Cricket

I think the test got canned because Cricket Zimbabwe is broke as usual, probably more money in T20

You’re probably right; there is a pay dispute with the board which meant that several Zimbabwe players weren’t available for this series (Sikandar Raza is one, playing in the Canadian T20 league instead).

As posted in Fox Cricket Coverage thread, Cricket Australia this morning revealed the fixture for the 2018/19 Women’s Big Bash League season. According to BBL website, the WBBL finals will be played separate to men’s finals, after complaints last season that both Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder had to play their finals away from home despite earning the right to host them, as they were held as doubleheaders to BBL semi-finals. Next season, the team finishing on top of the table will earn the right to a home semi-final, while the highest-ranked team that qualifies for the WBBL|04 decider will host the match. The WBBL semi-finals will be played at the same venue over one day on January 19, ahead of the final on Australia Day, January 26.
There are two problems with next season’s finals:

  1. the second placed team has to play its final in the same venue as the first placed team even though it also earns the right to host the match. That’s OK if both teams are from Sydney or Melbourne, but what if Perth Scorchers finish first and Sydney Sixers finish second on the ladder?
  2. The WBBL final on Australia Day will be a lunchtime fixture leading into the third day’s play of the day-night test between Australia and Sri Lanka from The Gabba, if the decider is hosted by one of the seven eastern states teams. Worse, if Brisbane Heat finishes on top of the table and earn the right to host the final, it will have to be held at Allan Border Field. If Perth Scorchers host the final, the match could be played after conclusion of play of the Gabba test.

The good news is that in the 2019-20 season, WBBL will be held separately from BBL with matches played in October and November. I hope the semi finals will not be held at the same venue so the first and second-placed team get to host the finals at home.
The men’s BBL fixture will be released on Wednesday.

No doubt the BCCI are supporting Star’s efforts in this regard too

8pm starts for T20 is so stupid. They won’t finish until 11:30, possibly later.

Fuck the BCCI.

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Didn’t NZ host the 2011 Rugby World Cup final at 8:30pm or 9pm local time? I thought Kiwis didn’t mind the late starts.

A rugby union match goes for around two hours, which suit many people’s schedules.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup Final match between All Blacks and France commenced at 9PM.

As Shoudy said, it was a 9pm kickoff as dictated by World Rugby for that tournament only. Everything else is 7:30.

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Renewed my Thunder membership for the upcoming BBL season…:+1:

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Been thinking about a Melbourne Stars membership, but at the end of the day, get so much when games are at the MCG as an MCC member, so would just be more fees I don’t need.

That’s fair enough. Thunder memberships come with entry to a day at the Sydney International, Royal Easter Show, Australian Turf Club, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Wet’n’Wild Sydney, $10 cinema tickets at Event - that’s not bad.

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More like a banquet than lunch during a cricket match.

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Shifted threads
Been meaning to ask, anyone been watching the Lord’s Test?

Chris Woakes scored his maiden century, was chatting with someone at church this morning. Of which discussion on other sports also came up, including them not realising cricket will be on Seven and tennis on Nine

PS: Sorry for lack of comments, but I don’t generally talk much cricket during winter, I’m one of those people who’s like ‘footy is for winter and cricket (and tennis) are for summer’.

Fascinating series. India really battling away from home. A lack of meaningful warm-up before a 5 Match series is not ideal and Kohli is essentially carrying this team on his shoulders.

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This seems to be a theme in recent times - the away side in a series appears to struggle (sandpaper aside) - its a worrying trend IMO

That said, India have really shunned Test cricket in favour of the shorter forms of the game for financial reasons, they are no longer the formidable long-form team they were in the past

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Agreed. There’s playing in opposition conditions and then there’s conditions being manipulated to almost pre determine the result.

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India have always been one of my favourite sides to watch, when they’re in Australia they’ve had some good series. The MCG crowds (with Melbourne’s Indian population) are quite something, I went to a T20 Int’l a few years ago with them and Australia where Steve Smith put on a great performance after just being made skipper and the crowd, no kidding, had to have been 50/50 split caucasian/Indian!

India have never been a strong team away from the sub continent, for instance they have never won a Test series in Australia.

This is precisely why the series isn’t turning out as fascinating as hoped, though the 1st test was a good 'un. As others have said above, the home ground advantage is overwhelming these days, mostly due to inadequate preparation by touring sides. The sheer amount of cricket-mostly T20 cricket- played these days means that most sides don’t have months to prepare for challenging overseas tours, as in the past. The 1948 ‘Invincibles’ played a whopping 31 first class fixtures in England; the current Indian side opted for a truncated three-day affair against Essex.

Favourable surfaces, particularly in the subcontinent, do play a role in it all, but it comes back to being prepared for the conditions at the end of the day. My suggestion is to utilise emerging test playing nations such as Ireland and Afghanistan to prepare for tours to the UK and the subcontinent respectively. A fair-dinkum test match on a Galway greentop or Dubai dustbowl is a win-win- the touring side gets hard preparation; the emergents get much needed exposure to test cricket.

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