Bears/Pears/Domestic Cricket Thread 2016

[PGW]

Highest partnership of the match 62 currently under way by Wright & Clarke
123/8
61 to win
At least this pair having a go, doubled our score
Clarke 40
Wright 32
3 overs to go or 13 minutes

[paul_e]

123/8
2 overs left tonight
target now 61

This is a strange little spell, they seem happy for this pair to try to score in the hope they'll give up chances but at what point do they get nervous about the chase?

[Villan For Life]

123/8
2 overs left tonight
target now 61

This is a strange little spell, they seem happy for this pair to try to score in the hope they'll give up chances but at what point do they get nervous about the chase?

It's a strange balance, it can all be over in 2 balls. There's a parallel with the 2005 Ashes test at Edgbaston. England seemed relaxed until the lead was less than 20, which is when nerves started to affect both sides.

[PGW]

Last over taking place now
131/8 close
53 required
Clarke 42
Wright 38
Just makes it even worse in a way how the top and middle order just collapsed.
Whatever happens tomorrow morning fair play to these 2 for showing some pride and heart.

[Villan For Life]

Right I wasn't going to post this before for fear of invoking the poster's version of commentator's curse......but dare we dream?

131-8 at stumps. Clarke and Wright have added 70 runs in just under 20 overs. 53 needed and Somerset must be a little bit worried.

[PGW]

The other important scores:
Notts 24/0 lead by 18....game in the balance Notts 4 points so far
Durham 205/4 70 overs trail by 255 Durham should score 7 points minimum takes em above Bears with game in hand
Hants 213/3 70 overs trail by 116 gonna score minimum 7 points but every chance of securing draw or winning.
If we lose we only get 3 points to go to 156

[paul_e]

Not sure where the extra overs came from there but closes on 131/8 with 53 more needed.

I think they'll get a bit nervous if this pair add another 20 or so early in the morning.

[PGW]

Not sure where the extra overs came from there but closes on 131/8 with 53 more needed.

I think they'll get a bit nervous if this pair add another 20 or so early in the morning.

Because there was a chance of Somerset winning tonight the captain can claim an extra 30 minutes to try and complete the deed.
This is 30 minutes or 8 overs but Somerset tonight managed to get 9 in due to their bowling spinners. They failed in their quest.

They may well get a little nervous in the morning but as it stands Somerset should still feel fairly comfortable.
The coaching staff and senior players have got to have a serious look at their contributions not just in this game but the season in general.
Simply not good enough!!!

[adrenachrome]

Not sure where the extra overs came from there but closes on 131/8 with 53 more needed.

I think they'll get a bit nervous if this pair add another 20 or so early in the morning.

Because there was a chance of Somerset winning tonight the captain can claim an extra 30 minutes to try and complete the deed.
This is 30 minutes or 8 overs but Somerset tonight managed to get 9 in due to their bowling spinners. They failed in their quest.

They may well get a little nervous in the morning but as it stands Somerset should still feel fairly comfortable.
The coaching staff and senior players have got to have a serious look at their contributions not just in this game but the season in general.
Simply not good enough!!!

Well said, PGW.

This squad, which is very strong on paper but about which I expressed severe doubts at the start of the season,  has led us to the brink of disaster.

Good to see Rikki step up to the plate in both innings, but I wish he had done this more often in the past. He is more than capable.

Dougie's future is in serious doubt.

[adrenachrome]

Torygraph

Counties to be given £1.8m a year if two-thirds agree to new eight-team city-based Twenty20 tournament



By Nick Hoult, Cricket News Correspondent

7 September 2016 • 10:00pm



Counties will be given up to £1.8m each per year if they agree to the most radical change to the domestic game in its history by voting for a new city based Twenty20 tournament.

The tournament, details of which were revealed by Telegraph Sport in July, is to be launched in 2018 and will involve eight teams based at Test match grounds played over a four-week period.

Officials from the England & Wales Cricket Board have spent the past month sharing details of the potential financial gains from the new tournament in a series of meetings with county chief executives and chairmen. They also met player representatives from 13 of the 18 counties on Monday.

The ECB has insisted all parties sign non-disclosure agreements but Telegraph Sport has learnt the counties will each receive £1.5m per year from the new tournament plus a £300,000 staging fee to each club owning a Test match ground that hosts one of the new teams.

Television rights for the new tournament have been valued at around £35m annually with another £10-£12m per year from marketing and sponsorship.

The league will be played alongside the current Natwest Blast Twenty20 tournament, allowing the counties to keep their popular Friday night matches and it is understood the ECB is close to gaining the two-thirds majority vote it will need for the project to be ratified.

It is also understood there will be a player draft for the new tournament and all ticket and marketing will be handled centrally by the ECB.

The board has told the counties that some of the new tournament's matches will be shown on terrestrial television but the majority will go to a satellite broadcaster able to pay the rights fee needed to make it financially viable. However, to hit their target of £10-12m from marketing and sponsorship the tournament will meed a presence on terrestrial television where it can reach a much wider audience.


