Standard of the Big Bash

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johnson

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Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy watching it, its on TV in a morning, the commentary is good, the weather is good, the crowds and atmosphere is absolutely fantastic

But the standard is not that much, if at all better than the English version

There are hardly any big names, the biggest were KP and Freddie, it is mostly domestic players, which I have enjoyed watching to be honest, other key performers are hastings/lumb/wessels/wright/carberry etc

Just think it is a bit of myth that the Big Bash is loads better quality and gets all the big names, it is just better presented and I don't think 20/20 will ever be as big over here.
 


I've enjoyed it far more than the IPL and the T20 Blast or whatever the fuck we call it.

That shot by KP was f***ing rank mind :lol:
 
mackembhoy said:
I've enjoyed it far more than the IPL and the T20 Blast or whatever the fuck we call it.

That shot by KP was f***ing rank mind :lol:
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Oh yeah, its f***ing miles better to watch, its canny waking up and theres a game on, loved it.

Hastings was going for a bit there! can't wait till he's back in Durham, lads fan too.

Just to clarify original post, I have really enjoyed, breath of fresh air, and 20/20 in England is shite, just not sure it is because of the standard of players thats all...
 
johnson said:
Oh yeah, its f***ing miles better to watch, its canny waking up and theres a game on, loved it.

Hastings was going for a bit there! can't wait till he's back in Durham, lads fan too.

Just to clarify original post, I have really enjoyed, breath of fresh air, and 20/20 in England is shite, just not sure it is because of the standard of players thats all...
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Aye glad to see Colly do his job far too many scum fans in the durham ranks.

Australian public seem right up for it bigger crowds and a bigger spectacle. Just don't think the UK can equal it regardless of players/branding etc. You just have to look at football grounds across the country with stale atmospheres.

@johnson dunno if you seen my edit
 
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mackembhoy said:
Aye glad to see Colly do his job far too many scum fans in the durham ranks.

Australian public seem right up for it bigger crowds and a bigger spectacle. Just don't think the UK can equal it regardless of players/branding etc. It's like football grounds across the country are stale, the same applies to cricket which is supposed to be a spectacle.
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I agree, would franchise work? not convinced? The weather is vital IMO, and cricket just isn't as big in this country, every Aussie likes cricket to some degree, its in their culture,
 
johnson said:
I agree, would franchise work? not convinced? The weather is vital IMO, and cricket just isn't as big in this country, every Aussie likes cricket to some degree, its in their culture,
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Yep can't see it working here, would only work if you had t20 on at weekends in good sunshine to get the atmopshere and crowds up for it. But then test cricket is more important and people will be focused on that instead during the summer period.

Problem is there are far too many games due to too many team. The franchise system you would hope would improve the spectacle of it but as counties are too proud I can't see it happening.
 
mackembhoy said:
Yep can't see it working here, would only work if you had t20 on at weekends in good sunshine to get the atmopshere and crowds up for it. But then test cricket is more important and people will be focused on that instead during the summer period.

Problem is there are far too many games due to too many team. The franchise system you would hope would improve the spectacle of it but as counties are too proud I can't see it happening.
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Very true, I would have it in 4 week period during the Ashes, the 2 might feed of each other, as the only time your bits and pieces cricket fan pays attention is the Ashes, so if England were playing well, they could go after a days play.

They need to just try fewer teams to sees impact, I thought the one off game between Yorkshire and Lancashire on Sky was really good TV, and the quality was very high, Finch on fire. So you do get the odd game. The london counties do to.

What would happen to Durham though? Crowds aren't great for 20/20
 
I think it's great but ....... it has it's moments of boredom too. The 'big' stories coming out of it are Flintoff doing Elvis while fielding and Lazarus the Melbourn seagull.

The standard is good and I'd put it around or slightly better than County cricket. I know some of these players are straight from club cricket, but then in the Aussie structure club cricket there is a lot different from club cricket here.

