***Official*** English Domestic Season 2008

[Magrat Garlick]

Yeah, you can criticise bonus points until the cows come home (justifiably so tbh) but they seem to be the big factor in making it such a close league every year.

Could blame the rain this year tbh. In any case, they reward high-scoring draws, which is bizarre.

If they'd gone with something reasonably simple like 3 for a win, 1 for a draw...

Notts     5  8  2 23
Durham    5  7  3 22
Lancs     4  9  2 21
Somerset  3 11  1 20
Hants     4  7  4 19
Kent      4  6  5 18
Sussex    2 11  2 17
Yorks     2  8  5 14
Surrey    0 11  5 11

Not quite sure this is that much less spread out. (Well, except that the relegation fight would be virtually settled already.) I reckon it's just called "close" cos no one has a clue how it's going to pan out.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah fair enough then. It probs is more to do with the rain, Notts have just 5 wins from 15 and are top, I guess that says it all. You could argue that Somerset benefit hugely from playing at Taunton where high-scoring draws are likely.

Whereas us noble souls at Lancs play on outgrounds like the one in Aigburth last week, 34 ao, yeeeeaaaahhhh

 

[GIMH]

Just took another look at your table. That's the point system I am going to recognise from here on in. We could well win the title yet.

 

[Richard]

If both of his parents are Dutch then there is surely zero argument against him representing them.

Given he himself was born and raised in Australia, I think there is.

 

[Richard]

Allan Donald didn't speak a word of English until he was thirteen, then he ended up being their bowling coach.. Not a huge argument you've got going there I'm afraid

Playing and coaching isn't the same thing though. By-and-large, foreigners make the best coaches. Australia is the one exception to this.

 

[GIMH]

Suppose we've done the eligibility thing already, recently. You do surprise me, though, Rich, as I thought you strongly advocated that nationality was up to the individual (provided that there was some basis for their choosing, ie I couldn't just wake up tomorrow and decide I was Antarctican but if my folks were English but I'd always lived in Scotland then it would just be a case of whether I felt more English or Scottish (I'd choose English every time ftr))

 

[Richard]

If they'd gone with something reasonably simple like 3 for a win, 1 for a draw...

Am always much happier with 10 for a win, 5 for a draw TBH.

And much as I dislike the current bonus-point system, I don't see too much wrong with 2 batting and 2 bowling points. For 200, 400, 5 wickets and all-out. And no restriction on the overs you have to get them in, as this encourages an over-emphasis on attack at the expense of defence.

 

[Richard]

Suppose we've done the eligibility thing already, recently. You do surprise me, though, Rich, as I thought you strongly advocated that nationality was up to the individual (provided that there was some basis for their choosing, ie I couldn't just wake up tomorrow and decide I was Antarctican but if my folks were English but I'd always lived in Scotland then it would just be a case of whether I felt more English or Scottish (I'd choose English every time ftr))

I strongly advocate that it's up to the individual to choose what they want to feel themselves to be, but I don't feel anyone has any right to represent the "national team" of a country without having lived there for a fair while. I feel that for the individual the choice is purely individual, but for things where groups are involved, there should be some foolproof (and far more stringent than we currently have) legislation.

 

[Richard]

Imran Tahir does play in Hampshire's final game after all.

And a whole host of faces who haven't been seen since early season (and in a couple of cases not at all this year) also turn-out. Interesting finish to the Championship.

Still Kevin Dean can't get a game for Derbyshire though. You wonder what someone at the club currently has against him, you really do.

 

[Uppercut]

Hampshire will win it. It's destiny. And Tahir will take a tenfer.

 

[Goughy]

Could blame the rain this year tbh. In any case, they reward high-scoring draws, which is bizarre.

If they'd gone with something reasonably simple like 3 for a win, 1 for a draw.

The problem with that is that it would get teams to play on minefields. Even bad teams would fluke wins on bad tracks. Result tracks where skill isnt needed to take wickets is the direction teams would go and would not be good for the game.

The current system rewards teams that can score runs big and take 20 wickets. Seems logical to me rather than forcing results due to having the ball outweight the bat.

 

[Richard]

OK... as if the Turners, Wrights, Andrews and Whelans weren't already touching it, the true height of absurdity where utterly-useless-bowlers-who-have-somehow-got-contracts-with-second-counties is concerned has now well and truly been reached.

Robert Woodman is playing for Gloucestershire in the last game of the season. Carl Greenidge'd have been preferable.

And elsewhere Middlesex's most powerful batting unit in the country (Strauss, Godleman, Shah, Joyce, Morgan, Scott) gets the chance to pummel Northants' woeful bowling unit, shorn of 4 of its 5 South Africans (van der Wath, Hall, Louw and Klusener), which reads Lucas, Wigley, Crook (S), MSP, Boje. I seriously hope they all grab the chance to score lots.

 

[fredfertang]

Lancashire carrying on at Taunton where they left off at Liverpool it seems - safety beckons

 

[Richard]

80-odd for 5 against Langer, Trescothick, de Bruyn, Kieswetter et al (not that they've yet got the lattermost out, obviously) is no mean feat.

Surely Tom Smith must start next season in Lancs' first-team?

 

[_Ed_]

Interesting to see the bowling stats for Andre Adams this season for Hampshire. Shows his ludicrous form for Auckland last summer may not have been a fluke.

 

[Richard]

Interesting to see the bowling stats for Andre Adams this season for Hampshire. Shows his ludicrous form for Auckland last summer may not have been a fluke.

Notts you mean? Yeah, it's a shame he hasn't played the full season.

He did OK when he played for Essex a few years back too. Looking like potentially a genuine loss, him signing for the ICL.

 

[GIMH]

Awesome start from Lancs

 

[_Ed_]

Notts you mean? Yeah, it's a shame he hasn't played the full season.

He did OK when he played for Essex a few years back too. Real shame he signed for the ICL.

Yeah Notts, sorry. Was looking at the scorecard for their game against Hants and confused myself.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

The current system rewards teams that can score runs big and take 20 wickets. Seems logical to me rather than forcing results due to having the ball outweight the bat.

The current system encourages forcing results after having the bat outweigh the ball - a 400 plays 400 game is conducive to both sides, and there is little penalty for having a weak bowling attack as long as you play on a decent enough pitch to save the draw and occasionally get your opponents out after declaration cricket. Is that any better? Not to mention that any runs you score in the second innings are ignored entirely, you get the "declare to avoid giving your opponent points" scenario, and you need to have a decent command of arithmetic to follow the league.

Australian FC cricket - which essentially employs the 3-1 system, though with some small adjustments, even less conducive to the draw - suggests this wouldn't happen. Not many poor pitches abounding there. I'll admit the flatties in Australia are partially due to the drought, but you'd think they would manage to produce some raging turners if they really wanted to. In any case, the teams could be deducted points for poor pitches, as they are today.

 

[Richard]

The current system encourages forcing results after having the bat outweigh the ball - a 400 plays 400 game is conducive to both sides, and there is little penalty for having a weak bowling attack as long as you play on a decent enough pitch to save the draw and occasionally get your opponents out after declaration cricket. Is that any better? Not to mention that any runs you score in the second innings are ignored entirely, you get the "declare to avoid giving your opponent points" scenario, and you need to have a decent command of arithmetic to follow the league.

Much as the current system may appear to make this very likely... the truth is it doesn't really happen very often.

All right, this year (as last) has been so damp and so much cricket has been washed-out you're not really going to get that much of a picture. But it was little different in fine-ish summers like 2003 and 2006.