You get the impression with Freddie that even if he hasn't been drinking, he's naturally half-cut :greengrin
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I was always a bit wary of T20 as I thought it was a genuine threat to Test cricket. Faster with the important moments jammed into a shorter timespan, the curse of our age.
I get how exciting it is though and I've got friends who got into cricket generally as a result of watching it. And I'm heartened by the last England-WI Test which went to the final session of the final day, plus the success of the Bangladesh side, developing into a real force. That reinforces the strength of the Test format in my mind.
I believe Edgbaston has been awarded the T20 Finals day for 2018, I'll definitely be looking to attend :agree:
I think we should look at India - IPL plus very strong 50-over and 20-over international sides PLUS some of the best women's and junior cricket organisations in the game. I see no reason why a batter shouldn't be able to work out which kind of cricket he/she is playing and adjust his/her game accordingly. Nor why a governing body shouldn't be able to organise the game to emulate the Indians.
I don't think test cricket as such is under threat (yet) - but it isn't helped by matches like the previous test against WI or one or two of the SA tests? The saving of the SA series was that the series itself went to the last match. It does need to 'improve the product' shall we say? Dead rubbers and meaningless last days are utterly counterproductive.
I think Sky's presentation of test cricket - the presenters and pundits are very good and FAR superior to all but a very few of the alleged "experts" who pontificate on association football - doesn't hurt. Watch and listen, and the new viewer can learn a whole lot.
And I do wish televised sport generally was a lot less dependent on the betting companies.
I've come to REALLY LOATHE Ray Winstone - and BetFred, and all the rest of them. Every single break in play - "Oi bet responsibly wiv Bet-free-six-foive ..." :grr:
A decent day for Jimmy Anderson. :greengrin
Very good day and Test for Jimmy Anderson :agree:
How long he can keep pulling it out I don't know. I would love to see his figures since he turned thirty, compared to his career stats, as once he finally found his true form he has never stopped delivering (no pun intended).
Fascinating Test series. I'm on holiday so have been relying on a little bit of TMS and mostly press reports for coverage of the last Test.
For the Windies they can take a great deal away, Shai Hope looks a bit special. There were times, especially fielding in the second Test when they looked like they had great team spirit.
Brathwaite looks to to have real potential, maybe needs a bit more durability to his game. I'd be more concerned if I was the other Hope or Powell. Blackwood has the air of someone who could develop into quite an insouciant lower-order batsman, especially if there was more robustness above him in the batting order.
Gabriel and Holder are big men. With a bit of discipline, Gabriel in particular, you wouldn't fancy facing them on a hard pitch. Bishoo is a quandary. He reminds me of English spinners, somewhere before and around the time Warne (and Murali) showed that a spinner could be a match winner in the modern game. England went through several of them, none ever truly inspiring confidence. For every five-for you would get several mediocre performances and then some truly abject ones.
As for England, it's an intriguing position with no more Tests before the Ashes. Stoneman has probably done enough to scrape through, there is talk of Ballance replacing Westley. I think the Australians will be happy enough either way.
On a sadder note, I only found out after the match that this was Henry Blofeld's last commentary for TMS. He really was entertaining, a fine cricket knowledge but with a penchant to allow the commentary to go a-wandering between deliveries, whether to comment on the buses going past the ground or some wry critique of how a particular spectator was dressed. He will be missed.
Not sure how that's going to go - I can see some of the England players getting a bit of a rude awakening.
An Ashes series isn't just cricket - it's S&M cricket. Blood will flow.
Still, looking forward to it, and I'm retired - there's nae problem in my hoose. Night will turn to day. :greengrin
:greengrin
The Ashes is the making of players. I grew up with it being a steady slaughter of every new English hope facing a relentless Australian bowling and batting side. It's hard to appreciate just how good they were - Hayden and Langer were perhaps the greatest opening partnership since Greenidge and Haynes. Then you had McGrath, the human metronome and Warne, a match winner in his own right. And then Gilchrist, a game changer in his own right! Plus a back-up cast of great players. And prior to them, the Waughs, Steve being one of the best players of all time and Mark being one of the most effortless and classy. With them batting and Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes bowling, you knew you were in for a battle!
England obviously turned a corner around ten years ago, credit to Vaughan and Strauss and the players around them. They've become a competitive team and a team that's transitioned, losing the likes of Swann, Pietersen and Flintoff yet moving on. I think they will struggle when they lose Cook and Anderson, that sounds entirely predictable, but it's a bit like Australia when the players mentioned above started to retire.
Im excited about the Ashes. For the likes of Stoneman and whoever else gets picked for two, three and five it will be like you say. Baptism of fire. What I would love is for Root to man up and move to number three. I think Baylis wants it but we shall see.
Glad that there will be at least two of us burning the midnight oil when the time comes :greengrin
That will be a big change if it's moving to BT. I've almost preferred listening to TMS than watching it live on TV, crazy as it sounds. When Channel 4 had it however, they did a really good job. Sky's coverage has been reasonable.
Im not sure who BT would bring in. The guys on ABC in Australia tend to be good and there are a few Australian cricket writers who are impressive, don't know if Gideon Haigh is still active but his work for the Guardain was always insightful.
As I think Doddie mentioned earlier, the standard of commentary and punditry in the cricket coverage is far, far better than football, and it's hard to fathom why.
Hopefully BT make a decent fist of it. Their other coverage has been okay and programmes like the European Football Show on a Sunday evening were absolutely superb, though I think I read it had been axed unfortunately.
Thanks for that. I like Swann a lot, he's good on commentary. Vaughan is decent on TMS. Greg James will probably be fine, the main presenter needs to be good at continuity, which is his stock in trade as a radio presenter. Similarly I think someone like Jeremy Kyle would be ideal as the next MOTD host .
So, James Vince gets the no.3 slot, despite not particularly impressive performances when capped before.
It really does call into question the policy of letting Root pick his place. First in is where you need your best, someone with the temperament to cope with waiting and at the same time someone who can come right in and deal with the new ball. Root brings both those facets to the table.
I like Root but it feels like the fringe players are the sacrificial lambs here. Root averages in the forties at three, which is Test class but I think is in the sixties at four, which is world class. It's a team game though and England would probably get more out the fringe players if they were bled in lower down the order.
Stokes is obviously a bit of a type.
Indeed he is. Pretty shocking stuff
https://youtu.be/Cvx07mUJCj4
Looks like Pattinson will miss the Ashes for the Aussies. The talk was they were thinking of going with four quickies in Brisbane and possibly throughout the series (and certainly in Perth), along with Lyons, which puts a fair bit of pressure on the top order to perform (and the bowlers to do well with the bat, for that matter).
On the other hand if England were facing a constant rotation of Starc , Hazlewood, Cummings and Pattinson (now likely to be Coulter-Nile), that's going to ramp up the pressure on the newbies in the English team. It's easy to picture some of the aforementioned quartet acquiring some bunnies from this touring side.
Other factor is I don't think there's an obvious number six batsman for Australia at the moment which may encourage them to go very attacking.
Cant wait for it :greengrin
Make that 4 of us, though without Stokes I think the Aussies will have a much easier time.
Whether the police charge him or not, I'm not sure England can afford to take him out there. Our colonial chums just love to get Pommie red meat to savage, and red meat's exactly what he'll be.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41589080
More trouble for Stokes. :rolleyes: