General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

You would be entirely wrong about it not happening in cricket, sadly. If a player is good enough to play regional cricket but not good enough to play for England, their aim is to play for England, something they're very unlikely to do in the second division; so they move to the first division. There are salary caps, but that doesn't mean that the richer clubs can't afford more deals, better facilities, better personnel... The world of county cricket is a very unfair one, despite the relative frequency of 'county stalwarts', and this aspect of the draft is a positive one.

It does mean that the figures barely feel attached to the team, so you essentially end up supporting a bunch of grounds and a marketing exercise - my main reason for not liking club football (apart from its ubiquity), and the reason I feel no attachment to any Hundred team. It is however fairer, there I agree.

Well fixtures have been released for The Hundred with all the men's Welsh Fire games being played in Cardiff and only one of the women's Welsh Fire games being played in Taunton.

Yeah so I've lost interest in this. It is the summer, that I'm gathering other cricket like Somerset T20 will be on.

Doesn't surprise me, the entire Hundred has been a lesson in how to lose support and alienate people. Meanwhile the T20 Blast is going to be on more Fridays and weekends this year apparently.

That's great as we go football when Taunton are home anyway at the moment, so can go cricket instead at the weekends in the summer.

Seems Somerset have Philander, I've heard of him and what I got from cricket people is he's past it.

I will try to pop in now and again Balla especially if I go to a match, don't expect chat like with Athrun

Cheers Mas, I'd appreciate that. Philander's interesting because Somerset don't lack for bowling options (Gregory, Overtons, Davey, Brooks), so I don't know who misses out. Maybe he comes in at seven as a batsman primarily?

Do you have players names on shirts for T20 like with football? As even I know who he is that could he shift shirts much like how Derby County have signed Wayne Rooney?

I don't think it's so common, but I've never bought a replica strip.  I could be wrong! In any case Philander's a big enough international name, but he's not a big big name. If they were going for shirt value they'd probably look more at, say, Indian players.

Watched some T20 the other night as I saw a post on twitter about it by a accident really of Somerset. Watched in the background whilst on the PC. Then tonight just caught some highlights of today's match.

So far watched something of two games and Somerset have won both.

Somerset are Very Good right now - especially in T20. They have managed to acquire the services of I think the no. 1 T20 batsman in the world (Pakistani Babar Azam), and Tom Banton's also impressed - to the extent that he's playing for England at the moment, and doing somewhat less well there.

I might be wrong but in football often the club v country debate as I couldn't give two hoots about England compared to Man City

Yet in Cricket I get the feeling that's not the case, England over what county team always

Pretty much. There is now a slight fly in that ointment in that some franchise teams make so much money that the players don't need to worry about qualifying for the national squad; and maybe some fans in India support their IPL team more fervently than India; and there's a small core of county die-hards. For the most part, though, national cricket is where the big bucks are, and if there's an international and a regional game going on at once and England asks a player to jump, they say 'how high'.

Think same sort with Rugby that a Premier League game could be happening same time as Six Nations

Guess the difference with football most of those Cricket/Rugby teams would be made up with like 2 or international where in football could have all 23 be internationals

It's a little complicated too because you might have a white-ball international going on at the same time as a red-ball county game, with a different set of players preferred. If there's one thing nobody's accused cricket of, it's being too simple!

Nobody apart from Mas cares (and that's debatable), but - Test cricket is on free-to-air for the first time in years.  England vs. India.  Going to be a big one, and England are doing decently.

Test cricket yawn

I see the league thing that didn't happen last year is going to try to happen this year, still with no fans (I guess) and also guessing County Ground holding no games then yawn maybe.

Somebody didn't follow Headingley 2019... If nothing else it's great to have on in the background while doing something else. (Actually that's cricket in general.)

The County Champ (which is also just an excuse for a picnic) is indeed happening in a slightly different way this year. Dunno what's going on in individual grounds, not that it probably matters! Maybe we'll all be vaccinated by then and they'll allow people spaced out in the stands?

I'm on about The Hundred, that's what I'm thinking off but County Championship is fine as Somerset would be in it but still not quick enough for me.

What's happening with T20 or Blast or whatever is called?

Oh that. Yep one of the problems of that is that it's not going to include every county ground, unless you include the Women's Hundred. T20 Blast should indeed be on: that was even on last year, because it's about the only county cricket that makes money.