GerryShedd
Super Moderator
Any suggested names for 2025 overseas?
I know that it's winning tournaments that counts but in terms of matches won across the three competitions, I reckon that Somerset with 23 wins come out top, Surrey come second with 20 and Warwickshire third with 17.
I've only looked at the top division teams on the basis that second division wins don't have the same value.
And as that keen cricketer Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies and statistics, which we've all gone out of our way to prove over the last few days.
Review of this round of matches here:
https://deepextracover.com/2024/09/week-15-vitality-county-championship-review/
Got to be worth a try.
Must be fake news. What does George Dobell know anyway? He's only been in and around the game for 30 years or so. And the ECB figures were prepared by Deloitte who have an impeccable record (aside from three recent multi-million pound fines for incompetence and misconduct).
In complaining about Championship cricket being played at this time of the year, we are just showing our ignorance. As the ECB have said, The Hundred is "dominating the British summer sporting calendar”. Forget Wimbledon, The Open Golf, the Epsom Derby or any international football tournaments. They pale into insignificance. The Hundred is the “premier destination for men’s and women’s global cricket superstars”. So four day first-class cricket is quite rightly shoved into the corners of the season. We just need to educate ourselves.
When I brought the name of Allen Stanford into the discussion, I hadn't realised that Lalit Modi had branded the ECB proposals as "a big fat Ponzi scheme" but Stanford would know all about that.
UrsaMinor wrote:
More comment today from Lalit Modi (perhaps not an impartial observer) who believes the financial projections to be "disconnected from reality" and "more like wishful thinking".
If I were a serious investor, I'm not sure whether I would view the ECB as a bunch of chumps who could easily be taken for a ride or as so incompetent that I wouldn't want to touch any business that they had started.
It's just a pity that the ideal investor, Allen Stanford, happens to be serving a 110 year prison sentence.
According to The Telegraph, the 87-page document distributed to interested investors sells the Hundred as “dominating the British summer sporting calendar” as the ECB tries to tempt buyers. It also boasts that the Hundred is the “premier destination for men’s and women’s global cricket superstars” despite a less-than-stellar roster of overseas men’s players who appeared this year with stars such as Pat Cummins choosing to play in Major League Cricket in the United States instead and Indian players not available.
The document also highlights W G Grace and Alastair Cook as examples of great English short-format players, despite the former dying nearly 100 years before the invention of T20, and the latter never participating in the Hundred.
Possibly not surprisingly, the ECB declined to comment.
I think this looks like the best team that the Club could put out in the (injury-hit) circumstances.
There are eight players in the team who have taken Championship wickets this season and eight who have registered a score of 50 or more - and that's not counting OH-D who would have scored several 50s if his partners didn't keep getting out.
Romance isn't dead!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cn7yx3y1rpxo
Good luck to Olly and his bride
Delayed start - pitch inspection at 12.00.
In the preview of the Notts game, Mark Robinson seems to confirm the reason that Will Rhodes is leaving - "players need to do what’s best for them at different times in their career and we understand his desire to play T20 cricket. "
The obvious conclusion from this is that he had been told that there was no chance of T20 cricket with the Bears. I must say that I would have been inclined to give him a run in the T20 side in an attempt to keep him.
Graham Smith covers all the final round options here:
https://deepextracover.com/2024/09/preview-of-final-round-of-vitality-county-championship/
paulbear wrote:
Should imagine he would be captain in any cricket team and you can just guess at all the meetings, all the other team members, "Bloody Albert, I mean, he is a decent bloke but these meetings, I mean, can anyone understand a word he is on about and when he gets his pen and paper out and tries to explain what is on his mind, I am just lost. Oh! And I wish he'd get his flippin' hair cut, he shows us up in the team photos".
He says if the hairstyle is ok for Lasith Malinga, it's ok for him.
Ed Barnard declared as Player of the Tournament for the second successive year.
As in the Blast, the Bears beaten by the winners! Congratulations to Glamorgan.
What a sensible decision (for a change) for the authorities to look at the forecast and reduce the match to 20 overs a side which they just completed before the rains came down again. And well done the groundstaff!
I worry about you if your day is that easily ruined.
Without wishing to rain on Highveld's parade, can I just point out that there is no evidence that Einstein actually said the words attributed to him. And maybe we should consider the opposite sentiments of a man who did actually play first-class cricket, Samuel Beckett, who said: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Meanwhile - 20 overs a side at Trent Bridge, Glamorgan to bat.