However, I think you have to change your mind set. Think of this as 'entertainment' rather than hard 'competitive' cricket, 50 over, 4/5 day cricket would always have more interest for me but the problem of that is that in practice it's harder to watch because of the length of time it takes.

The 'good' things about this are the interest it's tapped into and the big crowds; the big shots; the players on the mike while playing, the immediate interviews with players, the chatter in the commentary box and the 'older' players that people know and want to watch (KP, Freddie, Brad Hogg and Brett Lee); dancing girls and everyone having a laugh.

NB: apparently BBL isn't yet making money.
 
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Crowds help make it entertaing. Tv sells product better with full grounds.

Took two nephews to durham v lancs in june - 17 and 14 - never been to a first class game. They listened to the guy on the mic whipping the crowd up for the first ball and then were astonished by the utter silence at the end of his countdown fir the first ball.
 
Too much T20 played in this country, doubt the Aussies would be up for it as much if each team played 14 games each with a quarter final, semi and a final at the end.

Nearly every game had something on the line; over here you'll have about 8-10 games which mean absolutely nothing. We need a franchise-based model and it needs to be better advertised.
 
I've never been much of a fan of T20 over here as quite frankly it's piss poor in this country spread out over a ridiculous amount of time with ridiculous fixture scheduling. The T20 in Australia is tremendous, love watching it, great crowds, great entertainment, quality players etc etc.

The ECB are thick as fuck though, they won't have it in them to change the scheduling and pricing of tickets Our first T20 fixture this season is on May 15th, and the last group game is July 24th meaning our group stage is spread over 2 and a half month which is utterly stupid. Compress it into a 1 month slot and reduce ticket prices, in my opinion would work a lot better.
 
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
I've never been much of a fan of T20 over here as quite frankly it's piss poor in this country spread out over a ridiculous amount of time with ridiculous fixture scheduling. The T20 in Australia is tremendous, love watching it, great crowds, great entertainment, quality players etc etc.

The ECB are thick as fuck though, they won't have it in them to change the scheduling and pricing of tickets Our first T20 fixture this season is on May 15th, and the last group game is July 24th meaning our group stage is spread over 2 and a half month which is utterly stupid. Compress it into a 1 month slot and reduce ticket prices, in my opinion would work a lot better.
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When the ECB first set up the T20 it was a short mid summer festival of cricket, it was most of the counties who where half hearted about it. Harker at Durham actually had the casting vote to decide if T20 was going to be introduced. Then when it took off it has been the counties who have wanted more and more fixtures over a longer period of the season because they got greedy. Even SKY where happy for it to be played in one block in the middle of summer. The result is county cricket has got another competition which has gone flat because there are to many sides playing to many matches over to long a period of time.
You could have free entry to a t20 match at the Riverside and there would not be a huge increase in the attendence.
 
wayne entwhistle no9 said:
When the ECB first set up the T20 it was a short mid summer festival of cricket, it was most of the counties who where half hearted about it. Harker at Durham actually had the casting vote to decide if T20 was going to be introduced. Then when it took off it has been the counties who have wanted more and more fixtures over a longer period of the season because they got greedy. Even SKY where happy for it to be played in one block in the middle of summer. The result is county cricket has got another competition which has gone flat because there are to many sides playing to many matches over to long a period of time.
You could have free entry to a t20 match at the Riverside and there would not be a huge increase in the attendence.
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Disagree. Think there is a crowd if the price, timings and other things are in place

Recall a sunday 20/20 v Notts about 2010 that was about 75% full.
 
