Just wondered if I am the only cricket fan here!!!!

The game is going through one of those phases at the moment that is making it suddenly a popular product with lots of debate - so heres a thread to debate it on.

What about those Peiterson shots? Holding believes they should be outlawed, but I disagree. I played against Holding many years ago and he loved taking the mickey out of batsmen of our standard (way below his). Why shouldn't a batsman take the mickey out of a bowler?

What about Twenty20? Is it the saviour of the game, or the death knell of cricket as we know it? I know which I think it is.

What about the Texan billionaire and his winner takes all format? Can that really be applied succesfully to a uniquely team game that is the sum of individual performances, or is it a recipe for disuniting teams and animosity in the dresing room?

Lots to talk about, but I think I may be in a minority in being fascinated by our strangely British sport.

Let us know what you think. Are you new to cricket, enticed by the 3 hour slog fest of Twenty20, or a seasoned league player watching the changes with more than a little worry (like me).

Ahh the Aussies.

A wonderful team, perhaps just on the wan.

In the county leagues in Yorkshire and Lancashire, we can play a limited number of overseas professionals in our teams. Once upon a time this meant Holding, Marshall, Jones etc. turning out for teams in leagues and was a fantastic experience for the rest of us. To test tour mettle against Holding, even from his short run, was awe inspiring.
Nowadays it is young Aussies who come to play here for money and they are very good. One thing they all have in common is a work ethic that makes Boycott look like a slouch!!
That is what I see missing in kids coming to learn the great game. They expect to be brilliant within 1 hour. This is where batting is so different from any game you care to mention. One mistake and its all over for another week. In football you can make as many mistakes as you like and still keep playing, getting better all the time. A generation that is used to pressing reset on its PS2 and starting again cannot get to grips with such responsibility and go off the idea very quickly.
Perhaps the Aussie outdoor lifestyle gets rid of that problem, so perhaps you are right, but they are exceedingly good, even at a lower level.

Don't the Aussies have to wrestle with a crocodile or something before they get picked for any sport?!

Alan, I don't think you need worry about Twenty20 having a bad effect in the long run; I remember my P.E. teacher bemoaning the introduction of 5 and 7-a-side football, saying that it would ruin the beautiful game in the end; whilst maybe not comparable in the true sense, I think there must be an indicator in there somewhere which says it won't happen. If the kids really want to make a go of cricket and enjoy it they learn to be patient at league level, or get picked to make the sandwiches instead of play!

I find kids cricket interesting. A lot different from when I was a lad[I am 39].

Kids cricket is played slightly differently, at least in the U11 age bracket, where the batsmens' innings is two overs regardless of how many times you are out[you lose runs for each wicket] and you also must bowl two overs too. This has the advantages of keeping the young-uns interested and actively involved in the match.
My nephew plays PSP and gets out playing cricket too so there is hope for the future.
Only another a few years before my son[or daughters if they wish] are old enough to play for my local team.

The future is 20/20 for the younger players, imo.
If you look at ESPN, the indian 20/20 league is incredibly popular, both with the live viewers & the T.V. audiences. Maybe it's something to do with the short attention span of the next generation, but slow laborious cricket is the heart of the international game, fast & furious is what appeals to the day to day audiences.
England cricketers; well, my question is, why don't we get more all rounders, like Botham & Flintoff? I just hope that Stuart Broad is going to fulfill his potential & liven things up a bit!

I am afraid the future probably is Twenty20, Harrycat. Thats what upsets me!!
Its a bit like saying the first 90 minutes of a football match can be very boring so shall we just have the penalty shoot out instead.
I would hate to see league cricket reduced to a 20 over slog, but fear I will.
At the moment it is a full day out, with all that entails in spirit and camaraderie. At league level, Twenty20 is about 2 and a half hours. This reduces it to the same level as pub football, against which we struggle anyway. We cannot compete with soccer. It already kills the season and the best cricket can do is try to be very different.
Already we lose many players to soccer. The cricket season is just 22 weeks long. The first 4 are eaten into by the end of the soccer season, as are the last 6. Of the remaining 12, family holidays cost 2 and now junior soccer teams spend the summer playing galas. We cannot offer the whizz bang excitement of soccer, even at Twenty20, so we should try to offer a totally different alternative. Cutting the length of the game does not seem to me to offer that difference, whereas a patient game of tactical awareness and great skill does.
Just my opinion and perhaps I am lamenting the old age and future doom of an old friend.

