As England prepare to face Australia for the third of five ODIs, they stand on the cusp of a series victory. Not only that, but it would apparently be the first time since 1977 that England have won two consecutive ODI series against Australia. The gloss on that achievement is tainted somewhat by the fact that the two series have been less than 6 months apart, and Australia’s ODI form is particularly dire. They have lost 13 out of their last 15 ODIs, and are currently missing several stars due to injury and suspension.
England fans might be concerned about the fitness of several players, with Jonny Bairstow’s knee and Ben Stokes’ torn hamstring both under the spotlight. It would seem bizarre for the England team to risk two three-format world-class cricketers in a largely meaningless ODI series, but bitter experience also tells us it is almost certain to happen.
Elsewhere, English football fans were cursing VAR (football’s version of DRS) for almost costing them a win over Tunisia whilst Aussie football fans were largely cursing their government due to the World Cup mostly not being on free-to-air TV, nor on the streaming service which had the rights but which was apparently unable to handle the strain. It is somewhat unusual for the UK to have sport freely available on television when it isn’t in Australia, so I must admit to feeling a bit of schadenfreude.
As always, feel free to comment on the game (or anything else) below.
Being Outside Cricket 
21 million TV audience for England – Tunisia last night. 21 million!
Don’t let anyone tell you free to air TV isn’t important for sport. Ever.
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To be fair there was only Vera on ITV. (Snark)
A great 50 over match on Sunday between Worcs and Kent was invisible to most people. Time was when semi finals of big ODI games were on fta tv. We saw how they stopped the Scotland vs Pakistan match from being on free to air access.
The people who run the sport of cricket seem to have a self loathing for the sport they claim to be running. In fact they seem to go out of their way to prevent as many people as possible from seeing any cricket at all.
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People don’t consume sport via live TV anymore you know. And football is totally different to cricket, which is why only three people watched last time cricket was on terrestrial TV…
Now actually, it’s obviously the case that a World Cup is exceptional, but it does repeatedly make the point that people will watch their national team if they can. There’s no way there’s 21 million football addicts in this country.
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The damage has already been done to cricket over the last ten years. It deliberately closed itself off with no live cricket of any kind. Test, ODI, 20/20, or county cricket.
Many people don’t have any connection with cricket anymore. Football has always kept a balance of coverage, and they have the advantage of being a much more popular sport. Even football didn’t go down the cricket route
A lot of free to air sport gets good viewing figures. (Not 21 million mind) . Curling at the winter Olympics gets more viewers than cricket. Be interested to see what happens to golf over the next ten years seeing they have removed that from free to air.
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Nor has rugby union or rugby league. Both have ensured there is FTA coverage, sacrificing some revenue for the wider benefit of exposure. Tennis too for that matter, the insistence of Wimbledon that it stays on the BBC.
I still think the most visible example of the non existent profile of cricket now was when Joe Root was number one Test batsman in the world and didn’t make the SPOTY shortlist. That the prize itself is just so much fluff isn’t the point.
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Great point about SP of TY. Doesn’t it always get won by someone from a sport on free to air tv these days? Tennis, Rower, Athlete whatever? I haven’t watched it for years, but the winner seems to be more from a sport that is seen by the public.
It’s what annoys me about the ECBs new 16.4. They claim they want to reconnect with a new audience (same as we were told with 20/20 ten years ago.) However, if that was the case why not try putting back some normal cricket on fta first rather than reinventing the wheel?
How about just putting the old wheels back on the car first and see if there is an interest before inventing new wheels?
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Similar problem with golf, now it’s mostly Sky’s own fiefdom/domain. I think I heard around 100,000 watched the climax of the US Open!
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TLG I seem to remember you (apologies if incorrect) rubbishing viewing figures on a thread on here before! 😉
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Global ones! They’re essentially made up. National ones are much easier because they’re properly measured using a representative sample for TV, and of course online is easy to track.
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Ah yes, good point. I think it was global in relation to the IPL, or royal wedding 😉😂
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Or Superbowl, or World Cup, or pretty much anything. FIFA always use the canny term “reach” when claiming 3.5 billion… 😉
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Just to wipe the smile from your face, soccer world cup is free to air on SBS. in Australia.
the government intervened when Optus couldn’t manage to stream properly.
