***Official*** Trans-Tasman Twenty20 Tri-Series

[_Ed_]

A bit disappointed to see so much hate for this comp. Obviously tests would be vastly preferable, but I'd take this over endless bilateral ODIs any day. I do agree that the matches should have been a bit closer together, though.

The quality of the contests so far has left a bit to be desired, but Australia have been bloody impressive. Kudos to them. Hope we're a bit better on our home turf this week.

 

[Flem274*]

i could get into an ODI tri series but my lack of interest in T20, the length of the games themselves and the length between games have made this part of the summer feel empty.

i've watched every game barring last nights because i was busy tbf, but yeah when you know 5 days of cricket in possible having 9 hours so far since last saturday is laaaame

 

[quincywagstaff]

Went to the match last night. Australia very impressive; they're like the polar opposite of their ODI side which seems aimless in performance and planning whereas you can already see the visible outline of how their next side for the WC will look like and perform tactically. Outside of Warner's form struggles, been an exceptional 3 match series by them.

Back on whether Smith is in Oz's best T20 side, I notice that Jon Anderson in today's Sunday Herald Sun suggested that Smith doesn't really belong in it. If Australia perform as well in the NZ section as they have here the calls for Smith to 'extend' his Test/ODI careers by leaving T20s will only grow.

Also, while there's been a lot of negativity about the relevance of this T20 series the matches the TV ratings have all been very good for these matches and getting over 42k last night was a pretty good effort (especially as no Barmy Army to boost numbers).

 

[quincywagstaff]

Should add that the treatment of patrons at cricket matches at the MCG has been annoying me for a while now; it's felt like they treat fans going to cricket matches as second-class citizens compared with those who go to AFL matches there.

Last night arriving to get in 10-15 minutes before the start there was a massive line for ticket-holders at the gate to get in because there weren't enough security people checking over people before they were allowed in (eventually they got some extra people to fill in) so that we barely got in for the first ball. A similar thing happened when I went for Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test.

As well, there were no food/drink shops open at all on the top deck of the Ponsford so we had to walk all the way to the Southern Stand top deck... where there was only one general food outlet (and one alcohol outlet) open so there were massive lines outside both. As a result, it took so long just to get a soft drink that we watched the Oz innings in the Southern Stand anyway. To be sure, there weren't a lot of people in those top decks but I'm certain that in a similar situation there would be far more food outlets open for an AFL match.

And then there was the BBL match I went to a couple of years ago where 80k went to the Stars/Renegades game. A massive crowd above expectations to be sure, but that the MCG decided to install an overelaborate security system for that match (which iirc was never used in the AFL season) meant there were incredibly long lines just to get into the ground and tens of thousands of people missed chunks of the match. And these aren't the only problems I've had with the ground and its staff when going to cricket matches compared with going to AFL matches there in the last few years. It's a hard thing to quantify, but it would be good if cricket admin were aware and just told the MCC/MCG that just because AFL makes a lot more money for the ground you shouldn't take cricket fans for granted.

 

[Immenso]

A bit disappointed to see so much hate for this comp. Obviously tests would be vastly preferable, but I'd take this over endless bilateral ODIs any day. I do agree that the matches should have been a bit closer together, though.

The quality of the contests so far has left a bit to be desired, but Australia have been bloody impressive. Kudos to them. Hope we're a bit better on our home turf this week.

+1 fro me.

I'm ok with a T20 tri-series. Much better than JAMODIs

This is the most boring nz summer ever in my memory. Not because of T20s tri series, but because the T20 tri series is just a small (albeit overly spaced out) part of NZs never-ending 27 consecutive white-ball matches summer of meh.

I haven't watched any games. I turned sky off.

 

[morgieb]

A bit disappointed to see so much hate for this comp. Obviously tests would be vastly preferable, but I'd take this over endless bilateral ODIs any day. I do agree that the matches should have been a bit closer together, though.

The quality of the contests so far has left a bit to be desired, but Australia have been bloody impressive. Kudos to them. Hope we're a bit better on our home turf this week.

I agree with this in principle but the gaps between the matches have been a bit farcical. This could've been over in about half the length it actually is taking.

