Still not convinced that retiring Anderson is a good idea. Should just keep him going until he falls over.
Still not convinced that retiring Anderson is a good idea. Should just keep him going until he falls over.
Its baffling. Its obvious he isnt "finished" just feels like change for sake of change.
Pick the best team to win and he if is in it then so be it. Up to the younger ones to change that.
Whats your thought on the switch to Smith @Jimmy Floyd? I dont know much about him but it seems weird when Foakes keeps ahead of him for the county iirc.
Yeah I think with Anderson it’s a case of don’t take him abroad anymore. But if he’s fit and bowling well why not use him in ‘English Conditions.’
Smith is brilliant and will lock down the position for many years. Foakes a better gloveman, but Smith a far better bat and perfectly adequate with the gloves.
Kimber made a really interesting point that preferring good wk batsmen over their keeping ability is mostly because nobody has bothered investing the money into tools to accurately gauge the impact of the latter so it's just easier to go with who's better at the former.
Basically asking "what is the material impact of some keepers being better at standing up to the stumps? reviewing decisions? bravery to go for certain catches?" and answering "nobody really has a fucking clue". I used to find it weirdly unappealing and unromantic going for the better batsmen, similar to how I hate designated hitters in baseball, but when explained like that I kinda think fair enough.
On the stats front it probably just comes down to there being maybe one or two chances a really good wicketkeeper might make the difference with in a series, but there are 8 or 10 opportunities to make a difference with the bat.
Definitely situational though. It shows up a lot more when spin is dominant, imo.
I assume focussing on the future is something we're going to have to get used to, as with the ever increasing monolithic power of franchise cricket, tests will take even more of a backseat, with India and Australia serieses rotating on a two-yearly basis, and the odd one off test against Bangladesh at Grace Road. In March.
I doubt there'd be much point wheeling out the 35+ year old veterans for games like that when there's not test cricket anybody cares about for 18 months.
Last edited by igor_balis; 12-07-2024 at 04:40 PM.
There should definitely be fielding averages calculated, whereby routine drops see you deducted the global batting average from that match, and non-routine catches or run-outs see you credited with said runs.
So the batting average in this Test was about 20, Mikyle Louis gets credited with 20 for that run out yesterday and his Test fielding average is 20.00, if he had shelled two sitters afterwards it would then be -6.66 or whatever.
I'm sure it won't be long until we have an algorithmic 'super average' which aggregates your net plus or minus contribution to the game in runs across all disciplines.
Interesting thought. Any old/current players who could get a massive reappraisal, for good or for bad, if they had something like that? Any ideas @Jimmy Floyd and others?
There are probably some great fielders or 'keepers who would be seen in a very different light. And perhaps some who excelled in a second discipline (i.e. great keeper-batsmen) whose batting might be dragged down by their 'keeping.
Jimmy Anderson getting even more greatness for being a world class slip.
Or Stokes just donning everyone by being stupidly good at everything.
I do love Wood (oi oi) and Woakes but to say we are retiring Jimmy to build for the future only to play Wood (34) and Woakes (35 and should not go to fucking Australia) is laughable.
Just pick Jimmy until he is actually shit while he guides players like Atkinson and Potts etc
On a personal level, the last few weeks have been really stop-start for my club cricket, lost the rhythm I'd picked up earlier in the season.
22-23 June: Up to the 2s, make 1 (14) and don't bowl.
29-30 June: 3s play on Sunday, we win comfortably. 4-2-7-0 and don't bat.
6-7 July: 3s game called off on Saturday for soggy outfield.
13-14 July: No game for 3s scheduled (Only 12 games this season as they've regionalised the division). Did help out the 2s as a fielding sub.
And that brings us to this weekend. The 3s have a home game scheduled for Sunday, but the 1s have a T20 Cup game scheduled for the same day and have asked if I'm available. So it's either bat/bowl with the 3s, or play with the 1s but do nothing unless we spectacularly collapse with the bat.
That's some weird scheduling. I know it's Wales but here it's simple, league game every Saturday, no matter what standard you play, and the cups and other optional extras are on Sundays.
We play cups midweek. Had to travel 1hr 20 straight after work for a cup final last week and got rained off 3 overs into the second innings. Game wiped from the records, go back next Thursday to start from scratch.
We get a few games shifted to Sunday as we only have the one pitch at home, so it's created this awkward scheduling clash. It happens to a few other clubs too if they have 3s and 4s.
We've had a few games played on awful artificial surfaces too. Last year we played on one that felt like Perth, so much carry and bounce. Next week, we went away to a different team and it barely bounced to the top of the stumps.
35/1 off 3.
