The Cricket Thread

[Tony Towner]

They've gone with Carse

 

[Sniffer]

Bishan Bedi has passed away .

 

[jd1981]

Afghanistan need just 100 from 19 overs, with 9 wickets in hand. Now puts Pakistan in a precarious position in the tournament.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Puts 4th spot right up for grabs. India are clearly going through and so are NZ, I expect SA to have enough to be comfortable enough too, but literally anyone else could have the last one.

Of course we aren't in the conversation if we carry on as we are, we should beat a very poor Sri Lanka team on Thursday but I wouldn't bet £1 on it right now.

 

[jd1981]

Yeah I think Australia will fluke their way in but will be destroyed by India in the Semi final.

 

[Tony Towner]

Mott out
Trott in

 

[jd1981]

To be fair Mott is won the T20 last year, nevertheless if this becomes an embarrassment of a tournament then he’ll be in big trouble. ECB are about as cutthroat as it gets, reality is they’re as equally culpable for piss poor planning

 

[Tony Towner]

It wasn't really serious I just like saying Mott out for the double entendre element

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Australia are fucking shit as well. No guarantee whatsoever that they make it.

England simply have to batter Sri Lanka to get the net run rate improved a bit. Probably need to beat India though, which is a concern!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

New central contracts:

3 years - Brook, Root, Wood
2 years - Rehan, Archer, Atkinson, Bairstow, Buttler, Carse, Crawley, Curran, Duckett, Livingstone, Pope, Potts, Rashid, Tongue, Woakes
1 year - Moeen, Anderson, Foakes, Leach, Malan, Robinson, Stokes, Topley

 

[Johnny75]

3 years for Wood and a year for Mo?

Seems barmy to me.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Wood is so we manage his workload. He can only play T20 leagues when we say so now.

Mo is basically done after the T20 World Cup next year (if selected), won't play ODIs any more after this ongoing tournament and has finished with Tests. He's 37 next summer.

Archer is the odd one, a two year deal but he hasn't been fit for years and isn't fit now. If he wants to play T20 around the world then let him. I wasn't ever totally sold on him in Test cricket even at his best.

 

[Tony Towner]

Stokes is the interesting one for me, 1 year won't be the ECB's choice

 

[Tony Towner]

Archer is the odd one, a two year deal but he hasn't been fit for years and isn't fit now. If he wants to play T20 around the world then let him. I wasn't ever totally sold on him in Test cricket even at his beSt

Root's usage of him was the issue for me. Over bowled him and we and he are paying the price for it

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It's not with Stokes, he was offered 3. New TV deal next year so he thinks he can get more down the line.

Re: Archer - not handled brilliantly but equally he did not look very good quite a lot of the time, captaincy or not.

 

[Tony Towner]

Apart from Atkinson and Topley I don't agree with the premise on this group of players, they are experienced enough and would barely have played irrespective of the Hundred due to central contracts, but in 4 years time if nothing changes, we'll have a team with next to no experience. The Hundred isn't getting the overseas players it was supposed to so is being padded out with County players many of which sit around for a month not playing any cricket whilst the 50 over tournament is mainly made up of 2nd 11s

https://twitter.com/x/status/1716913242021486995

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It's a long-term issue that I think we both flagged long ago.

But Stokes for one hasn't played a 50 over game for Durham since 2014. It's the triple whammy of no domestic play in that format for the better players, plus way fewer ODIs than previously, plus when we do play hardly ever putting out even close to our best XI. I think Root played fewer than 20 ODI innings between the 2019 and 2023 World Cups for instance. Stokes went nearly two years after the World Cup final without playing a single ODI.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It’s ECB arrogance in thinking the rest of the world would take up the Hundred whereas it has been ignored elsewhere in favour of T20.

Even if the Hundred is a great domestic success (which is a debate depending which side of that particular coin you rest), it is preparing the elite players for a form of cricket that simply isn’t played in international cricket, at the cost of three formats that are. That is not a good thing. I understand why as the ECB have got good broadcast deals but it is to the detriment of the world champions in two formats and also a bloody good test team.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Very odd line up today with just about every all rounder we have.

 

[jd1981]

That’s about as bad a review as you can get by Sri Lanka, blatant that it pitches outside of leg stump.