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The New and Improved Cricket Thread© - Now Roadblock Free!

M

mclem

Member
Y'know, if we were to join the bowlers from today's match against Afghanistan with the batsmen from Friday's against SA, we might have a pretty decent team.

Just... let's try and avoid doing it the other way around.
 
D

Dynedom

Member
How do you lose off 2 from 2. Absolute clown show. I'd say only Sri Lanka can choke this big in recent years but that would mean they'd have gotten this close.
 
A

ambar_hitman

Member
CeQNfejUMAAbRRr.jpg


This sums it up.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Watto calling it for his international career.

Watto, I know you got a lot of flak for your play and deservedly so, but you're still the best Australian T20 play and the best ranked T20 all rounded in the world. Though I guess after this world T20 Australia will go back to playing zero international T20s in a calender year, so maybe there isn't a difference.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
He's one of our best limited overs all rounders of all time, I will never dispute that.

His test career was more questionable, but still, he's a great player who has served australia very well.
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
Great finish from Aus. after a slowish start.

There was never any doubt about Watto's quality in short form cricket, he just never seemed to adjust to test cricket and find a composure suited to it. Might have been the pressure of Australia demanding an allrounder, a similar path/trap I hope MMarsh doesn't fall into.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Good stuff from Australia.

Multiple "Hello darkness my old friend" looks from Afridi.

Favourite thing from this match was th last ball of the penultimate over in the Australian innings, Steve Smith standing outside off stump exposing all three wickets and still flicking the ball to the leg side.
 
W

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
bomma_man said:
This tournament seems extremely lopsided
Click to expand...

Really?

I'd say it is the contrary. Bangladesh have lost everything but should have won against India and were competitive with Australia. South Africa have been in some fucking tight games.

The only bad games really have been the New Zealand games except vs. Australia.

Alright we've got this one.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
I'd say it's more like everyone is performing as expected.

The good ones are doing good (india, WI, NZ), the mediocre ones are performing mediocre (australia, south africa) and the bad ones are performing badly. England is about the only surprise so far.
 
W

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
Never easy for England.

Two great death overs by Jordan (the four was a good delivery too).

Yeah, big balls from Jordan and Stokes.

I still have big doubts over Rashid's temperament, even if he is probably our best spinner.
 
B

bomma_man

Member
War Peaceman said:
Really?

I'd say it is the contrary. Bangladesh have lost everything but should have won against India and were competitive with Australia. South Africa have been in some fucking tight games.

The only bad games really have been the New Zealand games except vs. Australia.

Alright we've got this one.
Click to expand...

I think I meant in terms of the draw - India/aus/NZ seem stronger than the other side.

But I was blind drunk last night and don't remember posting this at all so
 
Z

Zvonimir Boban

Banned
Yeah, he's rubbing his arse for fucks sake. That could be the killer blow as they've got to make up that remaining over from somewhere.

EDIT: SHAZHAAAAAAAAAD
 
H

hamchan

Member
Well done Afghanistan.

Also good to see an up and coming underdog beat an established team. Which is what I hope the underdog Australians will do in this next match!!!
 
Z

Zvonimir Boban

Banned
hahahahaha all doing the dance :*)

War Peaceman said:
So happy for Afghanistan! They need to play more international cricket asap.
Click to expand...

Pfffft, Afghanistan, and all associates, will be rewarded for this by qualifying for the next tournament being changed so that it's even more difficult for them to qualify.

Remember, when the associates lose: They're not good enough, nobody likes to see one sided cricket so we better change the format next time.

When they win: Nobody wants to see test nations knocked out by the diddy teams, think of all the advertising revenue we miss out on. Better change the format for next time so India or Pakistan don't get humiliated again.
 
W

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
Zvonomir, I agree that your cynicism is well placed and realistic but the ICC has recently been making very good noises and actions towards reversing the oligopolistic policies of before and trying to develop a global game by encouraging associates/USA/China etc. It probably won't happen, but I want to believe.
 
