The Ashes

[Emu]

Silverwood definitely has to go, his reign has been a disaster.
Root is a poor tactical captain but who else is there to captain the team, certainly not Stokes.
How about Morgan, although age is not on his side, however he has revolutionised English white ball cricket.

Throughout 2021 players have been rested in preparation for the Ashes and subsequent Tests lost only to get to Australia and meekly surrender.

A shambles.

Agree with all of this.

Whisper it quietly, but there is a very good captain playing for Somerset who has not had a sniff yet as he does not represent one of the 'glamourous sides' on the country cricket circuit...

 

[Emu]

Not sure there is. No room for someone of that ilk in English cricket which is now motivated by money and hence dominated by one day formats. Even Australia don’t have those kind of openers.

Yep, nail on the head for me.
There's no getting around the fact that the Australia players are far superior to ours, however the structure of English cricket does not give any up and coming players (as well as current Test players) enough red ball opportunities spread throughout the season. 4-Day cricket has been shoved aside for hit and hope competitions which attract seemingly more income.
4-Day cricket in April, May, and late August and September is not the answer. Matches also need to be spread throughout the summer months of June, July and August too if we are to regain any status on the Test scene.

Instead of playing 100 and 20/20 matches in blocks through the season, this needs to be revised and planned in a different way to dovetail with 4-Day CC matches throughout the season.

 

[Steve Evans]

i would get rid of that awful hundred competition.

 

[Balham Green]

The dumbed down public want 20 20 and the Hundred so perhaps we should just play that and give up Test cricket altogether to avoid further humiliation.

 

[Argylegames]

he has revolutionised English white ball cricket.

Therein lies the problem. English cricket has turned its back on cricket to concentrate on pseudo cricket for those whose concentration can't last more than an afternoon.
The county cricket game has been reduced to three or maybe four days and contrived finishes where a result is more important than the game. If 'batsmen' are only looking to score quickly then they never are in a position to learn to stay in and build an innings slowly.

 

[Argylegames]

The dumbed down public want 20 20 and the Hundred so perhaps we should just play that and give up Test cricket altogether to avoid further humiliation

At the very least we should organise the tour calendars properly so that each test-playing nation plays the others in sequence and with a proper tour for each. That would mean no more stupid summers where we have two test sides visiting but only playing three tests. Test sides visiting for five tests and also playing some of the counties - as they used to do. This would have the effect of stopping the stupidity of playing Australia every 18 months.

 

[Argylegames]

All over before lunch?

I can't believe that my sarcasm turned out to be correct!

 

[Balham Green]

At the very least we should organise the tour calendars properly so that each test-playing nation plays the others in sequence and with a proper tour for each. That would mean no more stupid summers where we have two test sides visiting but only playing three tests. Test sides visiting for five tests and also playing some of the counties - as they used to do. This would have the effect of stopping the stupidity of playing Australia every 18 months.

Hardly solves the current issues does it?

 

[Steve Evans]

The dumbed down public want 20 20 and the Hundred so perhaps we should just play that and give up Test cricket altogether to avoid further humiliation.

never.test cricket is the best form of the sport.the players and coaches have to learn that.

 

[Pogleswoody]

never.test cricket is the best form of the sport.the players and coaches have to learn that.

I never really 'got' test cricket till I worked in the Rank Bush Murphy TV factory for a year (Gap year spent in Ernesettle!). They always had test tellys on and often the radio commentary. Cos I was there for 8 hours at a stretch I started to understand the rhythm and beauty of the whole game. Whacking a ball over a boundary is a very, very small part of it.

I used to watch sumo on telly years ago. The commentator (Lyall Watson) was very even toned and gentle and put across the mental element of it like feng shui as a sport. Then the channel replaced him with Brian Blessed who bellowed, shouted and giggled his way to destroying it, transformed it into a Japanese It's a Knockout. Oh look he fell on his a**e!!

That's the thing. Great sport is spiritual, thoughtful. Many 'popular' sports are loud, brash and superficial.

Cricket needs to decide which it is.

 

[Balham Green]

never.test cricket is the best form of the sport.the players and coaches have to learn that.

I wasn’t being completely serious. But that's what the quick fix short attention span millennials want.

 

[deathadder]

BREAKING NEWS! The England cricket team has officially beaten the Wuhan Street market for the worst use of a bat ever.

 

[Joe Totale]

I wasn’t being completely serious. But that's what the quick fix short attention span millennials want.

The Hundred did do some things right such as being on free to air TV and giving equal weighting to men's and women's cricket but having this competition alongside a 20-20 one during the summer is just bizarre.

Test cricket was killed by the move from free to air to Sky. Kids didn't watch cricket anymore as it wasn't available to do so and hence haven't taken it up. The talent pool is as small as it's ever been and a number of the players coming through would rather earn their fortunes playing short form cricket (and who can blame them) shrinking the pool further.

The 2005 Ashes could have been the launchpad to Test cricket being the second sport of the country after football but instead it's become a minority sport.

Contrast to Australia and India where test cricket is a protected sport and must be shown on free to air TV.

 

[Pogleswoody]

BREAKING NEWS! The England cricket team has officially beaten the Wuhan Street market for the worst use of a bat ever.

But, to be fair, they didn't catch anything.

 

[Frank Butcher]

The Hundred did do some things right such as being on free to air TV and giving equal weighting to men's and women's cricket but having this competition alongside a 20-20 one during the summer is just bizarre.

Test cricket was killed by the move from free to air to Sky. Kids didn't watch cricket anymore as it wasn't available to do so and hence haven't taken it up. The talent pool is as small as it's ever been and a number of the players coming through would rather earn their fortunes playing short form cricket (and who can blame them) shrinking the pool further.

The 2005 Ashes could have been the launchpad to Test cricket being the second sport of the country after football but instead it's become a minority sport.

Contrast to Australia and India where test cricket is a protected sport and must be shown on free to air TV.

Have to say I didn’t watch any of The Hundred. Total lack of interest from me.