South Arica, Australia and New Zealand.

In 10-20 years time international cricket will be dead, replaced entirely with IPL and other bish bash bosh franchise leagues.

[inactionman]

Twenty20 started last night, not a patch on Test Cricket but I still missed it over the winter.

Overton took 3 for 8 as Somerset walloped current champions Hampshire

[Paddington Bear]

Twenty20 started last night, not a patch on Test Cricket but I still missed it over the winter.

Overton took 3 for 8 as Somerset walloped current champions Hampshire

I was at Lords’ last night for Middlesex’s latest embarrassment. Poor crowd, the Hundred no doubt cannibalising some of it, wfh probably limits the amount of corporate days out, no marketing etc but however you square it very disappointing on all fronts. I reckon there’s some club teams out there that would beat Middlesex.

[Biffer]

The fixtures are out for the Cricket World Cup Final Qualifier in Zimbabwe starting 18th June.

The mystery format has now been revealed (ICC waiting until they knew who was in it so they could make sure the schedule didn't disadvantage any major test nations). Two groups of five teams, seeded on World rankings, top three from each group go to a super six. Top two in the super six go to the Cricket World Cup.

Significant games to look forward to include Zimbabwe v Netherlands 20th June, Ireland v Scotland 21st June, Zimbabwe v West Indies 24th June, Ireland v Sri Lanka 25th June, Netherlands v West Indies 26th June, Scotland v Sri Lanka 27th June. Nepal and UAE could potentially surprise someone in any of their games. Bad weather is the x factor here really.


HOWEVER

the bigger issue, which most of you won't give a toss about, is player availability. The Netherlands have named their squad and most of their county players are unavailable. In theory mandatory release exists, but players often choose to stay with their counties as they won't get a contract renewal if they're away playing for their country. Doesn't help that the ICC organises associate internationals and tournaments randomly outside of international windows because they don't give a fuck about it.

You may think this is just the downside of being small - yep, that's right. But all of you are going to face this in the next ten years, because you're ALL small when compared to the IPL and other franchise leagues. And as they grow, exactly the same thing will happen with international players from England, South Arica, Australia and New Zealand.

In 10-20 years time international cricket will be dead, replaced entirely with IPL and other bish bash bosh franchise leagues.

Seems I'm prescient

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/65711625

This will happen more and more. Franchises will make international cricket (and by extension, long form cricket) a thing of the past.

[Thor Sedan]

So as expected - a good chance for English bowlers and batters to improve their averages and get some time in the middle.

An innings defeat coming up......

[Sandstorm]

So as expected - a good chance for English bowlers and batters to improve their averages and get some time in the middle.

An innings defeat coming up......

I hope Irish fans aren’t complaining for finally getting what they wanted: Test matches against to top teams?

[inactionman]

Even though his many lapses make we wince at times, Crawley is still very easy on the eye.

[Mahoney]

Even though his many lapses make we wince at times, Crawley is still very easy on the eye.

How those inside edges all missed the stumps I have no idea.

[inactionman]

Even though his many lapses make we wince at times, Crawley is still very easy on the eye.

How those inside edges all missed the stumps I have no idea.

He's used all his 9 lives before the first ball of The Ashes.

I'm always amazed how he can go from looking like Gower to looking like Tufnell within the space of an over.

[fishfoodie]

So as expected - a good chance for English bowlers and batters to improve their averages and get some time in the middle.

An innings defeat coming up......

I hope Irish fans aren’t complaining for finally getting what they wanted: Test matches against to top teams?

It took so fucking long to get our chance that the special generation of players have almost all now retired.

We're like Scotland in Rugby; just don't have the depth to be at the necessary level, unless everyone is fit & at top form, & the English don't poach our best players.

Still; at least with a seat at the table now, our players will be getting the experience they need, & they only way we'll get better is by playing the long form against better sides. I can also see us being able to get regular games off touring sides, as warm-ups, before they head to England.

[SaintK]

Thought I read somewhere that the revenues from this test match at Lords could fund Irish cricket for a year!!!!

[Insane_Homer]

333/1 lead 161

[Thor Sedan]

So taking into account that Ireland will probably struggle to take more than 2 or 3 wickets (unless England go T20 mode) - the only batters that will benefit from this rather sad test will be the top 4 or 5 batters and the bowlers.

Not sure if this is a great warm up for the English - but I guess the crowd is loving the run fest?

Why don't they retire to get some others in the middle? Or can't they do that?

[Mahoney]

They certainly can retire - though they would have to Retire Out, so it would affect their average.

It would be quite disrespectful though... retiring bats to give someone else a game is more than a bit Sunday club cricket...

[Thor Sedan]

.......Sunday club cricket...

Don't. Say. Anything.

[Paddington Bear]

Mahoney's right, though even on a Sunday I tend to advise batsmen to accidentally on purpose give their wicket away rather than retire, as retiring tends to take the piss and reduce the game as a contest...

[Insane_Homer]

502/2 lead 331 already

[Thor Sedan]

The pain ends - 524/4 - a lead of 352

[tabascoboy]

The pain ends - 524/4 - a lead of 352

Only to begin again, Ire 16-1, now 18/2.

[Insane_Homer]

Thought I read somewhere that the revenues from this test match at Lords could fund Irish cricket for a year!!!!

Does that still apply if it's all over in 2.5 days?

Edit: great partnership to give the punters something to watch

[tabascoboy]

Good effort to avoid the innings defeat, 163 runs for 7th wicket partnership and still a chance for a century on debut for McBrine as No 8 in the order

EDIT, no ran out of partners...

[Enzedder]

Lazy prick.

[Gumboot]

[inactionman]

Jack Leach out of the Ashes with a stress fracture in his back, poor sod - another in a catalogue of illnesses and injuries (some faintly farcical) and not great timing if Stokes isn't 100%

Cometh the hour, cometh the Moeen? He always seemed a good fit for the Stokes/McCullum style of Test cricket and might be better than throwing the likes of Ahmed in at the deep end.

[Paddington Bear]

Jack Leach out of the Ashes with a stress fracture in his back, poor sod - another in a catalogue of illnesses and injuries (some faintly farcical) and not great timing if Stokes isn't 100%

Cometh the hour, cometh the Moeen? He always seemed a good fit for the Stokes/McCullum style of Test cricket and might be better than throwing the likes of Ahmed in at the deep end.

Think we're much more likely just to play without a spinner tbh and get a few overs out of Root.

[Slick]

As an aside, just came across the @ThatsSoVillage Twitter account. Honestly had tears of laughter reading the weekends round up of village cricket mishaps

[inactionman]

As an aside, just came across the @ThatsSoVillage Twitter account. Honestly had tears of laughter reading the weekends round up of village cricket mishaps

With team mates like this, who needs enemies:

[Paddington Bear]

As an aside, just came across the @ThatsSoVillage Twitter account. Honestly had tears of laughter reading the weekends round up of village cricket mishaps

They do a 'what was the most village thing that happened at your match this weekend?' thread every week of the season, the replies are absolute gold without fail, but this one from a few weeks ago really cracked me up for some reason:

[Slick]

I loved this one