GerryShedd
Super Moderator
What do we think the team will look like? Do we know if Sam Hain is fit?
Fair point (as ever!).
Regarding The Hundred, I accept that the BBC have a vested interest in talking up the competition. But, assuming that they didn't make up their statistics and were just a bit selective in what they quoted, it doesn't alter the fact that The Hundred does appear to have:
attracted new people to the game
brought families in
helped to promote the women's game
The numbers may be down and there may have been some freebies; but over half a million is a lot of bums on seats.
I have no interest in The Hundred whatsoever and from a selfish point of view would love for it to disappear because of its effect on the competitions and the team that I do care about. But there is no doubt that it has found a market and achieved some of its aims.
The BBC reports today:
"The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that 540,000 tickets were sold for this year's tournament, taking the total beyond two million over the first four years.
Of those, more than a million attended women's games and there were record crowds for women's matches at seven of the eight grounds used in The Hundred in 2024.
For all that the competition continues to split opinion, confirmation that 41% of tickets this year were sold to families and 30% to people new to cricket suggests it has been successful in its aim of bringing people to the sport.
Despite that, TV viewing figures were down on previous years. Although being up against the Olympics for two weeks in the middle of the tournament, perhaps that is to be expected - and the BBC's coverage of the men's final still attracted almost half a million more viewers than the 2023 final."
He has now signed a contract extension:
https://edgbaston.com/news/che-simmons-signs-warwickshire-contract-extension/
Well, I enjoyed my day in the Welsh sunshine but a very disappointing performance and result.
I agree about the death bowling.
As for the batting, it wasn't just that the top order failed but that they took a long time to do so. Between them, Will Rhodes, Hamza Shaikh, Chris Benjamin and Kai Smith scored 20 runs in 69 balls. In the normal course of events, you might have expected that one or more of them would have gone on from a slow start, speeded up and made a big score. On this occasion, it didn't happen and left Burgess and the lower middle order with a massive mountain to climb.
Anyway, there were positives from the competition, the Kai Smith innings being the most memorable.
Averages are here:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/tournament/averages-batting-bowling-by-team/one-day-cup-2024-16023?team=1479
Graham Smith previews the semis here:
https://deepextracover.com/2024/08/metro-bank-one-day-cup-semi-final-previews/
A star is born!
Hamza Shaikh 91 v Sri Lanka today.
Winners play Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens on Sunday.
If Glamorgan win, they’ll be dancing in the streets of Splott.
There used to be two “evening” papers on sale all day - the Mail and the Despatch. Buying the latest edition and looking in the Stop Press column was the way to find all the latest scores, the equivalent of logging into Cricinfo on your phone.
The two papers eventually merged.
Yes, confirmed by Worcestershire- match to be played at Edgbaston on Friday.
I was saddened to hear of his death last week; but made even sadder by finding out that he took his own life when he was struck by a train.
Graham Smith sets out the permutations for qualification:
https://deepextracover.com/2024/08/metro-bank-one-day-cup-one-round-to-go/
Exiled Bear - it's all very well you applying common sense and a bit of imagination to the problem, so long as you don't expect the ECB to do the same.
Yes, can only concur with what others have said - and wish him well for the future.
It becomes increasingly important to finish top of the Group and thus avoid having to play a quarter final.
Rob Yates and Hamza Shaikh are in the squad for the match against Sri Lanka starting next Wednesday so won't be available for the match against Notts in the One Day Cup - but Notts also have two players in the squad.
https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/4078900/england-lions-name-squad-for-sri-lanka-tour-game
The Cricketer reports that counties met recently to discuss the future of live streaming. It reports:
"One of the takeaways from the meeting of the counties – attended by the majority, but not all – with general consensus that it isn't feasible, at a time where finances are limited at several counties, to not be trying to make money from a summer-long streaming service that can essentially operate as a digital season ticket. That is particularly the case where the product is a bells-and-whistles, multi-camera operation, often expensive to run and, in some situations, good enough to be carried by Sky Sports.
While the monetisation of streams is seen as a necessary inevitability in the not-too-distant future, in whatever form that takes, some counties feel more comfortable than others about the use of a paywall because of the money that has gone into production values. At other grounds, where the crux of the coverage might be little more than a couple of static cameras, that might not be the case.
There are also those who are reluctant to put their product behind a paywall for the reason that keeping their product free to view acts as a marketing tool to encourage in-person attendance at matches and retains a connection between fans and the team, while paywalling also brings questions around the use of match-clips on social media."