 

[TheJediBrah]

A bit disappointed to see so much hate for this comp. Obviously tests would be vastly preferable, but I'd take this over endless bilateral ODIs any day. I do agree that the matches should have been a bit closer together, though.

The quality of the contests so far has left a bit to be desired, but Australia have been bloody impressive. Kudos to them. Hope we're a bit better on our home turf this week.

Me too. A few people whinging about how "meaningless" it is and that it won't be remembered.

Personally I'll probably remember this more even than many unmemorable Test series we've had recently.

 

[quincywagstaff]

I think this is the downside of World Cups (and the proposed Test Championship); its too easy to automatically discard cricket outside these events as ‘meaningless’ because it’s all about the big tournament and nothing else matters.

 

[SteveNZ]

Can only speak for myself in saying my angst towards this tournament is the fact we gave up hosting a third English test for it. Does that make financial sense? In a simple David White way, yes. But bemoaning the impending death of Test cricket then dropping a third Test v arguably the most marketable touring side in terms of NZ hosting (when including the Barmy Army factor) is like mourning the poor health of your beloved grandad then shooting him in the prostate.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

A bit disappointed to see so much hate for this comp. Obviously tests would be vastly preferable, but I'd take this over endless bilateral ODIs any day. I do agree that the matches should have been a bit closer together, though.

The quality of the contests so far has left a bit to be desired, but Australia have been bloody impressive. Kudos to them. Hope we're a bit better on our home turf this week.

I was quite looking forward to it tbh, but just the length of time between games ... it's completely dropped off my radar. And now the wait until the England tests is just frustrating me. I would prefer an endless ODI series because at least it would be over and done with quite quickly.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Can only speak for myself in saying my angst towards this tournament is the fact we gave up hosting a third English test for it. Does that make financial sense? In a simple David White way, yes. But bemoaning the impending death of Test cricket then dropping a third Test v arguably the most marketable touring side in terms of NZ hosting (when including the Barmy Army factor) is like mourning the poor health of your beloved grandad then shooting him in the prostate.

I think we actually ditched a home Chappell-Hadlee series and NZ v Eng T20 series for it.

 

[Adders]

Also, while there's been a lot of negativity about the relevance of this T20 series the matches the TV ratings have all been very good for these matches and getting over 42k last night was a pretty good effort (especially as no Barmy Army to boost numbers).

I only caught a little of England's innings on TV last night and was genuinely amazed at how many were in the ground. I said last week that I'd reckon they'd be lucky to get 20k in for it.........nobody can complain at 42k, that's a very decent effort.

 

[SteveNZ]

I think we actually ditched a home Chappell-Hadlee series and NZ v Eng T20 series for it.

Sure we ditched something for a Test...extra ODIS?

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Sure we ditched something for a Test...extra ODIS?

That was the West Indies tour, I think ... it was originally going to be three tests. England was always two. For some reason.

 

[Dan]

tbf this tournament will probably be memorable in five years in a "holy **** we actually picked D'Arcy Short" sense.

 

[TheJediBrah]

tbf this tournament will probably be memorable in five years in a "holy **** we actually picked D'Arcy Short" sense.

I'm assuming you mean in a "holy **** so this was the great D'Arcy Short's first international series?"

 

[S.Kennedy]

Is D'Arcy a bloke?

 

[Bahnz]

That was the West Indies tour, I think ... it was originally going to be three tests. England was always two. For some reason.

Yep that's exactly right. And to be honest, I'm not particularly fussed that the WI test series got knocked back to two. As for the 'some reason' part, I would tend to suspect that both the ECB and the NZC are fairly apathetic about tests in NZ for differing reasons.

 

[NZTailender]

I think 3 Tests vs the WIndies would've been torture for them. I can't remember the last time we had a 4 Test series (1999 England?) but we should be playing at least 3+ versus the likes of Australia, England, India, South Africa at home.

 

[thierry henry]

I don't even like T20 cricket at all, but I suspect that 3 (hopefully 4) straight NZ v England/Australia T20s are gonna do pretty well in terms of public interest in NZ.

The non-CW-hipster market (aka the Veitchy on Sport market) will see this as the start of our "real" summer of cricket and a chance to test ourselves against top opposition after the Windies and Pakistan. The mid-season lull is probably only going to heighten anticipation and the rugby season hasn't warmed up yet.