The crowds are that poor at Durham they even returned to allowing members in free. There are also loads of free tickets spread around the region to various cubs and schools.
When ever i go i just see the same old faces there whether it is championship or one day, most sitting in the same seats as they where 15 years ago.
 
johnson said:
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy watching it, its on TV in a morning, the commentary is good, the weather is good, the crowds and atmosphere is absolutely fantastic

But the standard is not that much, if at all better than the English version

There are hardly any big names, the biggest were KP and Freddie, it is mostly domestic players, which I have enjoyed watching to be honest, other key performers are hastings/lumb/wessels/wright/carberry etc

Just think it is a bit of myth that the Big Bash is loads better quality and gets all the big names, it is just better presented and I don't think 20/20 will ever be as big over here.
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Jacques Kallis
Mike Hussey

Seems to be OAPs and kids on account of the world cup.
 
smoker said:
Jacques Kallis
Mike Hussey

Seems to be OAPs and kids on account of the world cup.
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Yeah them too, KP and Kaillis biggest names

I think Big Bash had more big names from memory, plus we have a whole host of ex England players and those not in the squad, young Lions players like Vince etc

The leading wicket taker is john Hastings, very good player, but he will be here next year!

Are we actually agreeing on something here?

GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
I've never been much of a fan of T20 over here as quite frankly it's piss poor in this country spread out over a ridiculous amount of time with ridiculous fixture scheduling. The T20 in Australia is tremendous, love watching it, great crowds, great entertainment, quality players etc etc.

The ECB are thick as fuck though, they won't have it in them to change the scheduling and pricing of tickets Our first T20 fixture this season is on May 15th, and the last group game is July 24th meaning our group stage is spread over 2 and a half month which is utterly stupid. Compress it into a 1 month slot and reduce ticket prices, in my opinion would work a lot better.
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I agree with everything you say apart from int he bold, the quality is no better, it really isn't.

Bri said:
I think it's great but ....... it has it's moments of boredom too. The 'big' stories coming out of it are Flintoff doing Elvis while fielding and Lazarus the Melbourn seagull.

The standard is good and I'd put it around or slightly better than County cricket. I know some of these players are straight from club cricket, but then in the Aussie structure club cricket there is a lot different from club cricket here.

However, I think you have to change your mind set. Think of this as 'entertainment' rather than hard 'competitive' cricket, 50 over, 4/5 day cricket would always have more interest for me but the problem of that is that in practice it's harder to watch because of the length of time it takes.

The 'good' things about this are the interest it's tapped into and the big crowds; the big shots; the players on the mike while playing, the immediate interviews with players, the chatter in the commentary box and the 'older' players that people know and want to watch (KP, Freddie, Brad Hogg and Brett Lee); dancing girls and everyone having a laugh.

NB: apparently BBL isn't yet making money.
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Agree with this

I think it is making money just now? I am pretty sure I read that, but they made a loss the first 3 years, and were prepared to, to set the whole thing up

I am not convinced we can ever replicate it, 51k at for the semi final, mental, they were all home fans too.

It just won't happen, cricket is bigger in Australia, the weather helps too.

One thing people forget is that it is Christmas and New Year, people are off work over there aren't they, its 30 degrees, it is something to do.
 
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Vince is with the Lions in South Africa.

Lumb, Luke Wright, Carberry all doing well in the BBL - decent players but not necessarily what you'd call world class.

NorthCountryBoy said:
Big Bash has exploded crowds-wise this year when they moved it from Fox to Channel 10 (free-to-air). Stop hiding it behind a paywall and people will take an interest.
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ECB take note.
 
johnson said:
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy watching it, its on TV in a morning, the commentary is good, the weather is good, the crowds and atmosphere is absolutely fantastic

But the standard is not that much, if at all better than the English version

There are hardly any big names, the biggest were KP and Freddie, it is mostly domestic players, which I have enjoyed watching to be honest, other key performers are hastings/lumb/wessels/wright/carberry etc

Just think it is a bit of myth that the Big Bash is loads better quality and gets all the big names, it is just better presented and I don't think 20/20 will ever be as big over here.
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Still in it's infancy but it will only get better. Cricket always looks better in filled out stadiums rather than the purpose built little grounds over here. That just my personal view like, I'm sure many prefer the traditional set up.
 
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