I have visions of a 50 year old Anderson opening alongside a 46 year old Broad, still waiting for Anderson to retire so that he can be the England legend
Following on from Steve Smith playing for Sussex, Todd Murphy is to turn out early season for Durham in order to get used to the Dukes ball. More to follow no doubt although it has to be pointed out that England players have zero chance of playing in the equivalent Sheffield Shield. Nearest they might get to it would be club cricket but I suspect that other playing interests such as franchise cricket would take precedent.
Following on from Steve Smith playing for Sussex, Todd Murphy is to turn out early season for Durham in order to get used to the Dukes ball. More to follow no doubt although it has to be pointed out that England players have zero chance of playing in the equivalent Sheffield Shield. Nearest they might get to it would be club cricket but I suspect that other playing interests such as franchise cricket would take precedent.
I'd expect most of the Aussie test side to be over here playing in the CC , maybe not Cummins and Starc as they like to manage them but the likes of Head, Khawaja for sure. Marnus is already back with Glamorgan I believe as their overseas again.
Following on from Steve Smith playing for Sussex, Todd Murphy is to turn out early season for Durham in order to get used to the Dukes ball. More to follow no doubt although it has to be pointed out that England players have zero chance of playing in the equivalent Sheffield Shield. Nearest they might get to it would be club cricket but I suspect that other playing interests such as franchise cricket would take precedent.
I'd expect most of the Aussie test side to be over here playing in the CC , maybe not Cummins and Starc as they like to manage them but the likes of Head, Khawaja for sure. Marnus is already back with Glamorgan I believe as their overseas again.
Indeed. I don't believe, though, that we pay enough respect to the different conditions and the need to adapt from the perspective of bounce and pace for batsmen and different lengths required to be successful when bowling. It's not something that you can just switch on automatically in one or two warm up games (especially against weak opposition) and that does put us at a disadvantage when we go to Australia.
The folly of central contracts - they do not work in their current form as they fail to "handcuff" those who are in receipt of them (for example, Stokes, who is going to the IPL even though he is carrying a knee injury and Archer who has only just returned to action - plus other important players) and those that haven't got one (such as Duckett for example) who may find it hard to turn down franchise deals. Which is why I suggested several years ago that we had to dispense with them (or at least massively reduce their value) and re-distribute the money by substantially increasing the payment for those that get picked for squads and bigger match fees for those that get selected to play. There may not be too many at the moment not currently in the England set up who have made their millions playing franchise cricket but it will impact those coming through such as Reehan Ahmed. And we can't afford to give a central contract to every promising player.
This didn't happen "overnight" as Key suggests. It's just that the ECB were too pre-occupied with trying to make their own "project" the best competition in the world when it was there for all to see that the IPL franchises were going to expand and that this would have massive implications - Key suggesting that "We're lucky: our summer doesn't run alongside these things," reinforces this denial given that the existence of The Hundred means that we aren't going to be having an Ashes Test for the first time ever in August and will be having a domestic 50 over comp, just months before the World Cup, with no member of that squad partaking because they will be playing games lasting 200 balls instead of 600 as preparation. Given our recent record in the longer form of the white ball game one would suggest that we need more and not less exposure.
For all I've said about Crawley and his lack of technique, he has my sympathy in that the one bloke he was probably dreading having to face was the one that got him out - Matt Henry. He would have bowled over upon over in the nets at Crawley during his stints at Kent and if anyone was going to be able to exploit his weakness outside the off stump on a green seamer it was going to be him.
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I'd expect most of the Aussie test side to be over here playing in the CC , maybe not Cummins and Starc as they like to manage them but the likes of Head, Khawaja for sure. Marnus is already back with Glamorgan I believe as their overseas again.
This didn't happen "overnight" as Key suggests. It's just that the ECB were too pre-occupied with trying to make their own "project" the best competition in the world when it was there for all to see that the IPL franchises were going to expand and that this would have massive implications - Key suggesting that "We're lucky: our summer doesn't run alongside these things," reinforces this denial given that the existence of The Hundred means that we aren't going to be having an Ashes Test for the first time ever in August and will be having a domestic 50 over comp, just months before the World Cup, with no member of that squad partaking because they will be playing games lasting 200 balls instead of 600 as preparation. Given our recent record in the longer form of the white ball game one would suggest that we need more and not less exposure.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/england-in-bangladesh-2022-23-rob-key-says-life-changing-franchise-contracts-are-hard-for-england-players-to-turn-down-1360321?fbclid=IwAR3oDvJAg3SlsVc6Cg47KlK0-vspj0BiCMUj6KXn1Ym4uACPaWgi9w1n9iE
Weather looks not too bad, might be the occasional shower.
This pitch must remind Henry of his promotion winning bowling in Div 2 for Kent
21-3
And Brook clearly recognises that.