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

With the little urn about to change hands, what does to future hold for the sport's most coverted prize? Are we at the dawn of another period of Oz domination, or is this merely a blip?

Very hard to tell. Think this series is a bit of a one off because England may be hurried into a rebuilding period and so many key parts of the Aussie line up may only have 2 to 3 years left.

I can't see either side dominating for the next couple of series.

i said it was a one-off for the reasons Kim stated.

None of these. I think it's not possible to see beyond the next series (even that far is just a guess) and England will have a chance of winning at home. Both sides have a lot of senior players who may not be around in the medium term.

I'd imagine the home side will keep winning for the foreseeable future.

None of the above. Toss a coin for the next few years.

Little Urn

In the longer term England have more potential to hold the urn longer than Australia, purely because the County Championship is a far stronger competition than the Sheffield Shield.

That said Australia have some fantastic prospective pace bowlers at their disposal.

Alviro Patterson wrote:In the longer term England have more potential to hold the urn longer than Australia, purely because the County Championship is a far stronger competition than the Sheffield Shield.

I wouldn't say that at all. Having seen both competitions live, the Sheffield Shield is much more intense than County cricket. Fewer teams means the talent isn't spread as thinly as it is in England, where too many players are just going through the motions. If any division one team went up against any of the 6 Oz state teams, thy would probably get a walloping, especially some of those teams in the north!

Hard to say. Both teams are aging , in truth , so even predicting the next cycle is tricky.

I am inclined to expect a trend towards home team victories over the next few years ; though in all honesty that is largely guessing...

from_the_stands wrote:

Alviro Patterson wrote:In the longer term England have more potential to hold the urn longer than Australia, purely because the County Championship is a far stronger competition than the Sheffield Shield.

I wouldn't say that at all. Having seen both competitions live, the Sheffield Shield is much more intense than County cricket. Fewer teams means the talent isn't spread as thinly as it is in England, where too many players are just going through the motions. If any division one team went up against any of the 6 Oz state teams, thy would probably get a walloping, especially some of those teams in the north!

Chris Rogers says otherwise, that County Championship cricket is of the higher standard and Sheffield Shield cricket has lost it's intensity.

The other argument is Counties are financially encouraged to develop cricketers, thus increasing the talent pool. Every county has at least one England international cricketer or future prospect.

I'd like to see the County Champions pit themselves against the Sheffield Shield Champions in some form of a club series.

A certain Northern cricket team are effectively supplying the England squad, so chances are that team would give any State cricket side a good pasting