Unpopular Cricket Opinions

RobRocket

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Apr 6, 2014
103
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St Kilda
The big bash is s**t now. Decent to begin with had its hay day on 10 and the move to 7 combined with the push to lengthen the season has ruined it

Couldn’t agree more, very hard to take seriously. I think the move to 7 was the real straw that broke the camels back. Their coverage is awful, it feels really cheap and bland. All the games this season have been one sided. It’s very hard to support a team , particularly when every sides players change after each season, and they don’t wear their state colours.

I used to love watching the domestic odi comp when I was little, because it was so much more entertaining. Wish they made it more popular again. The one good thing about ten losing the rights, is that I don’t have to keep being forced to guess whose going into the African jungle.




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Admiral Byng

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I think the Big Bash needs to be condensed into a shorter time frame.

Shield and Test matches should wrap up with the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. Sorry Sydney, but you lose the New Years Day test. Big Bash should start the week of Boxing Day test (but not on Boxing Day) with one game each evening after the test. After that it should be full on ODIs and Big Bash. Big Bash should finish on the weekend after Australia Day. This means lots of double-headers, an afternoon game and a evening game. Also means teams doing double header road trips - maybe Melbourne and then on to Hobart with one day break, or play one Sydney team on Friday night and the other on Sunday - that sort of tight scheduling. Fit the ODI series in between that.

Unpopular opinion - Sydney to lose the regular test match slot being first week in January and get shifted to earlier in the season. Test matches start earlier on the season to overlap more with the Shield.
 
Jun 23, 2008
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I think the Big Bash needs to be condensed into a shorter time frame.

Shield and Test matches should wrap up with the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. Sorry Sydney, but you lose the New Years Day test. Big Bash should start the week of Boxing Day test (but not on Boxing Day) with one game each evening after the test. After that it should be full on ODIs and Big Bash. Big Bash should finish on the weekend after Australia Day. This means lots of double-headers, an afternoon game and a evening game. Also means teams doing double header road trips - maybe Melbourne and then on to Hobart with one day break, or play one Sydney team on Friday night and the other on Sunday - that sort of tight scheduling. Fit the ODI series in between that.

Unpopular opinion - Sydney to lose the regular test match slot being first week in January and get shifted to earlier in the season. Test matches start earlier on the season to overlap more with the Shield.

With that, Adelaide to have their Test sometime other than the always-humid-and-rainy first week of December.
 

Wilso24

Club Legend
Jun 21, 2015
1,247
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Geelong
1st Thursday in November - Gabba
2nd Friday in November - Adelaide
3rd Thursday in November - Perth

Odi - T20 tri series/ Shield Window

2nd Thursday in December - Sydney
Boxing Day - Melbourne
2nd of Jan - Hobart/Canberra

Big Bash 7-31 Jan - Finals 2-3 Feb, The Big Bash 4th Feb
 

Admiral Byng

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May 3, 2009
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With that, Adelaide to have their Test sometime other than the always-humid-and-rainy first week of December.

In non-Ashes summers, Cricket Australia should opt for 2 separate test series against different sides, either 3+3, or 4+2 depending on who the opposition is. One series played in December while the Shield comp is on, the other to be played in Feb when the Shield resumes after the limited overs hiatus. Adelaide can get a February test 3 out of every 4 years if December weather is a problem. Ashes to remain at 5 tests and start mid-November.

Have the T20 final on Australia Day, both mens and womens - at a known venue to be rotated around each of the state capitals once every 6 years. The Shield resumes after that on the first weekend after Australia Day, with all the test players getting one game warm-up before the next test series starts.
 

Pykie

Cancelled
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It's good that the Big Bash is suffering a bit, if it pushed a long as a juggernaut they probably wouldn't have changed it.

IT's our best bet at a Shield revival.
 

MiPiG

Debutant
Dec 31, 2018
55
38
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AFL Club
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I cant stand listening to Michael Holding commentate. Admittedly, I havent heard him for awhile, but when he commentated the Aus - WI tests he was downright appalling. He'd constantly whinge about some percieved injustice done to one of the WI players, then crap on about it for whole games. The fellow commentators would just ignore him and try and get back to describing the game, but Holding would just continue with his idiotic theory. I figure its unpopular, because most people seem to love hearing his accent.
 

corbies

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Jul 31, 2010
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1st Thursday in November - Gabba
2nd Friday in November - Adelaide
3rd Thursday in November - Perth

Odi - T20 tri series/ Shield Window

2nd Thursday in December - Sydney
Boxing Day - Melbourne
2nd of Jan - Hobart/Canberra

Big Bash 7-31 Jan - Finals 2-3 Feb, The Big Bash 4th Feb
In non-Ashes summers, Cricket Australia should opt for 2 separate test series against different sides, either 3+3, or 4+2 depending on who the opposition is. One series played in December while the Shield comp is on, the other to be played in Feb when the Shield resumes after the limited overs hiatus. Adelaide can get a February test 3 out of every 4 years if December weather is a problem. Ashes to remain at 5 tests and start mid-November.

