Cricket fred

[Digby]

Test cricket does look to be dying. Crowds are terrible, so many games behind a paywall, and as with rugby much of the funding runs from top to bottom so there's nothing to sustain it, Pakistan don' play at home, the Windies are miles off what they were. And yes it's a crying shame the Windies have fallen so far, I can never quite decide if the great team of Marshall et al under Richards trumps the best Aussie side under Waugh or not, and I think I'm as likely to ever decide as I am on Lara Vs Tendulkar for the #1 batsman. The Aussies had the stronger batting lineup maybe just, more variety in their bowling and a freak talent in Warne, but when Walsh is your 4th best seamer it's probably the most intimidating attack ever.

20/20 looks viable enough , but I can't say it's my cup of tea

[Discreet Hooker]

Seems that Windies cricketers have dried up , bit like Scottish footballers .

You'll always have good home crowds agin India, Pakistan and of course the Aussies. With the windies struggling for talent the English Test arena can hardly afford to lose any serious competitors .

Love test cricket but it is an expensive day out . Have no interest in limited overs or crash bash .

[Banquo]

Seems that Windies cricketers have dried up , bit like Scottish footballers .

You'll always have good home crowds agin India, Pakistan and of course the Aussies. With the windies struggling for talent the English Test arena can hardly afford to lose any serious competitors .

Love test cricket but it is an expensive day out . Have no interest in limited overs or crash bash .

Hopefully test cricket is so in the DNA in England, Australia, SA, NZ, India and Pakistan that there will always be competitive series to bring crowds in here and in some places abroad. But its swimming again the 'immediate thrill' grain and to some extent the cost factor. Its still good value as day's at sport go (as in you do get 6+ hours of actual action) when you have top opponents.

[Banquo]

Test cricket does look to be dying. Crowds are terrible, so many games behind a paywall, and as with rugby much of the funding runs from top to bottom so there's nothing to sustain it, Pakistan don' play at home, the Windies are miles off what they were. And yes it's a crying shame the Windies have fallen so far, I can never quite decide if the great team of Marshall et al under Richards trumps the best Aussie side under Waugh or not, and I think I'm as likely to ever decide as I am on Lara Vs Tendulkar for the #1 batsman. The Aussies had the stronger batting lineup maybe just, more variety in their bowling and a freak talent in Warne, but when Walsh is your 4th best seamer it's probably the most intimidating attack ever.

20/20 looks viable enough , but I can't say it's my cup of tea

it would have been fascinating to have watched cricket back when there were uncovered wickets etc etc, and you had to have more skills in your armoury, esp as a batsman.
On the WI v Oz great teams you mention its a tough call as you say...can't make it either.

[Digby]

Test cricket does look to be dying. Crowds are terrible, so many games behind a paywall, and as with rugby much of the funding runs from top to bottom so there's nothing to sustain it, Pakistan don' play at home, the Windies are miles off what they were. And yes it's a crying shame the Windies have fallen so far, I can never quite decide if the great team of Marshall et al under Richards trumps the best Aussie side under Waugh or not, and I think I'm as likely to ever decide as I am on Lara Vs Tendulkar for the #1 batsman. The Aussies had the stronger batting lineup maybe just, more variety in their bowling and a freak talent in Warne, but when Walsh is your 4th best seamer it's probably the most intimidating attack ever.

20/20 looks viable enough , but I can't say it's my cup of tea

it would have been fascinating to have watched cricket back when there were uncovered wickets etc etc, and you had to have more skills in your armoury, esp as a batsman.
On the WI v Oz great teams you mention its a tough call as you say...can't make it either.

I think maybe, just maybe he Aussies were better, but the Windies with that succession of not just good but great fast bowlers were scarier. My earliest memory of the Windies came in 1984 with the bowling lineup of Garner, Holding, Marshall and Walsh, which is just nonsensical (and actually that must have been under Lloyd and not Richards as I mentioned above), and I now know that followed some pretty good bowlers like Roberts, Hall and Croft, and of course itself in 1988 introduced the world to the likes of Bishop and Ambrose.

And I just can't decide between the maybe technically better team, or the scarier team.

[Digby]

Listening to TMS whilst cooking a meal, and Curtly Ambrose has just mentioned he was at school with Kenny and Winston Benjamin. That'd be a tidy attack, more than, at test level a few years down the line, at school level it'd have been terrifying even if they weren't as fast as they ended up

[Stom]

Test cricket does look to be dying. Crowds are terrible, so many games behind a paywall, and as with rugby much of the funding runs from top to bottom so there's nothing to sustain it, Pakistan don' play at home, the Windies are miles off what they were. And yes it's a crying shame the Windies have fallen so far, I can never quite decide if the great team of Marshall et al under Richards trumps the best Aussie side under Waugh or not, and I think I'm as likely to ever decide as I am on Lara Vs Tendulkar for the #1 batsman. The Aussies had the stronger batting lineup maybe just, more variety in their bowling and a freak talent in Warne, but when Walsh is your 4th best seamer it's probably the most intimidating attack ever.

