England v Windies 2nd test

England are crap

(302-2 at stumps, Bopora get his 3rd 100 on a row. Cook still in at 120odd and Anderson gets another innings without a duck.)

reverse Jinxing
 
The English summer is unbearably hot and dry

(Day two of the second Test between England and West Indies is called off without a ball being bowled following heavy rain.)

reverse Jinxing
 
Done and dusted.

Jimmy Anderson was on fire today and led the attack well indeed for all the obvious caveats as regards the Windies commitment and quality.

Add to that Bopara of course and the two debutantes bagged themselves wickets too.

The attendances were disappointing although not surprising perhaps.
 
Spoony said:
Yep. I fear many more cricketers feel the same was as Gayle. The game we loved will die out in the next few years.
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A decade ago a Windies tour was special. I now just glance at the score occasionally.
 
Sultan said:
A decade ago a Windies tour was special. I now just glance at the score occasionally.
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True, but maybe that only has to do with the quality of the Windies side, and not cricket as a whole?

I'm sure you view tours of South Africa, India and even Sri Lanka with more enthusiasm than before. The Ashes are still the biggest series ever.
 
arjwiz said:
True, but maybe that only has to do with the quality of the Windies side, and not cricket as a whole?

I'm sure you view tours of South Africa, India and even Sri Lanka with more enthusiasm than before. The Ashes are still the biggest series ever.
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Nope, nope and nope. The Ashes is a different story, however. As for the Windies, they've been shite for a decade and a half, to be fair. I would dearly love to see them at the top of the pilem but it won't happen again, though, sadly. I miss watching the likes of Marshall, Holding, Garner et al.
 
arjwiz said:
True, but maybe that only has to do with the quality of the Windies side, and not cricket as a whole?

I'm sure you view tours of South Africa, India and even Sri Lanka with more enthusiasm than before. The Ashes are still the biggest series ever.
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I actually think cricket standards are the lowest I can ever recall. Test cricket is dying with India are turning cricket into a farce (Bollywood) with the IPL.
 
The interest side of things wasn't helped neither by us only having just toured the West Indies.

And as for the Windies ad the future, the influence of US sports and football has only grown, no easy things to overcome for the cricketing authorities.
 
Sultan said:
I actually think cricket standards are the lowest I can ever recall. Test cricket is dying with India are turning cricket into a farce (Bollywood) with the IPL.
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It's not dead yet with the IPL being the only T20 league with international players right now, but it's going down that road. The ECB have realized that it's a cash cow and are set to launch their own version. Soon others will follow suit.

It's bad enough that the IPL is this long, but they're going to add 2 more teams to it in a couple of seasons. The unfortunate thing is, the interest doesn't seem to be dying out and money's still being made. As long as the money is made, the likes of Modi are going to be trying to use every opportunity to make more.

I don't mind T20 as a format, it's alright every once in awhile. I'm looking forward to seeing India compete in the T20 world cup, but the IPL needs to die out soon.

The only good thing is that there's still a lot of interest(from fans who actually like the game) in test cricket. After seeing the IPL hype everywhere for a month, I'm just glad for the thought that the Ashes is around the corner and the Indian test team still has players like Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar.
 
I'm surprised that people in a football forum who are well experienced with the league and club structure are against the IPL. Are you against T20? That's another debate, then. But the IPL is the most popular cricket tournament in the world, how is that hurting the game?

All it is doing is evolving it.
 
arjwiz said:
I'm surprised that people in a football forum who are well experienced with the league and club structure are against the IPL. Are you against T20? That's another debate, then. But the IPL is the most popular cricket tournament in the world, how is that hurting the game?

All it is doing is evolving it.
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It's not evolving it, it's turning into a joke game, which will eventually kill the real thing stone dead.
 
arjwiz said:
I'm surprised that people in a football forum who are well experienced with the league and club structure are against the IPL. Are you against T20? That's another debate, then. But the IPL is the most popular cricket tournament in the world, how is that hurting the game?

All it is doing is evolving it.
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T20 is the equivalent of playing a football match for 25 minutes with 4 players a side and no goalkeeper on a smaller pitch. It's mindless entertainment. It's amusing for awhile, but when it starts taking itself seriously and people start holding more and more matches, it's just overkill.

I watch all the matches -- I'll usually watch whatever sport's on TV, but I'd rather be watching the real stuff.
 
zing said:
T20 is the equivalent of playing a football match for 25 minutes with 4 players a side and no goalkeeper on a smaller pitch. It's mindless entertainment. It's amusing for awhile, but when it starts taking itself seriously and people start holding more and more matches, it's just overkill.

I watch all the matches -- I'll usually watch whatever sport's on TV, but I'd rather be watching the real stuff.
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That's exactly what I'm saying. It's T20 cricket that's at fault, not the IPL. Now that T20 is the future, without the IPL, cricket would be less entertaining in the long run. But without T20 as a whole (and thus without the IPL), test cricket would probably still rule the roost.
 
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