Nottingham Weather Forecast:
That’s hopeful.
With the faint hope that West Indies would need to qualify for the World Cup if they won this series 4-0, or something like that gone, now (yes I know it is a 5 game series) any relevant motivation on the context scale is gone. Attention turns to a ground where runs flow, big innings ensue and the real meaning of ODI cricket is on show. Heck, if it’s not raining it might even start on time. Will the visitors come out blazing and set a massive score if they bat first, or will they rely on just one or two gun batsmen to do the work (assuming Universe Boss can be arsed)? Thinking of putting a random quote from “Six Machine” every day until the end of the series. Opened the book and came to this…
Obviously not a reader of the Andy Flower Cook Book. (Yet again – I got this book for 1p plus p&p from Amazon. I have not read it yet. Just by the size of the font, I don’t think it is going to take long. Tom Fordyce of the Beeb ghosted it. Interesting.)
Back to tomorrow. England will probably be unchanged – Bairstow now has that top slot nailed down. I think the next name on the list to face a challenge might be David Willey – I really don’t think he’s international class – but that would be being picky. And late September is not a time to be overly bothered. We rarely play this late in the year, and there is nothing for it but to watch what we see, and yearn for two months time and the Ashes.
Comments below. Got things to do tomorrow on my week off, so may not be around for the whole of the game. Or I might with this forecast!
Being Outside Cricket 
Well, given that there might not be much cricket to talk about I thought I’d put this link here . . .
Strauss actually makes a public comment
Nothing to worry about, as we’re dealing with decent, upstanding and worthy fellows. I might even say he’s deflated that issue with aplomb.
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Odds against supportive tweet containing words “unimpeachable” or “integrity” from former Middlesex bowler also known to support people saying “cunt” on air?
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Strauss defends a conflict of interest so blatant even Sir Beefy can see it on grounds that 1) the selectors say there isn’t (Mandy Rice-Davis alert!) 2) it wouldn’t be the only reason a player moves county (did anyone say it was?) 3) there isn’t because he says so (which isn’t going to convince anyone those impressed by those “in the know”).
Other happy news is that having given England a new toy to play with, the first signs are emerging that they’ve broken it (TRJ has a back injury) and Mark Wood’s ankle is still so bad he can’t play in a CC game where he’d need to be making his case for Ashes’ selection.
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May sound slightly silly, but is quite noticeable that both England and Australia have issues with injury management to bowlers, especially considering the resources (both money and player-wise) they have at hand. It is not like either team of this has a small medical team (like for instance Zimbabwe will have), or but a few quicks available to them – both nations must have 10-20 quality quicks available. And while there might be a drop in quality if you pick say Wiley over Woakes (just an example, I am really not too sure where either of them stand in the pecking order for ODIs), it won’t be massively costly.
After all, this is not an ICC tournament. And if it is perfectly “normal” to rest Stokes for a home T20I (in other words, giving the middle finger to Durham and their supporters), then I really don’t see the problem with resting ANYONE for a pointless bilateral ODI series.
What I suspect though, is that since the ECB has the central contracts in place, and centrally contracted players are paid quite well, that the best way to insure a “return of investment” is by flogging the players to death. There is no reason why Stokes or Root should even be playing this ODI series.
I suspect the spate of injuries to TRJ, Woakes, Wood, Cummins and such has a lot more to do with the bottomline than people want to think. And honestly, administrators treating players like disposable assets is really nothing too outrageous these days.
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Dobell has some extras that the Guardian doesn’t:
1) Jennings is about to go to Notts.
2) Strauss also said “I know what goes on in selection meetings” which would seem to confirm he attends most of them.
3) “They are exceptionally conscious of when they might be compromised and will ensure they will not have an input in those matters when it may be seen that they have a conflict of interest”. So let’s say the choice of openers has boiled down to Robson vs. Jennings… how does that work?
4) “Those selectors’ job are part-time roles”. Because you’ve decided they will! Strauss speaks as if it’s a fact of nature rather than an ECB choice.
