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Home advantage

PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:37 pm
by The Professor
Only once has each side won the Ashes overseas this century.

How advantageous is home conditions to batting?

What,if anything, can be done?

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:43 pm
by yuppie
Allow the curators to prepares pitches independently, and make sure the the away teams get meaningful warm up matches.

The away team gets to select where the first test will be played:)

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 11:05 pm
by Durhamfootman
hugely advantageous

and to be honest.... why wouldn't you load things in your favour?

I guess that getting rid of the toss and giving the away captain the choice of batting or bowling first every test might even things up a bit... unless the captain 'does a Root'

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:11 am
by yuppie
Root putting Australia in might well have paid of if they managed to bowl with the second new ball on the first day under lights?

Perhaps the ECB and CA should push for more younger players to travel to the other countries in the off season to get more experience of foreign conditions. That used to happen a lot, but it seems less so now.

I also believe that the countries should produce some more varied pitches, to prepare teams for when they do travel abroad. The more you stack your own pitches for home conditions, the tougher it becomes to play away from home.

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:02 am
by Dr Cricket
TBH ecb and ca already do that.
If anything more players actually play abroad these day.
The preparation is what is lacking now.

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 5:20 pm
by yuppie
I actually think it is less now Dr Cricket. CA might send players over, but not many youngsters seem to take the trip themselves who are not under the CA umbrella. A team in Nottingham i used to be involved in has not had an overseas professional from Australia for 10 years. There used to be one every year. The chap i correspond with just said a lot less where coming through from Australia, and that was noticeable with other teams in the leagues in that area.

Obviously this is only a small sample size, would be interesting to hear from some of the guys who are involved in club cricket. Are there still a lot of young Aussies coming to play, or has there been more coming from SA, Zim?

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 6:34 am
by Alviro Patterson
It will be interesting to see what preparation Australia will get for the 2019 Ashes series. The World Cup Final is scheduled on 15th July, leaving little time to schedule 5 test matches in ideal conditions. Also from a domestic perspective the counties will be in T20 Blast mode with maybe a round of CC cricket thrown in between.

The next Ashes series should really have got scheduled in 2020, just so players from both sides are in red ball mode rather than being hung over from a gruelling tournament.

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 5:57 pm
by Durhamfootman
Always surprises me that Australia don't push for the return of 6 match tests

5-0 is becoming so common that these series are becoming predictable and boring, but 6-0? well.... 6-0 would be something else.... the kind of thing that no-one would be likely to see again for.... well....... 4 years

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 8:08 pm
by Dr Cricket
TBH Club cricket in England still attracts cricketers from Australia, India, pakistan etc.
hull CC had a gujarat lions spinner recently and overseas players do play it but the standard isn't that great though but they generally come here for life experience, experience other conditions etc or for schooling.
maybe the big overseas player or the number of players are down because most clubs can't afford them or it isn't really that attractive proposition to play club cricket in england which could be costly, limited accommodation and facilities not that great or they could be elsewhere playing T20 somewhere or resting if they are indians.

one thing I hope ECB do with the big money from Sky and BBC is improve Club cricket facilities and money in grass root levels that needs money spent and maybe when that improves club cricket might have more overseas personnel again.
the club Root and Vaughan played for really needs improving and they probably one of the better club sides around and even that look poor in quality compare that to say Australia club cricket where the facilities are good and the playing standard is high with loads of english players around and shield players that are looking for form.

Also wonder if the drop in numbers is because of poor facilities and poor pitches.
if you playing in poor playing conditions or haven't really got the facilities to improve your game, then why you travel all the way to England where you probably not making any money out of it and not really getting anything out of it to improve your game.

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:47 am
by GarlicJam
yuppie wrote:Allow the curators to prepares pitches independently, and make sure the the away teams get meaningful warm up matches.

The away team gets to select where the first test will be played:)

That would need to be agreed to at least a year out, to allow for arrangements and scheduling of all other matches at the venues, as well as tickets sales and promotions, and travel arrangements for both teams/entourage as well as fans and media. All too big a kerfuffle, imo.

Allowing the visiting captain to choose bat/bowl has some merit.

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 3:10 pm
by Making_Splinters
There is always going to be a home advantage in cricket, I've no real problem with that. The real issue has become the absolute joke that tour games have become around the world with under strength sides and conditions that in no way mirror what is going to be expected in the Test series being served up.

Re: Home advantage

PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:54 am
by bigfluffylemon
I've been wondering this as well. It's not good for the game, it's boring and predictable. The top 5 teams win at home the overwhelming majority of the time - they only win away when they tour the weaker sides, and even then they are not likely to (Australia and England both drawing in Bangladesh).

Taking the top 5 teams since the start of 2013

Australia have lost once at home (South Africa), yet lost in India, Sri Lanka, UAE and England and drawn in Bangladesh. One win in South Africa, plus New Zealand and West Indies.
England have lost once at home (Sri Lanka), yet lost in Australia, India, UAE, and drawn in West Indies and Bangladesh. One win in South Africa. Er, that's it.
India are unbeaten at home, but have lost in Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand, drawn in Bangladesh, with wins only in Sri Lanka and West Indies.
Pakistan have only lost once in UAE (Sri Lanka), but have lost in Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand and drawn in England and Zimbabwe (they haven't played India in 5 years., nor toured to South Africa). They've won in West Indies and Sri Lanka (having somehow toured there twice in the time).
South Africa are regarded as a team to break the mould, but they've only lost twice at home (England and Australia), yet their overseas wins have been against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. They've still lost more away than they've won, including draws in UAE and Bangladesh, and losing in England and India.

So really, the only half-decent achievements by touring sides have been South Africa in Australia, England and Australia in South Africa, Sri Lanka in England. I'm not really counting wins against Sri Lanka (especially by subcontinental teams) as they've been pretty weak over the period and conditions aren't particularly foreign, New Zealand for western teams for the same reason, and West Indies or Zimbabwe at all (England seem to have an issue beating them in the West Indies of late, but otherwise they have been a very weak side, only beating Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the time).

The worst aspect of all to me is the subcontinental divide - subcontinent teams can't tour outside it, while western teams can't travel there - South Africa in Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka in England are pretty much the only examples of cross-over victories in the last five years, out of over 30 series played between subcontinent and non-subcontinent teams.

It's just getting boring.