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Ever so slightly off topic but Malan (4 50s in 5 innings) has been dropped from the T20 squad. I guess that Smith is presenting him with the opportunity to save his Test career by allowing him to play First Class instead.
Ball will once again get his chance having now not played for ages. He’s never allowed to be primed to perform!
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In other news, Shiny Toy has a new toy:
https://www.screendaily.com/news/former-england-cricket-captain-moves-into-film-with-frank-bruno-documentary-exclusive/5130237.article
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Yawn, an hour in and the only question remaining seems to be whether England will do better than New Zealand Women vs. Ireland Women. How utterly exciting.
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England fell just 10 runs short from breaking that record.
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Yeah. Is it weird how disappointed I was for England not to reach 500?
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Knowing the ICC, they would then restore balance between bat and ball, by making it mandatory for bowlers to bowl while using wheelchairs or something like that.
By avoiding to get to 500, England have ensured the ICC will do diddly squat to address the farcical nature of the contest between bat and ball. And that of course is not good for the long term health of the format.
I still maintain that the best ODI pitches are those where 220-240 is par.
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With 18 overs to go England have an outside chance of scoring 500 in a 50 over game here.
I’m not sure what to make of it.
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India A ended up at 458/4 in 50 overs in England. so I suppose today is the day for batsmen to make merry 🙂
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I’ve been watching it. Almost made it and it was fun to watch – for an England supporter. Great to watch Aussies struggling
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Paging Malcolm Conn, paging Malcolm Conn
Could Mr Conn please pick up the white telephone please. I believe it is a direct call from Bonnie Prince Charlie.
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So just 482 to win then? And not the full 500. A bit of result then!
Could Australia lose by an innings? Could be a test score defeat here.
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Can teams enforce the follow on in ODIs?
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Genius!
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Gorilla batting.
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Just watching Rashid bowling and I am still completely at a loss as to why he has not been persevered with in the test team (ignoring the fact he has removed himself from this possibility by only playing white ball cricket). It’s such a shame and I am still angry about the way he was treated! I read an article the other day that said the whispers about bowling too slow for test cricket, started as early as the Windies in 2015 (I think) and this affected his bowling adversely (England adversely affecting test bowlers, surely not).
Anyway, I have to be honest, but I am not enjoying this odi anywhere near as much as the eng v Scot one!
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It was long suggested that Root was no fan and of course Cook had f**k all idea how to manage spin bowlers.
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How long is this new sandpaper free, new era….clean living polite Aussie team going to last? And how long will Aussie fans be prepared to put up with this before they want the old mongrel back in the team?
Oh, and is it an impossibility for an Aussie cricket team to play competitive cricket without telling everyone to fuck off every five mins?
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Don’t get me wrong, I like to see the Aussies lose and implode as much as anyone. They’re such noble losers, aren’t they? I’m just not a fan of meaningless one-sided slogathons against weakened opposition, or indeed of meaningless ODI series which hardly linger in the memory. I’m especially not a fan of such fare at the height of summer when, as the good lord intended, there bloody well oughta be test cricket. So I watched some football. I found it was on television.
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I quite like the irony that England, until recently being rightly criticized for their crap white ball cricket, now have people turned off when they get it right. However, as an ex-bowler, I’d much prefer conditions to be fairer. Why on earth do they call a flat track a “good wicket”?
I’d just like to get my vote in – no way would I drop Hales for Stokes, as Sky’s experts suggest.
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Seems an odd swap to me as well. Not that i’d have Stokes anywhere near the team this year (for all those other reasons of which we do not speak) but if he has to be there, why not swap him for David Willey?
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I think the idea is that we need an extra bowler on some wickets?
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Yes, but it seems they “got it right” on a flat track against a team missing it’s two best batsmen and pretty much its entire first choice seam attack. Sure, when it all comes together England’s limited overs batting is a handful for any team these days – but let’s not get carried away. They can fall a long way short if they have to play in less than optimum conditions (batting or bowling) in terms of the players’ mindset and inflexible skill sets, or by a match situation that doesn’t follow the expected script. That loss to Scotland was only ten days or so ago.
