So many bowlers, such pink balls, highly questionable invincibility – Mop-up of the day

Welcome to Tuesday. Here are some things people may or may not want to talk about this Tuesday. England beat New Zealand fairly easily Heather Knight’s world champions hadn’t actually played a one-day international since December 2019, but they beat New Zealand in the first of three matches without too much trouble. Normally when a team gets bowled out for 178 the opposition hasn’t needed to resort to using too many bowlers, but England used seven – and all of them took a wicke...
Tags: UK, England, Australia, Sex, India, Bbc, New Zealand, County Cricket, Ahmedabad, Heather Knight, Billy Bowden, Oval Invincibles, Byley, Manchester Originals This

When did Keaton Jennings turn into Napoleon Dynamite?

This is a rhetorical question, because even without research we know the answer is ‘during lockdown’. Isabelle Westbury reckons Keaton Jennings has gone Gower, but that isn’t quite right, is it? Keaton’s mane is more luxuriant than Gower’s. Keaton Jennings has never been seen in the same room as David Gower. #T20Blast pic.twitter.com/hr18OSExxN— Isabelle Westbury (@izzywestbury) October 4, 2020 The truth is that Keaton has thought to himself: ‘Girls only like guys who have ...
Tags: Sex, County Cricket, David Gower, Napoleon, Keaton, Isabelle Westbury, Gower, Keaton Jennings

Was it tantamount to cheating for Essex to have Alastair Cook in the Bob Willis Trophy final?

Essex won the Bob Willis Trophy because they scored more first innings runs than Somerset in the final. Essex made 337-8 and Somerset made 301. Alastair Cook scored 172. Only one other Essex player passed 30. There is something satisfying about this; the idea that the best players are very obviously better. Sometimes the margins in elite sport are small and one player will get selected over another despite there being nothing much between them. This is not a very awe-inspiring thing. Do...
Tags: New York, Cook, Sex, Essex, Alastair Cook, Somerset, County Cricket, Jonathan Trott, Bob Willis, Bob Willis Trophy Cook

You can watch (and rewatch) the whole of the Bob Willis Trophy final for free – including rain delays

The Bob Willis Trophy final between Somerset and Essex is taking place this week. There were only 44 overs yesterday, but that’s okay because it’s a five-day game. The big news is that you can watch it. Sky Sports, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the BBC are all streaming it for free. Play starts at 10.30am each day. Sky have actually left the whole day’s play on their YouTube channel, so you can watch it in its entirety if you wish – including when they cut to this image for hou...
Tags: England, Sex, India, Bbc, Pakistan, Essex, Somerset, County Cricket, Bob Willis, Wales Cricket Board, Bob Willis Trophy, North Group Maybe, Surrey Related

Colin Graves’ gesticulating is simply not good enough

You might be expecting some sort of pithy takedown of Colin Graves’ tenure as ECB chairman here. Don’t get your hopes up. Our headline is brutally literal. We just watched Graves defending The Hundred and other things on Sky Sports and it struck us that his hand gestures were feeble. That one at the top of the page – that’s him saying, “I think they’re beginning to see the reasons *why* we’re putting it together.” And here he is saying, “I think they’re starting to see the excitement ...
Tags: England, Sex, Dave, Ecb, Dave Brailsford, Colin Graves, County Cricket, Craig Kieswetter, Don, Tours de France Together

Shall we keep an eye on George Garton or what?

It’s probably social media that’s sapped our taste for talent-spotting. The online world is awash with people predicting great things for players. They’re usually wrong but we know as well as anyone that it’s a numbers game: predict great things for absolutely everyone and then flag up only your ‘hits’ come 2024. We tipped Shakib-al-Hasan for greatness in 2006 at a time when Cricinfo thought he was a medium-pacer. But then we also tipped Andy Solomons for greatness around the same time and ...
Tags: England, Sex, Victoria, Alastair Cook, Sussex, County Cricket, Adil Rashid, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, Liam Plunkett, MCG, Hasan, Tom Smith, Paul Horton, Steven Davies, Shakib

ECB urged to tweak the Natwest Blast in favour of a 'Big Bash' style city-based tournament

The ECB will investigate the introduction of a city based Twenty20 tournament after approving tweaks to the county schedule from 2017 [Author: Nick Hoult]
Tags: England, Cricket, Twenty20, Ecb, Counties, County Cricket, T20, Big Bash, Nick Hoult, NatWest Blast, Limited Overs

Michael di Venuto back in the county game as new Surrey coach

Surrey have signed Michael di Venuto on a three-year deal as head coach to replace Graham Ford [Author: Scyld Berry]
Tags: Surrey, County Cricket, Scyld Berry, Michael Di Venuto, Graham Ford, Di Venuto, Country Championship

County T20 competition may be split into two leagues and feature relegation and promotion

