Cricket

[Busaholic]

A thrilling match in the Hundred at the Oval by all accounts, ending in a tie (just,) Wonderful to be able to watch it on the BBC, as usual....Well,no, once again it's not only not being shown 'live' but not at all. I thought the intention when the England and Wales Cricket Board introduced the competition two years ago was that the nation would be able to see games each day in both the women's and men's iterations on free-to-air TV, but apparently the cash-strapped BBC has decided its sports priorities and cricket comes last. So we are to be deprived of Test cricket for the rest of the summer while these games may as well be played behind closed doors. Yes, they're on the radio, but this type of cricket means nothing if it can't be watched, and few of us can be there.

 

[Darandio]

A thrilling match in the Hundred at the Oval by all accounts, ending in a tie (just,) Wonderful to be able to watch it on the BBC, as usual....Well,no, once again it's not only not being shown 'live' but not at all. I thought the intention when the England and Wales Cricket Board introduced the competition two years ago was that the nation would be able to see games each day in both the women's and men's iterations on free-to-air TV, but apparently the cash-strapped BBC has decided its sports priorities and cricket comes last. So we are to be deprived of Test cricket for the rest of the summer while these games may as well be played behind closed doors. Yes, they're on the radio, but this type of cricket means nothing if it can't be watched, and few of us can be there.

The BBC contract was never for a match every day on free-to-air TV. Each year was 18 live games but for some reason it seems to only be 16 this year. That contract runs until 2025. The Sky contract is big bucks and the Hundred would never have got off the ground without their involvement.

 

[Busaholic]

The BBC contract was never for a match every day on free-to-air TV. Each year was 18 live games but for some reason it seems to only be 16 this year. That contract runs until 2025. The Sky contract is big bucks and the Hundred would never have got off the ground without their involvement.

I think in the first year they showed a match every day in the first week, but now they must be concentrating on the latter ones after the first two or three games. The weather this year doesn't help, obviously, if every other 'live' game gets washed out, but I've a feeling this competition will reach its sell-by date this year or next; no other country thinks it should replace 20/20 cricket, it's not that different.

 

[DelW]

I think in the first year they showed a match every day in the first week, but now they must be concentrating on the latter ones after the first two or three games. The weather this year doesn't help, obviously, if every other 'live' game gets washed out, but I've a feeling this competition will reach its sell-by date this year or next; no other country thinks it should replace 20/20 cricket, it's not that different.

Last week BBC2 showed live women's and men's matches on Tuesday, men's on Wednesday evening (with a very close finish), and were scheduled to show a men's match on Saturday evening had it not been washed out.

This week BBC2 has live women's and men's matches on Wednesday and men's on Friday evening.

That seems pretty good to me, and much better than has been available on terrestrial TV for most of the past two decades. I'd rather see test cricket, but the reality is that that won't ever be back on free to air.

 

[Busaholic]

Last week BBC2 showed live women's and men's matches on Tuesday, men's on Wednesday evening (with a very close finish), and were scheduled to show a men's match on Saturday evening had it not been washed out.

This week BBC2 has live women's and men's matches on Wednesday and men's on Friday evening.

That seems pretty good to me, and much better than has been available on terrestrial TV for most of the past two decades. I'd rather see test cricket, but the reality is that that won't ever be back on free to air.

It's better than nothing, agreed, but doesn't accord with all the hype surrounding the launch of the Hundred and bringing cricket to a mass audience, which county 20/20 was deemed by the Cricket Board to be lacking. I also note from the timetable above that the women's matches are getting much less priority this time, but maybe that's because both women's football and netball are receiving BBC airtime at present.

On a completely different note, the ex-Surrey and England wicketkeeper Roy Swetman has died aged 90. He was probably the first England test keeper to lose his place to another keeper considered to be a better batsman, Jim Parks: in fact, Parks was referred to as a batsman/keeper from the start, as nobody thought his keeping skills were on a par with Swetman's, John Murray's, Jimmy Binks's or most other county keepers. Swetman is one of the first cricketers I remember seeing playing in the flesh, along with Tony Lock and the Bedser twins at the Oval. He was also the only keeper to stump Garry Sobers in Test cricket, but Sobers had 140 plus to his name at the time!

 

[MP33]

Crayonistas are not confined to Transport. The CEO of Essex CCC was presented with two hand drawn plans that looked like they had been drawn by a small child of plans for a re developed County ground. The author asked about progress and the problem was the CEO could not remember what waste paper basket he had put them in.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

On a completely different note, the ex-Surrey and England wicketkeeper Roy Swetman has died aged 90. He was probably the first England test keeper to lose his place to another keeper considered to be a better batsman, Jim Parks: in fact, Parks was referred to as a batsman/keeper from the start, as nobody thought his keeping skills were on a par with Swetman's, John Murray's, Jimmy Binks's or most other county keepers. Swetman is one of the first cricketers I remember seeing playing in the flesh, along with Tony Lock and the Bedser twins at the Oval. He was also the only keeper to stump Garry Sobers in Test cricket, but Sobers had 140 plus to his name at the time!

I remember the name as it was around the time that I started following cricket...and he also came out of retirement twice!
Having an idle moment, I've just looked at the 'keepers who played for England in the period 1959-1964....Godfrey Evans retired in 1959 and over the next five years Swetman, Parks, John Murray, Geoff Millman, Alan Smith, Keith Andrew and Jimmy Binks were all selected, with no-one really becoming an automatic selection. Parks admitted (in an article that I have just quickly scanned) that he never wanted to be a wicketkeeper, always a batsman (batter?) first. I recall that Andrew was considered the best but he was a real ferret.

 

[MP33]

With the Industrial action on the Railways. An Essex member told me that they had emailed the club to ask if an upcoming Day/Night game could be changed to a Day game. For some reason he did not receive a reply.

 

[Busaholic]

I remember the name as it was around the time that I started following cricket...and he also came out of retirement twice!
Having an idle moment, I've just looked at the 'keepers who played for England in the period 1959-1964....Godfrey Evans retired in 1959 and over the next five years Swetman, Parks, John Murray, Geoff Millman, Alan Smith, Keith Andrew and Jimmy Binks were all selected, with no-one really becoming an automatic selection. Parks admitted (in an article that I have just quickly scanned) that he never wanted to be a wicketkeeper, always a batsman (batter?) first. I recall that Andrew was considered the best but he was a real ferret.

Swetman retired at the age of 28 because he was so devastated at being replaced by Parks, and apparently the subject was verboten for the rest of his life. One of his other counties was Gloucestershire, where he kept to the England offbreak bowler David Allen and the latter was the bowler when Swetman stumped Sobers.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Swetman retired at the age of 28 because he was so devastated at being replaced by Parks, and apparently the subject was verboten for the rest of his life. One of his other counties was Gloucestershire, where he kept to the England offbreak bowler David Allen and the latter was the bowler when Swetman stumped Sobers.

Thanks, I wasn't aware that was the reason he retired at such a young age. I remember him mainly because of his spell with Gloucestershire, the county I supported following the family tradition.

The umpire and bucket controversy

When a prank which saw a Pakistani umpire drenched with a bucket of water had far more serious consequences

www.espncricinfo.com

You might be interested in this article!

 

[Busaholic]

You might be interested in this article!

Very interesting! I had read of this incident before, but it had a more sinister bent than in the ESPN account. The 'alternative' version had the umpire kidnapped from his room by two masked men, those behind the masks being Brian Close, later to be the youngest player in England colours. and Swetman. The Lord Alexander mentioned by ESPN, by the way, was Earl Alexander of Tunis, a Field Marshal in World War Two in North Africa who was not regarded as a soft man, at least according to my father, a tank commander in that conflict.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Very interesting! I had read of this incident before, but it had a more sinister bent than in the ESPN account. The 'alternative' version had the umpire kidnapped from his room by two masked men, those behind the masks being Brian Close, later to be the youngest player in England colours. and Swetman. The Lord Alexander mentioned by ESPN, by the way, was Earl Alexander of Tunis, a Field Marshal in World War Two in North Africa who was not regarded as a soft man, at least according to my father, a tank commander in that conflict.

Well, the 'alternative' version is most interesting! I understand that such 'pranks' were quite common on the long overseas tours but of course never made it into the official (or semi-official) reports. I've read a number of interesting articles recounted by former players in their twilight years.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Prithvi Shaw, opening for Northants against Somerset in the 50 0ver Metro Bank One Day Cup competition had a match to remember, scoring 244 with 11 x 6 and 28 x 4 and was finally dismissed in the final over, helping Northants to reach 415-8 in their innings.