5) “They are two outstanding individuals”. Has Strauss been looking up “good men” in his new gender-neutral thesaurus?
6 “Currently, I am very comfortable with where we are.” With three bodies positioned between him and the blame, I’m sure he is.
Meanwhile, the future has just arrived as SA have announced they are playing a D/N Test scheduled to last for… four days.
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Well, BCCI screwing CSA over. Again. Because obviously West Indies in the Caribbean are a much sterner challenge to India than South Africa could ever be in South Africa.
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Clearly SA’s punishment is still on.
Read on CSA’s site that India might come sometime in January.
I thought SA sent so many players to play in Pakistan to get them to come and play here over December and New Year but it appears not. It looks like it will be Zimbabwe over Boxing Day. The future for SA ??
India would have had a perfect chance to beat SA this time around. They don’t have a bad team and SA is on the way out. Steyn out, Big Vern injured and battling to bowl more than 5 overs a day. Morkel on his last legs. Morris injured – I’m sad that he couldn’t really make the step up to test cricket. Amla dodgy, on his last legs too. AB more interested to sit on the sofa and fart around on social media. The only silver linings are Rabada and Q. Typical Duminy bailing out when we need him (desperate times call for desperate measures !!). To top it off, we are in a severe drought. The pitches might have been more to India’s liking.
The selectors don’t want to bite the bullet and get a youngster like Markram to open and it looks like picking a 34-year old and discarding them as crap after a handful of tests has fallen out of favour. It appears Bavuma might open against Bangladesh.
The future of SA cricket is bleak. I cannot see them challenge England and Australia again.
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That is a pretty weird comment. India travel to SA just 4 days after series against SL in India gets over. The reason SA got into trouble is because they scheduled the OZ series to start in March and naturally, there is no way they could accommodate 4 tests starting from Jan and ending before March with 5 ODIs and few T-20s in the mix. if SA wanted 4 tests, they could have reduced the ODIs. I am sure India is more than happy to do so. But , actually, they have added a ODI instead of a test to make more money.
I understand that BCCI is the Empire 🙂 but kindly blame CSA too for this.
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Yes, because the BCCI had to reward Sri Lanka for their own incompetence by forwarding that visit from February to late November. Thus screwing CSA over AGAIN. But I guess, enjoying consecutive 700-run stands for the 4-th 5th and 6-th wicket in the same Test against Sri Lanka is much more interesting to you, than you know, actual competitive cricket.
Funnily enough WICB can screw the BCCI over for an alleged $43 million and still get a 4 Test series ….
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Sadly, your bias is obvious. If CSA is such an angel, they could have canceled or reduced the odis and t 20s and had four tests. The t-20s and odis could have been played later or minimized. It suited CSA to increase the Lois rather than insist on four tests. But, you still want to insist that the CSA is the victim. There is no point in wasting time discussing this with you. From here on in, I limit any responses to you to non bcci related comments you make.
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Sri Lanka was supposed to visit SA over December. CSA thought India might be more profitable (true, sadly; mainly because SA’s huge Indian population flock to the cricket when India visits plus the tv money). Sri Lanka was told nicely to rather find someone else to play with – beautiful irony that Sri Lanka found the very team that was supposed to visit SA. So, SA is left high and dry while Sri Lanka and India enjoy a game of cricket.
Mind you, CSA is not blameless here. After the last debacle, CSA should have learned it’s better to get signatures on paper. Something one can take to court. “A man’s word is his bond” might mean something between you and me; in the world of business it means buggerall.
The sad truth is: it’s all right to run down the USA, South Africa, England and Australia but don’t you dare touch the BCCI (by extension India) – not to mention the All Blacks! Some things are very much untouchable and many people get mighty upset if anyone’s point of view opposes theirs.
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Is that you Ankur Thurag? What are you doing here?
