England cricket team

[Tal]

Whilst the 50 over and T20 forms have given batsmen new ways of scoring and have developed more batsmen with much more aggressive styles in test matches, the technology seems to have helped the bowlers more than the batsmen.

If a batsmen is a bit susceptible to an lbw, everyone knows that, but it's the small weaknesses in a batsman's footwork early on or the way he plays against certain balls that gets eked out by video analysis that was never available 20 years ago.

Bowlers can now bowl with very specific field settings on lines and lengths perfectly suited to the best chance of stopping the batsman scoring or getting him out. The plans are much clearer and more readily based in maths.

So, if the batsmen are scoring more quickly and the bowlers are taking wickets more quickly, test matches aren't going to take as long.

[tikay]

One of the reasons we love cricket. Standards.


PS - What a shame to see that jarring exclamation mark.  The sentence, intended to be light-hearted, stands perfect scrutiny without the exclamation mark, but the guy thought it was necessary to make his point. Poor form Sir, poor form.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[Tal]

Derek must have been expressing surprise that Graham Swann was appropriately attired.


Dear Tal

I noticed you dusted off your chips in the first level, while it did not escape my attention that you were on a table adjacent to tikay, who had well above starting stack!

As you will understand, I have no option but to report this on the relevant fora.

This is not the first time that this has happened...

Yours sincerely, Society

[TightEnd]

Fewer draws

- One day tecniques and approaches leaking into test cricket. New Zealand and McCullum have been in the vanguard of this, but in general scoring rates are accelerating to 4 per over and above. games progress faster. 90 overs a day at 4 =360 a day x 5 so games now crack on far more than they used to

- Technology

a) Bigger bats, better player strength and conditioning, video analysis

b) DRS. Even if the umpire doesn't give a clear decision, the players can call for a review. This has particularly helped spinners. Swann reckoned that DRS added over 50 wickets to his final test total. previously umpires were very reluctant to give lbw decisions if the batsman had got a big stride in to the spinner and impact was a way down the pitch. DRS has shown that often these appeals are out, and in turn umpire behaviour has changed..these decisions are more readily given

only takes a maximum of 40 wickets to finish a test match, and at the margin DRS has led to more dismissals

c) Drainage. Prior to 2013, driven by commercial considerations (didn't want to lose a day's play and have to refund punters), the ECB ordered all English test grounds to install modern drainage systems under squares. this means that weather interruptions are shorter

gone are the days where it can rain, then the sun comes out but dickie bird tells a full house that the outfield is too wet to play on, as famously happened one test match staturday at headingley

d) technology in pitch protection too. Hover covers take less time to cover the pitch and to remove. super soppers remove water quicker....

e) floodlights. occasionally play continues after floodlights at test grounds. it never used to. less time lost

f) the corollary of c and d are that pitches are drier...they dust up earlier, sometimes crack...this means they can be more difficult to bat on later in games. Its much more trickier to bat out for draws than it was

Now of course pitches like this Lords one, horrible for a spectacle, are more likely to produce a draw than other pitches but my money would still be on nathan lyon spinning Aus to victory sometime on sun-mon

in the tms podcast after cardiff Vaughan, a bit of a pratt but a very shrewd cricket thinker said

"unless the weather really intervenes i don't see any game in this series being drawn"

he's probably right for reasons a-f above

[tikay]

 modern drainage systems under squares


Now that's fascinating. Details, please.

[TightEnd]

you can watch the process at lords if you like



Lord's installed the first ever sand-based drainage system at a cricket ground in the UK

The entire outfield, but not the square, was dug up and the natural clay-based soil replaced with a sand based one - allowing rain water to drain from the top layer of grass at a faster rate.

Since that winter there has been a drastic reduction in the amount of time spent off the field from rain delays.

The Lord's model has also been followed by the majority of professional clubs around the country, with the ECB providing grants to counties in order to install the new drainage system.

[AndrewT]

There was a stat on TMS yesterday that 3/4 of Tests nowadays end in results, whereas of Boycott's 108 Tests, 53 were draws.

Still, draw is now 5/4 which means that Tighty should really be unloading the clip on Australia to win.