Have the T20 final on Australia Day, both mens and womens - at a known venue to be rotated around each of the state capitals once every 6 years. The Shield resumes after that on the first weekend after Australia Day, with all the test players getting one game warm-up before the next test series starts.
I hate to tell you both this but it is very unlikely we will see a 6 test summer ever again and as a result test matches in either Canberra or Hobart. CA as part of the World Test Championship and Future Tours Programme have basically guaranteed we'll have either a 5 test Ashes, a 4+1 (India being the 4, Afghanistan/Bangers/Ireland to be the 1) and a 3+2 for the others.

Conveniently this means that there will be less international matches for the BBL to clash with and they can therefore condense it. Isn't that just so convenient?
 

Seedsfan

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 10, 2013
15,953
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Couldn’t agree more, very hard to take seriously. I think the move to 7 was the real straw that broke the camels back. Their coverage is awful, it feels really cheap and bland. All the games this season have been one sided. It’s very hard to support a team , particularly when every sides players change after each season, and they don’t wear their state colours.

I used to love watching the domestic odi comp when I was little, because it was so much more entertaining. Wish they made it more popular again. The one good thing about ten losing the rights, is that I don’t have to keep being forced to guess whose going into the African jungle.




On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
I grew up watching the ING cup on 9, they were good days
 
Feb 13, 2011
10,757
13,540
AFL Club
Richmond
I think the Big Bash needs to be condensed into a shorter time frame.

Shield and Test matches should wrap up with the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. Sorry Sydney, but you lose the New Years Day test. Big Bash should start the week of Boxing Day test (but not on Boxing Day) with one game each evening after the test. After that it should be full on ODIs and Big Bash. Big Bash should finish on the weekend after Australia Day. This means lots of double-headers, an afternoon game and a evening game. Also means teams doing double header road trips - maybe Melbourne and then on to Hobart with one day break, or play one Sydney team on Friday night and the other on Sunday - that sort of tight scheduling. Fit the ODI series in between that.

Unpopular opinion - Sydney to lose the regular test match slot being first week in January and get shifted to earlier in the season. Test matches start earlier on the season to overlap more with the Shield.
The AO Finals are the weekend after the 26th of January. Ideally the competition ends about now/in the next week.

I agree they need to pack the schedule further but they may have issues with keeping a 1 day break for each teams (and the players don't want to be playing that often anyway).

Not sure what you gain by moving the Sydney test and putting more tests before Christmas. Why move the 2nd most popular test?
 

Admiral Byng

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The AO Finals are the weekend after the 26th of January. Ideally the competition ends about now/in the next week.

I agree they need to pack the schedule further but they may have issues with keeping a 1 day break for each teams (and the players don't want to be playing that often anyway).

Not sure what you gain by moving the Sydney test and putting more tests before Christmas. Why move the 2nd most popular test?

It just frees up the schedule a bit. We all agree the BBL has dragged on for too long in the current format. Some overseas players are choosing to play in Bangladesh instead of coming to Australia - presumably for this reason. If we keep the Sydney test in the current time slot it means having to schedule T20 games that clash - every weekend Sat and Sun would need to be double-headers to fit all the games in a tighter schedule.

Also for team selections it means the tests are being played overlapping with the Shield, so players looking for a selection have an opportunity in the right format. Not bashing 40 off 25 in the BBL and hoping for a test call-up.

For the BBL it means hopefully more quality international players can commit for the whole tournament if it is only about 30 days. Also means some of the test players can play BBL (although there will be con-current ODI series going on so no doubt some of them will play the OIIs instead).
 
Sep 15, 2011
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It's good that the Big Bash is suffering a bit, if it pushed a long as a juggernaut they probably wouldn't have changed it.

IT's our best bet at a Shield revival.
Interest in the Shield isn’t dying because of the BBL. It was already dead. No amount of tinkering with BBL is going to magically revive interest in domestic cricket. It’s certainly worth improving the schedule to benefit players but let’s not pretend anyone but us tragically will be watching.
 

Pykie

Cancelled
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Interest in the Shield isn’t dying because of the BBL. It was already dead. No amount of tinkering with BBL is going to magically revive interest in domestic cricket. It’s certainly worth improving the schedule to benefit players but let’s not pretend anyone but us tragically will be watching.

That's more what I was getting at, revival of the schedule and not a ******* 2 month break.
 

Wolfs

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Feb 10, 2016
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Michael Vaughan is someone I had a lot of respect for when he was playing but man these days...



Good on Manjrekar.
 

Park cricketer

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Nov 29, 2018
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Manjrekar is a bit obsessed about English cricket though, nearly as much as Vaughan is about trolling Australian cricket.
 
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