Ashes 2025

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!

Who'll earn the urn?

  • Total voters
    30
PLT said:
The popularity of the sport has got to be a big issue. Not many young people care about it at all. My mates are baffled that I'm interested in it. Stuff like NFL is trendier now which I think is a shame. And I think the Premier League as well, the same way it distracts people from supporting their local team and going to live games it probably distracts them from other traditional sports too.

My dad was telling me recently about cricket matches between offices at work back in the day, that sounds like total fantasy stuff now, being able to get two teams of people at work to play cricket.
Click to expand...
I got in to cricket watching tests on tv and going up to Scarborough to watch Yorks 4 day games in summer holidays too. Also lucky enough to go to a school that played cricket, nowadays there's nowt on TV, hardly any games played during the summer hols due to changes to schedules and no real routes into the game for kids. Why would they watch it?

edit....tickets too....ECB charging 130 quid for a day at a test, and even then furthest north a test being played next year is ****ing Trent bridge I think
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trumpton Tiger., TwoWrights, Chazz Rheinhold and 1 other person
pierredelafranchesca said:
the damage when massive structural changes were made to the ccc were never going to be immediate, we still had a bowling attack of Anderson broad Woakes wood and Robinson (joke he's not in team) batters like root, bairstow, stokes, pope, buttler etc who'd come through championship ranks and learned their red ball trade before making the test team, it's now that the previous generation are moving aside that the dismantling of red ball cricket is paying it's negative dividends, I genuinely have no idea how this gets repaired either, ecb has sold out to crisp packet cricket and counties make all their own money in short form, there is no way that the 4 day game will get the respect it should any time soon and there just isn't any talent coming through especially with the ball, any more. Once Archer retires from tests, and that'll be soon, along with wood we're left with a bowling attack who barely ever pick up a red ball and no real means to find replacements. Genuinely think we'll go longer between ashes wins than we did pre 05 atm
Click to expand...
Agree with most of this. It is absolutely criminal what they have done to the County Championship and then not allowing test players to play it. All for the bloody 16.4 circus. Yes it may have attracted new spectators and actually ridiculous funds into the game, but why not do this to the existing 20/20? We didn't need another format. What has it brought that the 20/20 couldn’t have?
Preparation has been shocking. Selection ridiculous. Identifying a kid as spin bowler for the Ashes 3 years ago then abandoning him and replacing with a part time bowler. Sticking with Crawley for the Ashes because he’s tall and will suit Aussie wickets, identifying a kid as likely number 3 because he’s looked good in one day era but has never even hit a first class ton. Ducket has done well previously and so deserved to be in the squad, but he was never going to score on Aussie wickets .. he doesn’t leave the ball.
This is not even a strong Aussie team and certainly not at full strength. Something that gives me some hope is that this is an aging Aussie team.
Bazball was entertaining, provided some good memories but was never going to be consistently successful. We need to bin it, Keyand Baz and start again.
The next time we go to Aus, almost all of their current squad will have finished. Certainly their bowling attack, including back ups. I do think we’ve got some talent coming through Hammeed, Bethell, Ahmed Tongue,Rew (x2), Vaughan, to add to Root, Brook, Smith, Archer, Atkinson but let them get experience in the county game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: boltontiger, TwoWrights, WYT and 3 others
pierredelafranchesca said:
I got in to cricket watching tests on tv and going up to Scarborough to watch Yorks 4 day games in summer holidays too. Also lucky enough to go to a school that played cricket, nowadays there's nowt on TV, hardly any games played during the summer hols due to changes to schedules and no real routes into the game for kids. Why would they watch it?

edit....tickets too....ECB charging 130 quid for a day at a test, and even then furthest north a test being played next year is ****ing Trent bridge I think
Click to expand...

Interest probably varies a lot geographically too. I get the sense Hull is a blackspot for cricket interest, and I'm sure there will be others too. But I'd hope that interest is greater in other areas. Doesn't help that the nearest ground now is Leeds.

Incidentally there is a test at Headingley next summer but your point stands.
 
  • Like
Reactions: askewshair
I actually enjoy seeing a great spin bowler like Lyon , if only England
had somebody of that calibre.

