The Cricket Thread

Briggs moving to Warks has gone under the radar. I hadn't even heard he was out of contract. As we know, that will be a big t20 loss for Sussex.

Similar to his move from us, it sounds like he's done it with the aim of playing in all formats. That ultimately barely transpired for him at Sussex, so hopefully second time lucky. Given that Patel has retired and Poysden moved to Yorks last year, there is a spinners spot available in their side.

 

Do match-winning spinners actually exist in the English game, apart from Jack Leach and those from overseas? Middlesex haven't played one for years, or so it seems. Sussex have been poor since the heyday of Mushtaq. .

 

Hampshire have released batsmen Oli Soames and Harry Came. I thought they might have given Came more of a chance next season to prove himself, but his contract was up. Hopefully that will free the wage bill a bit to sign a decent replacement, even someone like Rob Newton, Chris Nash or Luke Wells to add a bit of stability (hopefully!) to the top order.

 

Next season will be fun domestically.
County Championship has been reformatted into 3 groups. Top 2 in each group will go into Division 1 where the top 2 will compete for the Bob Willis Trophy although the outright winner of Division 1 will be crowned County Champions.

 

Good news for Hampshire is that Essex are not in the same initial group although Somerset are. Wonder how they'll deal with their points deduction.

 

They’ll spit, swear, and say “We wuz robbed”.

Which we were.

 

I meant the ECB. Will they apply it straight away or after the first group stage. Personally I hope straight away.

 

No doubt a way will be found to deprive Somerset of their rightful place as County Champions.

 

I'm not against this idea (I'm not a fan of two big divisions). But I don't understand the need to compete for two trophies. The winner of the County Championship going to Lords to play a one-off match for a random second trophy? Isn't that just a glorified Community Shield?

It's as if the couldn't decide between awarding the title to the team who tops D1 (as is the norm) and keeping a Lords final to decide the winner (as per this year) - so they've gone with both.

 

USA Cricket has applied to the ICC for full membership....targeting T20 as the best game to popularise it in the States.

 

Why have Somerset been (the still to be applied) deducted points?

 

For a pitch graded poor during the last County Championship season.

 

For providing a pitch which Essex complained wasn’t good enough in the last match of the 2019 season, even though they won. ****s.

 

And I have been praising Essex for the past three years. Now it seems they are as devious as Yorkshire and Middlesex!

 

England beat South Africa in the first T20

 

Incredible innings from Bairstow.

 

If Buttler doesn't get you, Roy will. Or Morgan. Or Stokes. Or Malan. Or, in this instance, Bairstow.

 

Enjoyable game...you can never write England off with our batting line up.

 

How not to execute a run-out

 

It's not very often in a partnership of this size that Buttler gets overshadowed by his partner but this is one of those times. Phenomenal by Malan.