[TightEnd]

another clip

think the draw might trade odds-on first though, then i will "pounce" (go to oddschecker and leisurely click some buttons)

as for TMS, sadly because it is a terrific institution it is barely listenable to at times at lords

the baffling insistence on continuing to use Henry Bloefeld really detracts, his schtick is boring and his faculties are waning sadly

as for Tufnell, the worst pundit in any sport in history

[tikay]

another clip

think the draw might trade odds-on first though, then i will "pounce" (go to oddschecker and leisurely click some buttons)

as for TMS, sadly because it is a terrific institution it is barely listenable to at times at lords

the baffling insistence on continuing to use Henry Bloefeld really detracts, his schtick is boring and his faculties are waning sadly

as for Tufnell, the worst pundit in any sport in history

Agree as to Blowers & Tuffers.

I very much miss the late CMJ, ditto John Arlott.

They used to use an ex-Somerset cricketer, forget his name, he was top rate, too.

[TightEnd]

Vic Marks? v good

vaughan, swann and ed smith of the newer breed are very good too

you don't need to force the humour, the right mix of personalities and it comes naturally

[tikay]

Vic Marks? v good

vaughan, swann and ed smith of the newer breed are very good too

you don't need to force the humour, the right mix of personalities and it comes naturally

That's him. Got the balance just so.
 

[Woodsey]

another clip

think the draw might trade odds-on first though, then i will "pounce" (go to oddschecker and leisurely click some buttons)

as for TMS, sadly because it is a terrific institution it is barely listenable to at times at lords

the baffling insistence on continuing to use Henry Bloefeld really detracts, his schtick is boring and his faculties are waning sadly

as for Tufnell, the worst pundit in any sport in history

Nothing wrong with them!!

[FUN4FRASER]

another clip

think the draw might trade odds-on first though, then i will "pounce" (go to oddschecker and leisurely click some buttons)

as for TMS, sadly because it is a terrific institution it is barely listenable to at times at lords

the baffling insistence on continuing to use Henry Bloefeld really detracts, his schtick is boring and his faculties are waning sadly

as for Tufnell, the worst pundit in any sport in history

Shane Warne has got to be right up there !       For an ex "great" of the game his knowledge is terrible plus his voice grates.

You can visibly see the likes of Gower, Athers, Botham ,Hussain etc cringing when he voices an opinion.

[AndrewT]

I don't mind Blowers and Tufnell. You only get Blowers for half an hour a session and I think that's the right amount - more than that and it would grate. Tufnell is a clown but I find him entertaining. Again, we get the right amount of him. Swann will say something interesting about the game, but then spend ten minutes chuckling at his own dreadful banter.

Ed Smith I've not warmed to yet, mostly just because of his voice - there's a peculiar lack of character in it. He seems to say insightful things but he just doesn't have the timbre yet. He sounds like a generic BBC sports reporter, rather than a man of substance. You can detect the change when he finishes and Agnew/Blowers/Maxwell come on - they just have better voices for the radio. There's not much Smith can do about that.

I think Boycott is cooked though - he's like an elderly relative who sits in an armchair in the corner, babbling incoherently about the 1950s whilst everyone else politely nods and say 'Yes, Grandpa - do you want another cup of tea? TEA, DO YOU WANT MORE TEA?'

[Doobs]

There was a stat on TMS yesterday that 3/4 of Tests nowadays end in results, whereas of Boycott's 108 Tests, 53 were draws.

Still, draw is now 5/4 which means that Tighty should really be unloading the clip on Australia to win.

No wonder there were so many draws, if Sir Geoffrey playing.  He'd do anything possible to maintain his average above what was best for the team, allegedly.

Just thought of anither blast from the past, Chris Tavare.  The youth of today are blessed to never have to sit through a Tavare innings.  Wikipedia is excellent, as ever.

 Among his slowest innings was a score of 35 runs in six-and-a-half hours at Madras in the 1981/2 season.  Alex Massie wrote that, for Tavaré, scoring runs seemed "a disagreeable, even vulgar, distraction from the pure task of surviving.   The Test selectors dropped Tavaré in 1984, after he had made 25 Test appearances, following another time-consuming score of 14 against the Sri Lankans  ...