Quote from: port perran on August 23, 2022, 10:56:59 AM
I still prefer red ball cricket to the shorter forms and I'm hopeful that 5 day test cricket can survive.

Quote from: Bealman on August 23, 2022, 11:00:43 AM
Don't worry, Martin, it will.
Here, the locals love tests! 

Totally agree, but the England team have to learn to last 5 days unless they wrap it up in less.
White ball cricket can be exciting but I, for one, don't need all the hoo-hah that goes with it
As for the Hundreds............................

I am not an enthusiast of the hundred cannot work the scoring out. T20 excites some.. 1 day internationals I enjoy. Who remembers exciting finishes in the gilette Cup, Sunday league, nat West and BH trophy.. for me England need to sort the opening batsmen who can put 80 to 200 on , a decent 3, wicket keeper that can bat 7 and bowlers who can support Anderson and broad

Agree about the 100 - all it has done in my opinion is to weaken the One Day cup teams - my team , Essex, have had to play about half of their second XI.

Agree about the wicket-keeper needing to score runs, but some of the better keepers over years do not have a good batting record: James Foster , Bob Taylor and Jack Russell - do we sacrifice keeping skills for 20-30 runs?. The last decent keeper-batsman was Matt Prior and that was 8 years ago.

People had opinions whether Alec Stewart was a batsman or wicket keeper/ bat and still do..  Alan knott was a good keeper

It seems to me that the long form i.e County Championship & Test matches are being sacrificed for the 'bums on seats' excitement of the 100 & T20.

Unfortunately this is having the knock on effect of making Test Matches 3 day crash 'em - smash 'em events with very little tactical thinking going on. Hence the nickname of 'Bazball', whilst I applaud the thinking of letting the batsmen just go out and express themselves this is leading the thinking of reducing Test Matches to 4 days instead of 5, because more and more test matches are over in 3 to 4 days, now I wonder why that is???

I was being a bit tongue in cheek in my last post about bringing back Boycott & Tavare, and that is where the 'boring' tag came from amongst the non-cricketing people, I can remember Boycs & Tavare staying there all day for about 100 runs and just blocking out the bowlers, but that's where the Tactics come in in trying to prise them out.

Sorry just my ramblings

Regards

Neal.

Quote from: Calnefoxile on August 24, 2022, 09:35:10 AM
I was being a bit tongue in cheek in my last post about bringing back Boycott & Tavare, and that is where the 'boring' tag came from amongst the non-cricketing people, I can remember Boycs & Tavare staying there all day for about 100 runs and just blocking out the bowlers, but that's where the Tactics come in in trying to prise them out.

I recall 'Beefy' Botham deliberately getting Geoff Boycott out in an attempt to get the run rate up

Christchurch new Zealand 78. Good memory.

Just completed the ECB supporters survey regarding the future of men's professional cricket, lets say the final question is a free format response which I basically said get rid of the 100 it is destroying the international and county games

Well Andrew Strauss has released his 'High Performance Review' of Mens cricket and guess what??? They're playing too much cricket!!! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/62688060

Unfortunately 'The Hundred' stays until at least 2028 

He proposes a smaller top division in the Championship and fewer days of cricket, but doesn't explain how this is going happen!!!

Discuss???

Cheers

Neal.

Well that makes depressing reading along with no August test matches in future. Interesting the comments on BBC's HYS, generally saying the same thing, remove the 100, invest in the Blast and a decent one day competition and of course red ball cricket throughout the summer including August.

As a little aside one of my brother in laws was round for lunch today, asked if I had been watching the cricket, yes I have been watching the test match but not the stupid hundred. He asked what's wrong with the 100 as he thinks its brilliant watchin the ball been wacked around the ground. Obviously I let fly with all that's wrong with the 100 followed by asking him some questions on the rules, unfortunately he didn't understand many of the rules especially around the number of balls that can be balled etc.

Seems even the 100 is far to difficult for non cricket lovers to get there head round, mission accomplished by the ECB
 

And then we win with ease in three days.

Will make the Oval match more interesting as the series decider, hope the weather stays good for the whole match, and Stokes's knee holds up.

To be fair, IMHO, the England batting was far more considered before they 'cut loose' rather than trying to thrash every ball for 6 from the start. It has long been considered good form to get yourself in and then play strokes. I'm certain this paid off and, backed up by some superb bowling today (especially with the new ball), took a massive victory on what looked to me a strange wicket resulting in varying bounce.
Stoke's knee injury remains a mystery to me as the physioterrorist appeared to work magic on what, at first, appeared much worse.
Roll on the decider

Saw this thread and though NN was looking for an N gauge team

For years it was difficult to follow cricket over here in the US, but we now have a dedicated cable cricket channel called 'Willow' which I am very thankful for! Personally I have enjoyed the Hundred, partly because there is an Oval based team but mainly because of the exposure it has given to Womens Cricket. I can however see that between Test Cricket, 50 over one day white ball cricket, T20 and the Hundred the game has become too fragmented. I am not sure which formats will survive, but surely they all cannot.

There are efforts to set up a league system over here and we are in the 3rd season of 'Minor League Cricket' which so far is a T20 format. We have a Philadelphia based side, which is a 'professional' team, but to be honest they play in local parks with only a spattering of fans. To an English ex pat it is interesting to see that their most recognizable player is an English World Cup winner from 2019, Liam Plunkett. Apparently he married a local Philly girl and moved here after his retirement from English cricket. Still, from small green shoots...

I don't have room on my layout for a cricket pitch, but for those that do...

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/osbfn065-n-gauge-cricket-match-painted-51559-p.asp

Thanks for that post, Mike. Interesting to hear Liam Plunkett has fetched up over there!