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England v New Zealand (2nd test)


Do you not think there’s room for all formats?

The ECB could regulate the quality of pitches in the FC game far more robustly. Some of the scores in the county championship in recent weeks have been more club cricket than the professional game. Lots of sub 100 totals suggests counties aren’t doing their best to help produce batsmen. The contest between bat and ball doesn’t seem equal.
Sadly not now. The money is with the other formats. Sadly even the one day cup will be a reserve team competition at county level. It's all very sad and dare I say a bit shit
 
Sadly not now. The money is with the other formats. Sadly even the one day cup will be a reserve team competition at county level. It's all very sad.

I think that might be an overly pessimistic view. Test cricket is still a hugely successful financial venture in England. Test matches are very well attended and generate income for the ECB. That’ll be under threat if the England side start losing games at home within 3.5 days and they’ll be aware of that.

There are things the ECB can do to improve the standard of FC cricket and subsequently the test side. Regulating the county pitches more robustly would be a start and re-structuring the county championship (perhaps into regional divisions to reduce the travel burden) would also make sense.
 
Spot on and I've said this for years
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The thing is though it’s not just England.

The way some people talk you would think it’s just England that has put emphasis on one day cricket which is incorrect imo.

The popularity of white ball cricket is worldwide and cricket worldwide has evolved righty or wrongly to put more importance on other formats

No more so than India yet they still managing to have a good test side.

Its time for England and the fans to stop hiding behind that excuse and still perform at test level, the same as other countries do, despite the one day stuff been popular in their countries too
 
i agree with the above I also feel that West Indies had been another casualty along with England on this.
Problem I have is all the other teams still have better training systems on the red ball format, England went for white ball glory and red ball got neglected.

a major factor is that our batsmen are like mackerel to some tin foil they know they shouldn’t chase but their mind goes to on whack it.
 
I think that might be an overly pessimistic view. Test cricket is still a hugely successful financial venture in England. Test matches are very well attended and generate income for the ECB. That’ll be under threat if the England side start losing games at home within 3.5 days and they’ll be aware of that.

There are things the ECB can do to improve the standard of FC cricket and subsequently the test side. Regulating the county pitches more robustly would be a start and re-structuring the county championship (perhaps into regional divisions to reduce the travel burden) would also make sense.
people will continue to pay silly amounts of money to watch test cricket and the ECB know that. You make some good points about the pitches mind. Incredibly frustrating.
 
i agree with the above I also feel that West Indies had been another casualty along with England on this.
Problem I have is all the other teams still have better training systems on the red ball format, England went for white ball glory and red ball got neglected.

a major factor is that our batsmen are like mackerel to some tin foil they know they shouldn’t chase but their mind goes to on whack it.

I think the Windies have more fundamental issues. Finance, participation, geography and demographics and their archaic board.
 
One interesting aspect of the TMS commentary is how the 'Hollies Stand' at Edgbaston is seen/portrayed as fun and hilarious. However the Western Terrace at Headingley is usually dismissed as a hive of knackas.
 
people will continue to pay silly amounts of money to watch test cricket and the ECB know that. You make some good points about the pitches mind. Incredibly frustrating.

For the time being. If the current trajectory continues, people will no longer continue to pay silly money for day four tickets.

It’s easy to get a bit carried away after a defeat and call for fundamental change and what have you but what we’re seeing here is the continuation of a trend. The ECB really do need to act swiftly and decisively with regards to the emphasis on red ball cricket. There is no reason why we can’t be genuinely competing with the best in all formats. We’ve the finance, the infrastructure and the numbers; there are no excuses really.
 
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