Z

Zvonimir Boban

Banned
Instead of pipe dreams about America and China they need to stop cutting funding to the associates that do care about cricket. USA cricket is a joke and the authorities need to get their house in order and the idea that China would give a shit is ridiculous.

The associates don't get enough funding and test nations just aren't interested in playing international games against them. There's a great piece by Osman Samiuddin about the problems they face:

http://www.thenational.ae/sport/cri...sk-members-beyond-the-test-playing-world#full

Here is the economic reality of the world in which Associate Members have no choice but to exist. Last November, just before England’s ODI series with Pakistan in the UAE, an opportunity arose for them to play a game against Hong Kong.

If you follow the affairs of members beyond the Test-playing world, you probably know that the two sides did not eventually play a full international because of the costs of doing so – somebody would have to stump up around US$100,000 (Dh367,000) for it to be a game with official status.

Nobody did so they played, to consternation in some quarters, a 13-a-side friendly.

What you may not have heard was that on the same tour, the Emirates Cricket Board (call them the smaller ECB in this case) came across a similar situation. When the tour itinerary was first announced, they explored the possibility of turning a warm-up game with England into an ODI.

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said no, but left open the possibility of a Twenty20 international.

Except when it came to exploring that possibility further, the smaller ECB were told that they too would have to pay a significant amount of money to make it an international game.

That cost, it is believed, would have contributed to the match fees of England’s players in that match – as it would have been an extra international played on the tour beyond the original itinerary, payment would have to be extra.

The UAE had not qualified for the World Twenty20 and as such, did not have access to the US$250,000 participation fee and the extra funding likely to have come with it.
Their board decided, understandably, that the money required was better spent elsewhere. The two sides played a friendly Twenty20 instead.

Consider the warped nature of this equation, of this reality. One of the richest boards in the game has no qualms in expecting one of its smallest to pay a significant amount of money (towards the Full Members’ players no less) to play an international game.

Neither is this a new development, as officials in the International Cricket Council (ICC) will point out, and nor are these one-off instances. A number of the top Associate sides have had to face this.
Click to expand...

The only way to fix things would be to change the way international cricket is organised. The Future Tours Programme is a joke and not worth the paper it's printed on, the practice of tours being organised bilaterally needs to be done away with and a proper fixture list laid down with an actual league table instead of the meaningless test rankings that nobody understands or gives a shit about.

There are two big problems with this:

1) It's not in the ICC's power to do this as they are the mercy of the member nations. All the ICC really does is put on the occasional World Cup and provide umpires, they can't dictate which teams play each other.

2) The bigger boards will never, in a million years, agree to this. India have no incentive to go on a tour of Zimbabwe or the Windies because they can make more money playing other teams. England and Australia won't give up the Ashes.

Look at the last ten years:

Australia have played 124 tests, England 109. Pakistan have played 76, Bangladesh 51.

Australia have played England 30 times, India 22 times but the trio of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined for 17 tests.

Pakistan have played Sri Lanka 20 times but Australia just 7 times.

In what world does this make sense?

So cricket will never grow, because the boards would rather have a larger slice of a smaller pie than vice versa and the fans are dumb enough to support them blindly. They'll wring their hands over the possibility of one sided drubbings while ignoring the fact that everyone gets smashed away from home nowadays (Australia in the UAE, Saffers in India, Pakistan to join that list this summer in England etc.), they'll spout something about 'tradition' and then moan when youth participation in cricket keeps falling year after year.

I grew up viewing the lack of test nations as something to almost be proud of, test cricket MEANT something. As I get older I realise that's all bullshit. It's a closed shop and the powers that be want to keep it that way. We're never going to get a World Cup format that's fair, we're never going to get a test championship with a proper fixture list, we're never going to have promotion and relegation without guarantees that the big boys won't get relegated, either in writing or by ensuring that they keep so much of the revenue that the other teams can't compete.

Why is this way? Is it because of a desire for competitive cricket? No, it's because all that matters is short term TV revenue.

I hope you enjoy watching England v Australia and Pakistan v Sri Lanka because that's all we're going to get as test cricket continues to slowly die.
 
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