Does world cricket need a strong England?

[SteveNZ]

Does Test cricket need a strong England? Well yeah it kinda does, when the Ashes is one of the flagship series of that format. If the Ashes wasn't at all competitive for the next 10-20 years, that wouldn't be in the interest of the game

 

[Silly Point 2.0]

Probably yes if the "big three" want to keep going down the route they are now, wanting to play each other more often in the name of coin. On a national level, whatever the national team are doing, cricket will always have a relatively small but loyal band of followers here.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Probably yes if the "big three" want to keep going down the route they are now, wanting to play each other more often in the name of coin. On a national level, whatever the national team are doing, cricket will always have a relatively small but loyal band of followers here.

England is sufficiently strong now really compared to the other 2..... Or they are equally weak, especially India. England have the weakest bowling but comfortably the best batting.

 

[Johan]

Jeez talk about an overreaction

 

[TheJediBrah]

Does Test cricket need a strong England? Well yeah it kinda does, when the Ashes is one of the flagship series of that format. If the Ashes wasn't at all competitive for the next 10-20 years, that wouldn't be in the interest of the game

Game did pretty well from 1989-2005 when England barely won a game

 

[Johan]

Game did pretty well from 1989-2005 when England barely won a game

1997 was 3-2

 

[Silly Point 2.0]

I'd say the world doesn't really "need" a strong anyone, as long as there are enough competitive teams and quality players around. Most teams tend to go through phases anyway.

 

[SteveNZ]

Game did pretty well from 1989-2005 when England barely won a game

Game is a lot different now than it was in 1989-2005

 

[TheJediBrah]

Game is a lot different now than it was in 1989-2005

Your face is a lot different

 

[SteveNZ]

Your face is a lot different

True

 

[Fuller Pilch]

England has second best test team

Extremely debatable.

Aus clearly 1.
I'd say SA 2.
Eng, NZ, India, and SL all pretty equal

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Does Test cricket need a strong England? Well yeah it kinda does, when the Ashes is one of the flagship series of that format. If the Ashes wasn't at all competitive for the next 10-20 years, that wouldn't be in the interest of the game

True but test cricket was perhaps the best it has been ever been from 1990-2005 and the Ashes were extremely uncompetitive

 

[L Trumper]

True but test cricket was perhaps the best it has been ever been from 1990-2005 and the Ashes were extremely uncompetitive

This isn't true though, that's probably the first time since WW2 when test cricket's primacy was challenged.
Especially from around early 90s to 00s ODIs were much more popular than tests. In fact England is probably the only country where that didn't happen.

 

[honestbharani]

Extremely debatable.

Aus clearly 1.
I'd say SA 2.
Eng, NZ, India, and SL all pretty equal

I would still think India is #2 but I do agree we are trending downwards in tests.


Heck before this season (October 2024) I would have argued we were #1 and pretty convincingly. How far the team has fallen.