The IPL starts. The County Championship starts later this week. Wisden has its five cricketers of the year. Fire away below….
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Being Outside Cricket 
Is the best way for cricket lovers to send a clear message to Mr Harrison and the ECB this year – go and watch the Nat West Blast?
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I think so.
On the five cricketers of the year only Duckett surprised me. Thought it could be a Jason Roy or Alex Hales.
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It appears the blasts increasing success (growing crowds) is exactly why it has to be destroyed. It has become a threat to those who want to reorganise English 20/20 cricket for their own financial ends.
“We have to destroy the village to save it.”
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The 90s, they were terrible, you know:
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The award did go to Driving Ambition by the Comma a few years ago.
The prosecution rests, your honour.
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And no-one needs reminding about the 2005 winner….
It’s good to know that Comma has as many wins as Gideon Haigh, isn’t it?
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Not read Comma’s book (I really can’t be arsed with sporting autobiographies, with the gloriously invective spewing exception that is KP’s) but I have read Emma John’s along with half a dozen or so others and it was definitely my favourite. Perhaps 28 Days Data could have pushed it close, and it definitely had the most affecting moment when Adam Hollioake is talking about his brother.
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The editor appears to have gone against the DM’s editorial stance on Morgan and Bangladesh https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/05/wisden-comes-out-fighting-free-to-air-cricket-coverage-england-alastair-cook
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As a fan whose collection of Wisdens currently stands at zero, it’s still good to see just how far disillusionment about the ECB’s competence really goes. Even though I’m not against T20, I’m against ill thought-out, transparent false-flag operations carried out by dishonest marketing shysters. Laurence Booth appears to share at least some of these concerns, right at the heart of the cricketing establishment.
Meanwhile, Somerset to be champions. Lancs and Warks to go down. Notts and Kent to go up. My team, Northants, to go bust just before the Finals Day for which they have qualified again, after the ECB refuse them an emergency bailout.
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I haven’t seen anything from Booth either in the quotes from Wisden or on Twitter that opposes this new tournament. I’ll gladly stand correction on either of those.
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I think Lawrence Booth is broadly in favour of the new T20 city-based tournament. Wisden is puzzlingly silent on the whole debate, which is odd considering it will be such a major event in shaping the future of English cricket. I can only surmise that Wisden has adopted an editorial approach that is more let’s wait and see and give it a chance rather than join a debate that has already been well aired and been fairly devisive. Booth likes, I think, to choose his battles judiciously and wisely, and who can blame him for that, especially when the plans are still long on ambition yet short on detail.
He does say: “An English city-based tournament will probably be with us in 2020, but it would have been sooner had the counties not argued over the details. It is a delay our game can barely afford, not least because part of the new competition’s allure will be the free-to-air coverage.”
And this is where Booth offers the full editorial weight of this term’s Wisden: “The debate over free-to-air cricket has disappeared so far up its own fundament that a basic truth has been lost: the sport needs viewers as much as it needs cash and coaches. Why else are the ECB pushing for terrestrial coverage in 2020? It’s a nice idea. Here’s hoping it’s not too late.”
Of course, George Dobell’s point is that the money, marketing and FTA visibility could have been made available to the Blast. Booth is less sure that the Blast has what it takes, suggesting Colin Graves may have been on to something when he described the Blast as mediocre.
If the ECB’s “significant free-to-air exposure” turns out to be little more than a series of 15-second vids on Twitter with some highlights on YouTube or something similar, I suspect Booth may think very differently about the entire enterprise.
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Tregaskis gets it right, with one extra consideration.
Wisden is a publication that takes months to compile in a sport that flits from northern hemisphere season to southern season with barely a moment to take a deep breath.
Given the book was put to bed while the story was still in its infancy and given it still has time to run, it is hardly surprising that Booth hasn’t provided a more forthright opinion.
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Laurence will take a lot of heat for this. Or will he? Does anyone care anymore anymore about English cricket?
But he nails the ECB on almost every issue. The Durham debacle is particularly unpleasant and shows the ECB is a very bad light. When did they decide relegation would be enforced? Does anyone seriously believe they decided right at the end of the season?
The tour schedule of England was a joke, and even Cook decided it was time to go. Non singing of the national anthem even gets a mention. This will enrage the knuckle draggers.
I’m still not sure how the ECB intends to bring back free to air cricket because money is their only God. Which 8 games are they going to show of the new hoopla? Will it be the early matches with the finals left to Sky? That doesn’t sound like much of new dawn. Or will they let free to air for the final? If so the value Sky will bid will come down. They like “exclusive” rights.
Creating a buzz on social media only works if the sweet young things have even heard of cricket in the first place.
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Surrey to win all 3 competitions but to be demoted and deducted 48 points for the 2018 competition when their T20 team tests positive for illegal levels of Kevin Pietersen.
By way of compensation a gold statue of Alec Stewart will be installed permanently on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square and a portrait of KP will replace the one of Wellington currently on the wall of the British Embassy in Paris.
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Cook is missing the first Essex game with a sore hip. The cynic in me says perhaps he doesn’t want to be shown up by Div 1 bowlers especially Jimmy A.
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That might be a bit harsh. Still, if for some reason he failed to make many runs between now and July, and there were other batsmen pushing for a place, the England selectors would have a genuine dilemma.
(Sarcastic? Me? Perish the thought…)
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Actually, is it me or is “soreness” becoming the de rigueur ailment for England’s finest?
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-england-2016-17/content/story/1072644.html
It seems to be a bit of a catch-all term that might be being used to avoid having to give more specific descriptions such as, “strained muscle” or, “the wrong side of 30 and physically knackered after a decade on the international treadmill.”
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Update on this story:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/05/cricketer-mustafa-bashir-spared-jail-after-beating-wife-with-bat-faces-sentence-review
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Looks like Leicestershire are in the clear and should hopefully emerge from this untainted, although that’s far from the most important consideration in this story.
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Is it possible that Leicestershire sue this idiot for bringing them into disrepute?
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Don’t know – their decisive rebuttal means that their reputation might even be enhanced rather than damaged. He, on the other hand, could now face an additional charge of perjury.
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Enjoying the start of the IPL. This is hardly news, I always enjoy the start of the IPL. It’s in 2 weeks time when all I’ve had is overhyped branding and bovine commentary that I start flagging.
Still, it would be nice if the same over-excitement that greets the 1st “maximum” of the tournament was also extended to the first forward defensive or leave outside off-stump of the County Championship.
Oh, and Warner getting 14 in the first innings of the match was plenty enjoyable.
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Good start to the tournament from Tymal Mills. Beauty of a ball to get Yuvraj Singh.
Annoyingly, Shane Warne is making sense summarising for Sky. Sadly Moeen Ali is rather superlative with Rob Key in the studio.
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Yes. Tymal bowled very well. Rob displayed the same lack of bowlers and thought process as always. One decent spinner is not enough in India for most teams irrespective of the format.
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Rcb not Rob Key.
☺
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