Unpopular Cricket Opinions

[Howard Littlejohn]

My prediction for the future in probably 20 years is that Test cricket will be very small and have what I call flagship Tests with for example in a summer 2 Tests against England and possibly 1 test against another country. There will probably be an 18-20 team BBL, 50 over cricket will be non existent and shield cricket will be a thing of the past. This is not what I want to happen. But commercial interests being what they are T20 cricket may well become the dominant form of the game

That is certainly my fear, that the mens game will follow the women into basically no longer having true cricket.
If the 50 over game disappears, not too fussed (I prefer it over 20 over, but its still very much a secondary game). Multiday format for cricket, and a short one for cash could work.

 

[Doss]

My prediction for the future in probably 20 years is that Test cricket will be very small and have what I call flagship Tests with for example in a summer 2 Tests against England and possibly 1 test against another country. There will probably be an 18-20 team BBL, 50 over cricket will be non existent and shield cricket will be a thing of the past. This is not what I want to happen. But commercial interests being what they are T20 cricket may well become the dominant form of the game


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If cricket were to go down this path I'd probably drift away from it altogether. It's a horrible prospect to contemplate.

 

[Kram]

My prediction for the future in probably 20 years is that Test cricket will be very small and have what I call flagship Tests with for example in a summer 2 Tests against England and possibly 1 test against another country. There will probably be an 18-20 team BBL, 50 over cricket will be non existent and shield cricket will be a thing of the past. This is not what I want to happen. But commercial interests being what they are T20 cricket may well become the dominant form of the game


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I bet the same thing was said when One Day cricket was introduced and proved to be very popular.

 

[Doss]

I bet the same thing was said when One Day cricket was introduced and proved to be very popular.

The difference from then to now is that the game, despite being on the path towards commercialisation, was not quite as corporatised.

And, there were less Test sides when ODIs became mainstream. Depending on where you draw the line, Sri Lanka were not even yet a Test side (let's say you use the 1975 World Cup as the beginning of the ODI era), much less Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, or Ireland and Afghanistan. South Africa were suspended from international cricket at the time too.

Put simply, there was more time to fit in series between everyone.

 

[Damon_3388]

BBL will eventually be a fox sports exclusive as it, along with all other sports will become pay to view.

Sport is first and foremost about money now.

I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

I don't think most people realise and value how much free-to-air sport we get here in Australia, probably more than anywhere else on the planet. It's weirdly altruistic and somewhat primitive and un-opportunistic of the networks to give us anything worth watching for free.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

If the bbl goes back to being exclusively on fox sports, the comp will go down the toilet.

It's not a popular enough competition for anyone to care about it if you have to pay for it. It burst in popularity when it moved to 10 because it took up a lot of dead time during the summer.

 

[FredLeDeux]

I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

I don't think most people realise and value how much free-to-air sport we get here in Australia, probably more than anywhere else on the planet. It's weirdly altruistic and somewhat primitive and un-opportunistic of the networks to give us anything worth watching for free.

They don't, of course.
We pay something for it every single time we buy absolutely any goods or services whatsoever.
Except smokes.

 

[Damon_3388]

If the bbl goes back to being exclusively on fox sports, the comp will go down the toilet.

It's not a popular enough competition for anyone to care about it if you have to pay for it. It burst in popularity when it moved to 10 because it took up a lot of dead time during the summer.

It's kind of odd that Seven are running "ratings season" shows like MKR now, which leads to BBL being bumped on some nights.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

C7 are just not that good a tv station.

 

[to1994]

I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

I don't think most people realise and value how much free-to-air sport we get here in Australia, probably more than anywhere else on the planet. It's weirdly altruistic and somewhat primitive and un-opportunistic of the networks to give us anything worth watching for free.

I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. Australia has a very small population compared to most of the world and it's the reason most niche interests don't have much of a market here (think music, other sports etc.).

For Cricket to be commercially viable in this country then the casual fan is a big part of that, you take away free to air and they disappear very quickly. Look at England, far bigger population and Cricket has been on a steep decline since they went down the Pay TV path.

 

[JG22]

Jono Wells is pretty bad

 

[Stopher]

Khawaja's ton shouldn't guarantee him anything from here on. He's been a big disappointment all summer. His only other innings of note was his 72 in Perth, yet even there Australia were effectively 1-102 and in a pretty good position in that match when he came in.

