The position names on that graph are hurting my eyes. Bloody Americans, why can't they just start playing cricket?
ICC World T20 2016
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
So to give a brief outline, cricket has extremely lax drug testing. It does not implement things like Wada's 'whereabouts' reporting (except in one case which I'll come back to) and generally does little more than urine testing.
Despite that, one player is due to be banned for testing positive for a banned substance (Kusal Perera), one has been banned for testing positive for a masking agent (Yasir Shah), and one is awaiting sentencing because he has the misfortune of being Jamaican, the one cricket playing nation that insists cricketers use Wada's whereabout system, and missed three tests over the past year (Andre Russell).
As for English cricket, I know for a fact that many players recreationally use drugs. The most high profile scandal involved Tom Maynard, and they had plans to tighten up testing, including taking hair samples after that (as an aside, can you think of an English cricketer who started shaving his hair after that news came out?) but still are nowhere near Olympic testing standards.
Then that suggests that bowling will innovate and improve a lot incoming years to balance out the contest. New bowlers like Bangladesh' Mustafiz and England's Willey show that their is plenty of room for new techniques to be perfected in ODI and T20. Just needs focus and committement from coaches and boards.Baseball games are dominated by pitchers. I believe the starting pitchers are on average the highest paid players in the MLB.
I often think that too. Surely baseball skills would lend quite neatly into ODI and T20 cricket. Just like the Chinese demonstrated in Beijing Olympics, find baseball players who have the right cricket physiques and then train them. I'm sure USA could produce a competitive T20 team in 4 years if the will was there.
The thing that shone through for me in this tournament was the ridiculous level of skill required to perform some of the batting shots (eg: tennis like forearm arm smash for 6) some of the bowling (eg: wide Yonkers) and some of the fielding (eg: 2 man tag boundary catches). These are genuine cricket innovations that improve the game overall.
Likewise I love how the momentum can shift between teams in the matter of 2 overs. And also the inventiveness and speed with which captains have to calculate and execute ever changing strategies. Today's Final was thoroughly engrossing - it had it all and I was transfixed on the screen from the first ball to the last.
I grew up with king Viv, Kapil Dev, Hadlee, Khan and Botham playing test cricket as a kid and loved it. Sat in front of TV for 5 full days and was thoroughly entertained. But I struggle to see its relevance into the future. Purists and older fans may not like it, but test cricket will die out in less than 10 years.
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They're not really similar sports tbh. Plus if you're good enough for baseball, it would be foolish switching to cricket. The MLB is a lot more lucrative than Cricket, even with the IPL and everything.
One thing I don't understand is why Morgan did not bowl Moeen Ali when Adil Rashid clearly showed that spin was shackling the West Indies Batsmen. Makes no sense to me. Anyone have any plausible theory?
Lots of stories about Samuels being fined 30% of his match fee for swearing at Stokes in the press. I wish England would learn how to get this cnut out.
Stokes is highly skilled and a regular practitioner in the art of sledging. I don't have any sympathy for Stokes on that front.
I keep saying this again and again but one of the first things limited overs cricket needs is to change the one bowler can only bowl 20% of the total overs rule. Allow 2 bowlers to bowl 6 each and you will see a completely new dimension to T20. I absolutely love T20 cricket but I am a bit afraid that it's just becoming far too much about power hitting and slogging, you need to look at the ground sizes as well as the dew as well. In a game so short you have to reduce how important factors like the toss are
I also think they should introduce a rule for 8 runs if you hit the ball OUT of the stadium or say over 90m
I'm being serious... 6 is too uniform a reward for some vastly different shots.
That's a very good point. It bothers me that genuinely good bowlers don't seem to be able to find a niche in T20 cricket. I guess it's a challenge for them to come up with the variety to be more effective in this format, but it's quite incredible seeing quality bowlers being dispatched or overlooked entirely. The likes of Southee and Boult didn't even get a game for NZ.
They saw what happened to Benn even though Badree was having great success. Ali does not have many variations like Benn and is a basic off spinner that can be used to put in overs when the team needs it, he wasn't worth the risk. He would have possibly been smacked around the ground and England had capable seamers to take it to the end.
Loving this to bits! Have supported West Indies from the time I started watching cricket. It's tough being a West Indian fan in the last 20 years or so but moments like these make you realize why everyone loves them! What a game! What a finish! Loved Sammy's speech in the end. Spot on and really hope the board gets things straight. Read somewhere that the new board chairman who has been here for last 2-3 years is trying to sort a lot of things and hope we can get this T20 momentum into 50 over game at least. Test cricket success is still far away but in limited over game I am sure we can build a team from this T20 team.
Those tweets make him the greatest cricketer that ever lived. GOD. MESSIAH.
Couple of my friends in the stands could have carried a Man Utd flag and given it to him if I had known previously that this guy is a fan haha
Aye. Celebrating with a Utd flag would have been epic.
