Chewbacca
Player Valuation: £35m
It’s different taking attacks apart with one slip and half the field artificially brought in compared to five slips and a gully
Cricket
- Thread starter summerisle
- Start date
Chris O'Connor
Player Valuation: £35m
Michael di Venuto has been released as coach of Surrey with Vikram Solanki taking over. Solanki is hoping his presence as a British Asian coach will help more Asians to breakthrough into the first class game. It's a remarkably damning statistic, and a shameful indictment of any efforts made, that so few have done so, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali the two England players the most notable.
Di Venuto who has coached Surrey since 2016, has seen a steady progression with incremental rises almost every year from 5th in 2016, 3rd in 2017 and winning the championship by a mammoth 46 points in 2018. It was perhaps quite remarkable that the amount of England call ups hadn't affected their form before 2019, but as they increased almost exponentially in both a World Cup and Ashes summer, Surrey's loss was absolutely huge and it told last season finishing 7th.
I suppose in that the purpose of county cricket is to get your players prepared to play for England you could say 2019 was the best year of all for Surrey, as apart from their skipper Rory Burns, they have now a number of players in and around the England squads.
These are (Rory Burns), Jason Roy, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Ollie Pope, (Ben Foakes not involved in 2019), Ollie Pope (called up after the ashes for South Africa) and Liam Plunkett (2019 World Cup) - their overseas star Aaron Finch also played for Australia in 2019. In addition they have Amar Virdi perhaps on the verge of a breakthrough into the England setup.
All in all an impressive record from the Aussie coach who has been released from his contract to take up other opportunities. His contract expires in March 2021 but the pandemic pretty much meant he couldn't continue. He is currently in Tasmania with his family, with the season suspended.
Vikram has a tough act to follow with so many now away with England it maybe impossible to get near di Venuto's achievements.
He's been in the studio as a pundit with sky a few times and seems a thoroughly nice bloke, very courteous, friendly and you would think well thought of at Surrey. My impression was he was a bit bland, perhaps loathe to criticise or make too much of an impression on me as a viewer. Maybe that's all irrelevant and I hope for his sake he can continue di Venuto's good work.
Di Venuto who has coached Surrey since 2016, has seen a steady progression with incremental rises almost every year from 5th in 2016, 3rd in 2017 and winning the championship by a mammoth 46 points in 2018. It was perhaps quite remarkable that the amount of England call ups hadn't affected their form before 2019, but as they increased almost exponentially in both a World Cup and Ashes summer, Surrey's loss was absolutely huge and it told last season finishing 7th.
I suppose in that the purpose of county cricket is to get your players prepared to play for England you could say 2019 was the best year of all for Surrey, as apart from their skipper Rory Burns, they have now a number of players in and around the England squads.
These are (Rory Burns), Jason Roy, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Ollie Pope, (Ben Foakes not involved in 2019), Ollie Pope (called up after the ashes for South Africa) and Liam Plunkett (2019 World Cup) - their overseas star Aaron Finch also played for Australia in 2019. In addition they have Amar Virdi perhaps on the verge of a breakthrough into the England setup.
All in all an impressive record from the Aussie coach who has been released from his contract to take up other opportunities. His contract expires in March 2021 but the pandemic pretty much meant he couldn't continue. He is currently in Tasmania with his family, with the season suspended.
Vikram has a tough act to follow with so many now away with England it maybe impossible to get near di Venuto's achievements.
He's been in the studio as a pundit with sky a few times and seems a thoroughly nice bloke, very courteous, friendly and you would think well thought of at Surrey. My impression was he was a bit bland, perhaps loathe to criticise or make too much of an impression on me as a viewer. Maybe that's all irrelevant and I hope for his sake he can continue di Venuto's good work.
Re-run of the England v West Indies Test at Old Trafford in 1995 6pm BBC 2. Looking forward to watching it
Chris O'Connor
Player Valuation: £35m
1995 was the last tour of England where the West Indies didn't lose the test series. Their famous side of the 80's had largely gone and although Lara stood tall they've never really been competitive on tour here since.
England won the next six home series.
In England,:- England 16 tests and West Indies 2
In the West Indies:- At home the West Indies have been far better with each side winning five tests each
Overall:- England 21 West Indies 7 since 1995
How times have changed.
The 90's perhaps the all time low point of English cricket, Nasser Hussain and then Michael Vaughan under Duncan Fletcher changed it around and Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss continued the huge turnaround from the depths
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The West Indies decline began in the series before they came to England in 1995 when the Aussies defeated them in the Caribbean, their first loss in any Test series since 1980. They came over here at a low ebb and I believe but for that rouge pitch in the 3rd Test at Edgbaston which played right into the hands of their fast bowlers, we'd also have beaten them.
