Twenty20 Begins!
It must be the middle of summer - no, not the rain outside your window, its the return of Twenty20 cricket to England!
I really like the way they schedule this competition, creating a few weeks where nothing is played but twenty20 cricket. It helps get a bit of hype in the media, and it means there is plenty of cricket on the tele to watch after work! I havn’t actually been to a live Twenty20 game before (the perils of living in a ‘minor’ county), but this year should be different - and I reckon it’ll be a laugh!
There are plenty of changes happening within most of the counties, with overseas players being called back by their countries and new players coming in. The most intriguing of these is Essex’s signing of Adam Hollioake - the one day specialist who retired a couple of years ago. Lancashire have brought in Jayasuriya who could be explosive, and Somerset didn’t need to bring anyone in as they already had some massive players in Langer, Tresco and Cameron White. Somerset are the favourites to win because of these players, but you can’t count out a ‘lesser’ team such as the holders Leicestershire were considered last year. The fixtures can be seen on the ECB site, and as the competition goes on I’ll write a few of my thoughts!
Great Aussie Tactics
There I was, worried that nothing really that interesting was happening in the world of cricket this week, until Justin Langer goes and pulls a rabbit out of the hat for me! You should be thankful as well, as otherwise it was going to be a blog about my own cricket so far this season!
We’ve had bizarre weather recently in sunny old England - one minute cold and rainy, the next a little bit sunny and hot. I think the bowlers would be happy with the moisture on the pitches though, and at Lords that certainly looked the case. Middlesex put Somerset in to bat in a county championship game, and it looked like the right decision when Somerset were 50-8 after just 26 overs! So what would you do in this situation as captain? Hope your tail enders can stick it out and get a few runs for you so you maybe at least have something to bowl at? No, not if you’re Australian - you declare of course!!
I kind of see where he’s coming from when his coach said:
“He wanted to get the best of the conditions and frankly we had been struggling to put bat on ball. He thought he should give his bowlers a chance to put Middlesex under the same pressure.”
Still, 50-8 is hardly a score to declare on in a four day game! And it backfired, since Middlesex went and score 252 hehe! Still, it gave me something to write about!! Here’s to more bizarre decisions throughout the rest of the season!
Umpire Referrals - What’s the Point?
At the beginning of the county season, we were introduced to a new rule where in the Friends Provident Trophy, a side could challenge two decisions of the on field umpires to the third umpire watching the tv. For those that didn’t know about the rule, you can read more about it here.
At the time I didn’t really like the sound of it, but I was willing to maybe see how it would play out. I’ve now seen a couple of games where it has been used and I don’t really see the point in it all. No decisions have been changed yet by the third umpire - which although is good because it means the on field umpires are doing the right thing - means that the whole thing seems much ado about nothing. The commentators go on and on about it, players seem obliged to challenge the umpire just to use up the two chances they have, and as I mentioned, not one decision has been changed.
Maybe this is because “The TV umpire will reverse a decision if it is beyond reasonable doubt that the on-field umpire has made a clear and obvious mistake.” LBW decisions are not always clear cut, and unless there is an obvious wrong doing when someone has hit it and been given out, I don’t see much ever changing in the rest of the games this is used in. So really, why bring in something that isn’t going to change the game at all? Its not revolutionary in the same way that the third umpire was for run outs etc, and I really don’t see it enhancing the game at all. Is it a by-product of people sitting in a meeting with nothing else to talk about? Seems it to me…
And another quick thought for the day. Warm up properly when playing cricket or be prepared to be in pain for two or more days afterwards like I have been since my first game of the season on Saturday! (and we lost, boo hoo)
Surrey Demolish Gloucestershire
“The Oval” ground at Surrey is often a track for those batting, but with big boundaries in some directions its not always the easiest place to score big. Yesterday though, Surrey smashed the world first class one day record for a limited overs game. They scored a massive 496-4, with Ali Brown the main run scorer with 176 runs from just 97 balls!
Its quite difficult to put into words quite how difficult this is, especially against a first class county. I’m part of a club where we managed to score 514 in a limited overs game last year, but the ground was pretty small and the opposition didn’t consist of a full complement of players either! So how did they get to this total?! I would like to have seen this feat, why did Sky have to choose to go to Somerset instead?! Rikki Clarke chipped in after Brown and Benning had hit centuries, by smacking 82 runs from just 28 balls! Must have been some batting track!
Congrats to Surrey, and I’ll be looking out for any more big scores coming from London!
County Cricket Season Preview
With the county cricket pre-season friendlies on at the moment, and the first county championship games starting this week, it seems a good time to take a look at the runners and riders for this season.
And instead of having to do all the research and write it all up, I’ve been looking around for a preview which sums it up best, and I think that the one that fits the bill is at Sky Sports. It is listed by county, so it can take a while to read it all, but it cuts the right balance showing enough useful information without going into overload.
As you’ll see when you read it all, there are some good players coming over this year as overseas players, and seeing people such as Shane Warne play all year will be fantastic. The fact that the Rose Bowl is the closest first class ground to me makes it all the better! There are also some controversial signings, mainly those coming in as Kolpak players. Jacques Rudolph playing up at Yorkshire is one of these, and there are also people such as Saqlain Mushtaq who is playing for Sussex from May time after he gains a British passport I believe. The rights and wrongs of this kind of player are probably for another debate and blog posting though at some point in the season!
The first one-day competition of the season will be the Friends Provident Trophy, a 50 over affair attempting to replicate International Cricket. One difference this year though is the ability of the fielding side to be able to argue an umpire’s decision, which will see the decision referred to the third umpire. I’m not too sure on this as I’m wondering where will it all end? Will batsmen be able to appeal when they’ve been given out they think wrongly? I suppose in my thinking “It’s just not cricket”.
The middle of the season will see the ever successful twenty20 competition again, and will Leicestershire be able to retain their title? I’m a big fan of this competition, and enjoy coming in of a summer evening to watch it on Sky Sports, so lets hope it continues in the way it has in recent seasons.
The Telegraph Fantasy Cricket season also kicks off this week, when you can start to register. Seeing as I won the mini-league I was in last year I’ll definitely be entering this again! Enter from Wednesday at Telegraph Fantasy Cricket. I may give out my super tips once I’ve seen the list of players but it may give my competitors an advantage so I may keep it close to my chest!
Hopefully that has given you everything you need to enjoy the county cricket 2007 season, if you know anything else of interest please leave me a comment!