If UK could've gone online and custom-clicked his preferences for a last-gasp century attempt, the Sri Lankans delivered it with a smile, a handshake, wished him a nice day, then refused any payment for the service.

Head has been top run scorer all summer (albeit he left some runs in the middle with some daft dismissals, but I digress!). Also, he and Burns had to dig Australia out of a hole in the 1st innings, so credit there.

Patterson is only playing his 2nd Test and did well in tricky conditions on debut anyway. He's also young and has at least made runs in SS to earn his chance.

Looking ahead to the Ashes and as funny as England's humiliation has been (if you're not English and didn't enjoy that, are you really a cricket fan??), the batsmen were the main reason they are 2-0 down. That and shoddy fielding. And dropping a guy with 400+ Test wickets because 'total cricket'.

The point is, their bowling was pretty good, for the most part and I see no reason why it won't be again in England, ie about 5 levels up from what the Aussies have faced in Canberra.

 

[Wedge McManus]

Not sure if it’s unpopular or not, but you shouldn’t be able to score off leg byes

You have a bat for a reason

It hits your body - no run

Byes are ok as they are cockups purely of the fielding teams volition

100% agree with this but the reason it'll never happen is the time it would take reviewing each inside edge or close to the bat leg byes. We'd lose too many overs each match

 

[Park cricketer]

I'm sorry but someone had to say it.

Love Kagiso, but Sir Patrick James Cummins is the best bowler in world cricket. Pat has been equally good, if not better than Rabada in the last 4 years and he has been better than Rabada outside the home comfort in the same period. Both have been pretty much equal in asia.

Disagree with me all you want, but I'll be proved right when the magnificent Sir Patrick runs through England in the Ashes later this year.

 

[Stopher]

I'm sorry but someone had to say it.

Love Kagiso, but Sir Patrick James Cummins is the best bowler in world cricket. Pat has been equally good, if not better than Rabada in the last 4 years and he has been better than Rabada outside the home comfort in the same period. Both have been pretty much equal in asia.

Disagree with me all you want, but I'll be proved right when the magnificent Sir Patrick runs through England in the Ashes later this year.


View attachment 621088

To be fair, I think your stock takes a bit of a tumble when you are part of a bowling group that allowed the highest 10th wicket partnership in a 4th innings to win a FC game ever!

 

[Park cricketer]

And just as I post that, Sir Pat rises to the top of the world in ICC's test bowler rankings!

https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...h/news-story/5e339b02c99794f21ddd1971a95a4254

 

[Park cricketer]

To be fair, I think your stock takes a bit of a tumble when you are part of a bowling group that allowed the highest 10th wicket partnership in a 4th innings to win a FC game ever!

No this was not a kneejerk reaction.

I've been thinking about this for a while, the South African pacers have phenomenal stats, but a large part of that is down to their dominance at home. Of course, I'm not undermining the South African pacers and particularly Rabada here, who I think is destined to end as an ATG.

But let's be honest here, the Saffer pacers get to bowl on a lot of juiced up decks at home and they lead the charts for the best pacers list at home. But away from home, they haven't been bad by any means but haven't been as effective as they have been at home.

Best bowlers at home in the last 4 years (sorted by bowling average, minimum 30 wickets):




Best bowlers away from home in the last 4 years (sorted by bowling average, minimum 30 wickets):



Bumrah has had a great start to his test career, but he still hasn't played at home yet. But look at the disparity between the home and away averages of the Saffer quicks. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad by any means, but you can see the difference in their efficacy at home and outside home while it's not so much pronounced in the case of Cummins.

 

[Phone]

should be noted that 5 of the 8 away matches for Cummins would have taken place in South Africa though

Edit, sorry 4 of the 8, plus one more in 2011

 

[PhatBoy]

No this was not a kneejerk reaction.

I've been thinking about this for a while, the South African pacers have phenomenal stats, but a large part of that is down to their dominance at home. Of course, I'm not undermining the South African pacers and particularly Rabada here, who I think is destined to end as an ATG.

But let's be honest here, the Saffer pacers get to bowl on a lot of juiced up decks at home and they lead the charts for the best pacers list at home. But away from home, they haven't been bad by any means but haven't been as effective as they have been at home.

Best bowlers at home in the last 4 years (sorted by bowling average, minimum 30 wickets):

View attachment 621112


Best bowlers away from home in the last 4 years (sorted by bowling average, minimum 30 wickets):

View attachment 621113

Bumrah has had a great start to his test career, but he still hasn't played at home yet. But look at the disparity between the home and away averages of the Saffer quicks. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad by any means, but you can see the difference in their efficacy at home and outside home while it's not so much pronounced in the case of Cummins.

