Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

A bit sad. India are playing two games at the same time. It really feels like the game has been dangerously undermined.

watched about 15 mins of the Silly last night out of idle curiosity. Tuffers couldn't remember the names of the teams and kept having to check his notes. Someone else kept referring to overs and then say that they don't have overs anymore. The scorecard was almost undecipherable and as the Werthers Originals slid ever closer to an inevitable defeat at the hands of the Oral Hygienists in a hopelessly forlorn run chase, Vaughan kept bashing on about Brathwaite having to do what he did to Stokes and if anyone could do it it was him........ presumably because once in a lifetime events often happen over and over again

I believe crowds have been pretty good, which is unsurprising I suppose, given that most of the tickets have been given away for free

I think the idea of this is to make cricket as baffling for cricket lovers as it is to people who've never watched a game in their lives

Durhamfootman wrote:watched about 15 mins of the Silly last night out of idle curiosity. Tuffers couldn't remember the names of the teams and kept having to check his notes. Someone else kept referring to overs and then say that they don't have overs anymore. The scorecard was almost undecipherable and as the Werthers Originals slid ever closer to an inevitable defeat at the hands of the Oral Hygienists in a hopelessly forlorn run chase, Vaughan kept bashing on about Brathwaite having to do what he did to Stokes and if anyone could do it it was him........ presumably because once in a lifetime events often happen over and over again

I believe crowds have been pretty good, which is unsurprising I suppose, given that most of the tickets have been given away for free

I think the idea of this is to make cricket as baffling for cricket lovers as it is to people who've never watched a game in their lives

I think they are called sets instead of overs. I can't quickly see if a bowler is doing well without overs. Scorecard is terrible. Can't see why we couldn't have a T20 franchise of 8 teams since it's on BBC 2 and there is enough time for 20 overs.

As for the spectators that the ECB want, women and children new to the game, I don't know where they are. Started off sedately in the first game. It seems it is T20 Blast fans who have nothing to watch with drinking and singing and some streaking.

Michael Vaughan seems to have been paid to promote this. He is tweeting 19,000 times a day about how brilliant it is.

27,000 tickets sold for Middlesex's last blast match in 2019
13,000 spectators for London Spirits first home game.... of which SKy said 50% had been given away for free, the tickets bought were cheaper, and included an extra womens match with the ticket

Guess that says it all.

The ECB will be happy though.... 14,000 less spectators, but a higher proportion of women and kids.

Feels a missed opportunity. If they'd got T20 onto BBC, it could have been a chance to grow a popular form of the sport, and expand its reach.

The 100 couldn't happen at a more propitious time, as people are desperate to get out and aren't going abroad. If it's ever going to get an audience, it's now.

Dan Worrall has signed a 3 year contract for moneybags Surrey

turns out he isn't Australian after all and so isn't an overseas player.... a pity no-one told Gloucs that

Good recovery today for Yorks. 69-6 to 216-8 with a few balls left. Still, not many for N'hants to chase. No Coad to bowl either.

Devon Malcolm is listed as an official at a 50 over game today. Assuming that means he is on the umpires' list, that's a strange turnabout for someone well known for his terrible eyesight.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Devon Malcolm is listed as an official at a 50 over game today. Assuming that means he is on the umpires' list, that's a strange turnabout for someone well known for his terrible eyesight.

Very strange!

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Devon Malcolm is listed as an official at a 50 over game today. Assuming that means he is on the umpires' list, that's a strange turnabout for someone well known for his terrible eyesight.

Two ex-umpires (John Holder was one, cant remember the other) sued the ECB in winter for racial discrimination, saying their careers were held back by not being white, and cited the fact the ECB hadnt trained any black umpires in over a decade as proof of a culture. The ECB wet the bed, and quickly announced a diversification plan where they would add minorities to the panel for the 2021 season.

Devon Malcolm and Dean Headley got jobs as match referees. And a couple of other former women players I cant remember the name of became the first ladies on the panel.

Somerset announce they have sold out their Vitality Blast QF in Taunton. 8500 tickets according to what I read.

First match of the hundred attracted just over that, the majority of tickets were given away free.

Guess this tells you everything

It tells me that the Hundred is the very bestest thing ever

A brilliant venture by the guardians who are tasked with keeping cricket safe

So good, in fact, that I'd happily sell my house and all its contents just for the chance to go to one of these matches

In 3 years time the Olympics will be a non televised sideshow..... I have no doubt that by then the whole world will watching this latest marvel of ingenuity,foresight and brilliance.... entertainment par excellence and without once deviating away from the sport's core values

I'd give every person in the ECB a knighthood for being absolutely fcuking amazing..... my kind of people..... gawd bless them each and every one

the powers that be in the BCCI must be gnawing on their own livers in frustration for not thinking of it first

of course, that last post might be exactly the same as the new rounders competition...... a big pile of sh1te

Essex went from 195 after 39 overs to 317 off 50 overs in their QF with Yorks. Harmer and Nijjar added 50 from the last 22 balls

Too many for Yorks, I reckon. Plenty there for Glammy to ponder between now and Monday

If I could offer them any advice it would be don't take any top order wickets after the 40th over... leave them to plod along at a SR of under 6, because it's only when the lower order come in that the Essex SR goes through the roof

Harmer, five overs, 2-10 is deciding this.