Cricket

Bell got a century on the flattest deck in England in a match where an opposition player scored a triple-hundred, got a one-day hundred against the same opposition, and has done *nothing* since then. His form has actually been decidedly off, of late. He hasn't done nearly enough to get in, and this is the price we pay for team unity. Ashley Giles on the board of selectors is a fucking joke.

If the WI had any guts they would sack Gayle as captain. What a leader to have.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8047374.stm

The way they played in the WI, they certainly tried to kill test cricket. His comments explain a lot.
I hope they get fucked by every team in all cricket now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/12/chris-gayle-andrew-strauss-cricket

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/13/chris-gayle-quit-captaincy-west-indies

spoilt money grabbing cunt is what he is.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/12/chris-gayle-captaincy-test-cricket

dearie me

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8047374.stm

I'm pretty distressed about this. Test cricket is about the most beautiful thing sport has to offer, but it's being devalued at every turn.

It wont be long until players refuse to play test cricket so they can play in the IPL.

They've been shunting test matches around for years to accommodate limited-overs, and we've just had one without a weekend day. The adminstrators will probably find a way to have nominal tests continue, but no-one will be watching

I'm pretty distressed about this. Test cricket is about the most beautiful thing sport has to offer, but it's being devalued at every turn.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 21:05 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Same here.

As soon as 20/20 came in a few years back I could sense the writing was on the wall for Test cricket. The thing is though I really don't think that interest in 20/20 will be sustained in the long term, particularly outside of the sub-continent, but it seems like Test cricket will take a bashing in the mean time anyway and we will end up with the worst of all worlds.

They should at least do away with these ridiculous two-match series, particularly when they start in the middle of the week. I mean really it's no surprise that no-one turned up. I know this current series is some kind of fudge because other tournaments have been cancelled, but using Test matches as a blatant warm-up for the Ashes is incredibly wrong-headed. Less frequent but proper 4 or 5 match series with significant honours at stake is what you need to generate interest. Otherwise pretty soon you will have a generation of cricketers that will have very little interest in playing Test cricket at all (I guess kind of like Premiership footballers and international football).

It wont be long until players refuse to play test cricket so they can play in the IPL.

Fuck them, get other players to play test cricket... England might regian the Ashes then!

Yeah but if the best players in the world don't want to play, then where is the "test". Who will want to watch it and who will pay for it? And even if, say, all of England's top players carry on playing Test cricket, what is the point if they have no one to play against?

Anyway here is TMS. They'll know what to do...

Yeah but if the best players in the world don't want to play, then where is the "test". Who will want to watch it and who will pay for it? And even if, say, all of England's top players carry on playing Test cricket, what is the point if they have no one to play against?

It's how England managed to beat Australia in the 70s!

Chris Gayle: This Fuckin' Guy

At least he's living up what would have been a typical May/June second division Test series.

Give him a fucking baseball bat and send him out to play rounders

Hmmmm....sounds like this one might go for the full 5 days...1.25 runs per over...pitch described as a "rice pudding" by Aggers...ho hum.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/5/14/1242296496291/England-cricket-captain-A-001.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/5/14/1242296496291/England-cricket-captain-A-001.jpg

The kid's face cracks me up for some reason.

Why's Brendan Nash wearing an England cap?

xps Test cricket has weathered these kind of storms before, not least the Packer period Tom refers to upthread.

I'm concerned for it mostly because there doesn't seem to be any appetite for it in India, which is where the shots are going to called from from now on. Whether Chris Gayle likes it or not is irrelevant really. India seems to like its cricket as vulgar as possible from what I can see

This brought some gentle lols:

http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2009/05/14/chris-gayle-another-day-in-my-living-hell/

I’m depressed. This hotel room is freezing. My hotel room in South Africa was a perfect temperature.

I look at my watch: 2.30pm. No rest for the wicked. I managed to snatch a quick 14 hours sleep but I’m still worn out.

He needs Mrs. Alan Stanford there to warm him up a bit

India controls what happens in cricket. It's not looking good for test cricket.

India controls what happens in cricket. It's not looking good for test cricket.

fair enough

I just await the new sexed up version of Test Cricket that is bound to be tried out.

Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian was suggesting a 400 over match, with allocation of innings as the bowling teams wish. Would at least get rid of time-wasting that is so prevalent these days.

They could call it 400/400

Sorry 200/200

That would get "the kids" flocking in!

I think the demise of Test cricket is greatly exaggerated. We're going through a period remarkably similar in tone to the period in the late 70's when ODIs were becoming popular. It's novel, exciting, and this time it's all over in 3 fleeting hours, but the core fanbase (and it is a strong fanbase) in every Test-playing nation will support Test matches above all.

They just won't bother going to them, anywhere but England, Australia and South Africa

I certainly hope so. Why are the grounds so empty though? Everywhere apart from Australia and England anyway. Although the ECB (and independently Lord's/MCC) are doing their best to make sure ticket prices are so extortionate that no one will be able to afford to go, and not in groups of more than two. And not allowed to drink unless they buy £4 pints of piss.

I notice that Lord's have extended their corporate seating areas into the upper Edrich. This was going to turn into a rant, but I haven't got the energy to cogently marshall my thoughts so I'm just going to limply flop to a halt... here.

xpost

I said South Africa, without even knowing if people actually watch test cricket there. It might just be England and Australia then.

The creeping corporatisation of cricket is something that's not unequivocally bad (it's easy to talk about the halcyon days of gentleman and players, which were actually deeply class-ridden and divisive), but I agree that £40+ tickets put a lot of people off, even if that does actually compare well to other days out e.g. a big stadium gig, football match etc.

Boring flat wickets where it's impossible to get anyone out for days on end don't help matters

True dat. I would recommend Mike Marquese's "Anyone But England" on that topic, which lifted the scales from my eyes on that and many other aspects of cricket.

Re: empty grounds, I think it's a psychosocial issue concerning the historical willingness of member nations' citizens to actually attend sports events in person, along with more esoteric concerns about management urban space, transportation, established community atmosphere etc.

*management OF urban space

It's certainly true that Britons and Aussies are probably the world's most willing live sports watchers (obviously partly due to economic reasons), cf. 5,000 attendances for non-league football matches here in the UK.

The Indian guys here at CMU give me hope. Most of them see IPL as at best a sideshow and are way more interested in England vs WI and the coming Ashes. A lot are staggeringly pissed off that England India series was only 2 tests. There needs to be balance. Champions trophy needs to go, World 20/20 should be every 4 years and staggered with World Cup and the Test Calendar should allow for 5 test series between the major nations (England, SA, Australia, India) and 3 test series for the other test playing nations. If this means that the ashes needs to be every 3 years instead of 2 then so be it.

Either that or we split the game and there can be dancing girls, fancydress leather stickball for those that want and test cricket for the rest of us.

Like I say, the initial sugar-rush will wear off when it becomes widely acknowledged that 2020 is not the messiah, it is just cricket but with more slogging and less unpredictable nuance.

Anyone know how I can get TMS in the states?

It's on the World Service sometimes, I think.