Can’t like but certainly agree. The greatest form of the greatest game dies because of ££££. But as a capitalist, I’d be a hypocrite to complain really. The money is in the baseball model, sadly. But that says more about the crowd than the game.
Not sure it’s just money. The county system is a relic of the 19th century and is totally irrelevant today. The game is run by an ancient fossilised old boys network who need replacing fast. The Yorkshire scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.
However, although winning a test series means so much more than any limited overs success, it won’t be prioritised unless it is financially worthwhile.
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I think utterly ghastly is a very generous description of our batting through the series. Bowlers have been pretty good (sorry Jack, one sumptuously glorious innings does not keep you in the team), there’s a 15 year old who plays for our team who actually turns the ball, I’d have him. More later, lots….
From afar this is it.
Back when I lived and breathed the game in Oz the game was everywhere in one form or another. Primary schools, indoor cricket centres (great fun by the way), and so on. Even State level was interesting. Coverage of the international game was streets ahead. It was entertaining.
In the UK it’s just something that you find on the BBC at the end of the news.
That hole just doesn’t generate the interest.
Another point which I don’t know if it’s relevant or not is that I see the England team go on tour and I’m wondering where the selection pressure is coming from. Always the same faces it seems to me.
If the license fee goes, I worry for TMS. The only reason I happily pay.
Australia has a great advantage in terms of climate. There’s much more of the year that cricket can be played. Added to that is the tradition of success and, frankly, away from the centres of the major cities, a lack of alternative activities. All these give Australia a natural edge.
This has been so ever since I began watching cricket and probably long before.
What’s also true is the snobbery and lack of imagination in the power structures of the game in England. It needs a revolution to get rid of the entire MCC, ECB old toffs network which has been holding the game back for so long.
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I would imagine that David Boon, Ian Botham and many others will be laughing their cocks off at this. The world’s gone utterly insane.
In response to calls that some of the test trouble is because of a loss of focus on the County Championship through the heart of the summer, they have now added two more summer month matches to the domestic schedule.
That’ll fix it.
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My school had a good track record with cricket having produced several players who reached the first-class level. While that was the result of local club cricket coaching and competition, it probably had something to do with the fact that we had two all-weather nets in the playground. They were never open though. The reason given was variable, but ranged from being dangerous to it not being possible to ensure equitable access.
That meant that while we had the facility to play some form of cricket as year round as we do football, we’d play it at school maybe 3 times in the entire year, and even then it would be some comando style designed to let everyone have a go at batting.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui_y890QfzI
I remember doing this with my brother and mates at school, and don’t remember it being that hard to hit them.
Or maybe they were just crap at bowling 
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Second T20 tonight England vs WI… probably lose again.
Some of these LBW decisions are appalling.
I’ve umpired a charity game once and I did better.
Phew just enough entertaining second game mind 1-1.
With pictures
Fuck me dead. Surprised that none of them called him out for that bullshit
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This is why diversity IS so important in leadership. When everyone in the room has the same experiences and world view you tend to get agreement over such stupid shit like this.
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But are all the people on this inquiry old white guys?
I thought it was being headed up by a female MP, or am I getting it mixed with some other enquiry looking into descrimination?
You are right, not in the inquiry. But in most cricket board rooms, and that’s part of why these perceptions and attitudes fester
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