Not a thing wrong with T20. There's a lot of revisionism from the ECB, trying to claim that people were opposed to T20 at the time. This isn't true, for the fundamental reason that amateur cricketers had played 20 over cricket for decades before the ECB "invented" it. The Hundred is a fucking stupid idea, and everyone knows it.
I was mostly commenting on the Hundred, and that it isn't that much different from T20.
My main problem with the T20 is that it kills off an other cricket for a whole month, which is dumb. It also irks me that our counties lose so many to international cashgrabbing which means, in combination with the first point, many of the test team don't actually play long form cricket for ages.
If it's not much different, then why bother with a fourth format? Keep it as T20, which was the original plan, before it dawned on them that they needed to differentiate from the existing T20 tournament.
Bad news for you there, the Bash carries on, the Hundred then gets slotted in as well. So your long form cricket is confined pretty much to April, May and September, while 50 over cricket (you know, this World Cup one) has been effectively abolished as of next year in this country. It gets better - for the women, 20 over cricket too has been abolished, instead it'll be this new format no one plays.
The reality is that they started with a marketing line of 100 balls and then tried to fit a game of cricket into it. If they really wanted a shorter game than T20, then they could have done, and the ECB's continual hinting that it's down to the BBC wanting a shorter time slot is both denied by the BBC and contradicted by their own insistence on adding back in things like time outs to make the damn thing longer.
I've written shitloads on the Hundred and the monumental catastrophe it is. The ONLY thing in its favour is that a few games will be on the BBC, but then the inept, useless shit for brains at the ECB are going to time the tournament for when the Caribbean Cricket League is on, so the international stars won't come, and the England players won't be involved either because of the Tests.
The ECB - the only sporting body that hates its own sport.
I concur with the overall sentiment. That 20 ball difference is going to make all the difference.
Hadn't heard of changes to the women's game. What's happening to the 50 over stuff? They got it all done in May this year.
The women's game is the one thing they've got right over the last few years. Naturally, this means they're going to wreck it, the Kia Super League is being abolished.
As for the 50 over stuff, the Royal London Cup is being downgraded to a development competition - i.e. a 2nd XI/youth one. As of next season, there will be no domestic 50 over cricket at county level in this country. As a direct result of the Hundred.
Maybe, maybe not. And they've played warm ups of course between then. It's more about the astonishing thing of a World Cup, a World Cup for Christ's sake, shifting it's arrangement for the IPL. Money talks.
Exactly. We missed a world record run chase by 14. Not exactly disgraceful, is it? We were sloppy in the field, and arguably Root and Buttler might have buckled down on getting their hundreds to get a few more that would have seen us over the line. These things will be tightened up.
Interesting tournament.
A defeat here and there is no big deal. Extraordinary over-reaction to England losing a game, I must say. It's as bad as the matchday thread! England were a bit below par and lost. Meh, it happens, and it happens to everyone.
The format means a team only needs to win probably 5 of the 9 matches to qualify. And England probably will. It's made the World Cup a bit more interesting though. That's good.
Sold out my arse. There are about 50 in Sophia Gardens for Afghan v SL.