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Post by Balladeer on Mar 15, 2022 17:15:21 GMT
It's almost like maybe a system based on first-innings runs in such a toss-dependant country isn't a good idea!
Meanwhile sadly everybody's favourite irreverent national cricket account, Iceland Cricket, have hopped on board the NFTs bandwagon. 🤦🏻♂️
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Post by nemouk on Mar 29, 2022 9:33:26 GMT
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Post by soulcircus on Apr 14, 2022 9:56:48 GMT
This is a beautiful scorecard. Bannerman would be proud.
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Post by nemouk on Apr 15, 2022 19:26:57 GMT
No chat at all on Root going?
Conflicted on his legacy - definitely right to go, but a bit odd timing wise - considering the ECB doesn't have anybody making decisions in it at the moment and seven weeks before the first test. You'd have thought he'd want to have a chat with the new coach before making a decision, but perhaps they have someone lined up and he's been given the nod.
Legacy then - hard to argue that he wasn't a a bad tactical captain on the field and in selection. In particular, he couldn't captain spinners at all (despite being a fairly good one himself) and continually broke his fastest bowlers. I have some sympathy with his lack of captaincy experience when he got the job, but he didn't really improve as he got that experience either.
However, he was very good at the non-tactical parts of being captain. The players clearly liked him - even the ones who could reasonably not have - his batting was still absolutely exceptional and he was a great 'ambassador' for the team - easy to sniff at that sort of stuff but during Covid especially it must have been fucking hard to remain as professional as he did at all times.
The right time to stop being captain. Maybe he'd have gone earlier if there was an heir apparent - the best captain of my lifetime (Hussain) could do that because Michael Vaughan was ready. There's nobody ready now, and we'll probably have to go for a short term "do it for the summer and we'll see" type appointment - to be honest England could do with a bit of picking for the now and not just constantly planning "for" the next ashes.
I hope he plays on for many years as a specialist bat and scores a ton of runs.
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Post by Balladeer on Apr 15, 2022 20:52:06 GMT
I don't know that I have much to say. Bad captain on-field, dubious selections off it (how much of that was down to him we'll never know), and while he was clearly well-liked that never felt like it made up for his incompetence in the duties of actual captaincy. The one exception is there was the odd truly statesmanlike gesture that really impressed me: ticking off Shannon Gabriel for homophobic language springs to mind. Played well enough still, but felt like he blew hot and cold as captain in a way he maybe didn't outside the role.
Probably ought to have gone a bit sooner, but not far wrong and we still have nobody to take over.
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Post by pierredelafranchesca on Apr 17, 2022 8:18:50 GMT
I'm a firm subscriber to the 'only as good as your team' principle when it comes to judging captains, he's prob not one of the best, but give ponting, kohli, Waugh our top order and any of our spinners instead of warne/ashwin and they sure as shit aren't winning the tests they've won. Sure every once in a while a truly incredible capt comes along, but most of them are a similar standard I reckon
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Post by nemouk on Apr 17, 2022 13:15:02 GMT
And Rob Key gets the big job. Not the obvious candidate but good luck to him.
I do think this probably means Zak Crawley will play 100 tests mind.
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Post by Balladeer on Apr 17, 2022 13:40:55 GMT
Not sure what to make of Key. I know nothing about the chap. Apparently a decent pundit?
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Post by nemouk on Apr 17, 2022 14:23:33 GMT
He's alright. Knows more about county cricket than most commentators bother learning. No experience doing a job like this of course, but has opinions and isn't terribly management speaky.
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Post by soulcircus on May 23, 2022 13:55:06 GMT
What sorcery is this?!
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Post by waughandpeace on Jul 22, 2022 20:45:50 GMT
The apparent Strauss plans for 2023 are pretty terrifying aren't they...
[Divisions of 12 & 6 playing 12 games (already makes no sense) with 2 abroad (?!) and then also reducing the one day cup to just knockout (so virtually no cricket during the 100 for like 60-70% of pro cricketers) and even reducing the blast]. Not confirmed, but strongly rumoured
I don't see how any conclusions can be drawn just half way through the season with this being the first season of a 10|8 split and personally think the current formats and timings throughout the year have been excellent (finals day shortly after groups, CC spread across the whole season and a (hopefully) well attended OD cup in August the fringe players can really thrive in).
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Post by Balladeer on Jul 22, 2022 21:24:21 GMT
I'm going to hope that's incorrect and see what happens. Otherwise... yikes.
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Post by waughandpeace on Jul 26, 2022 14:03:08 GMT
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Post by Balladeer on Aug 15, 2022 17:27:24 GMT
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Post by nemouk on Aug 17, 2022 10:53:20 GMT
Ruddy Nora
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