Cricket

[Buzzo]

They’ve done it.

What a morning from India. That’s one of the all time spells from Siraj.

[Buzzo]

Great finish, huge choke by England here though.

The ball was swinging everywhere but England would have expected to win that. Since last night tho it seemed they didnÂ’t have a plan on how to get the runs and the bowling for the last few hours was incredible.

Draw about right for the series.

[spud_gun]

England's last 6 wickets fell for 35 runs

Ouch

[Zapater]

The ball was swinging everywhere but England would have expected to win that. Since last night tho it seemed they didnÂ’t have a plan on how to get the runs and the bowling for the last few hours was incredible.

Draw about right for the series.

Brook was dismissed at 300/4. You'd expect the last six to knock off the last 70 regardless of conditions. Fair play to India for fighting hard though.

I'm relieved for him personally but would have loved to see Woakes take strike for comic reasons. Was hilarious seeing him running between the wickets.

[Buzzo]

England's last 6 wickets fell for 35 runs

Ouch

Yeah just went to check that myself!

It was weird, as soon as they got Root it just felt like India might do it.

[Sus]

What a finish! Such a farcical end to the day yesterday, and then this epic hour - what a ridiculous sport it is

Not sure what Gill was doing with some of his fielding selections there, especially at the end of those overs when England were 9 down

And England will be gutted to have given that away, though 2-2 feels like a fair result across the series

Will be hard to top that series though - hopefully England are competitive down under, Aussie batting is especially fragile at the moment, and there for the taking

[Le Chef]

What a finish! Such a farcical end to the day yesterday, and then this epic hour - what a ridiculous sport it is

Not sure what Gill was doing with some of his fielding selections there, especially at the end of those overs when England were 9 down

And England will be gutted to have given that away, though 2-2 feels like a fair result across the series

Will be hard to top that series though - hopefully England are competitive down under, Aussie batting is especially fragile at the moment, and there for the taking

TBH Engalnd choked, but TBF India were a team in transition, Egland should have won the series at a canter on homesoil, I can see England on the end of a whitewash down under, mainly beacuse they have long prioritised white ball cricket and not given a **** about red ball cricket, England have next to zero talent in the bowling department and most of the batsmen are white ball specialists barring Root and Crawley ( the fact that Crawley is **** at red ball cricket also should have veins bulging ). The ECB have long targetted the cash from 20/20 and the hundred and have not given two ****s about county cricket. Hope i'm wrong but regardless of how **** the Aussies are, England are a damm site worse.

[ChesterDave]

Absolute monster score from England last night.

304/2

All sorts of team and Individual records broken, along with the 3rd highest mens T20I score ever and the highest ever score between two Test playing nations.

And today its Finals Day as well. Lancs off to a solid start in the chase despite losing half a dozen players.

[Yozza]

Lancs **** the bed

Well done to Somerset

[ChesterDave]

Lancs **** the bed

Well done to Somerset

Fielding was sloppy, field placement in the final over was terrible, and the Livingston LBW decision was poor on the field and terrible in the DRS box.

[Yozza]

RIP Dickie Bird

Legend

[ChesterDave]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c1kw0923ggmo

The County Championship is to remain a two-division structure of 14 matches per team after a vote rejected proposed changes.

Eighteen first-class counties were asked to choose between the status quo and a new system of a 12-team top flight, six in the bottom tier, with each team playing 13 matches.

More...

[Sus]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/...s/c1kw0923ggmo


The County Championship is to remain a two-division structure of 14 matches per team after a vote rejected proposed changes.

Eighteen first-class counties were asked to choose between the status quo and a new system of a 12-team top flight, six in the bottom tier, with each team playing 13 matches.

More...

I'm not close to the county system, Dave - what would have been the benefits of this change?

[ChesterDave]

The Professional Cricketers Association that reps the players was arguing it was player welfare so fewer games would protect them but I am suspicious of the reasoning. Plenty of them are happy to try and get a BBL / IPL gig or play franchise cricket in this country which is playing more cricket.

