Cricket, lovely cricket

[Sister Hyde]

ahahah Aussies, i've stayed around melbourne as a student for 3 months when i was 16,the first thing i wanted to do was to go to a rugby game! well the ambiance in the crowd didn't feel like when you go to a game in europe, the supporters were much more agressiv. hey i think i did play that game as PE in england when i was in manchester and in that weird school, Ascott. i remember i couldn't catch the rules, probably because i didn't play it enough too, but it was funny. one thing i love in england is the food, yeah i know it's twisted for a french person, but i enjoy it alot too!

[martin wilson]

Hi all
Adam, there is a photo of Pouting on the sports page of my local paper,the buggers getting younger! what sort of dirty trick is that?
Sister Hyde, well maybe, Its very much England and her colonies I suppose but the fanaticism in those countries is testament to how great the game is,better not tell an Aussie that cricket is sooo British though! they are the only ones who play the game properly you know, and they have players who have graced the game with their behavior like Dennis Lillee,the teetotaller Rodney Marsh and the towering intellect that is Jeff Thompson.
All the best.

[Sister Hyde]

cricket is... SO brittish to me (even more brittish than marmite), i guess i just didn't spend enough time in the UK (or maybe i've played it all the months i've spent there as an exchange student but i can't remember it).

[Robert]

To me, test cricket is cricket. It's like chess - you can either play a proper game that lasts hours - or you can have lots of five minute games (both players have five minutes on the clock for all their moves). But that isn't chess - it's just a bit of fun.

[martin wilson]

Hi Phil
Perhaps it was his brother instead,it was a long time ago, and as you rightly say memory fails.
At the risk of being racist it just tickles me,10 milk bottle white gingernuts and Greenidge,that well known Scotsman.(whichever one it was)
All the best

[Phil Carter]

I once saw that Gordon Greenidge opened the batting for Scotland in a one dayer, its a British thing and almost certainly racist to know just how funny that is.

I am not totally sure about this Martin, but didnt his brother do that too?
I have a vague and distant memory of this?

Probably my imagination.

best wishes

Phil

[martin wilson]

Hi Adam
Well if T20 is your cuppa cha,who am I to say thats wrong?
I tell you though, I think that all sports have to find the optimum balance between entertainment and challenge.
In my humble I think Test cricket does exactly what it says on the tin,its a test of a cricketers skill,concentration,stamina, courage and going back to the Dean Jones incident,sheer,bloody minded will.
Personally I dont see any of this in T20,to me its just 'we whack it,you whack it,and whoever whacks it the most wins'.
But I'm an old git,stuck in his ways, I would probably like the split game more as you have to think a bit, save runs in the first 20 or attack in the hope of getting the opposition 3 or 4 down? Its that kind of stuff I like.
Anyway, I see you lot let me down losing to the South Africans, thats no bloody good.
Mind you we didnt exactly stroll it against Canada, Cheema? Chohan?,these guys are Canadian are they? Hmmmm,methinks the qualifying criteria has been relaxed for the minnows,not that I really mind,if it adds to the fun.
I once saw that Gordon Greenidge opened the batting for Scotland in a one dayer, its a British thing and almost certainly racist to know just how funny that is.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Hi Martin,

I agree with you about Test cricket, but the thing is that with T20 cricket these days, there's an expectation of excitement, fours and sixes amongst the crowd. Nobody other than the traditionalists want to watch any team, even their own, make 600 over two days at 2.5 runs per over.

It wasn't that long ago that T20 was being played as a one-off, with players having their nicknames rather than their actual names on their shirts and several being miked up....

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi Adam
There was a great joke over here, 'Test cricket is the only sport where they play for four days but when you ask who's winning they say its too early to tell' That was Andy Parsons.
I suppose thats why the one day game doesnt really do it for me, I understand test matches,and I can appreciate the tactics and what both teams are trying to do.
If their are any tactics in one day matches I'm jiggered if I know what they are,other than a spinner firing it in on leg stump.
So for me its still hit and giggle stuff, they used to show the county Sunday league one day matches over here live on tv, on one occassion they didnt bother with commentators and just played classical music instead.
I know the split innings game I think,thats where you start where you left off? so do you go for it or not in the first 20 or save wickets for the next 25?then again you might be facing too big a total, I like the sound of that a bit better.
T20 is seen as the big money spinner over here, I know Warwickshire were playing it in the evening to get in the after work crowd,its a bit of fun I suppose,I cant really say it gets me going, its a bit like American Football,why bother with all the boring stuff? just have the bits that the crowd like.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Hey Martin,

I am a fan of all forms of cricket, though certainly not a fan of what T20 cricket has been doing to the great Test and ODI formats. Here in our domestic one-day season this year, a revised format has been used - split innings cricket: one team bats for 20 overs, the second team bats for 20, and then both bat for a further 25. It's been received pretty well and is a good change IMO.

As bizarre as this might sound, I don't think Ponting has been in particularly bad form - he copped a couple of jaffas early on in the Ashes and then was playing with a broken finger....hopefully it's the start of a turn in form for him.

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi Adam
You are really into this one day stuff arent you? every test I was up listening to TMS but not the one day stuff.
Then again it may be because its only available on pay tv as are the tests.C5 do a half hour highlights show for the tests and ODI's but unless you pay Sky tv thats your lot.
Same with the footie, ITV show England home matches but I think away matches are pay tv as well.
We must be the only country in the world where our two most popular national sports are only available if you pay extra.
I've heard rumours they may be making the football world cup pay tv only as well, with those corrupt money obsessed gits at FIFA in charge,this is a stonewall certainty.
Anyway,I am glad Pouting is coming into a bit of form, I know anybody can say this in hindsight but I genuinely did think they were writing him off a bit too early.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Despite the fact that we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the warm-up game against India.....Captain Ricky actually scored a fifty! 57, to be precise.....let joy be unconfined!!

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

Martin:

It was the famous tied test in Madras in '86. Jones came in to the dressing room having already scored a pile of runs and said that he couldn't go on any more, couldn't even see properly and was numb, was "batting entirely from memory" I believe it was said....Border made the comment you mentioned, I think it was "We'll get somebody tough in there, we'll get a Queenslander" - Jones got his pads back on quicksmart and ended up with 210.

But that's just tests, he was a wonderfully talented ODI player as well.

Boycott is in the team to anchor the innings - plenty enough attacking players in that line-up, but somebody has to be the Dravid-esque "wall" at the other end in the meantime.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Monty]

Trevor Bailey - RIP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-12414599

Monty

[martin wilson]

Hi all
Fair do's I did totally forget about Dean Jones, was that the match he was sick and Alan Border was less than sympathetic? told him to get off and they would get a proper Australian in there,something like that?
Gower, a privilege to watch as Botham said, I remember watching him on the tv score a hundred against New Zealand before lunch.
Poor Lance Cairns dropped him and then throwing the ball back,dropped that as well, not his finest moment.
Useful fielder as well,but he had some problem with his shoulder which restricted him somewhat.
I suppose I could cheat a bit by picking Derek 'rags' Randall and Paul Collingwood,both brilliant fielders.
Boycs would probably make it into my all time XI but not when we need 450 off 90, I would probably prefer him to commentate as he comes out with some bizarre moments, like on TMS last year (?) when he threatened to turn Harry Potter into a mushroom!
All the best.