My “bias” is that I hate BCCI / ECB / CA / CSA / ZC / WICB / SLC / BCB / NZC fanbois like you. But hey, if you want to pretend that the BCCI are such angels be my guest. It works for you, because nothing can be more exciting that SLC’s upcoming tour of India. If they win three tosses, that is already an improvement over the excellent performance they put up in Sri Lanka itself. But I suppose, you’re fearing such dramatic improvements in the performance of Sri Lanka …
As for the decision of CSA to have more ODIs – well, geez, if you starve them of cash, like the BCCI, ECB and CA were only too happy to do (they were not even included in the Test Fund in the original Big 3 proposal, for which apparently we should blame Sofia Vergara), then yes, what do you expect them to do? I know you would prefer the SA players to be paid in peanuts. Weaker opposition = easier time for India, which is win-win in your book.
After Srini decided in 2013, that the BCCI should decide who runs CSA, that meant CSA had to seriously downsize. So any bit of money that comes their way, they will take it. Hell, they could have paid $5 million / Test, and CSA would ensure that Kohli et al. would only have to face a bunch of beach volleyball players, for a “historic series win”, which you would term as “ultra competitive cricket”.
A certain AB de Villiers can’t be bothered to play Tests for little pay (he gets more from 1 IPL game than playing a season of Test cricket for South Africa), unless it is against India (due
to sponsorship contracts), and of course in the IPL. Simply because that is where the money is.
Your proposal is to strip CSA and other boards of even more money, so that the players can literally be paid peanuts (and thus make it easier for England / Australia / India to poach talent / ensure that no other team is competitive against them), and the BCCI can hand out the contracts for 30 international stadiums in India, which will see an average of 2 days of play / year in international games (unless the BCCI are going to do what England did in the past, and have 2 tours running simultaneously, which will run into problems of their own as well).
And thus pay more in subsidies for 30 venues that are hardly ever used in in the international game, than 95% of cricket playing nations in the world get COMBINED. But hey, fanbois don’t care about growing the sport.
Can’t blame AB (and Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Pollard, Brendan Taylor, and the next batch of “mercenaries” for choosing money over a meaningless concept such as pride, which won’t pay any bills, but you can’t expect players to be dedicated to Tests, if they don’t make decent money out of it. Obviously, there is more than money at stake, but I suspect that Virat Kohli makes more out of cricket and endorsements in a year than pretty much the entire SA Test squad will make in their careers, probably inclusive of the IPL.
But obviously, if CSA want to get money in, they need to reduce the number of Tests to get some hard needed money in. You obviously, prefer to blame the victim of starvation for grabbing what they can, when the thief who has stolen his livelihood finally shows up for a handout, like any good dubious politician would do in election time. So, excuse me that I don’t find much nobility in the the “humanitarian actions” of the BCCI (or CA and the ECB for that matter).
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I thought this was actually a relatively simple issue. The BCCI, still staffed by many of the same characters as a decade ago, hold the attempts to govern the international game instituted under Haroon Lorgat’s reign, against Mr Lorgat. Haroon is now head of CSA. Death of a Gentleman certainly had that as part of the issue. Daryl Cullinnan has just said the same in an interview on Cricinfo.
But any sympathy I had with CSA has gone out of the window with this four day test bollocks. A single act which will lead to the fucking up of the greatest sporting contest ever devised (in my opinion). It will encourage empty vessels like Shiny Toy. Thin end of the wedge.
The BCCI are not the only problem, but they can, and will, be the biggest one if naked self-interest takes over. Yes, that’s rich coming from England, but Ithink you’ll find Sri, that the denizens of this blog don’t exactly think of England as the paragon of virtue, and India as the root of all evil.
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@prime evil,
As far as I know, no one is running down south africa. I am merely pointing out that CSA had the option of insisting on 4 tests. They did not but chose to have an extra odi because the period was smaller. They could have had 3 odis and fitted in 4 tests. I am sure the BCCI would not have objected especially as most bilateral odis are pretty much meaningless but for the money. But,weirdly continuing to play the victim card is downright weird
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@d’arthez
“Is that you Ankur Thurag? What are you doing here?”
oru paanai sotrukku oru soru patham. In Tamil, it means that one grain of cooked rice indicates how well the food has been cooked.
