Australia 🇦🇺 v England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 3rd Test - Boxing Day - MCG

Boo said:
We had a chat about this once on this board and found that none of us had played cricket at school. At my comprehensive, we had only one bat and and a mismatched pair of gloves. So my only experience of playing the game was down the park after school. Unsurprisingly, me and my mates were pretty much the only cricket nuts in our year.
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Yeah, I went to a grammar school with a cricket-mad headmaster, so there were certainly more opportunities than other schools. But even then little was done to encourage new players, it was never part of PE lessons and very much just an extracurricular activity put on for those who already played. It's pretty intimidating to turn up to nets when you've never played before and everyone else there will have. Also, there was only a first eleven for each year, which meant if you'd never played before you'd probably not ever get near the team as those from the villages in north yorkshire (often very upper-middle-class lads) will have been playing for years. While the comprehensive across the road didn't have nets or a team at all and my brothers school didn't have facilities either (they did have a team though).

There's a brand new book coming out on the topic next month actually, I listened to a podcast with the author recently and I'm really looking forward to reading it! - Different Class The Untold Story of English Cricket: Amazon.co.uk: Duncan Stone: 9781913462802: Books
 
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HarrogateMackem said:
Yeah, I went to a grammar school with a cricket-mad headmaster, so there were certainly more opportunities than other schools. But even then little was done to encourage new players, it was never part of PE lessons and very much just an extracurricular activity put on for those who already played. It's pretty intimidating to turn up to nets when you've never played before and everyone else there will have. Also, there was only a first eleven for each year, which meant if you'd never played before you'd probably not ever get near the team as those from the villages in north yorkshire (often very upper-middle-class lads) will have been playing for years. While the comprehensive across the road didn't have nets or a team at all and my brothers school didn't have facilities either (they did have a team though).

There's a brand new book coming out on the topic next month actually, I listened to a podcast with the author recently and I'm really looking forward to reading it! - Different Class The Untold Story of English Cricket: Amazon.co.uk: Duncan Stone: 9781913462802: Books
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That book looks really interesting. The title is certainly well chosen - the class dimensions of cricket remain a largely untold story.
The 45 minute Sky postmortem of this Ashes series is typical. Much talk about Silverwood, Root, poor tactics and bad domestic pitches, but nothing on widening participation in schools.
I hated The Hundreds but I guess it did have the limited virtue of bringing every class of patron to the grounds. I doubt it did much to correct the general understanding that cricket is, inherently, a game for toffs.
 
Boo said:
We had a chat about this once on this board and found that none of us had played cricket at school. At my comprehensive, we had only one bat and and a mismatched pair of gloves. So my only experience of playing the game was down the park after school. Unsurprisingly, me and my mates were pretty much the only cricket nuts in our year.
Click to expand...
I played at school but not since, unless you count fannying about in the park or on the beach with friends and family. I was second/third XI and we had to practice on dried out rugby pitches with dangerous bounce and very little protective gear (character building). This was a private school , they're not all like Milfield.
 
Raker said:
I admire the positivity these lads have behind this account during the battering, they must of been fuming whilst posting nothing but positivity and 0 criticism. they seem to be fed up now.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1476258564540973069
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They have brown nosed the ECB for years this lot, only interested in making £££ off their tours. They're the last people I'd make my feelings known to.
 
smoker said:
I played at school but not since, unless you count fannying about in the park or on the beach with friends and family. I was second/third XI and we had to practice on dried out rugby pitches with dangerous bounce and very little protective gear (character building). This was a private school , they're not all like Milfield.
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That's a point well made and I agree that it's easy to generalise. But it seems obvious that more needs to be done to nurture cricket in state schools.
 
Sorry like but this series probs shouldn’t have gone ahead

India were long gone with less cases than this
smoker said:
Not excusing our pathetic results on this tour, but most teams would struggle in the environment this series is being played in.

Playing a test without your head coach is a joke really. India would be off like a shot in those circumstances.
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Aye pundits refused to criticise india saying England would leave

Well they haven’t and there’s been loads more cases
 
smoker said:
They're just smug, objectionable pricks. They are lucky England turned up given the levels of lockdown in the country. Most teams wouldn't have bothered.
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I don't know mate, Indias behaviour is worse for me. They were the better team and if the boot was on the other foot. They would be just as brutal to their players. The ECB are getting exactly what they deserve on this tour...a right pasting.
 

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