Relegation and promotion could feature for first time in competition if proposal is rubber-stamped in March [Author: Nick Hoult]
Tags: Relegation, County Cricket, T20, Nick Hoult, Promotion, Leagues

Tom Curran - Tipped for the top

Tom Curran has been named the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s young player of the year, in the same month that he was brought into the England Performance Programme squad. Curran was presented his award at the yearly gala, alongside Chris Rushworth who won the player of the year award. The prestigious awards are given out annually to players who are considered the best in their category at county cricket level. Year 2015 has been an incredible year for the 20-year-old. Alongside his...
Tags: England, Africa, Zimbabwe, Surrey, Sam, Northamptonshire, County Cricket, Gloucestershire, County Championship, Tom Curran, Tom, Townsend, PCA, Professional Cricketers ' Association, Curran, Sam Curran

Toss to be shelved in all County Championship matches in 2016

ECB ends centuries-old convention in both tiers of county game in year-long trial to develop spin bowling and improve pitches [Author: Nick Hoult] [Link to media]
Tags: Essex, Ecb, Kevin Pietersen, County Cricket, Nick Hoult, Division Two, Essex Ccc, Jesse Ryder, Ecb Toss, Ending The Toss, Toss

England one-day captain Eoin Morgan backs scrapping toss

England's one-day captain has backed proposals to scrap the toss in county cricket, believing that it will help bowlers to learn the skills required at international level [Author: Nick Hoult] [Link to media]
Tags: England, Essex, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, County Cricket, Nick Hoult, Division Two, Essex Ccc, Jesse Ryder, Ecb Toss, Ending The Toss, Toss

Please don't scrap the coin toss from cricket

Whatever you do, you simply can't take chance out of sport. So why try? [Author: Allan Massie] [Link to media]
Tags: Cricket, Trial, Ecb, Pilot, Test Cricket, County Cricket, Scrap, End, Coin Toss, Experiment, Abolish, Allan Massie

ECB considers consigning the toss to history

Exclusive: End of centuries-old practice could counter result pitches and help spin bowlers and would be trialled in second-tier Championship matches [Author: Nick Hoult] [Link to media]
Tags: Essex, Ecb, Kevin Pietersen, County Cricket, Nick Hoult, Division Two, Essex Ccc, Jesse Ryder, Ecb Toss, Ending The Toss, Toss

County cricket falls into obscurity as women's cricket gets all the hype

There has been a concerted media push this summer to highlight women's cricket [Author: Christopher Booker] [Link to media]
Tags: Women's Cricket, County Cricket, Christopher Booker

Counties successfully deter ECB from reducing next year's Championship to 14 matches

Despite the wishes of Andrew Strauss, who believes that the change would help England to win the 2019 World Cup, the decision has been postponed [Author: Nick Hoult] [Link to media]
Tags: England, Ecb, Andrew Strauss, County Cricket, County Championship, Yorkshrie Cc, County 14 Matches, Nick Hoult

Royal London Cup: Centurion Michae Klinger boosts Glocuestershire to victory at Yorkshire

An unbeaten 137 for Klinger against Yorkshire saw the county through to their first Lord's final in 11 years [Author: Telegraph Sport] [Link to media]
Tags: England, Australia, Cricket, Yorkshire, Ecb, Odi, County Cricket, T20, Klinger, Centurion Michae Klinger, Glocuestershire

County chairmen back ECB plans to cut championship in bid to improve 2019 World Cup chances

Consensus has been reached on proposals to reshape the domestic schedule and cut championship matches but county members may oppose the mooted changes [Author: Nick Hoult] [Link to media]
Tags: England, Australia, Cricket, Ecb, Odi, County Cricket, T20, Nick Hoult

ECB to present watered down version of plans to reshape county cricket

Watered down proposal follows fierce opposition from the 18 counties towards any radical overhaul of the domestic game [Author: Nick Hoult] [Link to media]
Tags: Cricket, Ecb, County Cricket, T20, Nick Hoult

County cricketers are knackered and want change

Steve James: Survey by the the Professional Cricketers' Association about the existing county schedule underlines the need for reform [Author: Steve James] [Link to media]
Tags: Cricket, County Cricket, T20, Steve James, Professional Cricketers Association

Australians find no Ashes answers on frustrating day of batting practice at Derbyshire

The Australia captain again made no significant runs as his side found few answers against Derbyshire [Author: Jonathan Liew] [Link to media]
Tags: England, Australia, Cricket, Jonathan Liew, Michael Clarke, Derbyshire, Ashes, County Cricket, Tour Match

Broken county system is damaging our national side

Quality of county cricket can be very good for patches and then it can be very poor which sums up huge difference between it and international cricket [Author: Kevin Pietersen] [Link to media]
Tags: England, National, Kevin Pietersen, County Cricket