Modern cricket

[SuperMarcoRowell]

I’m a cricket tragic, I love the game. But I’d describe myself as a purist, I love the test game and all the nuances of four innings, the pitch, the ball, the weather.

I’m afraid I don’t like how the game is going. I’m just not a fan of t20, to me it’s just a thrash with none of the intricacies of the longer game. The 50 over game is ok but every match these days is played with a white ball and in coloured clothes.

Then there is the fiddling with schedules and the IPL. There’s the lack of county championship for weeks on end in the middle of the season to accommodate the blast / hundred.

The shorter game has in my view seriously affected batsmens’ techniques

I could go on. I still love it but it’s in the wane

 

[Doogie Hauser]

I appreciate what you’re saying.

I don’t mind the shorter forms to a degree. They are more instant and can be very entertaining. But they always feel shallow and slightly hollow.

The longer game is where my heart lies. The ebbs and flows, the small dramas that unfold, the way it can swing momentum in a session, the prolonged duel between bat and ball, the field placing and concentration required, the setting of traps. It feels more epic, and I invest so much time and energy into getting to grips with how the game is progressing, that the result is something that has me reacting for days.

I agree partially that the shorter forms have polluted some of the skills of the longer game. Reading that Cricinfo thread got me thinking about the big test players of today, and it feels like they’re a dying breed. That’s a shame. People like Boycott would be anathema to some today, and yet his numbers are astonishing in an era of terrifying quicks.

I agree that the scheduling is shocking, and it de-skills players in the longer game as well. There are surely better alternatives that bookending the CC in the early spring and autumn, perhaps that don’t need to cause too much upheaval.

I look at that Cricinfo list, and the players before that timeframe, and they are absolute legends. It doesn’t feel like we are in an era where players can be held in the same wide-definition esteem. Bludgeoning a quick century in a T20 is remarkable, but it’s one string of the whole bow of cricket, and there’s not many players who seem multi-disciplined today.

 

[FatCat2402]

My view is that Test Cricket is the greatest sport and that any other format is better than no cricket at all.

Mind, there's way too much franchised dross.

Order of Merit in my opinion

Test Cricket
First class/County Championship
T20 internationals
ODI
T20 blast

The rest is just a hotch potch of shite. The hype around the IPL gets on my wires.