Test match cricket. Is there a secret Bazball agenda to entirely sink the ECB/counties by making sure no game ever makes it to a weekend?
If it's up it's off. They should stop bowling half volleys.
It's about time we put a proper performance in tbh, maybe it will be today. By proper performance I mean some sort of record-breaking that makes the cobbers and head wobblers seethe. Maybe Pope will break Lara's record. Maybe they bat on until 900. Something like that.
Is it too early for Jessop-watch?
Needs 40 off 33 from here. Easier chances have been blown before.
It really is strange looking at an England lineup and knowing it will never again have Broad or Anderson in it.
Some of my kids are getting into cricket and I'm being leaned on to do an ECB Foundation Coaching course. Is it going to be a massive waste of my time, and money, Jimmy or anyone else who might have experience of said thing?
Am I just going to be sat in a room having fielding positions explained to me whilst seething about the Ł150 fee?
Think it's a bit more than that, combination of that and about 500 bits of 'safeguarding'.
Depends if you want to be Involved going forward, probably worth doing if you are, but it's a slippery fucking slope.
Attack getting bodybagged by a hitherto terrible West Indies batting lineup in the first game post Anderson, it's almost as if you shouldn't arbitrarily sack off your best bowler because of his date of birth.
Are we doing the Angelo Mathews thing here?
Quite finely poised right now. Letting the tail wag for an extra 50 or so runs yesterday could be the difference.
Windies collapse well underway.
Turned off at drinks
Turned back on after the 3 though. Maybe I’ll try turning it off again
So I ended up with the 1s yesterday for the T20 cup quarter final, and we pulled off a pretty impressive win. We were away to a Prem 1 side (top tier of Welsh cricket) and we won comfortably, by 7 wickets and with 9 balls to spare. I managed to get a decent sharp catch at mid-wicket to at least contribute in some way.
The regular captain for the 1s handed over the duties for the day as he was hungover. It didn't stop him from taking 3 catches, bowling 4 overs for 17 and hitting 83* (53) though...
That takes him up to 783 runs for the season at 97.88 and at a strike rate of 111. Absolute machine, he picks up length so quickly, it's mad to watch.
I've just seen that with the retirement of James Anderson, the longest still-active Test career now sits with our hothead friend Shakib Al-Hasan. I don't know whether to be surprised by that or not.
I had an absolutely great game on Sunday. It was a club academy game, U21 sort of stuff, so not top, top level but still a good standard with some decent talents on both teams. I rocked up for this (at a first class outground) and no sign of the other umpire. I got my stuff ready in the changing room, still no sign at toss time, so I went out and did that on my own, the captain said that the umpire would be along shortly. Indeed he was, an Indian lad maybe in his 20s, just wearing civvies with no kit. I said where do you usually umpire, he said I don't, this is my first ever game. I said do you play, he said no I don't play cricket. He then proceeded to take my panama hat off the peg in the changing room and said 'I'm wearing this'. I said I dunno, don't think you are champ. Taken aback (I think he thought all my kit was just general kit) he asked if I had a spare, he ended up borrowing a baseball cap off a spectator.
He then went out to the midde - obviously I'm very concerned at this point as this is a good standard of game - and a few of the fielders immediately came up to me and said that he wasn't lined up properly. Sure enough he was standing a yard to the right of the stumps. I went over and lined him up, even making him a mark in the ground. The game then proceeded in suitably farcical fashion. He had five appeals for LBW at his end during the game and every single one of them was given out, including one that was an absolute joke as the ball pitched a yard outside leg stump. After that one I pulled the home captain over and outright called him a dishonest cheat (you get docked points for not providing an umpire in that comp, so he'd obviously pulled one of his mates off the street to avoid this) and that he should be ashamed of himself. He just agreed that yes, he was a cheat and shrugged. A truly bizarre experience.
Can you not just do both ends in that sort of situation and have him mooch around at square leg?
That should have happened, but it would have caused a scene and the home team would have had a tantrum so I couldn't be arsed. They'd have had to pay me double as well.
Brilliant. What should the home captain have done instead? Is there like a yellow pages for dialling an umpire for hire?
Assuming all the channels for finding one came up dry, he should have asked me to do both ends and taken the hit.
That Mott character has been SACKED. Love a good sacking.
Thank fuck. Obviously a complete chancer, evident from day one.
I reckon any member of the public could have coached that Australian women's team to domination. Bizarre appointment in the first place.
Eoin Morgan it is then I assume?
Did anyone else realise the Champions Trophy is making a comeback? Next February apparently. In Pakistan.
https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkx80n...lGVFA6R8NkKuA_
Hopefully this works. Look at this run out