Does anyone think cricket is flawed ?

[Same Old's]

Take it easy Esperito.

If you read the first post properly all Dan said was that if you designed the game of cricket from scratch what would you change about it so as to make it a "better" game?

 

[DTR]

DAN24,
I think you should go back to boring Baseball if you dont like cricket. Baseball isn't boring because it is American, it is just that you bat nine innings and you may not even score. It is a bit like soccer, 90 minutes for a nil all draw. Maybe you should try watching the grass grow.

Cricket is a gentle mans game and a draw is not a nothing result! It can have honor! Saving a match and not losing a game can be as exciting as winning. Like Mark Greatback in Perth when he batted for 4 or 5 sessions and saved the match. The Tied test matches also prove how exciting cricket can be.

It is only flawed if you think it is.

If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

Put your intelligence to good use and fix the Aussie economy !

Give me footy and cricket anyday.

Go Doggies !!

 

[The Dutchman!]

I love MLB...

But Test Cricket is the greatest game of them all...

5 days to try to win and avoid humilation... knowing that one really poor session can cost you a series (ie: Eng v Pak at the moment)... its brilliant..

Baseball in the world series and pennant level is equally as entertaining but 169 games a year to get to that point????!!!! jeez now THAT is boring! And they say One day cricket is pointless (which it is... unless there is something to play for . eg: world cup)...

 

[Drakey]

The duration of test matches has varied over time.

They used to play timeless test matches (games they played out until they got a result) & these went "for ever". Thats when we got scores of 900 odd in the 1st innings. Why declare if you knew you would never run out of time to get a result? 1 test (I think it was South Africa v England) was called off after 11 days because the English had to catch the boat home.

From memory the original test matches went 2 or 3 days. The "ashes" test was all over in 1 day.

Test cricket does evolve with changes in technology (pith preparation etc) & social expectations. It just changes VERY slowly.

Anyway the ratio of results to draws has rarely been better so I don't see a need to change it at the moment.

 

[ptw]

The beauty of test criket is not in the individual bat vs ball scenario as posted by Dan24.

Test cricket is like an onion.

A bowler runs in and bowls to the batsman who must score or not get out. This is a contest at the lowest level. aka Dan24's view.

An over is also a contest in its own right made up of a series of balls. A good bowler will not try to get a batsman out with every ball. You can decide who "won" and over at the end of each one.

From Tea to drinks is a contest made up of a series of overs. A side can win this or lose it.

A session is made up of two of these. This is also a contest....1 for 130 in a session the batting side has won...4 for 63 the bowling side has won.

A day is 3 sessions, and each day is a contest in itself. And a test is five days.

A test series against the west indies is 5 tests, each made up of hundreds of smaller contests at a variety of levels.

At the end of the series there is a winner. Always. Even if the series is drawn there is still a winner who keeps the trophy.

Test cricket is boring only if viewed as a simple series of balls...batsman vs bowler. He did not score...he did not get out...if you take that ball in isolation then it is boring, nothing happended. But if you extend your horizon to a session then that ball has different meaning. It means something even if that something is simply that it used up part of the alloted time for the game.

Because of this, Test Cricket is also a great spectator sport....not for watching ball by ball, but for being there, for having it on in the background. You don't need to witness ball by ball to appreciate it. Highlights packages of test cricket is boring because all of the time has been taken out of the game and it loses this dimension.

The comparison to baseball is interesting. Americans have a culture of winning or losing. Look at the election. They are in a fit because they could not know who won at the end of the first day. Europeans tend not to be so concerned...we bag them about their nil all draws in soccer...they find them interesting. I think you can trace this back to the war of independance and the resulting individualistic culture which ensued (sp?).

We feel less concerned about winning and losing day by day but take a longer term view of things, which is why I think test cricket is accepted here and Americans think it is looney (as I think a system where a guy gets 49.9999999% of the Florida vote and gets no representation in the electoral college is looney...but he lost).


If I could start again I would not change anything structural about the game at all. It is alone in the world in that it is a contest which does not run over 2 hours but actually 150 hours if you take a whole series. One Day cricket has to compete with all other T.V. sports whereas test cricket is without peer.

ptw

 

[Darky]

Ok I've thought about this long and hard....

You get a game where the spectators sit out in the sun, on the piss, and it lasts for five days.

Can someone please explain to me where the flaws are?

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Kill With Power!!!

 

[The Dutchman!]

Nice exposition of the essence of the game ptw! Must be why you're only a part-time-w***er!

 

[ptw]

right back at 'ya cloggy

ptw (pretty tough warrior - so don't get too clever

)

 

[Grendel]

Dutchman mate, it takes a lot of effort to be a full time w***er, and a damn sight more stamina as well.

ptw loved the post, but Darkys was better!

 

[Darky]

Ta Grendel.
I agree wholeheartedly with ptw's post but I don't see where the onion fits in. Does the Test cricket onion fit between the football meat patty and the blonde slice of cheese in the great Hamburger of Life?

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Live by the sword, or die by the law!

 

[ptw]

would you like fries with that Darky ?

No....the onion sits just next to the great hamburger of life...along with the horrid pickley bits that get thrown away.

Don't get any on 'ya

ptw

 

[AlanJP]

I once took 10/14 in one innings for Hawthorn in Sub-District Cricket. Some guy took 10/13 about 50 years ago. Never got a Hat Trick!

But possibly, I know how to make a cricket ball talk a strange language.

It's in the record books.

Alan

 

[Grendel]

I once got six for nought in six balls in an interschool comp. But it aint in any record books. (Still think it was my crowning sporting acheivement though)