 

[Busaholic]

Prithvi Shaw, opening for Northants against Somerset in the 50 0ver Metro Bank One Day Cup competition had a match to remember, scoring 244 with 11 x 6 and 28 x 4 and was finally dismissed in the final over, helping Northants to reach 415-8 in their innings.

Anyone remember Alastair Brown's 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan about twenty years ago? I'd gone to the pub after work and caught the latter part on TV.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

On Saturday, Jer Lane CC host Bradford & Bingley CC at Park Avenue in the Bradford Premier League. This, I believe, will be Bradford & Bingley's first visit to the ground since the unwelcome merger of the two clubs in 1989 with the amalgamated club basing itself at Bingley. The game is 50 overs a side and starts at 1230 - so hopefully there will be time to take in some play both before and after Bradford Park Avenue's football match against Macclesfield at the Horsfall Stadium a couple of miles away.

 

[ian1944]

I've just watched Oval beat Northern in a fairly close match, unlike the one a couple of days ago when the over-hyped Manchester were trounced by tonight's victors. I don't know what the record low score is, but at 58 for 9 I suspected that it was going to be beaten. Some swishing added another 34, but Manchester didn't last beyond 89 balls, a poor performance. Not fair to single out one player, so I'll just say that Tom Hartley was not alone in his lack of performance, in his case ineffectual bowling and capitulative batting.

 

[Whistler40145]

Prithvi Shaw, opening for Northants against Somerset in the 50 0ver Metro Bank One Day Cup competition had a match to remember, scoring 244 with 11 x 6 and 28 x 4 and was finally dismissed in the final over, helping Northants to reach 415-8 in their innings.

An amazing score

 

[Busaholic]

An amazing score

He once scored 546 in an under-14 game, the largest score I can recollect seeing quoted in any cricket journal.

 

[SteveM70]

Leicestershire win again. 3 from 4 in the one day cup now. Long may it continue

 

[HST43257]

Leicestershire win again. 3 from 4 in the one day cup now. Long may it continue

Peter Handscomb has really shown his class with Leicestershire, where he hasn’t been so consistent in the past. Not to mention amazing contributions this season from the likes of Rishi Patel and Colin Ackermann

 

[306024]

With the Industrial action on the Railways. An Essex member told me that they had emailed the club to ask if an upcoming Day/Night game could be changed to a Day game. For some reason he did not receive a reply.

Well if it was today’s game that finished around 20.30 there was no need, all GA trains calling at Chelmsford ran apart from the Ingatestone school kids special and its return working. Would have inconvenienced more people than it solved.

I hope they went though, a thrilling finish saw Essex win by 3 runs after Middlesex chasing 299 runs snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with an unlikely collapse.

 

[Busaholic]

I hope they went though, a thrilling finish saw Essex win by 3 runs after Middlesex chasing 299 runs snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with an unlikely collapse.

All-too-predictable collapse for the 2023 Middlesex team, even though John Simpson is not involved in The Hundred this year.

 

[306024]

All-too-predictable collapse for the 2023 Middlesex team, even though John Simpson is not involved in The Hundred this year.

They were always ahead of the run rate, and got the rate required down to 3 per over, but then tried to finish is as if it were a 100 game, when 4-day batting would have seen them home. Exciting stuff though.

 

[Busaholic]

They were always ahead of the run rate, and got the rate required down to 3 per over, but then tried to finish is as if it were a 100 game, when 4-day batting would have seen them home. Exciting stuff though.

Agreed, I've always liked a good one day game, including the 40 over Sunday league when that ran. In the days when I spectated on a regular basis, nobody threw themselves round in the field like now, so the odd excellent fielder and catcher like Alan Ealham down at Kent found themselves on the winning side more often that not.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Perhaps I am too steeped in the traditional format at the age of 78 and have always been a supporter of Lancashire in the County Championship (and Cheshire in the Minor Counties) but in the "Hundred", I do not recognise many of the players who represent a supposed team of this area. Whether that team wins or loses is immaterial to me.

Incidentally, are there many opening partnerships in the better-known format where two wicketkeeper-batsmen open the innings, such as Salt and Buttler for Lancashire?