hewitt

its pandering to the masses......the ausies r stupid and i'm afraid most people in blighty r uneducated morons these days, well 75% plus of them are......so things like cricket means you need a brain cell or 2 unless u r a drunken big slob like flintoff who can muscle a few yahoos out of the ground.

and u have pyjama cricket too for some time already.

and who wants to be in a massive crowd where someone next to you blows whistles in your ears every few mins etc.......give me bacon and egg ties at lords any day.

actually u have a good idea there.....vast amount of footy games are extremely boring.....so they should jusy have penalties!!
you could do some PR on that idea.....u could be multi millionaire from this, lol

speak to that russian mafia gangster called obramovich....he's nearer u than me thank god.......why russian gangsters are allowede here i have no idea as we have so many problemns as it is

It's also pandering to the T.V. companies, because they want something that will be watchable for the entire game & will therefore pull in the audiences. T.V. revenue would also then boost the club cricket coffers, with the added spinoff of team kit advertising.

scotinvestor,
you have been more lucid of thought than I.
Thats what it comes down to. cricket has always been, to my mind, a civilized game. It is now becoming yobbish.
The game was more of a background than an event.
The happiest times were often those that involved warm sunshine, a long cold beer, and catching up with old friends while making new ones that you were fairly certain would not get drunk and spit at policemen (even at Headingley).
Chatting with the fielders between balls, or the batsmen on the balcony, and stopping every few hours for a light meal.
This way of cricket looks to be having its last hurrah to make way for 3 hours of drunken chanting, with the mindlessness that will inevitably follow, and a 10 minute break to grab a dodgy pie and a luke warm beer in a plastic beaker.
Unfortunately, the game is at the Rubicon, and once crossed, there will be no going back to the long version.

I mean what next?
Replacing the Henley Regatta with a quick speed boat race?? Or opera at Covent Garden with a 3 minute Spice Girls song?

Harry,
The question is, has all the money really done anything good for football?
It has for the players, but its questionable whether the sport has really benefitted.

thats way cricket is starting with indian league with 6 figure salary for 1 game.

my local cricket team has a fair gathering on a decent sunny day and most people r friendly there and have a wee chat and ask how they r doing in life.......thats another thing thats wrong as most people dont communicate as much as say even 20 years ago....i notice esp fems walkin g down streets hitting buttons on mobiles etc staggering as they do so. yes, i know blokes do it but fems seem to do it continually even if they have a guy next to them.

right thats it, society/footy/cricket rant over, ahhhh

oh.....and teams in internationa sport should be that nationality!
i watched poland the other night and they had a black guy that scored for them....yes a blaCK GUY!!!
anything goes as long as u win these days.....just ask the italians at football, lol

Comments on THAT run out???

Pieterson gets in the way of Elliot. Elliot is run out. Collingwood is asked if he would like to withdraw his teams appeal. Elliot given out.
For me the umpire had no choice but to give him out, but Collingwood should have withdrawn. He admitted as much afterwards.
The team have a responsibility to the game in general, and this sort of thing has a nasty habit of getting bigger in the lower levels of the leagues.
Cricket is a gentlemans game.
One of the things I love to see is when a batsman walks, even though the umpire is not sure or not giving him out.
We see it all the time at our level, because it is accepted practice at the highest levels.
Funnily enough, we saw a similar event in our match about 6 weeks ago, when an opposition batsman had made his ground, but as the throw whistled in, he saw it late and dived aside to avoid the ball. He had left his ground and our bowler whipped the bails off.
Technically out, and the umpire gave it when the bowler appealed, but voiced his discontent to both bowler and captain. Our captain did not withdraw (claiming later he did not know he could) but he has been formally disciplined by our committee for acting outside of rule 1 (the famous spirit of the game law).
The committee and captain have sent an open letter of apology to both the opposite team and the umpire concerned, which has been graciously accepted.
In much the same way, Collingwood has accepted responsibility and taken the honourable course with the Black Caps, who were just as gracious.
This is right and proper, and why cricket will always be a cut above football, where nobody admits to anything and winning is more important than honour.