County Cricket 2022

[wpdavid]

Surrey just relentless.

Hampshire have won 8 games already but still find themselves a way behind. Surrey do have a more difficult looking fixture list from here so clinging on to that.

Yeah, we have to play Lancashire away in our last match of the season. Who knows what the September fixtures will look like though. I think we'll have Sam Curran available, but probably not Pope or Foakes for the first match of the three. You might find me arguing elsewhere that Bohannon should replace Pope during the SA series. Then there's the question of who sides might sign for those matches. And, of course, who knows how the weather will be in different parts of the country.

Were you still at Scarborough for the final day's play?

 

[Pothas]

No only there the first two days. The days when it rained obviously. Luckily there is an excellent pub about a minute from the ground.

 

[Midwinter]

Good win for Derby, coming back from 5/14 on the first morning.

 

[kevinw]

Don't know if this is the right place for Hundred 'chat' as it's not a county tournament. I'm broadly not as hostile as some - I like the fact that some cricket is on FTA and am on the fence towards a franchise tournament of sorts - but I share a lot of criticism the Hundred gets. It's a tournament nobody else plays or is likely to play; it overlaps with and devalues another tournament; the promise of major international stars has never come to fruition (Aussies who'd be here anyway are hardly Kohli and Bumrah); the quality of the sides are probably at standard county level; the horrible graphics and inane presentation; the crisp tie-ins, etc. I'll watch it, but with a slightly disapproving eye. It's cricket still, right?

 

[kevinw]

Rossington one of the more recognisable players on the circuit. Being about 20 stone

He's keeping for London Spirit too. I'm always amazed that guys in that shape are actual pros. Do the counties not ride these guys hard to be at peak fitness?

 

[Blenkinsop]

He's keeping for London Spirit too. I'm always amazed that guys in that shape are actual pros. Do the counties not ride these guys hard to be at peak fitness?

Imagine what the Northants squad looked like when we also had Richard Levi and Rory Kleinveldt. You'd have to make sure they didn't all sit on the same side of the bus.

 

[wpdavid]

Don't know if this is the right place for Hundred 'chat' as it's not a county tournament. I'm broadly not as hostile as some - I like the fact that some cricket is on FTA and am on the fence towards a franchise tournament of sorts - but I share a lot of criticism the Hundred gets. It's a tournament nobody else plays or is likely to play; it overlaps with and devalues another tournament; the promise of major international stars has never come to fruition (Aussies who'd be here anyway are hardly Kohli and Bumrah); the quality of the sides are probably at standard county level; the horrible graphics and inane presentation; the crisp tie-ins, etc. I'll watch it, but with a slightly disapproving eye. It's cricket still, right?

I'll watch it if it's on FTA and I'm at a loose end, but I loathe everything about it apart from the actual cricket. All the things you mentioned, really. And I loathe the damage that it's doing to our domestic game because something much bigger quart is now having to be squeezed into a pint pot. It would have been far preferable to get some of the T20 matches on FTA, not to have absolutely butchered the Royal London 50 over competition and not to have made a lop sided pig's ear of the CC.

 

[Chubb]

I will never watch The Hundred, it's an insult to "ordinary" cricket fans across the country. The average ECB apparatchik thinks "ordinary people" are beer and bingo oiks who can't understand the sport so they have to dumb it down. It's a disgrace.

I have no problem with a regional franchise T20 tournament but making up an entirely new format to "cater for ordinary people" is disgusting.

 

[wpdavid]

Our Northants contingent really don't want to see what happened against Hampshire today.

 

[Tom Flint]

Our Northants contingent really don't want to see what happened against Hampshire today.

I listened on the radio. Sounded like some brain dead batting at the end.

 

[honestbharani]

I will never watch The Hundred, it's an insult to "ordinary" cricket fans across the country. The average ECB apparatchik thinks "ordinary people" are beer and bingo oiks who can't understand the sport so they have to dumb it down. It's a disgrace.

I have no problem with a regional franchise T20 tournament but making up an entirely new format to "cater for ordinary people" is disgusting.

Wasn't there some legal or at least contractual reasons they had to invent a new format? If it was an existing format, was there something that prevented them from making up a competition that cannot be between the counties?

 

[Chubb]

Wasn't there some legal or at least contractual reasons they had to invent a new format? If it was an existing format, was there something that prevented them from making up a competition that cannot be between the counties?

Part of the argument was that free-to-air wouldn't show a full T20 game so it had to fit a shorter timeslot. I don't buy that. Every TV org has multiple free to air channels these days, even pop-up channels. There is no reason the Blast could not have free to air games except greed - and the assumption "ordinary people" are too stupid and time-poor to understand it.

The ECB basically just spat in the face of every cricket fan in the country.

 

[kevinw]

Not sure if he's retiring but Darren Stevens is leaving Kent after 17 years.

 

[ataraxia]

I've been vaguely following Stevo this season -- he hasn't had much game time with Kent after the first few rounds of the CC and injury. His 110kphers didn't adapt well to this big-run season, and his batting was fairly mediocre, one A-game daddy ton aside. Very funny that a 46yo is potentially finding a new county.

 

[Daemon]

Pujara second highest run scorer in the one day cup atm. Averaging 90 and striking at 120. Are all the good bowlers in the Hundred or something?

 

[wpdavid]

Pujara second highest run scorer in the one day cup atm. Averaging 90 and striking at 120. Are all the good bowlers in the Hundred or something?

Pretty much.

Which seems as good a time as any to have a moan about Surrey's approach to the Royal London Cup. Everyone knows that we've lost several players to The Hundred; Roy, Jacks, both Currans and Topley playing for the Oval Invincibles (crap name, btw), and Pope playing for, iirc, Welsh Fire. Which is fair enough, given that we're stuck with The Hundred whether we like it or not. And I kind of get that they aren't keen on paying Amla, Worrall and Roach to stick around and take part in this tournament, although once upon a time that wasn't how things were done. What isn't so reasonable is most of the other first choice XI being rested until the CC starts again in September. So, instead of Burns, Smith, Foakes, Clark, Atkinson and Overton, we get virtually a full team of 2nd XI players, apart from Ryan Patel, Tim Lawes and Conor McKerr. Maybe Overton and/or Atkinson are injured, tbf. Which really is taking the mick out of the paying selectors who hope to see their side being vaguely competitive. Obviously anyone coming along now knows what they're going to get, but surely the first teamers who aren't taking part in The Hundred would actually benefit from some time in the middle before we get to the concluding matches in the CC. End of moan. Does anyone here have Alec Stewart's email address?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

This hundred lark at least gets some young'uns playing regular List A cricket. The Essex line-up is definitely a bit raw, as I'm guessing most line-ups are. Some decent returns for some of those newer players - Benkenstein, Das, Richards and Nijjar have contributed well, but at little erratic, as you might expect.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah have been really enjoying the one day cup from a Hampshire point of view, obviously helps that they keep somehow winning tight low scoring matches. Our 4 day team is certainly on the 'experienced' side so really enjoying all the young players getting a chance. Will be interesting to see how many of them play in other formats next season, expect Press will and Albert should at least become a regular in the T20 side.

 

[wpdavid]

I get the impression that most counties are playing most of their first team players who aren't taking part in The Hundred. Maybe I'm just wrong about that. Interesting that Pujara is playing for Sussex, after my previous comments about Surrey's overseas professionals. Again, I don't know how widespread that is.

 

[Pothas]

Neither Abbas or Abbott have been playing for Hampshire. Barker has played a couple. The batters not at the hundred have been playing though which sounds like something Surrey have not really done.