20/20 looks viable enough , but I can't say it's my cup of tea

it would have been fascinating to have watched cricket back when there were uncovered wickets etc etc, and you had to have more skills in your armoury, esp as a batsman.
On the WI v Oz great teams you mention its a tough call as you say...can't make it either.

I think maybe, just maybe he Aussies were better, but the Windies with that succession of not just good but great fast bowlers were scarier. My earliest memory of the Windies came in 1984 with the bowling lineup of Garner, Holding, Marshall and Walsh, which is just nonsensical (and actually that must have been under Lloyd and not Richards as I mentioned above), and I now know that followed some pretty good bowlers like Roberts, Hall and Croft, and of course itself in 1988 introduced the world to the likes of Bishop and Ambrose.

And I just can't decide between the maybe technically better team, or the scarier team.

I only started watching cricket in the mid-2000's, so I don't have the memories of these players, or of the Windies being great. I just remember this series. Where Chanderpaul was incredible, but Lara was fading badly. I also have a false memory that Ambrose played in that series, so I must have watched the one in 2000, too.

[Banquo]

Test cricket does look to be dying. Crowds are terrible, so many games behind a paywall, and as with rugby much of the funding runs from top to bottom so there's nothing to sustain it, Pakistan don' play at home, the Windies are miles off what they were. And yes it's a crying shame the Windies have fallen so far, I can never quite decide if the great team of Marshall et al under Richards trumps the best Aussie side under Waugh or not, and I think I'm as likely to ever decide as I am on Lara Vs Tendulkar for the #1 batsman. The Aussies had the stronger batting lineup maybe just, more variety in their bowling and a freak talent in Warne, but when Walsh is your 4th best seamer it's probably the most intimidating attack ever.

20/20 looks viable enough , but I can't say it's my cup of tea

it would have been fascinating to have watched cricket back when there were uncovered wickets etc etc, and you had to have more skills in your armoury, esp as a batsman.
On the WI v Oz great teams you mention its a tough call as you say...can't make it either.

I think maybe, just maybe he Aussies were better, but the Windies with that succession of not just good but great fast bowlers were scarier. My earliest memory of the Windies came in 1984 with the bowling lineup of Garner, Holding, Marshall and Walsh, which is just nonsensical (and actually that must have been under Lloyd and not Richards as I mentioned above), and I now know that followed some pretty good bowlers like Roberts, Hall and Croft, and of course itself in 1988 introduced the world to the likes of Bishop and Ambrose.

And I just can't decide between the maybe technically better team, or the scarier team.

Roberts was better than 'pretty good'. Garner, Marshall, Holding and Roberts were the absolute business. They also has Patrick Patterson and the scariest of the lot Sylvester Clarke on the back burner. Oh, and Wayne Daniel!
Hall was a totally different era from the early 60's btw, forming a very scary duo with Charlie Griffith.

Their batting could be pretty spectacular too.

[Discreet Hooker]

Read a book some years ago , article by the then worlds leading batsmen . All the windies bowlers of course were literally feared and there wasn't much between them . Several of the batsmen said that on his day , Patrick Patterson was the quickest which just showed the artillery that the windies had available . There 's rather a sad item on youtube involving an interview with Patterson which shows that he's hardly able to recall any of his bowling feats during his test career .


As I was a nine , ten , Jack , my idea of hell would have been to face any of these named bowlers .

[Digby]

England straight into the Windies today, and I actually feel sorry for the batsman as it really leapt up at him

And now Broad in with a lbw which was declined by the umpire, Board went with a review (what a shock) and England lose the review. Not the worst review, but it wasn't obvious the umpire was wrong, and it's so hard to beat the umpire's call

[Digby]

Bloody nora, Windies 3 down with a run out. I'd say they've not woken up ready for the start of play but it's 2pm

[Digby]

4 down now as Anderson strikes again. At this rate Broad will throw some toys out of the pram, he's not getting wickets, he's had catches dropped, a lbw turned down, and maybe worst of all he hates enforcing the follow on

[ALunpg]

Well that closed off pdq..messed up my Sunday plans for watching the cricket.
Not sure I learnt much about pink ball cricket that made me go wow that's great. .let's have some more.
As for the cricket in general ..it was strange.... the Windies had two real bowlers and two batsmen of note.
The loss of key players to T20 cricket has devastated their batting lineup but outside Roach the rest of the pace attack struggled.
For England ..it was good to see Cook fill his boots but besides Root the others underwhelmed. Malan did get runs with some stylish stroke play interspersed with hmmm shots but it should give him confidence to feel he can now move on.

