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

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Feels like the season has splintered into many pieces.

No, the summer game is now white ball cricket, red ball cricket stuck on the edges in Spring and Autumn.

Key is going to change that next year, if his comments are anything to go by

It's almost impossible to believe that England test cricketers having no county championship matches to warm up or make a case for inclusion before and during the main test series of the summer has only just been identified as a problem.

Should it not have been blinding obvious?

depends on what the priorities are, I suppose

don't have to look much further than Chelmsford to see what a complete nonsense the championship schedule is. Over half way through the 3rd innings on day one. It'll take something quite remarkable to take play much past lunch on day two.... and they keep telling us that the players are playing too much cricket

Players play too much cricket

not at Chelmsford seemingly
131
107
73
59
done and dusted in about 4 sessions.... off home for a cuppa and a nap in front of the telly, worn out by all the cricket they have to play. hard to know why England struggle to produce test ready batters

Been a few of these at Chelmsford this season

125 over game!

This was the 'prepare a piece of old nonsense' lottery shootout championship winning strategy much favoured by Peter Moores when Lancs were redeveloping OT. It's worked for Essex twice this season after making a slow start to their campaign and needing to play catch up, but not today.

in fairness to Essex....... if England were bowling for all 5 days of a test match, 125 overs would probably be all they'd manage

It's a bit rubbish all round.

of course it is

and then Old Straussy suggests condensing the CC down into 10 rounds played throughout the summer. Or at least that's his headline statement, but he glosses over the fact that he wants the whole of August to be hundred month with some cobbled together bits of make it up as you go along nonsense played around the margins for the counties not involved in that premier version of the game..... and the CC will still be completed in September, which I reckon is probably Strauss-speak for 3 of the 10 rounds... so what do the counties (and the people who watch) gain from all this, given that this year was heralded as 5 rounds of CC in June and July for every team not called Durham (who only got 3)? I'm trying to imagine how I'd feel as an Essex fan if I had to put up with 2 home matches being stripped away and then find that some of the 5 remaining games are over in 4 sessions

As a extra kicker, Old Straussy wants the 50 over cup played in April and May (which I tend to agree with), but he sees it as an FA cup of cricket knockout with minor counties involved, so what happens if a county side gets knocked out in the first round on a DL affected piece of nonsense on a rainy day in the second week of April? Perhaps they get to go away and kick their heels for 2 months until the CC starts in June and the members get no cricket at all to watch in between.

Presumably, while the players get all this extra time off and the gaps between matches get bigger and bigger, there will be no plans to reflect this in the membership subscriptions

he must think everyone is *modded* stupid

when I first became a Durham member, I got eight rounds of CC, five 50 over matches and four 40 over matches for my money plus as many T20 as I wanted for a fiver a pop if I booked them in advance. Under the Strauss plan I'd get five rounds of CC, five T20's, and if I'm really unlucky, one 50 over match

Fine plan

spoken like a wannabe Tory MP

I've never had it so good

Durhamfootman wrote: and if I'm really unlucky, one 50 over match

and if i'm really, really unlucky, and the first defeat is an away game.... no 50 over cricket

Can't imagine that the proposal for a 6 team division 1 will be voted through. It might get 6 or more votes but surely not the required two thirds majority. If I'm wrong and it happens I think it will be the beginning of the end for some counties..Atherton in The Times says there will almost certainly be additional franchises in The Hundred- he seems to suggest one will be based at Durham "more teams- in the southwest and northeast"

It would help if there was some logic to the CC, like there actually was fairly recently. It feels like it suffers from neglect now.

Main problem with 50 over cricket is its diminished status. But I think otherwise a knockout is a good format.

It was all falling apart well before the hundred though.

Durhamfootman wrote:

Durhamfootman wrote: and if I'm really unlucky, one 50 over match

and if i'm really, really unlucky, and the first defeat is an away game.... no 50 over cricket

I like how the aim is to make England the dominant force in all 3 international formats...while the proposals prioritise a form of the game that isn't played anywhere outside the country.