Anyway, slogathons just aren’t my thing so I suppose I’m not the target audience for this unsubtle incarnation of the game.
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I was attempting to reply to Benny. WordPress had other ideas 🙂
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I’m in two minds. The most enjoyable cricket is a battle. However, for our chaps to hit a world record score against anyone is a bit special. I like Morgan’s team more than the Test team. May well change when the old bores have retired and some talented new blood arrives.
WordPress is flaky. Still lets me use my old email address, which Yahoo Mail managed to kill somehow. Suspect anything with an @ in the middle will work
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I didn’t think it would be long before the Aussie public turn on their board. Being nice is all fine in theory, but not when you start losing on a epict scale. Here are some overnight selections…….
“When you take the master batsmen and the superb bowlers out And put in amateurs and a nice man as captain don’t expect to win anything. The Australian cricket board is stupid . The penalties were too harsh Other countries simply accept the ICC board penalties Other countries deny they also indulge in sledging, they allow someone on assault charges to represent their country and all we worry about is a failed amateurish attempt at sand papering which in any case is more hygienic than saliva!”
“Indeed. The breathless moral panic which swept the nation was a sight to behold.”
“What does Australia Expect when we ban our 2 best players over something all teams do and they get away with it. Our Australian Team have become wimps and its showing in the results.”
Perhaps more worryingly some Aussie fans are showing “outside cricket” leanings……..
“I didn’t even know they were playing as sadly, my decades old interest in cricket has waned progressively in recent years.”
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A little off topic, but Kent are in a Lord’s final.
Little Kent, with no Test ground and scrabbling in the bottom half of the (now pointless) County Championship. They’ll be up against the lovely Hampshire, plaything of the remarkable Rod Bransgrove. I hope I can assume the support of everyone here in wishing a heavy defeat on anything he cares about?
😉
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It may be accompanied by egregious allocation of credit to Paul Downton. That will be followed by some revisionist history about his time as England MD.
So be careful what you wish for.
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It’s fine. We’ll all just laugh and point at them if they come out with that nonsense.
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What is the point of a world test championship if most of the time it’s just England playing India and Australia?
Still, we get what we deserve, and as long as the sheep turn up to meaningless series like this 50 over slaughter and pay £70-£80 per ticket then the powers that be will keep stealing your money from you.
I have to say I’m almost admiring in the way the governing bodies are able to separate people from their money. It’s almost Al Capone like in its ruthless effiecency. And then people wonder why players from SA and NZ are retiring from international cricket. What’s the point? Eventually there will only be 3 test playing nations. Or at least 3 that can generate any money.
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I actually enjoyed watching Australia squirm.
More seriously however, not much of a guide to the WC where I assume Aus will bring a better bowling unit. I also wonder how England would have faired if they had had to bowl first…
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Erm, Fred? Are you there?
Fred?
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So, I went to Hants-Yorks yesterday. Notably, an attack featuring pace bowlers of the calibre of Kyle Abbott, Dale Steyn and Fidel Edwards couldn’t halt Gary Ballance getting a ton yesterday. Steyn bowled beautifully, and eventually got him, but only after he’d accumulated 109. It was at the usually flat Rose Bowl, with a pink ball, but I’m still thinking he has something about him, particularly given that he had so much success against India last time around. He still averages 37.5 in Tests, in spite of being picked when awfully out of form across the past year or so.
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New FTP released. Apparently “The ICC will decide the draw for ODI matches within each qualifying period, with the scheduling based on current global ranking status in an attempt to ensure nations aren’t fixtured to play only high or low-ranked opponents.”
So in other words, it seems like the ICC still happily continues to engage in corruption. Because transparency with regards to the scheduling method, and actually sticking to it, are just too much to ask from a half-decent governing body.
And that is still assuming the scheduled fixtures take place. If playing BD does not make sense to CA, why would playing Afghanistan make more sense to them?
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The solution to that would probably be for such a refusal to count as a forfeit and a series loss, so that Australia would lose ICC ranking points and Bangladesh would gain them. Of course, that would be blocked by the ICC council…
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