Look at Root towing the line. Fk off mate you know this is fkn bullshite.
The Hundred
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04-25-2018, 10:42 PM
Of course Root is is towing the line....he knows he will be out of the job if he gets into Strauss's bad books.
04-27-2018, 08:39 PM
Keith Bradshaw, the SACA chief executive, says he hopes that the ECB's new 100-ball tournament is not "innovation for innovation's sake", ten years after his own proposals for a franchise-style T20 tournament in England and Wales were deemed too radical for serious consideration by the board.
Bradshaw, who was chief executive at MCC for five years from 2006, returned to South Australia in 2011 to oversee an acclaimed Aus$565 million refit of the historic Adelaide Oval. Adelaide Strikers are also the reigning champions of the Big Bash League - a tournament whose success in attracting kids and families back to cricket has been a major influence in the ECB's recent attempts to reframe their own version of the sport. However, critics of the 100-ball proposal - which had been shrouded in secrecy until the ECB's surprise announcement last week - fear that this is an attempt by the board to reinvent the wheel after failing to exploit the T20 boom, despite having set those very wheels in motion with the original Twenty20 Cup back in 2003. "I hope the new format is not innovation for innovation's sake," Bradshaw told ESPNcricinfo. "It seems to me we have something that works at the moment, in terms of 20 overs. Having lived in Australia for the past six years, the Big Bash has been a stunning success, not just in terms of the cricket itself but in terms of delivering to grassroots cricket, the interest of young children, families and, in particular, women. "Offering reduced content to broadcasters, I'm not sure how that works, but I wish them well with it, and will watch with interest. The format looks like it's going to be exciting." Who knows how different the landscape in the UK might look now, however, had Bradshaw's proposal for a city-based T20 league been given proper consideration by the ECB in the early years of the T20 revolution in 2008. Working in collaboration with the then-Surrey chairman David Stewart, Bradshaw's plan was conceived along very similar lines to the IPL, which had just completed a hugely successful maiden season that spring. It could also have predated the BBL by several seasons, not to mention the Caribbean Premier League, the Bangladesh Premier League and the Pakistan Super League, all of which have emerged as T20 drawcards in recent years. As an independent director of the ECB, Bradshaw had intended for the proposal to be discussed and fine-tuned in confidence, and was unprepared for the reaction when the document was leaked to the BBC midway through that summer's Lord's Test against South Africa. "I guess I always felt it was booted out for the wrong reasons," Bradshaw said. "I've had a lot of people contacting me privately, who are closely aligned in influential positions, suggesting this should have gone ahead. It probably wasn't given a fair hearing at the time." The bulk of the concerns about the Bradshaw-Stewart plan were similar to those being voiced in county cricket at the moment - namely that the focus on the Test-match counties as host venues for the nine-team tournament would lead to the marginalisation of the second-tier venues and Minor Counties, all of whom needed to be persuaded of the wisdom of reframing the ECB constitution, which had long required any professional tournament in England and Wales to be open to all first-class counties. "There was a criticism that the minor counties and non-Test grounds were going to suffer and, in hindsight, we didn't sell that message properly," said Bradshaw. "We weren't ready for our proposal to be leaked, but I think it would have been a stunning success had we been able to implement it. It would have been for the good of the game. "At the time there was certainly a campaign against us," he added. "It wasn't supported by a majority of the ECB board at that time, and they were very vocal in their lack of support for that particular proposal. And we probably didn't stand a chance, is my reflection on it now." The instant success of the IPL - in particular the sums of money suddenly being offered to players for six weeks' work - was a significant factor in the ECB's failure to address the T20 issue properly, but also in the revolutionary aims of the plan. However, the prevailing feeling at board level in 2008 was that the ECB had created a monster, one that threatened the primacy of Test cricket among other things, and so there was a widespread reluctance to look on the new format as an opportunity. It is only in the past couple of years that the ECB has finally recognised the need for their best players to be given the freedom to play in the IPL, both to allow them to capitalise on the financial opportunities, but also to get the big-match experience that comes from playing in such a high-pressure environment. The flip side, however, is one that was voiced by Surrey's director of cricket, Alec Stewart, earlier this month, when he called for a cut-off date for players being poached from county cricket to play in the event. "At the time the IPL was just kicking off, and my concern - and I know David Stewart's as well - was that the IPL would become more powerful and potentially our players would be attracted to that competition and lost to the international arena," said Bradshaw. "That hasn't necessarily come to pass but it was a concern. We wanted a competition that could rival the IPL, in terms of quality of cricket, revenues that flow into the game, and the entertainment for the people. "We were prepared to have a crack, put our head out, and prepare to get it kicked off, which in many ways it was. But I felt at the time it was a great solution and opportunity." http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23333334/former-mcc-chief-keith-bradshaw-queries-ecb-innovation-innovation-sake 04-28-2018, 02:33 AM
Former England Test captain David Gower has welcomed plans for a new 100-ball competition but says it is "12 years out of date" as the players' union raised concerns over the format.