We've got Will Jacks who as everybody keeps saying is a 'part-time' bowler

Something has obviously gone very wrong with English cricket
 
pierredelafranchesca said:
I got in to cricket watching tests on tv and going up to Scarborough to watch Yorks 4 day games in summer holidays too. Also lucky enough to go to a school that played cricket, nowadays there's nowt on TV, hardly any games played during the summer hols due to changes to schedules and no real routes into the game for kids. Why would they watch it?

edit....tickets too....ECB charging 130 quid for a day at a test, and even then furthest north a test being played next year is ****ing Trent bridge I think
Click to expand...
I don't think it really helps here with schools closing halfway through the summer/cricket season.
When kids go back it's straight into football
 
  • Like
Reactions: pierredelafranchesca
So depressing to lose an ashes in 11 days, the most irritating part of it for me is that every potential negative aspect to the Aussies that had spoken about has kind of turned out to be true, injuries have and are ravaging their ageing bowling attack, Hazelwood missing all 5, Cummins missing 2, Lyon now looks to be out for the series, their batting line up isn't THAT great tho individuals have had great innings....but we've been so poor with the bat bazballed ourselves into a mental state where we don't know what to do, we've fielded badly too with key drops at key moments in pretty much every innings but the worst has been the bowling.....said enough on this thread about that already so won't repeat myself. This ashes could have been so different.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mazzer, WYT, TwoWrights and 2 others
PLT said:
Interest probably varies a lot geographically too. I get the sense Hull is a blackspot for cricket interest, and I'm sure there will be others too. But I'd hope that interest is greater in other areas. Doesn't help that the nearest ground now is Leeds.

Incidentally there is a test at Headingley next summer but your point stands.
Click to expand...

York is a huge hot spot at the minute. They literally run the leagues from Hull to Scarborough all the way West too Harrogate.
 
pierredelafranchesca said:
So depressing to lose an ashes in 11 days, the most irritating part of it for me is that every potential negative aspect to the Aussies that had spoken about has kind of turned out to be true, injuries have and are ravaging their ageing bowling attack, Hazelwood missing all 5, Cummins missing 2, Lyon now looks to be out for the series, their batting line up isn't THAT great tho individuals have had great innings....but we've been so poor with the bat bazballed ourselves into a mental state where we don't know what to do, we've fielded badly too with key drops at key moments in pretty much every innings but the worst has been the bowling.....said enough on this thread about that already so won't repeat myself. This ashes could have been so different.
Click to expand...
You’re right, it is so frustrating as this is not a poor Aussie side. Plus they had a lot of injuries forcing them to play square pegs in round holes. I’ve said it previously, do feel they are going to get weaker in the next few years as a lot of their team (and replacements) are approaching the end of their careers and unusual don't seem to have there usual depth. It’s a shame we don’t have the strength to capitalise as we rebuild.
 
Top_Tiger said:
York is a huge hot spot at the minute. They literally run the leagues from Hull to Scarborough all the way West too Harrogate.
Click to expand...
Are the Bradford leagues still strong? Incidentally, I joined a fb group about the Lancashire leagues. How strong were they in the 70’s! A lot went from test cricket to playing as the pro there. Probably when the county championship was restricted to one overseas player (without loopholes). There are amazing photos of grounds full to capacity, which would put our counties to shame.
 
From an article in the guardian today
How the **** can you not play any cricket and expect to be primed for the ashes!! FFS
England turned up in Perth looking raw and frazzled, bowling like they were still on a wild-eyed stop-off at Singapore airport. This is not a coincidence. Their five seamers in the first two Tests had played two red-ball first-class games since July. Meanwhile, all of Australia’s bowlers played three or four Shield games in October and November, apart from the cotton wool-encased Mitch Starc, who played two.

England’s bowlers looked underdone and unfit. Australia looked relentless. Failing to insist on some kind of red ball warm-up was a mistake that will surely be rectified next time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: springtiger
What disappointed me was when we were under the cosh in test 1 or 2 , Crawley and Duckett were in the field have a laugh with each other when fielding - didn’t see any Aussies so ‘relaxed’
 
Bad to worse, Archer out for the series, Atkinson in, Pope dropped, Bethell in. No spot for Bashir. Shambolic doesn't adequately describe it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trumpton Tiger.
I feel sorry for the thousands of Brits who have travelled to Australia for this series. Months, maybe years of planning, huge expense, and high expectations only to be let down by a team that are so obviously unprepared and lacking in professionalism. Yet their support has remained solid throughout.
God help us without Archer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WYT, TwoWrights, Ernie Shackleton and 1 other person
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back