Your starting statement shows that I was right in my conclusion of bias and my decision not to respond to any comments you make on BCCI .Honestly, I do not know if you are English. But, if you are, I am pretty much disappointed with the fall in the standards of the famed British humor. Pretty much a very childish response.
I look forward to debating other points on cricket with you. Have a good day.
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@LCL,
Major decisions in BCCI are not taken by the existing old guard but by the court appointed administrators and many suggestions of the old guard have been overruled by the new CoA.
I have no particular fondness for the current CoA of BCCI. But, to think that the BCCI is still carrying on the fight against Lorgat is probably good publicity for Lorgat to position himself as a man put under a disadvantage 🙂
In actual reality, CSA could have played 4 tests if they wished to. They chose not to. Haroon Lorgat or CSA are not the victims in this case.They were when Srini was in power.
I have no particular negative opinion of ECB as I do not follow English cricket administration just as I do not follow indian cricket administration. Nor do i think that Englishmen preach but not practice on cricket administration. 🙂
I am well aware of how most english posters on this forum view the ECB.
I also think that when people vote with their feet and watch meaningless t-20s and ODIs compared to Tests, just blaming ECB/BCCI/CA/other boards is not a solution. We have to grapple with the fact that preferences of the younger generation have changed and be prepared to accept the change however much we may personally dislike it.
The star tv ceo is clear in his article which I referred to a while back. When money is not being generated in Tests, it only means that pushing tests will result in a lower sized pie. Will players accept it? Not sure.
I personally think this situation is similar to the book who moved my cheese.
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Dear Sri,
Please do me a favour and google “stuck record”
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@ prime evil. How did you know what was in my mind? amazing. When i read your earlier response about how only SA , USA, England, Oz etc get blamed but BCCI and All Blacks aren’t supposed to be blamed, I did think of a stuck record. 🙂
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For those a bit newer to here, a reminder that we don’t moderate unless absolutely necessary, preferring our commenters to sort things out between themselves. So just make sure everyone plays nice. We think of it as the Mark Rule.
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I hope the so called Mark rule has nothing to do with me?
Although I welcome the grown up approach to as little modding as possible I can’t take any of the credit for it.
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This is typical Strauss. Contradictions and hypocrisy reign. First off he claims that
Strauss said: “[Botham] is 100% wrong if he’s implying that [Coughlin] has gone there on the back of one of our selectors saying he’s got a better chance of playing for England coming to my county. They won’t say that. And if they did, that would be a problem.”
So why does he then say further down the article…
“I believe that if players are going to move, they are thinking about the quality of the club, their chances of playing and how that might further their chances of playing for England.”
So now he is claiming which county you play for might improve your chances of playing for England!! Which is it Mr Strauss? And why does a certain county increase you chances? Is this an admission you don’t select on merit? (We already know that anyway after KP and that you have veto power of selection”
Just because a selector doesn’t say something publicly doesn’t mean that stuff doesn’t goes on in the background. I do love the obsession with the ECB to claim that everyone they employ is an outstanding individual. As if anyone takes that with a pinch of salt.
As usual we get the same contradiction and clap trap about the Ashes….
“Strauss, who will also sit in on the meeting, described England as “in a great position” to defend the urn but also conceded they will be travelling to Australia at the end of October without “absolute clarity on what our best XI is”.
WTF? Great position, but don’t know what their best team is? Probably because so many will be out injured. Who’s fault is that Mr Strauss? Cough cough…… work players into the ground….cough cough
As Simon says….. he has a job where responsibility is kept at levels below him. No wonder he wants to go in to politics. He talks shit, takes no responsibility, and it is always someone else fault. He should be Prime Minister. He has all the skills Macavelli demands in his Prince.
