Random Cricket Thread (Domestic Cricket)

[sussexpob]

Seems the Hundred is coming under fire for its lack of appeal, as crowds shrink this year by 20-25%. And this is with a few games having a lot of free tickets given away.

Who would have thought that people wouldn't be lining up to see Mumbai Indians of London play Hyderabad's Super Giants of Leeds..???

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not something I'm switched on to, but I've noticed a lot of games are live on BBC.

[Durhamfootman]

Seems the Hundred is coming under fire for its lack of appeal, as crowds shrink this year by 20-25%. And this is with a few games having a lot of free tickets given away.

Who would have thought that people wouldn't be lining up to see Mumbai Indians of London play Hyderabad's Super Giants of Leeds..???

crowds have shrunk faster than the scores

[sussexpob]

crowds have shrunk faster than the scores

I have seen a lot of comments around suggesting that each passing low score match results in the boundary rope being moved in 5 yards. I then seen a video of the Hyderabad v Mumbai "runfest" the ECB social media team were hyping, and it looked like they were playing on an under 11 pitch. I would have conservatively said the rope was 30 yards in from where it should be.

I don't at all get why this is supposed to be entertaining. If you make the field so small that bad shots that should result in being caught out end up as sixes, what is the point? This isn't elite sport.

[Durhamfootman]

doesn't do it for me

it must be like the IPL on steroids. I wonder at what point catches will start to be called 'We buy any car moments of success'?

I also recall that one of the justifications for 100 balls instead of 20 overs, was that T20 went on too long for the mums with kiddies, yet your centiball match now lasts at least as long, and possibly slightly longer, as any game in the Blast. Now that Indian owners are heavily invested it surely won't be too long before each match lasts 4 hours, as they do in the IPL

[sussexpob]

I wonder at what point catches will start to be called 'We buy any car moments of success'?

The man of the match awards are already called the "Meerkat Match Hero".....

[sussexpob]

Now that Indian owners are heavily invested it surely won't be too long before each match lasts 4 hours, as they do in the IPL

There has been a lot of talk in the press about how the competition has no parallel to English sporting culture, but I am not sure if this is even a remote consideration. I don't think that the Indian investors actually care about making a competition for the English public, their sole concern is to have an Diet Coke IPL for Indian TV viewers, hence why they have teleported in their own team names and kits as a mark of continuity. The whole competition can play out to empty stadia, but if 3 million Indian's are watching, there will be enough Pepsi advert opportunities to pay the bills after.

The only pertinent question is, what exactly is this achieving for English cricket? Because wasn't this the point?

And that leads to a further question .... what does success look like? Is making Indian franchises money and giving them power success for the ECB?

[andy]

They should have left it alone it worked perfectly well on its own and as usual a good thing has been ruined

[Durhamfootman]

And that leads to a further question .... what does success look like? Is making Indian franchises money and giving them power success for the ECB?

I assume that at some point the Indian owners will insist on it becoming a T20 comp, so as not to confuse their target audience, and perhaps decide they want it to be called the IPL2

[Durhamfootman]

making it another T20 comp might be the only sensible thing to happen to it. The current format is a nonsense

and if we end up with two T20 comps, then they might as well call the franchise city version the IPL2

[andy]

John turner has announced his retirement aged 25 due to injuries..that's sad