The Hundred

Tbh apart from Stokes and Butler I don't think any of the current England team play in the IPL?

Bairstow does but he's not really a regular in the England team these days?

What my point is, is that it isn't the IPL that has made the England team shit, it's more to do (as you have said) about how the county game is structured and how players can play themselves into form.

The money (and the crowds) is in 'instant' cricket - T20 type '6 or out' stuff.

Fifty plus years ago the big cricket revolution was the 60 over Gillette Cup - 120 overs in a day - The Hundred equates to just 34 overs in a game - in other words all but a quarter of a Gillette Cup match!

The Gillette Cup was a knock out competition - the winners only had to play four or five matches in a season - now they are playing (or at least it feels like) four or five matches each in a week!

The focus now is on Test matches or one day games, with little interest in the bread and butter county games.

People don't want to watch four day games - that's what the top and bottom of it is.

I've no idea what the answer is but if you can't build and hone your technique up in competition over time then you won't bat for long - and as the money is in '6 or out' and they don't last more than two seconds, then it really doesn't matter much then does it?

It is what it is.

I just love cricket and enjoy all forms of the game and have been going to watch games at OT for many years now. I would say that nearly all of those have been to see a Test match though, it may have something to do with the all day drinking 

I once spoke to Wasim Akram when he was fielding for Lancashire on the boundary at Southport. Then I was interrupted by a drunken lout who wanted Wasim's autograph despite having two pints in his hands and no pen.

Was that you Norpig?

Natasha Whittam wrote:I once spoke to Wasim Akram when he was fielding for Lancashire on the boundary at Southport. Then I was interrupted by a drunken lout who wanted Wasim's autograph despite having two pints in his hands and no pen.

Was that you Norpig?

rumbled again 

I was just about getting round to grudgingly accepting that I had sort of semi-enjoyed some of the T20 internationals lately (usually I just change TV channels to avoid it) when along comes the bombardment of media shite about this bloody 100 thing. I don't know where it fits in, we already have T20 so what's the point. I realize that I'm an old curmudgeonly bugger but I haven't watched any of it and I won't be watching any of it either. 

The Manchester Originals might as well be Manchester United or City as far as I'm concerned. Frankly Mr Shankly, like you, if the 100 was being payed in my back garden I'd draw the curtains.

White ball cricket is where the money is these days and unfortunately cricket will follow that gravy train. I know it brings families and kids to watch cricket but it's not proper cricket is it. It's just crash bang wallop stuff that requires the negation of actual, subtle, real cricket skills.

 It really winds me up as well when the current England Test side is all over the place as regards selection. Players being rotated, rested, injured, too tired, emotionally unstable. All this when the Aussies are waiting for us round the corner. No matter how shit they've been recently they'll bring their A-Game to an Ashes series as they always do. The way things look to me at the moment we're really going to shit the bed down under.

Just watching the cricket (England getting a beating as usual) and Moeen Ali has just come on to bowl. The commentator said his last red-ball game in England was in September 2019 for Worcestershire against Glamorgan. That's nearly 2 years without playing test or county cricket.

Absolutely bonkers.