He has the easiest job in English sport. A man with total power, and no responsibility. Money for old rope.
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“He has the easiest job in English sport. A man with total power, and no responsibility. Money for old rope.”
A bit like Mr Flower
I am in Zambia at the moment and able to catch some cricket on the TV – just watching a replay of the AUS – IND match. Saw a bit of the first ENG – WIN ODI. (The quality difference is quite stark).
I saw Hammed as broken his finger. I wonder if we know who the fit 11 is…
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Botham on Sky said he never accused Newell and Fraser of conflict of interest. Hmmmm. ECB TV can’t have that. I wonder if he was given a quiet word to make that absolutely clear or else Durham might me made a minor county or something. Or is Strauss denying an offence he was never accused of more revealing? (the Strauss interview with Sky descends into Downton-esque bollocks at some points).
It then descended into talking about how much it cost to develop a player only to see them move on, and he mentioned £200k for Loughlin. Nasser said there shouldn’t be a transfer market. I was left none the wiser. Botham did contend that Borthwick was near a test place, which shows how much attention he’s paying because Scott can’t even get into the first team at Surrey at the moment. It’s enough to make you go “oh well”.
One final thing that really, really grated. Strauss was interviewed by Matt Floyd. Again. what has Colvile done wrong? Secondly, if you see this on TV check out the location. It’s not just the books on the massive shelves, but it’s the old newspapers lying about, to give it some atmosphere, some context. There are lingering shots over these newspapers at the two protagonists, looking for an arty feel, a man in touch with the game, with the history, steeped in nostalgia, looking to the future. Jesus, it was pretentious codswallop.
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The ECB can’t afford full-time selectors, but they can afford…
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Another free jolly for the boys.
It’s money for old rope. Paid for by all the morons sitting watching this claptrap in September. You freeze so the elite can sun themselves in Barbados next year. Let’s hope a hurricane doesn t come in and blow them all away!!
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Oh dear. Gayle is out of today’s match with a hamstring. (Wonder how many paid to watch him alone?) Did it at Manchester apparently. Which doesn’t say much for playing at this time of the year. Nor is it a good advert for the claim by Nasser that the modern player just flys in and out with out any preparation or acclimatising.
Could have happened to anyone I suppose, but it seems you are asking for trouble with this sort of shedule in the cold.
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The biggest surprise about this is that Mark Nicholas is the author and not Michael Vaughan….
“Vince is a potentially exciting pick. Ask around the new-ball bowlers and they tell you he can bat better than anyone out there when his mind is switched on. He had a run against Pakistan and Sri Lanka last summer, rather as Westley and latterly Malan have had this summer. He made some 30s and 40s – promising innings but hardly deliverance. The bowlers who rate him understandably worry that he gets caught at cover, but add, with some relish, that he is “a proper player”.
This may sound ridiculous, but you have to show Australia you can play. If you scratch around in that English way of polite nudge and hurdle, you are history. If you stare them down and play a few good shots in response to provocation, you will soon win over the whole country. It is the one reason Hales should be considered. He hugely impresses in one-day cricket and wowed them in the Big Bash, a show which, for better or worse, makes many a name. Australians are conscious of his ability and thrust but they have pinned him back in a couple of one-day games and are waiting to see what else he has got. Now, you may reasonably say that delighting a T20 audience is no kind of a barometer for the selection of a touring party for five Test matches in Australia. Fair enough, but there are seven batsmen listed here who might step onto the Gabba at first drop, and the only one with an unarguable case is the captain, who doesn’t think it his best spot. Choosing the right man is a damn difficult and risky business.”
Pick him becaise when he gets out he chucks it away with a wild drive when it isn’t there rather than a defensive prod or a whiff across the line. My giddy aunt!
See also, Hales who was given 11 tests?
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Why do you have to show Australians you can play? How is that different to any other team?
Why does an England player need to win over the whole country of Australia? If that is even possible. Who cares what they think?
Are they going to bowl badly at you if they think you can play? Are they going to serve up half volleys because you have WON them over? This is drivel.
