As people were moaning about too much cricket on Beefy's and the last Ashes thread was closed I'd thought I'd start a new one now the warm up matches are under way. Hampshire batsman Carberry made 78 off 100 balls today.
New ashes! There will be Ashes series every few months as its a money spinner! Meanwhile, I'm going to Twickenham to watch the egg chasers play Australia on Saturday, with my radio on for Saints of course.
It is an outrage. Everyone knows there should be at least an 18 month gap between an Ashes series in England and the return series in Australia. Why they have done this can only be out down to the amount of TV money it will generate, and it is an insult to the other cricket-playing nations who we also tour during our winter.
Have it in the back of my mind that it was to do with the timing of other sporting events...Olympics?
Take a read of this. http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2010-11/content/story/498610.html You'll see it wasn't for TV Money reasons and as Devon said it's to avoid the clash with the World Cup in 2015...
Well, essentially that still is for TV money reasons, although other circumstances are involved. Moving sporting spectacles because they might clash with another, possibly bigger one is all about exposure and attention. Which ultimately means money, or the lack of it.
That may be part of it (and is undoubtedly the reason why they brought this series forward a year rather than moving it back a year) but the ECB have been arguing for a while that the English players are disadvantaged by going on a long, draining tour to Australia just before the World Cup.
Sorry should have said solely TV money reasons, but, you're right. It's always going to be because of Money in the end!!
In the long run, the move will surely beneficial. Going to a World Cup on the back of three months away from home, playing the great rival that is Australia, is no way to prepare. But yes, short term it's about money. They had the option to push the series' back, or bring them forward. And of course, the latter was chosen. An additional heroes created, just like that. And if you're going to bring the Australia-hosting Ashes series' forward, then so do the England-hosting Ashes series' - hence the 2015 Ashes series here, effectively just 18 months away. Great to see Carberry scoring runs, but realistically he needed to make a century, and probably a big one at that. Flat pitch, poor bowling attack, and he's arguably at the very bottom of our list of batsmen on tour to start in the first test. That's a whole lot of convincing he needs to do. 70s, whilst very useful, don't generally fall into that category.
I don't care because I like Test cricket...though I think that this series may be even tougher (especially as we didn't really roll them over at home).
An interesting article on the state of ODIs here http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24768367, backed up again today, with India scoring 386/6 in 50 overs v Austalia, with Ro Shama hitting 12 fours and 16 sixes on his way to 209 from 158 balls
Cook returns tonight for the next warm-up match, but Carberry still keeps his place. Very, very promising for both Carbs and us Hants fans. Root would appear to be moving back to the middle order, where I have said all along that he shouldn't have been moved from. Essential though that Carberry scores runs again. He has his chance here (even with Cook fit again), he has to take it (or at least hope that Ballance doesn't take his).
