Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

It did happen in the past though, lions actually played one warm up game every year part of their original part of games but been scrapped since 2011 I think.
India played one in 2007 in Chelmsford, was live on Indian tv.
But most of the lions games In that part of the time was used for the may test series and not the main part of the summer barring India 2007.

I remember in the late 90s, England A team played in the Caribbean FC tournament as an extra team. I really like that idea, I think that should be pushed by the ICC to get younger players playing abroad more. I have always also been surprised that cricketing boards also dont sponsor top youngsters to go play things like county cricket, most English counties havent two pennies to rub together, the chance of a 20 year old international calibre prospect coming from Australia or India would surely interest most on a freebie.

Although above I meant it more in the fact that the Lions should play all touring teams a week before the first test. Its mutally beneficial. Might sell a few tickets too. But that should be standard practice, with all boards committing to play a full B team against a touring side once as a warm up.

Potential for a Test in Ireland now of course. As Pakistan had.

A teams should play the tourists, as suggested above.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Potential for a Test in Ireland now of course. As Pakistan had.

A teams should play the tourists, as suggested above.

This is a great idea. 2 x 4 days test in Ireland before playing England. Meaningful matches with touring teams getting a chance to play in similar conditions.

yuppie wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Potential for a Test in Ireland now of course. As Pakistan had.

A teams should play the tourists, as suggested above.

This is a great idea. 2 x 4 days test in Ireland before playing England. Meaningful matches with touring teams getting a chance to play in similar conditions.

I wonder if Essex B team is better than Ireland

Cooks gone... retired

is he going to hang around for the Oval?

Durhamfootman wrote:is he going to hang around for the Oval?

Yes.

TBH I think he had pretty much decided to pack it in at end of summer after the previous match...just a feeling I had from his body language. With the series won , announcing it isn't likely to be such a harmful distraction. I'm sure England would have liked to have him for Sri Lanka ; but it might actually prove to be good timing in allowing the new man to bed in in possibly easier new ball conditions.

As he says , he loved playing - but the tank was empty. Ironically he got his catching back on track in this match - just as well for England ! The new opener will want to be a handy slip fielder as they're already short handed there.

Hope he can produce a last score at The Oval to go out in style...but at least he's going to finish a series winner.

Tributes after the Final Test...

So 2 new openers in SL and a new Number 3?

Burns,Gubbins,Vince?

sussexpob wrote:I remember in the late 90s, England A team played in the Caribbean FC tournament as an extra team. I really like that idea, I think that should be pushed by the ICC to get younger players playing abroad more. I have always also been surprised that cricketing boards also dont sponsor top youngsters to go play things like county cricket, most English counties havent two pennies to rub together, the chance of a 20 year old international calibre prospect coming from Australia or India would surely interest most on a freebie.

Although above I meant it more in the fact that the Lions should play all touring teams a week before the first test. Its mutally beneficial. Might sell a few tickets too. But that should be standard practice, with all boards committing to play a full B team against a touring side once as a warm up.

Quite like the idea of cricketing boards sponsoring players to have a stint in County Cricket. Should play County Championship cricket during The Hundred, but allow overseas players to fill the void of counties losing players to the new competition. Championship cricket still played to a decent standard, fringe England players still playing red ball cricket during a test series, overseas players gaining valuable experience. What's not to like?

ddb wrote:

Adi wrote:

ddb wrote:

Adi wrote:9 wickets for Mooenalitharan.

Glad that this series is getting over soon. Went as expected and there were no changes in overall script which was another overseas loss.

We've played ok

We have played poorly imo. This is the worst batting lineup I have watched in overseas conditions since 3 decades.

2011/2014?

The ends of those series was comical and lacked fight

yep 2011 and 2014 was definitely worse.
2011 no pride in playing for india in that series and frankly speaking they put shame to indian cricket in that tour.
2014 was better than 2011 but it was more of the batsman being out of their depth, not going to be so harsh considering it was most of the players first overseas tours and they were young players and they did improve in 2018.
2018 was pleasing that barring lords games they made sure SENA nations had to be at the top of their game to beat india and they can not take india lightly.

only issue is that batting in England is a problem and that needs to be fix 3 tours in a row where batting in england been below par and it should hurt the indian team that their was essentially one batsman away from winning this series, Small margins but they need to improve the batting, good news is that bowling looks secured for the next 5-6 yrs.
Batting outside Rahane, pujara and kohli needs to be fixed though.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Pretty equal series so far. I don't offer that as an endorsement of India so much though, as England have been very flawed and were good for the taking.

Great pace bowling from India. Whoever is coaching the quicks on this tour has got them in excellent shape.

frustrating really before this series I kind of thought this would be an England vs india series in 2012 where england won a series in india with india mostly having a poor side and flawed one at home.
sadly india didn't have the batting contribution of Cook, KP to win the series.
no one really supported kohli in the batting.
generally if kohli gets out, india collapses in a heap.

looking back at the press conferences it seems it is hurting the indian players they didn't clinch the crucial moments in Test matches away from home in the SENA nations this year.

Alviro Patterson wrote:

sussexpob wrote:I remember in the late 90s, England A team played in the Caribbean FC tournament as an extra team. I really like that idea, I think that should be pushed by the ICC to get younger players playing abroad more. I have always also been surprised that cricketing boards also dont sponsor top youngsters to go play things like county cricket, most English counties havent two pennies to rub together, the chance of a 20 year old international calibre prospect coming from Australia or India would surely interest most on a freebie.

Although above I meant it more in the fact that the Lions should play all touring teams a week before the first test. Its mutally beneficial. Might sell a few tickets too. But that should be standard practice, with all boards committing to play a full B team against a touring side once as a warm up.

Quite like the idea of cricketing boards sponsoring players to have a stint in County Cricket. Should play County Championship cricket during The Hundred, but allow overseas players to fill the void of counties losing players to the new competition. Championship cricket still played to a decent standard, fringe England players still playing red ball cricket during a test series, overseas players gaining valuable experience. What's not to like?

be terrible trying to pick a fantasy league team