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You could hit six sixes off Mitchell Starc’s first over of the series and Ian Healy wouldn’t be impressed and Mark Waugh would get your name wrong….
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Well, to be fair to the Australians, you could be playing 100 Tests for your country, and the people in charge still spell it wrong.
Any update from Etheridge on that story?
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Exactly!
The longing to be loved by Austalians is a weird concept. Mark Nicholas spends too much time down under with the likes of one eyed Healey.
I always liked the Mike Atherton story about being harangued by Healy for not walking, and his reply …..”when in Rome.”
I doubt Healy had even heard of Rome. Probably thought it was a new type of shark.
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Match abandoned after 2.2 overs. It can rain anytime in England of course, but I have zero sympathy if you hold it at this time of the year. Farcical.
This follows the reduced over afair at Manchester when the ground was wet. And the freezing cold night at Durham. People who buy tickets for these events. (And events they are, not cricket matches of note) are out of their minds. Although in their defence they have been starved of any cricket by the ECB orgainsers so they are desperate to see something however thin gruel it may be.
We move south for the grand finale now. I can hardly wait.
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The Ashes on BT Sport. I think this is the biggest shift in viewing cricket since 2005. It was annoying then. Guess what? It’s annoying now, too. How much is BT Sport? I am on Virgin, on a basic, naff package and I catch up on cricket online using a family member’s Sky Go. I generally resent paying for TV. Actually, I generally resent paying for anything. Can I sign up on a month by month basis? Can I be bothered? Are they likely to have any other cricket on the channel in the future?
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From my experience watching the Australian Tests last winter, expect lots of enthusiastic comments about BT’s coverage during the first Test (“breathe of fresh air”, “takes analysis to a new level”, and so on) to a distinct cooling-off by the third Test (“don’t they jabber on?”, “did my phone bill pay for that huge studio?” and the like).
They lost Ricky Ponting to the BBL and that left us in the hands of Shiny Toy, Lovejoy and the Godfather (aka Greg James – I’ll leave you to work that one out but let’s just say don’t expect to hear much criticism of certain senior players if the tour goes tits-up).
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I have to say I was hugely disappointed by BT’s coverage last year. Their highlights show, my main point of entry, was all over the shop. Sky have it perfected for the one hour. 48 minutes long, A short intro, and three relatively even periods for each session (tapering it if there are rain delays, longer evening session). BT put advert breaks all over the shop and stopped for some old bunny. And they love a bit of old bunny (for my overseas friends, it means they talk – a lot).
I really want cricket producers to have non players as broadcasters. So while I might have some issues with Greg James as the head, I admire the fact they didn’t just go with an ex-pro. That said, Simon has the link down-pat – he’s very friendly with our 500 man – which may have got him the gig. I don’t know, something about his head gently bobbing about and those god-awful checked shirts puts me off. That and he shares a studio with two people who look into the mirror each day and remind themselves of their true love. Three pundits is four too many in my eyes.
It’s not scratch your eyeballs out time, but BT would do well to poach a clearly underused Charles Colvile to take the show on in some capacity. And let him off the leash – he owes nothing to the ECB or their in-house TV channel. Greg James is going to be really under the microscope. I’m not sure he’s up to it.
The main question is are they going to have their own commentary team or take 9’s. If so, who is going to fill it? The fear is that it’s Shiny Toy, Lovejoy and god help us with the rest if Ponting can only do a couple of the games.
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Greg James isn’t doing it this year, according to Charlie Sale. I suspect he couldn’t negotiate the time off from his Radio 1 show to go to Australia. Which does beg the question as to why BT took him on last year, which was a obvious dress rehearsal for the Ashes, when they hadn’t sorted out his availability for this winter, but anyway…!
It’ll be Matt Smith (former ITV football presenter, who did work on the IPL for ITV) at the reins instead. He’s a very good presenter IMHO and he should also do a good critical interview. I have high hopes.
