The Cricket Thread

Current talk seems to be that Sky or BT have until Monday to finally meet Star's selling price, otherwise they'll sell to C4. Test cricket on terrestrial TV for the first time since the great 2005 Ashes.

(Whether C4 would get the rights to all four tests though, let alone the entire tour, remains to be seen. And god knows who C4's presenting/commentary team would be.)

 

It will be led by Mark Nicholas I guess, with Isa Guha, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Geoff Boycott, Michael Vaughan and others from TMS and Sky.

 

I doubt Sky would let any of their guys work for someone else (they're generally not freelancers). Mark Nicholas is already fronting TalkSport's radio coverage. TMS are expected to put on some sort of non-ball-by-ball offering, like they did last time TalkSport beat them to the rights.

 

Boycott has retired from broadcasting.

 

Good

 

There's more than one deadline day this week. Thursday is the final day for the 100 teams to confirm which players they'll be retaining (and in which price category).

So far we've confirmed 9 of our original 15 (Vince, Dawson, Archer, Jordan, Davies, Rawlins, Garton, Waller and Mills). Of the other 6, we were forced into not retaining Pope due to him getting a central contract (Archer has our one centrally contract slot). So it's down to the last 5, which of course includes all 3 overseas players. Given that Pakistan, WI and Australia are all scheduled to play matches which clash with the 100 - and currently, we have one overseas player from each countries - I wouldn't be surprised if we let all of Russell, Warner and Shadab go. NZ and South Africa would appear to have the great availability. De Kock, cough, cough.

Wood, Crane, Wright and Briggs haven't yet been confirmed by their respective sides. So in terms of adding even more local flavour, they could be available in the mini-draft at the end of month for filling remaining slots. Although the two spinners in particular will surely be retained, due to their expertise in t20.

 

I see that NZ have qualified for the world test final, following the cancellation of the SA-Aus series. Their opponent will be solely determined by our series vs India (assuming that SA-Aus isn't rescheduled for before the final).

It will be India if they win 2-1, 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 or 4-0.

It will be us if we win 3-1, 3-0 or 4-0

It will be Australia if the series is a draw, or India win 1-0, or we win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1

 

Got my ticket to see England v India at Lords. Difficult to think of buying anything quite as stressful as tickets from their website! Makes up for the cancellations in 2020.

 

India series confirmed for Channel 4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55902859

 

Excellent news!

 

Starts Friday doesn’t it?

 

Yep, 4am...

 

Thankfully the third test is day-night. 9am start, perfect.

 

If we bat first, I’ll be up to see the end of our innings I guess

 

Russell, Overton and Whiteley retained. But not Warner or Shadab.

Somehow we've managed to sign Stoinis instead of Shadab - I don't quite know how, outside of the draft - so that just leaves us needing to replace Pope and Warner. Given that Pope was also our reserve keeper, presumably one of the two will be a keeper.

Crane and Wright were retained by their sides, but not Wood or Briggs. But now that we've retained Overton, I don't see room for either of them. We need batters.

35 picks will take place in the mini-draft. Our two will be picks number 3 and 15. Given that De Kock is the one I want (decent replacement for Warner, and solves the keeper issue) being 3rd is important. Of the two teams ahead of us, one of them has Bairstow, Banton, Duckett and Pope, so really do not need another keeper. The other however only has Buttler, who will presumably miss most of the competition. So they are the big threat to getting De Kock.

 

You getting up at 4:30?

 

On the 3rd day.

 

I will get up early just to watch some Hawkeye

 

See its only on talk ****e .