Regretting the fact that I didn't WUM the English supporters after the final, just like some of them did after our semi final exit but then I guess class shows in the end 
@sammsky1 baseball comparisons are off. Good Pitchers are actually essential to any winning team. In Baseball, the game is not affected by pitch too.
In T20s, bowlers are being encouraged to try on skills that are not in tune with conventional teachings. Hence why the best T20 bowler in Malinga, was a below average test bowler. Infact according to many on here, he was not even a good ODI bowler!
In T20s, bowlers are being encouraged to try on skills that are not in tune with conventional teachings. Hence why the best T20 bowler in Malinga, was a below average test bowler. Infact according to many on here, he was not even a good ODI bowler!
Although, the zone for a pitcher in baseball is very small, he is neither constrained by the flatness of the deck, nor he has to deal with a wide and heavy bat.
One way to bring a little parity is to allow bowlers to scuff the ball within permissible limits. No foreign substances or use of a sharp/abrasive tool, but an allowance to rough the ball. They need to revisit the 'anything outside leg is a wide' rule. Also, allow more over the shoulder balls in an over.
One way to bring a little parity is to allow bowlers to scuff the ball within permissible limits. No foreign substances or use of a sharp/abrasive tool, but an allowance to rough the ball. They need to revisit the 'anything outside leg is a wide' rule. Also, allow more over the shoulder balls in an over.
Nah. Totally against this.
I'd rather they abolish the power plays altogether. Batsmen don't really need them to score big.
Isn't there a difference between sledging and outright abuse. You don't get fined 30% of your match fee for sledging.
Why have you attributed that quote to me?
I don't know what happened thereWhy have you attributed that quote to me?
Not really classy if you are regretting itRegretting the fact that I didn't WUM the English supporters after the final, just like some of them did after our semi final exit but then I guess class shows in the end
I think T20 is good, but the many leagues around the world are rubbish
have long held this view. World T20 has always been a great tournament.
Yes. For every 2 years or so it is great fun but we do seem to be entering an era where T20 cricket will be the bread and butter. Part of the reason is that 'casual' fans seem to be find it the most entertaining form and that is where the money is.
I prefer it over 50 over cricket. Haha I suspect we've got one day purists these days.
Yep, he's a cock.
One day cricket is a bit shit these days tbh.
To be fair, he has the talent that would make the English fans go 'He may be a cock, but he's our cock'.
Why do you think that it has become shit though? Is it because of the T20 introduction?
Only works when you u can back it up by winning like Keane or SAF.
He was spanked hard yesterday. Hope he uses experience to make himself a better but more humble player.
Has been since T20s were invented.
I guess so, guys. Very hard to get excited about these anymore. Prefer T20s and tests, by a long margin too!
I don't understand this 'humbleness' requirement to be honest. He's a great talent and he has done well for England and he's one of the main reasons the English team has turned their fortunes around. Him being humble has nothing to do with his disastrous over. His success so far goes hand in hand with his brashness.
What I meant is he only gets sympathy from the abuse when he can deliver upon his bravado. He can be whetever he likes to be, but yesterday he was all mouth and no actions.
For a supposed world class professional Cricketer who should be able to execute what his brain intendo, his last over was bordering on incompetent. 4 meat pies for Braithwaite to talk into. Of course there was skill from the batsman, but Stokes balls allowed the shots to be possible.
Had he been a more humble man, he would give getting more sympathy now.
ODI cricket has become a really batsmen orienteed games. They should remove the powerplays or make it like 5 overs. And increase no.of bouncers allowed to 3 per over or so. Remove Free hits but instead give 2 runs for each no ball.
And increase ground size. T20 can have smaller ground dimensions but ODI cricket should have huge grounds making it harder to hit sixes
And increase ground size. T20 can have smaller ground dimensions but ODI cricket should have huge grounds making it harder to hit sixes
I think the problem with ODI cricket is that its just the worst of the two games. It doesn't have the ebbs, flows, and pressure of test match cricket. It doesn't have the excitement and drama of T20 cricket.
The first 10 overs of powerplay are fine, the last 15 overs are fine, but its the middle 25 where teams are content to push and nurdle that ruin it for me.
I honestly thought the ECB had the right idea reducing it to 40 overs per side, not only did it shorten the game (and lets be honest ODI cricket is a massive time investment) but it kept the good bits of ODI cricket largely in-tact.
The first 10 overs of powerplay are fine, the last 15 overs are fine, but its the middle 25 where teams are content to push and nurdle that ruin it for me.
I honestly thought the ECB had the right idea reducing it to 40 overs per side, not only did it shorten the game (and lets be honest ODI cricket is a massive time investment) but it kept the good bits of ODI cricket largely in-tact.
I really wouldn't miss ODI's. I suppose that's easily said, when you're an England cricket fan, and don't quite enjoy its history as much as supporters of teams that won a tournament or two, but I don't see what it offers (or even potentially offers) that isn't served better by the other two forms.
Would much prefer to have more international 20 over cricket, in its place (it's silly how little of it there is).
Would much prefer to have more international 20 over cricket, in its place (it's silly how little of it there is).