 

[43096]

Incidentally, are there many opening partnerships in the better-known format where two wicketkeeper-batsmen open the innings, such as Salt and Buttler for Lancashire?

Australia's women's team has had Beth Mooney (reserve keeper) opening with Alyssa Healy (their regular keeper) in T20s.

 

[Busaholic]

Perhaps I am too steeped in the traditional format at the age of 78 and have always been a supporter of Lancashire in the County Championship (and Cheshire in the Minor Counties) but in the "Hundred", I do not recognise many of the players who represent a supposed team of this area. Whether that team wins or loses is immaterial to me.

Incidentally, are there many opening partnerships in the better-known format where two wicketkeeper-batsmen open the innings, such as Salt and Buttler

I think you're making a quite understandable assumption that the Manchester Originals, for instance, are in some way directly connected to the Lancashire county club, rather than to the test ground venue of Old Trafford. Jimmy Anderson, for instance, in his role as TV commentator for the matches has revealed he feels no affinity to the Hundred side, while Liam Livingstone has played for Birmingham Phoenix from the start. Welsh Fire down at Cardiff, meantime, enjoying some success until tonight, don't usually play a single Glamorgan player. The sides are based at all the current test grounds plus Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.

 

[HST43257]

Incidentally, are there many opening partnerships in the better-known format where two wicketkeeper-batsmen open the innings, such as Salt and Buttler for Lancashire?

Devon Conway and Finn Allen is probably the most prominent keeper opener duo at the moment, playing together with New Zealand in T20Is and this season at Welsh Fire. Buttler and Bairstow will have opened a T20I for England at some point. Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson or KL Rahul? Unsure if Samson has opened much before. Maybe Joe Clarke and Ben Duckett at Nottinghamshire (if Hales has ever been absent). Perhaps Ben McDermott and Matthew Wade for Hobart Hurricanes? Could also be said for Australia white ball sides at some point with those 2, and also throwing Josh Inglis into the mix. KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock have opened together in the IPL I believe.

In the red ball format there’s Devon Conway and Tom Latham opening together in Tests. Otherwise, I’m struggling for any more. Maybe if Sol Budinger and Ben Duckett ever opened together for Notts? Or maybe if Tom Clark and Ali Orr opened together when Tom Haines was injured last season? Another one could be Jordan Cox and Ollie Robinson (non England) at Kent, who I believe have both opened on occasion. Can’t think of any for Australia FC teams at present.

 

[Falcon1200]

I think you're making a quite understandable assumption that the Manchester Originals, for instance, are in some way directly connected to the Lancashire county club, rather than to the test ground venue of Old Trafford. Jimmy Anderson, for instance, in his role as TV commentator for the matches has revealed he feels no affinity to the Hundred side, while Liam Livingstone has played for Birmingham Phoenix from the start. Welsh Fire down at Cardiff, meantime, enjoying some success until tonight, don't usually play a single Glamorgan player. The sides are based at all the current test grounds plus Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.

That is the essential problem with the Hundred for me; As a Northants follower, which Hundred team should I support? The only Northants player I can think of playing in this year's competition is David Willey, and that is not sufficient to get me interested in this artificial contest with its daftly named teams.

 

[New York Giant]

Thanks to The Hundred I have watched more cricket in the last two years than in my 41 years that preceded it. Thursday I took my dad to Edgbaston and watched a brilliant women's game between the Welsh Fire and the Phoenix, ending with the hat-trick that clinched the game for the Fire. The men's game was a foregone conclusion after a lacklustre Birmingham batting performance.

My dad has always been a cricket nut. I thought that he might reject The Hundred as it is, to me at least, a three week sprint with little affiliation between player and club and the game's superstars either flying off to play in other leagues mid-season or getting the first week off because they've been playing in the Ashes in the month before. But he loves it. He thinks Birmingham Phoenix are useless and he doesn't see how, for all her obvious potential, nobody has told Issy Wong to bowl slower and focus more on accuracy. But there is a place for it. The Hundred has introduced kids to the game and has presented opportunities for players to get TV exposure they may not have previously received (the Southern Brave's Mary Taylor comes to mind) .

I don't know how the merch stands can justify charging £55 for a replica shirt that will only be worn by the team for three weeks of the year - but plenty of folk buy them.

I hope it succeeds. With that said, my dad and I both agreed that we would rather go and watch the 20/20 live next year.