Cricket 2023/2024: The Man With the Fucked Knee

[iamcoop]

Don't know how anyone could be interested in the IPL.

You know when boomers are like "yeah, my ideal band in heaven would be like Kurt Cobain on vocals, Phil Lynott on bass, John Bonham on drums, Eddie Van Halen on lead guitar, David Bowie on rhythm guitar and second lead vocals, Janis Joplin on backing vocals and Christine McVie on keyboards" and it's like yeah that band would be absolute dogshit cheers?

That's the IPL.

[shoulders]

Guess India as a nation get a wider spotlight they don't normally enjoy so it's absolutely huge for them and their population is such that this is a commercial proposition unlike virtually every other T20 competition that is dregs in comparison.

It's so rinsed to fuck and over-saturated but the important thing is they picked a nation that literally has no concept whatsoever of cloying or saturation that's so big that even if the rest kf the universe finds it unbearable dogshit piled on top of dogshit, it remains viable.

[confettiinmyhair]

The franchises are spreading, so the IPL has satellite teams in the UEA and South Africa, which is why there are loads of extra South Africans about this season. When Warnie was alive he tried to form links been Rajasthan Royals and Hampshire.

I think all domestic T20 competitions suffer from over saturation. They tend to drag. Finals day in England is a real chore to get through and often the weather has affected the event with no reserve day.

[iamcoop]

There's just absolutely nothing at stake in any of it, and that's what makes sport compelling.

[shoulders]

https://twitter.com/thecricketmen/status/1774075774284243452?t=P1OStL7ISBxZVjcdU8IugA&s=19

Something for us all to enjoy.

[Thursday]

Well it's good to know a new standard has been set.

[Thursday]

Knee News https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/68712710

[iamcoop]

Aggers GONE



....and signed on to present TMS for another four years but will be leaving his post as BBC chief cricket correspondent at the end of the season.

[mattyc]

Even though he doesn't seem like a very nice man, I still quite like Agnew as a commentator, so I'm glad he continuing.

County Championship starts today with a big influx of fring Aus test players. It's very nice for them to be getting that experience of English conditions; I expect that plenty of Shield sides will be giving English players similar opportunities in the UK winter. As far as I can tell Jack Leach had never bowled a single ball in Australia before going into the 2021-22 series as England's main spinner. Joined-up thinking as ever.

[shoulders]

Stokes and BigMac will remind you that it's actually all about mindset.

Fortunately Jack Leach has such a range of maladies that can get him out of being truly found out in any test series.

[sevendaughters]

CC starting today, mostly underwater.

Worcestershire looking like they're going to move, climate deniers bristle.

[iamcoop]

Leach will shatter his fibula and tear both quads in a freak clog dancing accident before the first Ashes test in the winter.

[shoulders]

Usual stuff about the CC clubs being on the brink and apparently we'll have to close some of them.

This has only happened due to the commercialisation of cricket.

Why should they close? You have small cricket clubs across the money soldiering on with barely a pot to piss in. Something chronically wrong with the setup if a whole county cricket club folds when the clubs underneath them can continue.

Same as the discussion with test cricket. If it's too expensive, why does there need to be huge hosting, policing costs, hawk eye etc. Scale it down, stop trying to pump the product and force clubs into debt financing vanity projects.

[mattyc]

Worcs and Glam going along merrily with the rather un-early April scores of 134-1 and 150-2.

[Theoretical Dentist]

Worcs and Glam going along merrily with the rather un-early April scores of 134-1 and 150-2.

Not many wickets anywhere. They're playing with Kookaburra balls which may have something to do with it. Not for the whole season, I think it's a few weeks now and another few weeks at some point later in the season, to see how they behave and/or give English bowlers some practice with them in different conditions.

[FeederFan500]

Usual stuff about the CC clubs being on the brink and apparently we'll have to close some of them.

This has only happened due to the commercialisation of cricket.

Why should they close? You have small cricket clubs across the money soldiering on with barely a pot to piss in. Something chronically wrong with the setup if a whole county cricket club folds when the clubs underneath them can continue.

Same as the discussion with test cricket. If it's too expensive, why does there need to be huge hosting, policing costs, hawk eye etc. Scale it down, stop trying to pump the product and force clubs into debt financing vanity projects.

This is to an extent not true.

In the earlier 20th century many clubs lost money and post WWI Worcestershire didn't even enter the Championship one year because they couldn't afford it. Early FC cricket didn't have a fixed number of games and teams would play more against lucrative opposition, making some early Championship rankings a bit of a joke.

First class cricket is subsidised by the ECB from international matches, and has been since WWII or so, either directly by ECB funding from commercial or TV revenue or less directly by giving clubs international matches to host.

CC clubs essentially exist to develop players for the England side. There isn't the membership level needed to support professional teams (you can't have semi pro teams when you need four full day blocks to play matches in) without the ECB funding.

The existential problem for England is that it no longer has a monopoly on the English summer with T20 franchise leagues offering alternative employment in Sri Lanka, the USA or West Indies. So you can either pay more to keep players playing for or in England, with less money to go round supporting counties, or eschew that side of things and hope that you still get the same money from TV rights next time round.

