Cricket is a strange sport in this country, Sunday was a glorious day with probably the best weather of the year so far, so you would expect such a Sunday in July would have lots of top-level cricket on show. Well there was South Africa versus Bangladesh A at New Road, Worcester and... that was it!
I know it was T20 Finals Day on Saturday and they had to have a reserve day for the 4 counties involved but what about the other 14 counties? Couldn't they have arranged some fixtures for a Sunday in July?
Monday, July 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Musings on the changes to the domestic game
The new structure of county cricket was announced last week which includes a shiny new English Premier League T20 tournament in the middle of the Summer and the Pro40 replaced by a T20 league. Broadly i am happy with the changes though there will need to be some work to differentiate between the 2 T20 competitions. Care will also need to be taken that T20 overkill does not occur.
The county championship has been left unchanged which is the most important thing for me, talk of 3 randomly drawn conferences sounded like a death of a 1000 cuts for the first class competition. Talk of city franchises would also have been the thin end of the wedge. I don't feel the British like artificial club franchises, they like clubs with history behind them even if they don't know anything much about the history (take the largely negative reaction to MK Dons for example). I am a Warwickshire CCC supporter, and although i might watch the Birmingham Barbarians (or whatever it would be) i wouldn't have the sense of history and memories i get from the Bears.
Ah the memories, that cup final won with a 4 off the last ball, the county championship glory years, Lara's 501, heroes like Dermot, almost getting hit by a 6 hit by Carts, getting sunburnt in the Raglan stand...
To be honest i became a cricket fan because of watching the Bears, on BBC2 on Sunday afternoons. But now to England. Darren Pattinson's call-up got a lot of criticism but he didn't do too badly. I suspect he was picked to have a look at him with the Ashes in mind. That is a problem with England though, they obsess too much about the Ashes when they should be concentrating on the matter at hand. I think the media and pundits have been a bit unfair on the lad and hopefully he'll have another chance one day.
The county championship has been left unchanged which is the most important thing for me, talk of 3 randomly drawn conferences sounded like a death of a 1000 cuts for the first class competition. Talk of city franchises would also have been the thin end of the wedge. I don't feel the British like artificial club franchises, they like clubs with history behind them even if they don't know anything much about the history (take the largely negative reaction to MK Dons for example). I am a Warwickshire CCC supporter, and although i might watch the Birmingham Barbarians (or whatever it would be) i wouldn't have the sense of history and memories i get from the Bears.
Ah the memories, that cup final won with a 4 off the last ball, the county championship glory years, Lara's 501, heroes like Dermot, almost getting hit by a 6 hit by Carts, getting sunburnt in the Raglan stand...
To be honest i became a cricket fan because of watching the Bears, on BBC2 on Sunday afternoons. But now to England. Darren Pattinson's call-up got a lot of criticism but he didn't do too badly. I suspect he was picked to have a look at him with the Ashes in mind. That is a problem with England though, they obsess too much about the Ashes when they should be concentrating on the matter at hand. I think the media and pundits have been a bit unfair on the lad and hopefully he'll have another chance one day.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
New cricket season
Its the start of the county cricket season so of course its a nice sunny day. Well at least it's dry if rather 'taters (potatoes) as a cockney might say. There was a good crowd at Edgbaston to watch the first day's play this season by Warwickshire, against the "local" rivals. I'd rather be a Bear than a Pear naturally!
I did intend to stay for longer than the first session but thought i might totally freeze up if i did. I did however manage to see a few balls of Graeme Hick play. You never know, when you see a legend at the end of his career, if you will ever see him play again so it was good to see him score a boundary, even better the fact he perished soon after lunch anyway! Of course the sun came out as soon as i got home...
I did intend to stay for longer than the first session but thought i might totally freeze up if i did. I did however manage to see a few balls of Graeme Hick play. You never know, when you see a legend at the end of his career, if you will ever see him play again so it was good to see him score a boundary, even better the fact he perished soon after lunch anyway! Of course the sun came out as soon as i got home...
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Welcome to my blog
My second attempt at a Warwickshire CCC blog but this blog is for life not just for Christmas Summer so hopefully will be more successful this time. The blog did not really get created until August but some posts from another of my blogs from earlier in the year have been put in to get things going.
This blog will have news from the club and matches and players. Maybe a bit of opinion too, on matters Warwickshire, England and beyond.
Snappy pic
This blog will have news from the club and matches and players. Maybe a bit of opinion too, on matters Warwickshire, England and beyond.
Snappy pic
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