Cricket 2017

[sevendaughters]

saw someone on Twitter defending Ed Smith as he's into Moneyball. beggars belief. guy has spent 10 years out of the game doing anything but looking at developing cricketers - launching an MA, opening a sport institute, writing, commentating, plagiarising, pontificating shitly - i do not see what elevates him above a dozen others aside from the bleeding obvious.

[Harry Badger]

saw someone on Twitter defending Ed Smith as he's into Moneyball. beggars belief. guy has spent 10 years out of the game doing anything but looking at developing cricketers - launching an MA, opening a sport institute, writing, commentating, plagiarising, pontificating shitly - i do not see what elevates him above a dozen others aside from the bleeding obvious.

Nobody else wanted it. Apparently the other candidates were Derek Pringle, Mike Selvey (!) and Mick Newell (who would have been a more sensible choice). Angus Fraser turned it down apparently. At least he'll be gone from TMS!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

We needed to change the selectors but we also need a change of team culture because the lack of success from anyone entering the side in the last 6 years is terrifying, and looking at the averages we are declining into a late 90s level side.

[Pranet]

Also, Ed Smith is the new national selector. "Straussy, allow me to posit a theory about our lack of spin options". GRAVE

Ha!

[Harry Badger]

At the risk of sounding like a Daily Mail headline:

Now they're changing the T20 format!

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23243551/ecb-propose-100-ball-competition

We needed to change the selectors but we also need a change of team culture because the lack of success from anyone entering the side in the last 6 years is terrifying, and looking at the averages we are declining into a late 90s level side.

I'm hoping this new scouting set-up with multiple scouts reporting to Smith will work and unearth some neglected talent. Apparently when Tony Greig took over as captain he phoned up every umpire in the country and asked them who, apart from the self-exiled Boycott, would play Lillee and Thomson best. The almost unanimous answer was David Steele who had never come close to selection previously but did extremely well against them and the West Indies.

[Pranet]

At the risk of sounding like a Daily Mail headline:

Now they're changing the T20 format!

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23243551/ecb-propose-100-ball-competition

Apparently it will increase the appeal of cricket to women who- bless their pretty heads- can't count above 100. Something like that anyway.

Fuck off cricket.

[BlodwynPig]

Apparently it will increase the appeal of cricket to women who- bless their pretty heads- can't count above 100. Something like that anyway.

Fuck off cricket.

This will appeal to the _punters and the broadcasting media alike

[monolith]

Is this a late April fool's joke? For fuck's sake.

[gilbertharding]

Nobody else wanted it. Apparently the other candidates were Derek Pringle, Mike Selvey (!) and Mick Newell (who would have been a more sensible choice). Angus Fraser turned it down apparently. At least he'll be gone from TMS!

Aw - I liked him on TMS. He had the parallel virtues of not being, or pandering to, the bantz merchants and being an easy butt-of-the-joke.

[Harry Badger]

Apparently it will increase the appeal of cricket to women who- bless their pretty heads- can't count above 100. Something like that anyway.

Fuck off cricket.

It's not even that radical a change. How about: 100 balls per innings, all from one end, bowlers can bowl max 20 balls, max 5 consecutive balls but can swap at any time before that. It would be shit but if you're going to change things, change them properly.

[gilbertharding]

Indoor cricket, on roller blades. With lasers instead of balls, and guns instead of bats. Robot umpires.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Why can no-one involved not see how completely and totally dead on arrival this idea is

[billyandthecloneasaurus]

Ed Smith was always my favourite, you cunts.  Intelligent, self-deprecating and a decent dry sense of humour. 

[sevendaughters]

Ed Smith was always my favourite, you cunts.  Intelligent, self-deprecating and a decent dry sense of humour.

that's all well and good but what qualifies him as head selector?

Lancs lost 2 out of 2 this season, on paper an amazing batting card is just not getting the job done. Hameed looks a shadow of the player that went to India. Jennings lost his form. Chanderpaul is probably too old. Livingstone's head hanging heavy with the crown of captaincy. Vilas and Davies looking alright enough though. Joe Mennie is a good find with the ball though.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43963570

Yorkshire bowled out for 50 yet end Day 1 favourites to win the game.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Close to winning this by +100 runs.

This will be massive

[sevendaughters]

Well done to the White Rose but there has been some astonishingly piss-poor batting this season from nearly everyone. In last week's round of fixtures on day 1 it was a nice day up and down the country. Reasonably good for batting. All 18 teams in action in the County Championship. 17 of them batted on day one. 152 batsmen batted and there were 4 half-centuries and 1 century across the 9 games.. The best score was 265 all out (or 245/7). Is the art of batting dead or was this a statistical anomaly?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

This round of fixtures has seen better batting now there's a bit of sunshine and the wickets have flattened out.

The amount of sub-150 innings shows they started the season too early, all in order to accommodate the fucking T20 which should be at the end of the summer.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/44031876

I'm due to travel over to Dublin, or Malahide to be precise for this game, but as you would expect from a fixture in May in Ireland, looks like a washout.

All these interviews and the expensive temporary seating will count for fuck all if it's rained off.

[poo]

Christ I fucking hate this T20 AIDS

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ironically it is actually watchable when there's less of the shit they think makes it more exciting - the ludicrous celebrations, music, exploding stumps, gimmicks. The bat and ball game can still be quite tense in the short format.

I think generally I just hate lots of people enjoying themselves to a level disproportionate with what they're watching, and the IPL is the epitome of that. Fucking twats, calm down and sit down.

Same cunts that used to leave a stadium when Tendulkar was out.

[sevendaughters]

yeah I think there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the 20 over format, it's what we were brought up with in junior cricket and it just works, I love test matches but I can also see the sport surviving better with two formats and killing off the middle ground, absolutely spot on Shoulders. I went to a rain-shortened CB40 match that ended up 21 overs apiece, one of those weird weeks when counties have all their pros back, Lancs v Durham, probably the best live cricket match I've seen.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Don't see the problem, there have been some fantastic one dayers recently. All 3 should co-exist but be standardised.

I can see the World Cup reduced to 40 overs at some point but hey ho.

For one day series all host nations should prepare:
1 wicket typical of the area of the world
1 greener wicket with a chance of swing
1 dusty wicket for spin
1 hard bouncy wicket

[ollyboro]

I wish there weren't any fielding or bowling restrictions in limited over cricket. Some of the boundary lengths are ludicrously small and the bats ludicrously heavy. Batsmen are hitting sixes with mistimed shots. Poor shots should not be rewarded with sixes. And anycunt caught waving at themselves on a big screen should be used to flatten the wicket between innings.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Loving this Stalinist cricket utopia we're nailing down

[sevendaughters]

I'm personally against the current rules vis-a-vis throwing, think you should be able to wang it down how you want.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ireland 13-4

They bowled their hearts out yesterday. Boyd Rankin looked test class, and Murtagh in those conditions too. Kane and the other bloke looked like very good club players, max. So many chances were lost in the last session that Ireland could have got them for 250-270.

The batting was always going to be a major, major issue. Test cricket should have started for them 10 years ago. Now they're treating it like a present, a novelty for old pros. They're going to get fucked.

[EOLAN]

That partnership of a little over 20 looks to be the height of our (Ireland) batting abilities today. Could be close run thing to avoid follow on.

At least they don't have that annoying busker singing booming out today.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Follow on is actually gifting Ireland a slight chance. I can't see how they'll get the 350 it would need to make this a match, but technically I'm not sure I'd put my money on Pakistan to chase more than 170.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Game on! This match sums up why the follow on is so rarely used these days.