Random Cricket Thread (Domestic Cricket)

[captaincolly]

it looks as though there will be no repercussions over Khushi's bat after it failed the size test and had to be replaced. I don't know if it has been confirmed, but I heard a week or so ago that the ECB were minded to let it go on the grounds that the gauge used to test the bat may have been at fault and I've heard nothing since

That may sound not entirely unreasonable... faulty gauge.... could happen to anyone playing for a side not called Durham, that is until I saw what the bat size gauge looks like, which is basically a piece of plastic with a bat cross section shaped hole cut out of it at the maximum permissible size, so it would pretty damned hard for it to be faulty

The only thing I can think of is that the plastic may expand or contract depending on the temp. Bat fails the test on the field, because it's pigging cold when the first match of the season is scheduled, but put the gauge on a radiator until the end of the day's play and maybe the bat then passes through it, with a bit of a wiggle

Sounds like a crock to me

[captaincolly]

Essex docked 12 points for Kushi's oversized bat.

[Durhamfootman]

have they?

justice for once

[captaincolly]

Story is in The Times but I can't find it anywhere else. Seems to be accurate though because it has quotes from Keith Fletcher complaining about it!

[Durhamfootman]

I can't read Times stuff, but Essex appear to be angry about it. Maybe they feel this is to do with their refusal to sign up to the great Nonsense sell off, I don't know, but we got a 10 point deduction so they can have no complaints about the severity of docked points really. Khushi is on loan at Kent atm, I think..... I'll bet they're measuring everything

[Durhamfootman]

Somerset lose again

A season in which they were in the running for the treble has yielded nothing.... poor old them

Unusual that they lost today in a 20 over game when they had all that extra practice at finals day

[Durhamfootman]

and it's Glamorgan's second trophy in 3 years, I think

[captaincolly]

Unusually sensible decision to take the afternoon forecast into consideration and reduce it to 20 overs a side from the outset. It was raining heavily just after the game finished.

[Durhamfootman]

Hampshire are now an Indian club

I'm to work out if that matters, given that Durham are also not owned by the membership

[sussexpob]

Hampshire are now an Indian club

County cricket is finished. This is the beginning of the end. No sooner had Hampshire sold, were we being told buy its buyers that they also agreed an automatic purchase of Hampshires 51% stake in the Southern Braves, which would transfer to the Indian group as soon as the ECB make a decision on the legality of it, which seems like a formality.

I give it 5 years, and county sides will be nothing but a farm side for the 100. Special thanks to Tom Harrison for making a revenue opportunity for foreign private investors that will end cricket in this country.

By buying the counties and not the Franchises, I guess everyone gets to vote on what is good for their pocket what is good for the game.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Surely the risk is asset stripping. Is there anything to stop buyers from selling off the land and other property. Or loading the club with debt which they take as profit.

[sussexpob]

Surely the risk is asset stripping. Is there anything to stop buyers from selling off the land and other property. Or loading the club with debt which they take as profit.

In Hampshire and Durham's case, they are privately owned clubs that can operate as normal businesses, but I honestly do not know what restrictions are in place in terms of easements on the land or protections on the stadiums to retain cricket, although it has been announced that the Indian group bought the Rose Bowl as part of the deal and now own it. All other clubs are member controlled, and have to have a super majority to demutualise from the old society business models in order to sell, with a de facto owner being limited to loaning clubs money and controlling them under certain restrictions (a la Yorkshire). Of course, the ECB has a legal responsibility to make cricketing and not business decisions, but the two have not been separate considerations for a long time, and high risk pursuit of profit even in the form of foreign outside control is now seen as preferrable to protecting historic legacies or competitions. Id love someone to take the ECB to court and hold them to account for this, because their job is not to make money at the determent to the very existence of the county game.

The thing that really feels like a gut punch is, Hampshire back 20 years ago were facing extinction due to not having a viable ground and debts. Sport England and lottery money paid for the Rose Bowl development, and Hampshire was essentially gifted to a rich benefactor who could cover the debts and keep them afloat. He then used his public funded stadium to host concerts, large events, test matches, built a golf course and other stuff on the land.... all of this was originally provided to the club for the public benefit, hence the funding. And now its been sold for 6 times its original value to a foreign investor to exploit profit from.

So great. Once again the public take the risk and pay for the great good.....and a couple of billionaires laugh all the way to the bank

[sussexpob]

I think the extremely annoying thing is, it feels like a designed masterplan. The ECB have destroyed the counties and created a new league with all the value left in the game. They always wanted that league to be given over to foreign investments to exploit more and more profit, the only thing stopping them are the counties, who still hold the main asset in the players and stadia - so why not just buy up the counties and buy up the voting power to make it happen.

The counties are in no position to resist. Right now Yorkshire are mulling over an offer, and do they have a choice? Graves conjured up the hundred, he overseen a racist disaster, ran Yorkshire into debts owned to himself, and now returns in all of his glory to give Yorkshire's members the final death blow..... either we vote in the Indian's to repay the bar tab I ran up that we can't pay off, or we go bankrupt. Its a fine choice that the ECB have left us with isn't it? Once enough new owners have bought out cash strapped counties votes at the table, they can then do what they want with the game. They will own the players contract, the stadiums, and the ECB will be left to watch a more powerful group of billionaires get to decide what happens to the game without their interreference.

Sounds exactly like the ECB are taking their role to safeguard the games interests very seriously doesn't it? English cricket being dismantled by 18 Indian billionaires who turn the summer into a 120 day T20 fiesta sounds the ticket.

Because lets just get this straight... no Indian billionaire is buying Hampshire or Yorkshire to preserve 3 months of CC 4 day cricket, and safeguard that. All they want is power over where the players play, controlling stakes in Franchises and the power to adapt the schedules as they please.

[Arthur Crabtree]

There was a lot of talk about how crooked the IPL is and Indian cricket in general a few years ago which led to the Death of a Gentleman film.

[sussexpob]

This is basically what happened with the PL. We ended up selling to the big boy businesses, and what happened? They tried to steal the game from us by cutting out its heart and running away to a super league with it. The fact they under-estimated the cultural robustness of football in England and other European countries is a mute point really, its the fact that we ever got to a position of businessman stealing our national heritage for profit and thinking they could get away with it that galls so much. Do think your billions means you own the game and its legacy.....

And yet, its a slow game now. The PL votes for itself and its own financial interest. Give it another 10 years, and it will get to the stage where they decided 100% of the revenue goes to them, and then all the crappy clubs they have to play twice in the FA cup once a year can sod off. We will no longer have the choice of resistance, because the system in place will kill off our avenues to alternatives.

Sadly, cricket is nowhere near as robust. It wouldn't get anywhere near surviving a power move to end county cricket.