Cricket Thread

Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Well, I confess I'm slightly puzzled. I don't remember there actually being tests anywhere other than the big six: Lords, Oval, Headingley, Edgbaston, Trent Bridge, Old Trafford. I went to all of them, except for Edgbaston, funnily enough (I think it's an age old and doubtless irrational prejudice I have against Birmingham).
Or are you saying we have more tests now? Perhaps you're right. There was only really a tour by one country in the summers, as I remember it. But then it was six grounds, and a five-test series, most of the time. So it fitted beautifully. And it was certainly affordable. Again, as for football matches, I don't ever remember getting a ticket in advance. I'd just rock up at the ground — as I did for football stadia — and just always get in.


(Arrghh! just had to edit it Old Trafford as one of the grounds. How could I have forgotten that?!)
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Cardiff, Durham and Hampshire all host tests now too. It’s the counties’ biggest cash cow (outside of concerts), so they bid more to try and guarantee they get one.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Something that's always puzzled me in the area of hazy memories. I have a clear (not hazy) memory of seeing Lancashire play in that league at Buxton. Caught the train out on the Sunday to see it (and it was considerably easier for me from Hazel Grove than going in to Old Trafford. I also remember how pretty the ground was. And Clive Lloyd at (I think) cover point doing a ridiculous run-out, moving like a panther to pick up the ball and wreck the stumps in one fluid movement. The batters were trying to steal a single. Unwisely.
How is that possible, though? Unless they were playing Derbyshire. Were Derbyshire in that league, though?
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Yes Derbyshire were there in those days. Durham became the 18th First class county.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
Drainage is definitely better on U.K. grounds. Boundaries are definitely smaller too. You don see players running into the gates anymore!

Bats are bigger and players can hit the ball harder as a result.
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I’m not sure about smaller boundaries. I went to tests at OT in the 50sand 60s and we sat on the grass at the Warwick road end. There was a distance from the edge of the terracing to the rope, enough to play mini cricket in the lunch interval.
Later, growing up, I graduated to a seat.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
Cardiff, Durham and Hampshire all host tests now too. It’s the counties’ biggest cash cow (outside of concerts), so they bid more to try and guarantee they get one.
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What do the poor old other counties do?! (Actually, wonder how much a county cricketer gets paid, especially if they're not in Division 1 — I suspect it's lower than I would have thought, and much lower than even a Championship footballer).
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
What do the poor old other counties do?! (Actually, wonder how much a county cricketer gets paid, especially if they're not in Division 1 — I suspect it's lower than I would have thought, and much lower than even a Championship footballer).
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ECB money, mostly, I think.

Lancs get £8m a year from their hotel now. Plus they host conferences all year round. I guess that’s far more than they make from actual cricket.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
What do the poor old other counties do?! (Actually, wonder how much a county cricketer gets paid, especially if they're not in Division 1 — I suspect it's lower than I would have thought, and much lower than even a Championship footballer).
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Typical county cricketer (i.e. a few years as a professional and non-test playing) will be on 30-50k/year. Some of that is match fee and performance bonuses.

As for the 'poor old other counties', they struggle along until Surrey (and similar) take their best players. Derbyshire are pretty much always the poorest, I think.
Having said that Middlesex and Yorkshire are in the second division this season
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Something that's always puzzled me in the area of hazy memories. I have a clear (not hazy) memory of seeing Lancashire play in that league at Buxton. Caught the train out on the Sunday to see it (and it was considerably easier for me from Hazel Grove than going in to Old Trafford. I also remember how pretty the ground was. And Clive Lloyd at (I think) cover point doing a ridiculous run-out, moving like a panther to pick up the ball and wreck the stumps in one fluid movement. The batters were trying to steal a single. Unwisely.
How is that possible, though? Unless they were playing Derbyshire. Were Derbyshire in that league, though?
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Re. "pretty grounds" for Buxton I'll trade and maybe raise you Horsham, Sussex used to play Sunday JPL matches there.
Ah, yes, Clive Lloyd prowling the covers "like a panther", perfect description! While we're on hazy memories, what about South Africa's Colin Bland as an even better fielder? (Just looked him up and Wiki says he was one of only two Wisden Cricketers of the Year whose picture in that annual shows him fielding, rather than batting or bowling.)

And as a completely random thought from the hazy past my favourite cricketer of all time remains NZ's Richard Hadlee. Perhaps even greater than Jack Simmons. ;-)
 
MillionMilesAway said:
Typical county cricketer (i.e. a few years as a professional and non-test playing) will be on 30-50k/year. Some of that is match fee and performance bonuses.

As for the 'poor old other counties', they struggle along until Surrey (and similar) take their best players. Derbyshire are pretty much always the poorest, I think.
Having said that Middlesex and Yorkshire are in the second division this season
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Middlesex are an interesting county. They don’t get much revenue from Lords as that goes to MCC.

They made more money from their home T20 games played at Chelmsford than they did from their games at Lords.
 
MillionMilesAway said:
Typical county cricketer (i.e. a few years as a professional and non-test playing) will be on 30-50k/year. Some of that is match fee and performance bonuses.

As for the 'poor old other counties', they struggle along until Surrey (and similar) take their best players. Derbyshire are pretty much always the poorest, I think.
Having said that Middlesex and Yorkshire are in the second division this season
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Sorry, I know this thread is supposed to be about the Test (mainly), and the match is poised in an interesting way.

But I'm very, very out of touch with county cricket, and it's very hard to follow from abroad, unless you're hooked up to satellite tv (I'm not). Curious to know: what gives a county like Surrey its leverage?
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Sorry, I know this thread is supposed to be about the Test (mainly), and the match is poised in an interesting way.

But I'm very, very out of touch with county cricket, and it's very hard to follow from abroad, unless you're hooked up to satellite tv (I'm not). Curious to know: what gives a county like Surrey its leverage?
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Lancashire's county matches are live on youtube, David Lloyd on commentary. Thank you to the Bluemooner who told me this a few weeks ago.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Sorry, I know this thread is supposed to be about the Test (mainly), and the match is poised in an interesting way.

But I'm very, very out of touch with county cricket, and it's very hard to follow from abroad, unless you're hooked up to satellite tv (I'm not). Curious to know: what gives a county like Surrey its leverage?
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I would guess money mostly. One or two tests every year, very big London ground (which I think sells out for T20/sloggit), plus whatever they make from corporate work.
Very big membership (15-18k, I think).
It's really only kicked in from about 10 years ago, I expect there was a financial change that drove Surrey forward (T20 becoming the T20 Blast was 10 years ago, I don't know what it was like before that!).
Unlike the likes of Lancashire, I think Surrey have a guaranteed home test every year for a long time, which allows proper planning (Lancashire dropped out of bidding for Ashes tests as the numbers were too high).

The Hundred adds to it, as there are only 8 sides, and some are sort-of cross-county things. It was thought at the outset that it would cement the test counties at the top.

In the same way that counties with test grounds are ahead of non-test counties, Surrey are usually ahead of others.
 
jimharri said:
Another 50-60 runs would be a real challenge to the Windies. Anything in the 375-400 range will not be an easy target, even on a relatively kind wicket.
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We should have enough but we got to bowl well catch well because West India can bat through the tough times like the first innings
 
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