***Official*** English Domestic Season 2008

[gettingbetter]

Mahmood to pick up wickets. Heard it here first.

 

[Prince EWS]

Mahmood to pick up wickets. Heard it here first.

And last, I bet.

 

[Richard]

If, of course, rain allows us back on the park to chase the darn thing.

If Mahmood hadn't been playing and Cork or Chapple had been on the park instead, I'd be worried. With Saj in there, I'm hopeful our chances of chasing that tricky little target are increased.

BTW, FFS the way rain has ruined these last 3 rounds of FP qualifiers is off-pissing. I presume more matches have been washed-out\reduced-to-less-than-45-overs than not.

 

[TT Boy]

Its overcast and the wicket at Headingley has been under the covers all day yesterday, yet, Luke Sutton wanted to bat first.

Darren Gough looked on with a smirk at the toss, presumably thinking if this guy is taking the piss or not.

 

[Richard]

Recalls John Crawley's decision to bat at Old Trafford in the semi against Leicestershire in 2001 against all common-sense, and seeing his team (Atherton, himself, Flintoff, Fairbrother et al) routed by that bowler of noted skill Scott Boswell.

Only difference is this at least presumably won't be much Sutton's fault, him being purely a stand-in and all - in 2001 it was entirely Crawley's choice.

 

[Neil Pickup]

They appear to be enforcing the special Saj wide rule, where anything he gets to land on the cut strip is a-okay.

 

[Manee]

Watching Saj bowl, it is pretty much physically impossible for him to be consistently accuracy without slowing down. I think he has to make a choice between accuracy and pace and for the sake of a future England recall, I think he should choose the latter. Bowling quite inaccurately at 85mph (I am aware that the drop in pace is due to bowling to the wet conditions) shows he is useless imbetween the two.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Watching Saj bowl shows he is useless.

That was all you needed.

 

[stumpski]

Lancashire 68/8 against Yorkshire

Dazzler: A true legend.

I don't remember seeing any comment on here about the announcement of his retirement earlier in the week. Not entirely unexpected, and he could be a bit of knob (his book reinforced that, from what I heard) but I for one will miss him, A real trier.


It really will be terribly hard on Yorkshire if Lancashire escape with a 'no result' here - given that they're already way ahead of the D/L 10-over score. But it's looking likely.

 

[steds]

Disgraceful. The whole team needs sending to a Siberian labour camp.

 

[Richard]

Teams should be awarded matches by common-sense if they're 34 for 0 off 4.5 chasing 89 in 49.

 

[stumpski]

Reminds me of that infamous England - Pakistan match in the 92 WC. Couple more overs and Pakistan would've been out of the cup.


Inspection at 6, btw - assuming it's stopped raining by then.

 

[Manee]

That was all you needed.

You can't discard every raw fast bowler as useless.

 

[Manee]

Stuart Meaker is playing for Surrey today, he has been timed at 96mph by hawkeye at Loughborough, will be interesting to see how he does.

 

[stumpski]

Hadn't realised Surrey were playing today (especially with all the rain around). That looks a very weak side, surprising as I thought we were still in with a chance of qualifying. But obviously not.

Another failure for Brown I see.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

You can't discard every raw fast bowler as useless.

Mahmood isn't "every raw fast bowler" though. He's particularly poor.

 

[Manee]

Mahmood isn't "every raw fast bowler" though. He's particularly poor.

Can't get selected for England by being particularly poor. He has good domestic statistics, especially in the strike rate column.

 

[wpdavid]

I think you're right about the north/south aspect, but it's still possible: even mostly halving the number of sides for the 4-day competition would go a long way to improving standards. Something like:
- Yorkshire & Durham
- Lancashire & Derbyshire
- Middlesex & Essex
- Surrey & Kent
- Sussex & Hampshire
- Glamorgan, Somerset & Gloucestershire
- Warwickshire & Worcestershire
- Northants, Leicestershire & Nottighamshire

That would make 14 four-day games, where players from all counties would have the opportunity to play against the best of the rest if they're good enough. Which isn't the case at present with two divisions.

A question for the legally minded. If something like the above ever did happen - where players are employed by counties but the better half of them played for city or regional sides representing 2 or 3 counties - am I right in thinking that, as repersentative sides, we could have whatever quota of English playersd that we wanted without breaking EU laws?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Can't get selected for England by being particularly poor. He has good domestic statistics, especially in the strike rate column.

He most definitely can get selected by England despite being a substandard bowler. You're aware that several poor players get selected for England (and several countries) who have good domestic stats, right? Sajid Mahmood is just another example of the like. IIRC, he was also selected during a particularly harsh run of injuries for England.

He is a poor bowler. There are no two ways about it. Whether or not he improves, we will see. But right now he is a poor bowler. Anyone who has seen the man bowl for any considerable amount of time can tell that.

 

[Manee]

But poor does not equal useless, which is what I originally replied to.