I’m keen on the BT coverage because, apart from anything else, it’s being produced by the same guys at Sunset and Vine who did C4 cricket. In my view, that C4 programme has never been bettered, and it’s great to have S&V producing live English test cricket again.
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Nicholas,
Thanks. After a while searching I came across this…
Geoff Boycott, one of cricket’s best-known pundits, is expected to be part of BT Sport’s team for the Ashes this winter.
Boycott is in negotiations to join a group of analysts that will include Michael Vaughan, Graeme Swann, Ricky Ponting and Damien Fleming.
All-round sports broadcaster Matt Smith will present the coverage, replacing Greg James, the original choice, who is no longer available after preferring to sign a BBC deal to present a new entertainment show.
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Matt Smith?! I remember when he did Go 4 It! – a children’s show on Sunday’s on Radio 4.
I suspect the cricket will be equally, breathlessly and vacuously presented.
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Talking about disappointing coverage. Many years ago when the SABC in South Africa still broadcast sporting events, they covered The Open. That year they went big – from the very first ball hit they were on air. Eventually it came down to the last hole – I think 2 players were tied or one shot difference between them. SABC told us, “Sorry, but we can’t delay the news any further. Don’t worry, we’ll record the final bits.” People phoned in to complain. Afterwards we were told that we were ungrateful to complain. They did show us the whole tournament live – just not the last hole.
The SABC used to show advert breaks after each over. Meaning the ads would overrun and the first delivery would be missed. Hard luck if the bowler was a spinner with a short run-up and the batsmen wasn’t interested in taking runs. We’d join the cricket just in time to see the last delivery. Then back to the ads. I always felt the cricket was interrupting the ads every now and then.
Supersport will more than likely take the Aussie feed during the Ashes.
Pity Michael Atherton won’t be there – I enjoy his commentary. In my opinion the only one who made a smooth transition from player to commentator.
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Ashes’ squad announcement next Wednesday at 10am. Leaks start…. when?
There’s a 20 minute podcast with Strauss on Sky if anyone’s interested.
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Judging by Dmitri’s review of the Strauss interview I will give it a miss. Sounds like the usual corporate bollocks.
I despise the ECB, and the leaders of this fake governing body. They are all corporate shrills who have stolen the game from the public, and are now looting it for their own benefit.
Huge salaries, no accountability. Failure is rewarded, and original thinking is shunned. A corporate culture of “shut up and obey.” This has also dripped into the media. When I see ECB elites interviewed by the very broadcasters who have be given the rights to televise cricket by said elites I think more of the Soviet Union model. Think Stalin being interviewed by Pravda.
Everything is spin doctored, and packaged in a fake way. And if you stand against them they will send you to the cricketing Siberia labour camps, Which means relegate you, take your players and give you a crappy 20/20 in the middle of September.
These people have turned me against my own team. Fuck them?
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Toby Jones has been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the back. Looks like he might be out of the Ashes. Finn on stand by.
England have been incredibly lucky that Broad and Anderson haven’t suffered more injuries seeing how much they have played.
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Broad can’t play in the CC (which has maybe cost Notts promotion) because of a heel injury and it’s difficult not to suspect that his declining effectiveness against WI wasn’t connected to it.
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Sure, but by and large they have not missed too much cricket for England in test matches over the last few years. Hence why they both sit at the top of all time England wicket takers.
So may other bowlers have had injury problems that have either ended or lessened their effectiveness.
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Also worth remembering that both Broad and Anderson missed Tests in last winter’s tours. Anderson played 3 of 7 possible Tests and Broad played 4 out of 7.
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4 day Tests….. and now 10/10. surely the perfect entertainment, those with the attention span of a gnat can spend an hour queuing for a pint of over priced gnat’s piss and won’t have to worry about watching the ‘spectacle’ as they’ll have missed it all…
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The logical conclusion is not to put on any “spectacle” at all, and just have us give them our money.
Oh wait, that’s what this idiot ODI series is!!
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