As it happens, I think The Hundred is stupid, and I think the ECB running it at a loss is stupid. You aren't going to compete with the IPL or any of their linked subsidiaries so stop trying to be it. But India is struggling with good players saying no thanks to FC matches to work on their T20 game, where there is enough money to be picky.

I think the ECB have concluded that they won't be able to run 18 counties at a loss as the cricket landscape changes if they have to pay more to keep the top talent. It's only the T20 matches that get the grounds full at county level.


On tests, policing costs are only big if lots of people are going to tests. The issue with tests is that in the non-big 3 countries there aren't enough people wanting to pay to watch it at the ground or on TV. Away tours are a pure cost as the host gets the TV money, most countries only make money if the big 3 are touring there from overseas TV rights. It's not that costs are too high, but that the income is too low whatever they do because most people want T20.

[dr beat]

Not many wickets anywhere. They're playing with Kookaburra balls which may have something to do with it.

Sounds a bit cruel.  How are those Kookaburras going to reproduce?

[shoulders]

CC clubs essentially exist to develop players for the England side. There isn't the membership level needed to support professional teams (you can't have semi pro teams when you need four full day blocks to play matches in) without the ECB funding.

This is what I'm getting at. The solution isn't to wind up a whole club when smaller cricket clubs bumble along on fuck all.

You can absolutely find 18 x 18 players in an entire country who can play around  a 4 day schedule, in fact they'd have club players hammering their door down for the opportunity.

[FeederFan500]

This is what I'm getting at. The solution isn't to wind up a whole club when smaller cricket clubs bumble along on fuck all.

You can absolutely find 18 x 18 players in an entire country who can play around  a 4 day schedule, in fact they'd have club players hammering their door down for the opportunity.

Smaller clubs typically only have one paid player and that's in the higher leagues, everyone else plays for free*.

The National, formerly Minor Counties play 6 3-day matches during the school holidays precisely because there was a struggle to get employed people to set aside the days to play longer form cricket, and this way they can at least attract more students or teachers who don't have to work in that period. There was an article last year about a top Premier League player who had given up the Minor Counties due to work commitments.

*rumours are that this is not entirely the case

[shoulders]

None of which really changes much, I don't think my assertion is damaged by any of that.

[sevendaughters]

Is Northeast going for the record?

[Harry Badger]

501 might be a bit of a stretch but he can certainly go for another 400. Has anyone apart from Lara scored 2 x 400s? EDIT - Yes, Bill Ponsford in the 1920s.

EDIT - now on 334, the highest score made at Lord's

[Inspector Norse]

Wikipedia says one other man has done it - Bill Ponsford in the Sheffield Shield in the 1920s

Quite amusing to note that Middlesex chose to field

[Harry Badger]

Beat me to it - moot now, they've declared

[Thursday]

Lyon bowled out on his first ball for Lancashire. Remember when he got like 30 against England with a broken leg.

They're going to destroy on their own pitch with the bald power of Lyon and Hartley, but it might be at the expense of their own batters.

[Harry Badger]

I suppose they might these days when it is physically possible to prepare a dustbowl in April even when the outfield is sodden. Do they have placemen on the pitch inspector committee? Somerset and Glamorgan fucking don't.

If you're going to play with Kookaburras at least leave a bit of grass on the pitch.

[Pranet]

Smaller clubs typically only have one paid player and that's in the higher leagues, everyone else plays for free*.

The National, formerly Minor Counties play 6 3-day matches during the school holidays precisely because there was a struggle to get employed people to set aside the days to play longer form cricket, and this way they can at least attract more students or teachers who don't have to work in that period. There was an article last year about a top Premier League player who had given up the Minor Counties due to work commitments.

*rumours are that this is not entirely the case

The minor county red ball season went down from 6 to 4 games a year a bit back, because they said they struggled to find players who could get the time off work.

[shoulders]

I suppose they might these days when it is physically possible to prepare a dustbowl in April even when the outfield is sodden. Do they have placemen on the pitch inspector committee? Somerset and Glamorgan fucking don't.

If you're going to play with Kookaburras at least leave a bit of grass on the pitch.

You can prepare those 'sticky dog' wickets in the early season which have horrid uneven bounce and the ground is kind of spongey.

If we're doing trolling instead of winning cricket games I reckon we should decide to turn England into a spinners paradise for the next 30 years and produce some of the finest tweakers ever seen.

[MrMealDeal]

Essex might be docked points because one of their openers was using an over-sized bat which helped him to make a double century score 18 and 32.

[Harry Badger]

You don't really get sticky wickets in the true sense anymore, at least not since professional cricket regulations require the covering of the pitch during rain and outside of playing hours. What you can do is shave the pitch of all its grass, and keep it under heaters inside a tent. The risk with that is that the game ends inside two days (due to faulty defensive technique and lack of patience from most batsmen) and then the umpires dob you in to the ECB.