The clubs argument was ;

• Ease fixture congestion slightly, allowing more time for training, recovery, and preparation

• Enhance the quality of cricket and overall performance standards across the competition with more rest and recovery time

• Refresh the competition format, ensuring an exciting September run-in and end to the season

• Provide 12 counties with a genuine opportunity to challenge for the title from the outset



Creating franchise competition in this country and giving it prime billing in school holidays has seen County Championship lose 3 weekends it could play matches on so is pushed more in to the fringes of spring and Autumn - Lancs started Easter weekend and finish the season on Saturday - and created that fixture congestion and all the other problems suggested by the club! Its why England played all the test of the last home Ashes series before August, why we played a series away to Ireland in September!

We've introduced a competition for teams that dont exist for 11 months of the year and all the extra palying time that comes with it then thought there is too much cricket lets player fewer county games! Franchise cricket he elephant in the room many senior figures in the game don't want to blame for impacting county cricket calendar as they want the £££ that comes with it

Interestingly when the vote was first held in July Lancs board didn't even give members an option for retainnig 14 games. They said there was not enough support across the counties for it to make it worth voting on. Now we see actually, there was! And even with utilising emails encouraging members to vote to heavily campaign for a reduction Lancs members still only voted about 54/46 for the reduction.

It will inevitably happen sooner but at least for now we get more county games to watch and more opportunities for youngsters.

My personal feeling is the number of games is a red herring trying to fix the wrong problem. That players will chase franchsie cricket around the world says to me the problem is not how many games they have to play but how much they get paid and thats a perfectly fine concern to have but until there is openess about the problem I don't see it being properly solved.

Jos Butler is on £800,000 per year and probably one of if not the highest paid England players (£9k per white ball match in addition). That's a central contract so some county players will be on significantly less with Google AI Slop answers suggesting rookie pros at Lancs could be on as little as £20k and presumably smaller counties like Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Northants could be a touch less than that. Conversely the same AI answer suggest francise contracts for men in the UK start at £31,000. £31,000 for three weeks or ££30,000 for a year.

[Le Chef]

The Professional Cricketers Association that reps the players was arguing it was player welfare so fewer games would protect them but I am suspicious of the reasoning. Plenty of them are happy to try and get a BBL / IPL gig or play franchise cricket in this country which is playing more cricket.

The clubs argument was ;

• Ease fixture congestion slightly, allowing more time for training, recovery, and preparation

• Enhance the quality of cricket and overall performance standards across the competition with more rest and recovery time

• Refresh the competition format, ensuring an exciting September run-in and end to the season

• Provide 12 counties with a genuine opportunity to challenge for the title from the outset



Creating franchise competition in this country and giving it prime billing in school holidays has seen County Championship lose 3 weekends it could play matches on so is pushed more in to the fringes of spring and Autumn - Lancs started Easter weekend and finish the season on Saturday - and created that fixture congestion and all the other problems suggested by the club! Its why England played all the test of the last home Ashes series before August, why we played a series away to Ireland in September!

We've introduced a competition for teams that dont exist for 11 months of the year and all the extra palying time that comes with it then thought there is too much cricket lets player fewer county games! Franchise cricket he elephant in the room many senior figures in the game don't want to blame for impacting county cricket calendar as they want the £££ that comes with it

Interestingly when the vote was first held in July Lancs board didn't even give members an option for retainnig 14 games. They said there was not enough support across the counties for it to make it worth voting on. Now we see actually, there was! And even with utilising emails encouraging members to vote to heavily campaign for a reduction Lancs members still only voted about 54/46 for the reduction.

It will inevitably happen sooner but at least for now we get more county games to watch and more opportunities for youngsters.

My personal feeling is the number of games is a red herring trying to fix the wrong problem. That players will chase franchsie cricket around the world says to me the problem is not how many games they have to play but how much they get paid and thats a perfectly fine concern to have but until there is openess about the problem I don't see it being properly solved.

Jos Butler is on £800,000 per year and probably one of if not the highest paid England players (£9k per white ball match in addition). That's a central contract so some county players will be on significantly less with Google AI Slop answers suggesting rookie pros at Lancs could be on as little as £20k and presumably smaller counties like Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Northants could be a touch less than that. Conversely the same AI answer suggest francise contracts for men in the UK start at £31,000. £31,000 for three weeks or £30,000 for a year.

Aye, franchise cricket in England is killing the red ball game and the Hundred is one of the final nails in the proverbial coffin IMO. Northern teams in particular are ****ed in terms of weather when you are playing county game in 10 degrees if you are lucky and its not pissing down. Gotta say Straus and Key have not helped here either