He’s also only played 8 matches away though and four of them were in SA.

That’s not to say I disagree with you, he’s f***ing awesome. But I’d like a bigger sample size first

 

[Park cricketer]

He’s also only played 8 matches away though and four of them were in SA.

That’s not to say I disagree with you, he’s f***ing awesome. But I’d like a bigger sample size first

Point taken, yeah Cummins has got a limited sample size, atleast when compared to Rabada's. But frankly, Cummins' averages break up read much better than Rabada's, even accounting for the fewer number of matches he has played away.

Rabada's averages:

SA - 19
Aus - 22
Eng - 28
Ind - 55
NZ - 38
SL - 23

Cummins:

Aus - 20
SA - 20
Bang - 29
Ind - 30

The Ashes will be eye opening, but forced to take a punt, I would say Cummins would end up having a better series than what Rabada had in England.

 

[newblueo]

I'm going the other way and saying test cricket will be stronger then ever in 20 years.
Dot points
China will be a test team.
SS will be on fox during the week.free entry.
Bbl will be 12 teams.
Mitch marsh son will be talked up as the best under 16 kid around.
One dayers dead.
12 test teams with a world cup of sorts every 4 years. 1 v 2.
Tests going down to 4 days but 100 overs a day.

 

[Stopher]

Maxwell has a point about their opening partnership in the final. It was sooo casual.

 

[SterlingArcher]

Jono Wells is pretty bad

I know this was 2 weeks ago and you may well have been referring to his Shield record, but his BBL form has been massively ignored.

10th most runs (behind Short, Wade, Stoinis, Ferguson, Hughes, Lynn, Turner, McDermott, Bailey - quick estimate would say 7 of those have played LO cricket for Australia in the past 2-3 years, and 7 top order players).

5th highest average (behind Stoinis, Short, Marsh, Bailey). One of 6 to play a large chunk of matches (12+) and average over 40.

SR of 125.1. 14th highest out of players to score over 200 runs

 

[Ishikawa]

I know this was 2 weeks ago and you may well have been referring to his Shield record, but his BBL form has been massively ignored.

10th most runs (behind Short, Wade, Stoinis, Ferguson, Hughes, Lynn, Turner, McDermott, Bailey - quick estimate would say 7 of those have played LO cricket for Australia in the past 2-3 years, and 7 top order players).

5th highest average (behind Stoinis, Short, Marsh, Bailey). One of 6 to play a large chunk of matches (12+) and average over 40.

SR of 125.1. 14th highest out of players to score over 200 runs

To claim it as an "Unpopular Opinion" is a crock of shite too.

Wells continues to do his job quietly when the heroes like Weatherald, Carey & Lehmann fail. Would say he's been a considerable factor in getting them over the line in a number of games over the years.

While his early shield career was horrible, he's played his part when given the opportunity at shield level in recent years too.

 

[Damon_3388]

I know this was 2 weeks ago and you may well have been referring to his Shield record, but his BBL form has been massively ignored.

10th most runs (behind Short, Wade, Stoinis, Ferguson, Hughes, Lynn, Turner, McDermott, Bailey - quick estimate would say 7 of those have played LO cricket for Australia in the past 2-3 years, and 7 top order players).

5th highest average (behind Stoinis, Short, Marsh, Bailey). One of 6 to play a large chunk of matches (12+) and average over 40.

SR of 125.1. 14th highest out of players to score over 200 runs

To claim it as an "Unpopular Opinion" is a crock of shite too.

Wells continues to do his job quietly when the heroes like Weatherald, Carey & Lehmann fail. Would say he's been a considerable factor in getting them over the line in a number of games over the years.

While his early shield career was horrible, he's played his part when given the opportunity at shield level in recent years too.

He seems to score well whenever I see him play (dating back to some random ODD games on Foxtel when he was with Tasmania), but his record isn't really that great.

His T20 record (30.02 average) is boosted heavily by not outs (19 no's from 68 innings, 21.63 runs per innings). He's a slow-ish scorer, too (121.16 strike rate, a boundary every 7.73 balls), given that he usually comes in a bit down the order (he used to open once upon a time), where he'd get less time at the crease and be expected to push the pace a bit more. Granted, his record over the past couple of years has improved, but he's not much more than a good ordinary state level batsman.