South Africa v India tests - Jan 2018

[Dr Cricket]

Would be nice to win games and test series though would shut people up.

[Dr Cricket]

Although if they play like they are doing now they are bound to win games in England don’t think England got the players to consistently stop India winning a game.
England also don’t have the ability to have 25 good days of cricket, doubt they could manage 15 good days of cricket in that series so that alone should mean India got a very good chance of winning a game or two, if they win the series really depends on if India takes the crucial moment in the game, they failed to do so in these two test and if England are inconsistent like there are in the last 4 yrs.

[Dr Cricket]

Batting is worrying me a bit though.
They really need to sort out the batting order and the batting.
Although they been quite unlucky playing the toughest tour first and probably the most spiceist decks first considering sa were desperate to get revenge for last time around and wanted the Indian batsman to fail in this series.
Will have to see in England and Australia if they could score runs on flatter decks.

It is not really out of question yet that this series become a wake up call for the batting team to regards with what it takes to score runs outside Asia. They should play on easier surfaces as well will have to see if the batsman can score runs to allow the bowlers to win games.

[Arthur Crabtree]

England beat SA home and away (without ABDV though) but don't look as good as SA. SA won in Australia and England got pasted. These things don't add up of course. But my hunch is that India (beat England convincingly in India) will win in England. But I suppose if Anderson does as well as he now does at home, maybe they won't...

England have the sort of side I normally expect of a country with a small population; a handful of international class players, and a lot of filler. I suppose in terms of cricket, England are a country with a small population because they are picking from a particular demographic. India don't have any filler. This makes England inconsistent. They rely on a few players always doing well, and that won't always happen.

[Dr Cricket]

TBH england got a population of 60 million, in terms of population and resources they should be a top team they can’t be below Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan Bangladesh etc in that regard.
England should have no excuses, just like India now can’t.
Australia also shouldn’t have any excuses either.
Uk the 21st most populated country by the way so they can’t really use the population excuse and you add in the resources and they really should be winning everywhere like India should be now.

[Dr Cricket]

In cricket terms uk is the 4th most populated nation, although 2nd and 3rd are Pakistan and Bangladesh and the lack of resources and money makes them drop out of expecting them to be good all the time or in all conditions.
When taking into account money, resources and population, england should be a very top team and being In the top.
Anything less should be seen as a failure.

[Dr Cricket]

Perosnally think a small population is something like nz not a size around 60 million.
Really Australia got a better case of talking about population than the uk.
For me population doesn’t really help if the facilities and resources are not there, resources and facilities are far more important.
So if you take that into account, the big 3 should always be in the top 3, if they are not in the top 3 it should be seen as a failure.

[Arthur Crabtree]

TBH england got a population of 60 million, in terms of population and resources they should be a top team they can’t be below Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan Bangladesh etc in that regard.

England catchment in terms of cricket is the size of the public school population

[Dr Cricket]

That ecb fault though and that can’t really be used as an excuse either considering 33% of players are asian orgin and one latest article I read say the figure is way higher and probably closer to 40%, this came from a person that is involved in club cricket as well.
For ecb money and resources they should do so much better than that and it is really a lame excuse saying the size of population of private school is small.
Read another stat that fa spend around 120 million on grass root level, ecb 2 million and ecb have a turn over of 120 million, I think I know where the problem is.
Ecb have spent peanut on grass root level and they basically happy for the private school to do all the work, generally the reason why so many county players are from private school is that any good player gets a Scholership or school paid for by the counties.
The faculties and money doesn’t exist in the grass root game.

[Dr Cricket]

From 2020 ecb getting a billion pounds from the sky contract, they have really no excuses then about the lack of grassroot funding.

[Dr Cricket]

Will have to post a few lengthy post tomorrow but ecb must be really crapping themselves at the moment on the state cricket is in the only benefit they got is that the tv deal is a very good one but apart from that ecb got a lot of problems at the moment and they mostly craping themselves of how they will fix it.
They struggling big time to find sponsers, one reason why they been very strict this winter, they really paranoid about the image they are seen across sponsers because they can’t find any at the moment.
They got the grass root problems as mentioned above and top of that the decline in tv viewers for the cricket. The last one not a big deal at the moment but they would like it to be high when sky and BBC start the tv deal otherwise they won’t get the billion pound again since sky just stated they will pay the market cost now and what the right are worth, premier league rights are actually expected to go down now since sky won’t be paying 11m a game now.
If ratings continue to decline I doubt sky would pay a billon pounds for the rights.

I hope no one In the ecb is thinking like you arthur otherwise they are in big trouble.
Anyway of to bed now.

[Dr Cricket]

They also placing all their eggs on the t20 domestic league to fix all their problems since they really want what Australia getting with the big bash and the cricket ratings plus how cricket is the number 1 sport in the summer for them.
Cricket isn’t really getting that here.
If the t20 fails ecb are in a massive problem and they would again be so dependent on bcci to bail them out and it has to be seen if they are in good terms after the coup ecb pulled off last year.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not really using it as an excuse I don't think. Just an observation. Money shouldn't be a problem given how much the ECB has abandoned in its procurement. Exposure and reach is what English cricket lacks.

[Dr Cricket]

TBH that is what ecb are hoping the t20 league would fix exposure and reach.
Surprised more isn’t made about ecb lack of grass root funding.
If that was football or any other sport politician, journalist, people will get so angry and demand more funding for the sport, yet ecb get away with it and if anything they even have sky comms and journalist preaching about how sky money helping england so much and so much is getting spent on grass root levels lol.
Suspect the number on grass root level is more or less the game than when channel 4 Were showing the cricket.
not really sure what ecb game plan is considering they are tight to give money to the counties as well not sure how they expect England to get money if they don’t spend money on grass root level and counties.
Do they honestly think private schools can compete with India that got a billion population and vastly improved structure now it only a matter of time before they dominate away from home as well and Australia that got a far better grass root system and love of the sport than England.

[Dr Cricket]

All in all I think at the moment india and Australia are more likely to beat England in England Than it is for England to beat india or austrlaia in India or Australia.
TBH at the moment england target is probably beating Sri Lanka, nz, pakistan, wi etc away from Home as well.