Cricket tragic

If the England training series goes ahead but pushed back by a couple of weeks, then there will be a couple of domestic ODIs between when they all get home & when the England squad (who will have to be selected a least a week before?) join up for the NZ series

Not that I can see 🤷‍♀️
• T20 CT - Jun 27
• Olympics - Jul 28
• T20 WC - Sep 28
• ODI WC - sometime in 29
The next time England play a major midwinter game is in India, Dec 2028

I’m not sure how the Future Tours Program is compiled but this gap was already agreed back in 2024. In fact next winter there is nothing between Sep & Feb, and the following winter the gap is Oct to Mar. Seems like a WBBL/WPL theme has developed…

It depends whether you think a series by the same old England 11 they had last summer against one of the minnows would be better preparation than the best 22+ in England playing a set of matches against each other? Which one gives you the best chance of selecting 11 in form to play NZ & India?

In fact far from the ECB “accepting” discrimination, it seems they might be as pissed off by it as the rest of us. It would be very interesting to find out who the “senior official” was that kicked off the BBC story in the 1st place…
bsky.app/profile/thec...

Is it possible for a competition to actually be about 2 things at once? Surely the best way to make money is getting the maximum number of eyeballs involved? And the best way to get people into cricket is getting the maximum number of eyeballs involved? Hasn’t that always been the ECB’s aim?

If a franchise competition in one of the top 3 countries, especially one that is specifically designed to be as close to instant gratification as cricket is ever going to get, is no longer capable of making money then all of English cricket will just become an amateur pastime

ECB push back at Pakistan 'shadow-ban' reports ahead of Hundred auction More than 50 Pakistani players have registered for Piccadilly event in March, out of 950 players

I wasn’t aware that the ECB had accepted it. Of course the Indian-owned franchises will be as grossly prejudiced as they always have been. But there’s no way any league can force its members to buy a certain nationality of players at an open auction.

www.espncricinfo.com/story/ecb-pu...

No national organisation is going to be stupid enough to implement an illegal blanket ban, de facto or otherwise. In fact no team is going to be stupid enough to publicly state they aren’t going to consider certain nationalities in the auction. But we all know private prejudice will be rife

But Tuesday is an ODI - why would that be good preparation for a T20WC?
Maybe it’s just that CA have a bit more empathy for their legends than the ECB do (Cross & Taylor anyone?)… 🤔

Now, if only the domestic players could get the same increase…

There’s some rather interesting numbers there…
• You know there’s a premium on “England” players when Mahika Gaur gets more than Grace Harris & Jemimah Rodrigues!
• Nice to see Kate Cross being retained (the only non-contracted English player)
• Top ££ for Nat (not surprising) & Bell (on a roll!)

Pakistani paranoia fuelled by Hundred snub, but reasons may be closer to home No picks in Hundred draft continue global trend. But poor results and board intransigence are also to blame

Although at this point it might also be worth remembering this Pakistani’s more equivocal view on last year’s lack of Pakistani players in the Hundred:
www.espncricinfo.com/story/pakist...

Sadly she comes from Pakistan, which rules her out of the WPL, half the Hundred teams, and several other teams worldwide for similar reasons

Aren’t all winter sports “exclusive” for most UK participants? We’re not exactly renowned for our extensive snow & ice facilities!

So ironic! 😂

It would be interesting to find out if he ever actually said this or whether it is just something that Diana Edulji claims he might have said, given his evident lack of enthusiasm for women’s cricket when he was head of the BCCI

And clearly not that interested in pace bowling as they never even gave Lauren Bell a game, let alone tried to keep her

Not even FIFA & the IOC have managed to achieve that condition, especially for non-competing nations!

Not sure what the ICC could do about an Indian government decision, even if they weren’t completely in their pockets?

But I thought you were suggesting they should? Sorry I can’t read the rest of the article as it’s paywalled & I already pay 2 news subscriptions

Why would England fast-track someone who has huge potential but is still very raw & inconsistent (her average since that 💯 is less than 10!)? Surely the Capsey experience demonstrates why you develop such talent outside the international eye until they can execute more reliably?

Most keepers seem to say something every single ball. Most of it is even less constructive than “catch”!

Common sense would suggest not as diving would generally imply leaving your feet to extend your reach for the crease. So my instinct would be that there is almost no way the “bouncing bat law” could apply to stumpings. Therefore it’s purely about the WK’s timing of removing the bails

That MCC explanation is interesting as it actually muddies the water more than it clarifies the “running or diving” aspect by calling it the “bouncing bat law” and referring to “movement towards the crease”. LL clearly wasn’t running but was she “diving”?

Does your software also spit out %age chance of getting 1st place?

It’s almost like Devine showed that experience is worth something! 🤔

So really there are only 4 regularly “fast” bowlers in the women’s game: Ismail, Filer, Brown & Illingworth. (Fast = 10% of all their balls bowled are over 120kph)

It’ll be interesting to see if your prediction of big batters winning key games is the deciding factor in the tournament overall, or whether the usual mantra of “batters win you matches but bowlers win you tournaments” holds true. If it’s the latter then RCB might replace MI in the final…

So it looks like the mega auction has had the desired effect of mixing the teams up enough to make things a bit less predictable than last year, while keeping enough retentions & RTMs to provide some continuity for the fans