British Press - Get off your High Horse
The amount of crap journalism coming out of the British Press right now is quite astounding. It must be a slow news week for them to spend all week talking about small incidental things happening at the Stanford cricket ground like the organiser having a bit of a laugh (shock horror, someone having fun in the Caribbean), and all of a sudden they are all coming out one after another like little sheep saying “this was bound to happen”, and my favourite over reaction calling it a “tacky circus of an egotistical American”. Get over yourselves, and stop thinking cricket is still in the early 1900’s.
When England were first invited to take part in the competition the press were falling over themselves to get a piece of Alan Stanford and saying how good it was this type of money was coming into the game of cricket in this country. Then, as soon as the “action” starts they start moaning that its all about the money, or Stanford himself. Which way do you want it?!
The facilities at the ground are said to be first class (or better than if you look at some county grounds in this country) - yes there have been some issues with the lights but they have said they will rectify that before the big game on Saturday. The pitch has been a bit slow and low but guess what, they had a hurricane about 10 days before the games started so to even get it on is an achievement (ask Worcestershire how long it takes them to recover after a light sprinkling of rain in comparison).
“Its all about Alan Stanford” - is one thing they are saying and here’s some news for you - no it isn’t! I’ve watched the games and guess what, I’ve seen more cricket than I have one American billionaire (who lets not forget is putting a load of money into our game as a consequence). And seeing as he is bankrolling it who’s to care if he has a camera on him every now and then? It doesn’t detract from the game going on.
I just don’t get what the media are trying to gain by all this - they are just following one another seeing as being down on the competition seems to be the “done” thing at the moment (and not just cricket - ask the people at Radio 2). Maybe instead you would prefer to be sitting in an office in London twiddling your thumbs rather than on a beach in Antigua reporting on a ground breaking game of cricket. If I was Stanford I wouldn’t invite the ECB back again anyway seeing how ungrateful they are appearing to be - get a team over that will embrace the competition and the atmosphere rather than one moaning about how they’d rather be at home.
Stanford Twenty20 Competition
The Stanford Twenty20 excitement is building up now with only a few days to go until the first game on the 25th October. Sky have started their adverts and worryingly, I think they are going to be using those bizarre black bats from what I’ve seen on the promo’s! Not that it matters too much, its all about the money!
Or rather, according to KP it isn’t thanks to the global credit crunch - they won’t be celebrating too wildly if they do win. Come on KP, it isn’t the players fault that there is a load of money coming into cricket right now, and don’t hold back and take the moral high ground as this is a chance for a lot of players to secure their futures so let them enjoy it (if they win).
The games are at pretty good times for us UK folk, with games starting around 9pm in the evening and it could be a good opportunity for a few beers and some (hopefully) entertaining cricket, especially on the 1st Nov and the “big” match. It seems an age since we had some cricket so I’m looking forward to it! And don’t forget the best place to keep up to date with the latest cricket news from around the globe is LiveCricketUpdates.com
P.S. Fantastic to see the Aussies battered by India this past week - we can beat them next summer! Only bad thing is we’ve got to play India in the same conditions in December first when we’ll probably do even worse!
Adidas Cricket Equipment
I’ve mentioned before about Adidas coming into the world of cricket equipment (bats, pads etc), and today there is a picture available, courtesy of The Sun, of KP holding one of the new bats.
There is a fair bit of build up to the Stanford Twenty20 competition now in the papers and on sky, which is the first time that KP will be sponsored by Adidas, and using their new “Pellara” bat. The other bats in the range are the “Incurza” and “Libro” which aren’t exactly names which roll off the tongue but I guess they are distinctive.
One thing is for sure, and that is that Adidas won’t be doing anything particularly different to Woodworm in that they won’t be making these bats themselves as they don’t have the manufacturing background, but they do have a lot more resource behind them to make sure that it doesn’t become a repeat of that.
We’ll have to wait a bit until we find out much more about the bat ranges and the pads and gloves that will go with it, but when it appears I’ll let you know about it!
Edit: I have updated the blog today with some more information about Adidas Cricket Equipment
KP and Freddie leave as Woodworm gets eaten up by the Credit Crunch
Big news in the world of cricket equipment and sponsorship today as news that Pietersen and Flintoff have left their Woodworm sponsorship contracts has led to speculation that the company is soon to go to the wall in the tough current business environment. Both of the players were understood to have life time deals with the company, so for them to be allowed to break these agreements must mean that something is happening, even if no concrete news about Woodworm’s future is currently available.
Woodworm seemed to be quite a good marketing company, and I remember reading about how successful they had been a few years back (especially in the junior market), but I guess the profit margins just weren’t as high as they needed to be to survive the quieter months of the year when they were buying in the equipment from Hunts County. They are still essentially a UK brand, and the cricket market has a few too many “quiet” months in it, that I can imagine how it might be difficult if the summer doesn’t work out that well and enough money isn’t brought in.
I noticed their website about a week ago had a holding page which suggested they were about to build a new site, but maybe it was the other way round and it was the start of the decline. If they don’t manage to come out of this at all it’ll be a real shame as they have managed to build a brand in a short space of time, and with the Ashes next summer they would have been a lot of interest around them. Cricket is a good market to be in at the moment with all the growth in money available (for the players), and as a result press exposure (for everyone).
As we already knew, Adidas were releasing some cricket equipment soon, and KP becoming available now is probably the best timing they could have hoped for. Sign up the England captain and watch the sales fly in, it will happen..
England’s Tour to India
Its been a while since I posted - seeing as nothing of interest cricketing is happening at the moment it didn’t seem worthwhile posting! Yes, the end of the county cricket season was quite exciting (and congrats to winners Durham), but I don’t have the excitement in county cricket to start writing. The announcement of the England Test Match squad to go to India is enough though!
There are no real surprises in the squad - aside from maybe Vaughan not being there. That isn’t surprising from a form point of view (its been absolutely shocking), but just from an experience view - I could really see England taking him anyway but to be honest I think I prefer the fact that Shah is there. He played really well two years ago in India and hopefully he’ll have a chance to do the same again. If he gets into some kind of groove in test match cricket then he’ll be powerful for us next summer in the Ashes.
Ambrose has somehow managed to scramble onto the tour, but I expect it to be as no more than backup keeper. Prior will be given a good workout in India and I hope he comes through it well also. Swann deserved the chance as second spinner, and then we have our list of quickies, some of whom are going to have to miss out if we do go in with two spinners.
I’m not sure if we’ll play two spinners on each pitch, I don’t know the ins and outs of their particular grounds, but if we do, then I’m going to stick my neck on the line and go with a line up that looks like this:
Cook
Strauss
Shah
KP
Bell
Flintoff
Prior
Swann
Harmison
Anderson
Panesar
Which would leave Sidebottom, Collingwood, Broad and Ambrose on the sidelines - all of whom might think they should be playing. I don’t actually see us playing the XI I’ve suggested… but anyway! We might instead utilise Captain KP as the second spinner, which would allow us to play probably an extra seamer, but who knows. The test matches aren’t even until December so this is ridiculously premature and I’ll change my mind before then, I was just excited to have something to talk about for a change!