As for the 90s, I think statistically the 80s was a far worse decade for England in terms of Test match victories, but is generally glossed over because of 3 Ashes wins. Between 1986 and 1989 England only won one home Test match, and that was against Sri Lanka. At least through the 90s we always won at least one home Test every summer.
I think the likes of Hussain and Vaughan were fortunate to have been captaining England after central contracts had been brought in so our top players (particulary the bowlers) could be rested in between Tests and be fresh for when the next Test came around. Our results improved markedly when central contracts were given to our best players in 2000. I'm sure the predecessors of Hussain and Vaughan as in Gooch, Atherton and Stewart would've loved that luxury.
Chris O'Connor
Player Valuation: £35m
Excellent post.
The Ashes were counted so special, even in those days, that series victories could forgive a multitude of sins.
Two real low points spring to mind, the most notorious, the summer of '88 when England used four captains during the West Indies tour while losing 0-4 and earlier still, captain hapless himself David Gower grabbing a rare opportunity to declare on the last day only to be humiliated, losing by ten wickets in '84.
Set against them though were Botham's ashes of '81, captain hapless' triumph later in the decade and most especially, the prized jewel and perhaps the most unlikely away series ashes victory ever in the winter of '86/'87 when Gatting's no hopers, described by the Aussie press as the most hopeless tourists ever, 'the can't bat, can't bowl, can't field' tourists, won the ashes gaining an unassailable 0-2 lead after the fourth test of five (1-2 the result).
Those ashes victories for me actually do elevate the '80's, not withstanding regularly being murdered by the Windies, above the '90's but they were two dark decades and central contracts are instrumental in changing that all around.
joey_macmo
Player Valuation: £35m
Looks like club cricket is back 11th July
cwright75
Player Valuation: £2.5m
A cricket story ( I played in the birmingham leagues ) - well it was 1 sunny day at edgbaston with a packed house to watch warwickshire vs whoever it was in a twenty20 match / i was in the cheap seats for a change , trying to rememeber it may have been nick knight who pulled the ball up in the air for 6 , a spectator went up for a catch in the crowd but the ball went thru his hands and smashed his face to bits , the game stopped and all went quiet , over the tanoy they shouted do we have a docter in the crowd or close by now my local docter from my surgery was sitting in the 2nd row , however he did not move the lazy bark , so i started a song doctor iyer la la la , the crowd joined in , under pressure docter iyer got up and helped the injured man , the para`s then come and took him away , doc iyer looked up at me , if looks could kill ehh lol , anyway i was due in surgery with a problem with my balls sooner rather than later , i spent many days ringing the surgey at 8 am , asking if doc iyer was working today , eventually he was off and i got in for my balls to be inspected and sent off to hospital , i had visions of that del trotter scene when he sold the dodgy paint and then the docter was there to operate , i was that worried , funny looking back now lol
ECB showing this practice game on their site via CCTV cameras - no sound and you get to see whoever is controlling it switch ends at change of the over
Mahmood has looked good. Bowled Denly clean but ended up as a no ball. Good pace so far from him.
Everyone chipping in on the bowling side really
Mahmood has looked good. Bowled Denly clean but ended up as a no ball. Good pace so far from him.
Everyone chipping in on the bowling side really
Day two gets underway with Archer forcing Sibley into a poor shot for a caught behind before Keaton 'can play spin' Jennings then gets caught at slips, you guessed it, after being unable to play against spin.
Chris O'Connor
Player Valuation: £35m
Club cricket given the go-ahead to return from next weekend (11th July)
- Not exactly sure of the details locally -in the Liverpool Competition, Southport and District or the various Lancashire (and Cheshire) leagues, maybe shortened season or friendlies and just knockout cups.
- Not exactly sure of the details locally -in the Liverpool Competition, Southport and District or the various Lancashire (and Cheshire) leagues, maybe shortened season or friendlies and just knockout cups.
First Test squad announced for the Windies series.
Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
I assume the lined up will be: Burns, Sibley, Denly, Crawley, Stokes, Pope, Buttler, Bess, Archer, Broad, Anderson
Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
I assume the lined up will be: Burns, Sibley, Denly, Crawley, Stokes, Pope, Buttler, Bess, Archer, Broad, Anderson
If we can find a decent spinner we might have the makings of a very good side. Would prefer Stokes as permanent captain also.
toffeejack
Player Valuation: £100m
it should be time to get rid of denly surely? I know the rest are inexperienced/youngsters, but it's a chance to properly give them all a go together to build for the future/compete against eachother.
i wouldn't so much if i had a load of experience and could teach them stuff whilst out in the middle, but getting in then getting yourself out every innings is hardly something we want the rest learning.
i wouldn't so much if i had a load of experience and could teach them stuff whilst out in the middle, but getting in then getting yourself out every innings is hardly something we want the rest learning.