Hopefully the other new lads will have a chance to impress next week, they look good enough but need some runs under their belt ready for a testing time down under.

As for the rest of the series...let's hope the Windies come back a bit at least with the ball so that they give the batsmen a good examination.

[fivepointer]

Day-night cricket might have some limited mileage but its never going to be a major feature in England. The vast majority who want to watch test cricket are perfectly happy to do so from 11am. I dont think there's any real clamour for revised hours of play.
The game itself was a hopeless mismatch, which seems bound to be repeated at Headingley and Lords. Might help a few players boost their averages, but as a means of selecting an Ashes tour party, I dont think its going to be of much help.

[Stom]

Yeah, all we learnt was that the Windies have 2 batsmen of the quality required. And those two could come close to the England team as they correspond to our problem positions at 2 and 5.

We also learnt that we're getting closer to a two tier test calendar...which is no good thing.

Seriously, Cricket needs to sort itself out. I know the Windies board has huge issues, but the funding model is an absolute disgrace. There needs to be a more equitable distribution of income in order to promote test cricket, otherwise it will just die a death outside India, England and Australia.

[Discreet Hooker]

Yeah, all we learnt was that the Windies have 2 batsmen of the quality required. And those two could come close to the England team as they correspond to our problem positions at 2 and 5.

We also learnt that we're getting closer to a two tier test calendar...which is no good thing.

Seriously, Cricket needs to sort itself out. I know the Windies board has huge issues, but the funding model is an absolute disgrace. There needs to be a more equitable distribution of income in order to promote test cricket, otherwise it will just die a death outside India, England and Australia.

Not sure whats its like now but the cricket ground in Barbados resembled a closed down building site . Maybe monies earned from the windies glory days never found its way to the right people or people willing to invest in grounds or players . .

[Digby]

Geoffrey Boycott has been after his knighthood for quite a while now, and without the conviction for bashing his girlfriend at the time in France he'd probably already have been knighted. He's even managed to get people like Theresa May of recent years to write on his behalf asking or the honour, but it would seem his wishes will be unfulfilled after his black face comment.

[Discreet Hooker]

Geoffrey Boycott has been after his knighthood for quite a while now, and without the conviction for bashing his girlfriend at the time in France he'd probably already have been knighted. He's even managed to get people like Theresa May of recent years to write on his behalf asking or the honour, but it would seem his wishes will be unfulfilled after his black face comment.

As a cricketer world class , as a person , bit of a prat who some find funny . Good piece on Youtube with Bumble explaining how he attended a benefit for Boycs and what was said . Sums the guy up totally .

[Digby]

We'd maybe allow Cook was simply done as happens to opening batters the world over, the other three though were bad shots and/or bad technique. Also Root was dropped before he even got to 10 so things could have been worse. Abject is the word.

[fivepointer]

258 was something of a triumph considering just how poor we were. Root and Stokes were both missed early on, so we could have been out for 150.
I think the time is fast approaching when selectors have to just do a raffle to see who bats at 2,3 and 5 as no one is seemingly capable of nailing down a spot.

[Stom]

258 was something of a triumph considering just how poor we were. Root and Stokes were both missed early on, so we could have been out for 150.
I think the time is fast approaching when selectors have to just do a raffle to see who bats at 2,3 and 5 as no one is seemingly capable of nailing down a spot.

Hameed at 2. Hales deserves a chance at 5 (I didn't think he was that bad opening, either). 3, though...One of the kids coming through? Or are we just waiting until Steve Eskinazi is qualified

[Banquo]

258 was something of a triumph considering just how poor we were. Root and Stokes were both missed early on, so we could have been out for 150.
I think the time is fast approaching when selectors have to just do a raffle to see who bats at 2,3 and 5 as no one is seemingly capable of nailing down a spot.

Its not rocket science to get Bairstow at 5, and Buttler keeping and at 7.

Hameed needs to be given a run at 2. 3.....who knows....


Meanwhile, other than Anderson, and maybe Woakes, England have bowled poorly this morning, and no idea why Root brought Moeen Ali on. Good session for the Windies (their official name), but bowling was average and Root not thinking clearly.

[Banquo]

Roland-Jones will also be feeling somewhat hard done by.

[Banquo]

Windies is good shape for a win here.......there will be a few journos eating their words if so, and a lot of questions for England.

[Digby]

Roland-Jones will also be feeling somewhat hard done by.

Good. At least he can talk to Anderson who at times felt hard done by with a seam attack of Harmison, Hoggard, Flintoff and Jones being picked ahead of him.

I suppose we could simply pick another bowler, it's not like 3 of the batsman are worth 3 slots in the team, question then is would the bowlers want to lose out on possible overs in a day, 5 seamers and a spinner (sort of) doesn't leave a lot of overs each