Gower, 61, who scored 8231 Test runs before moving into commentary work, believes the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) may have missed a trick by not acting sooner. "In many ways you could say that this new competition is going to be 12 years out of date before it starts," said Gower, speaking at the launch of a Lord's property investment project in London. "The ECB had the opportunity to be at the forefront of Twenty20. This new competition could have started and been competing with the IPL (Indian Premier League) from the outset. "But for various reasons, which you have to respect, it's taken this long to get under way." The proposed eight-team city-based competition, due to start in 2020, has had mixed reviews. England captain Joe Root said it could attract a new audience to Test cricket but his predecessor as skipper, Alastair Cook, believes Tests need to be protected. Gower believes there is room for both long and short formats, and suggested simply adding another T20 tournament to the schedule would have been the wrong move. "I agree with Alastair that Test cricket is important and there are people like him who have made their reputations almost entirely in Test match cricket," Gower said. "But the game has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, even more in the last 10 years. T20 has gained traction and the IPL is one of the biggest sporting events in the world currently. "The idea of making this (competition) different has validity, because another T20 competition added to the world's crowded schedule, and the English summer's crowded schedule, would have been just that. "The shorter the game, the likelihood is you'll have close games, so it will be interesting." But the Professional Cricketers' Association said it was concerned over "the domestic playing structure and the future of the game". On Wednesday, following visits to all 18 first-class counties, the PCA issued a statement saying there was "major concern" around the "lack of information and clarity regarding the new tournament" and "apprehension on how the County Championship will fit into the structure". The PCA said that players raised the issue of "uncertainty on signing county contracts beyond 2019 and want assurances a fair proportion of the money will be spent on player salaries throughout the professional game". PCA chairman Daryl Mitchell is set to meet with the ECB on May 8. On Wednesday, the ECB also announced the creation of a "working group giving fresh thought to refining the structure of men's county cricket that has been agreed for 2020". Given fewer than half of England's professional players at the 18 counties will be involved in the new eight-team competition, doubts remain about the type of cricket those excluded from the 100-ball format will play. Gordon Hollins, the ECB's chief operating officer, said the working group had been set up, in part, to address that question. "A number of subjects and proposals have been raised in various forums over the last few weeks and months, such as a new conference structure for the Specsavers County Championship, and the question of what other cricket should be played during the new ECB tournament later in the summer of 2020," Hollins said in a statement. "In striving to reach a new audience, we must not neglect county cricket, nor its great tradition." https://www.cricket.com.au/news/david-gower-the-hundred-100-ball-format-england-and-wales-cricket-board-ecb-county/2018-04-26 04-29-2018, 11:58 PM
England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan believes innovations such as the planned 100-ball format must be embraced otherwise cricket "will die".
The England and Wales Cricket Board stunned existing cricket followers by announcing last week the creation of an eight-team domestic tournament to play matches with 100 balls a side. The competition will start in 2020 and will supplement their existing 18-county Twenty20 domestic competition. For many fans and players it was one change too many to a landscape already featuring first-class, limited overs and T20 cricket. But former Ireland international Morgan, no stranger to the unorthodox in his role as a white-ball batsman, was enthusiastic. "It sounds different, it sounds like something is there to create a really good, viable product to sell to people outside of cricket," he told reporters at Lord's. "I have a lot of friends outside of cricket that would never come to a cricket match, but have already said they enjoy that there's been a little bit of noise about it, because it's upsetting people that already come to the game." He added: "And that is the point of it. We're trying to grow the game. "Cricket participation levels have been going down for quite a while, and we need to do something different to change the reputation of the sport, or the perceived barriers that need to be broken down in order to play the sport. "Because if we continue to stay rigid and don't change anything for a long period of time, the sport will die." An overwhelming 83 per cent of the tens of thousands of respondents to a cricket.com.au poll on the concept voted against the idea. https://www.cricket.com.au/news/eoin-morgan-embrace-100-ball-innovation-or-cricket-will-die-extreme-views/2018-04-28 04-30-2018, 02:23 PM
I don't know why they need to reduce the number of balls to fit a T20 game into about 2.5 hrs. It could easily be done by adjusting playing conditions to make it a faster game, with teams required to bowl at least 18 overs per hour. That's how it was supposed to be when T20 was first proposed - pace of the game was to be much quicker.
IPL games are long because sponsors wanted things stretched out. I don't know whether they still do that "Strategic Timeout" nonsense. 04-30-2018, 02:28 PM
Strategic time out is just to increase advert time isn't it?nothing to do with the actual game.
04-30-2018, 03:10 PM
It's hilarious these administrators tiptoeing around real problems cricket has and instead coming up with all these band-aid solutions.
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