The new tournament will be played in a window in July but it has been proposed that the County Championship continues at the same time, probably forcing those Test match counties to play at out grounds, a prospect that will be popular with members but less so with some coaches and players.

There have been lengthy meetings over the past month between the ECB and counties with presentations made by Pitch International, the television rights experts the board has commissioned to value the broadcast deal.

Pitch is understood to have valued the broadcast rights to the new tournament at around £35m per year, far higher than their estimates for a competition featuring 18 counties which they believe will be worth around £5-7m per annum.

Counties have been presented with five options, with two based on county cricket, for the future of Twenty20 but it has been made clear it  is the city tournament that has a future.

There is a meeting of the 18 county chairmen and chief executives with the ECB next Wednesday where the board hopes to gain consensus on change. A formal vote on changing the constitution of the ECB, which currently states all 18 counties have the right to play in any tournament, will be taken in the autumn. The ECB hopes it will be able to approach broadcasters and begin a formal tender process for the new league by the first quarter of 2017.

For those counties struggling financially, the prospect of an extra £1.5m annual payment on top of the £1.8m they already receive from the ECB will be hugely tempting, particularly if they can retain their own Friday night Twenty20 competition.

It will be attractive to those Test match grounds struggling with large debts and currently unable to sell out their grounds regularly for the Natwest Blast. They will receive £1.8m with no risk attached. It will help ease the burden of debt.

But for a club such as Surrey, which sells out the Oval for Twenty20 games, the financial package on offer will not be so attractive if they are unable to play in the new tournament under their current name.

The availability of England players for the first years of the tournament will be difficult to guarantee at this stage with international cricket already agreed until 2019 under the Future Tours Programme. Not holding any international cricket in July will have a financial implication for the Test match grounds. One way around it will be to schedule Test cricket in July freeing up the one-day specialists to play in the new league. In Australia’s Big Bash, the Test players are rarely available for more than one or two matches but it has made little difference to the competition’s popularity.

The ECB believes this competition will revitalise the domestic game and help lift falling participation levels. They hope it will help them to attract a family audience and raise the profile of cricket.

[cdbearsfan]

I don't mind a Super League but it should be done with the counties on merit. Top eight teams play in it and are allowed to sign, say, five overseas megastars each. The remaining ten play in Division Two and are allowed one each, with the best homegrown players who aren't required by Super League teams allowed to go on loan to Division Two. Division Two Champions replace the Super League bottom club at the end of the season and get first dibs on the best unattached foreigners to give them a sporting chance.

No need to deprive ten counties of the most lucrative form of cricket.

[adrenachrome]

I don't mind a Super League but it should be done with the counties on merit. Top eight teams play in it and are allowed to sign, say, five overseas megastars each. The remaining ten play in Division Two and are allowed one each, with the best homegrown players who aren't required by Super League teams allowed to go on loan to Division Two. Division Two Champions replace the Super League bottom club at the end of the season and get first dibs on the best unattached foreigners to give them a sporting chance.

No need to deprive ten counties of the most lucrative form of cricket.

I think the proposal would mean the present T20 competition would continue and the new format would be bolted on top:

The league will be played alongside the current Natwest Blast Twenty20 tournament, allowing the counties to keep their popular Friday night matches and it is understood the ECB is close to gaining the two-thirds majority vote it will need for the project to be ratified.

In our case, either the Birmingham Bears would revert to the Warwickshire Bears, and the new team of mercenaries would be called the Birmingham Bandits or some such, or we would have Brum Bears and Bandits both.

[paul_e]

Not sure where the extra overs came from there but closes on 131/8 with 53 more needed.

I think they'll get a bit nervous if this pair add another 20 or so early in the morning.

Because there was a chance of Somerset winning tonight the captain can claim an extra 30 minutes to try and complete the deed.
This is 30 minutes or 8 overs but Somerset tonight managed to get 9 in due to their bowling spinners. They failed in their quest.

They may well get a little nervous in the morning but as it stands Somerset should still feel fairly comfortable.
The coaching staff and senior players have got to have a serious look at their contributions not just in this game but the season in general.
Simply not good enough!!!

Was 2 extra though (I thought) and the last one started well over the 30 minutes, the last ball was bowled 35-36minutes after the scheduled end.

I agree that right now they'll be thinking that this is still in the bag but once you're defending 30 it suddenly looks ropey, as I say, the first 3-4 overs in the morning will be very interesting.

However, even if the impossible happens there still needs to be an overhaul.  I'm not so negative as some (I think the weather in April and May is a big part of why we're struggling, lots of draws where we were the better team and should've won if we'd had a full 4 days) but I do think that there's something fundamentally wrong with the batting coaching because it's been the bowlers who have done all the work to kept us afloat (Barker and Patel in particular, with Woakes truly brilliant at the start of the season).

T20 change, I think it's inevitable that it will happen, maybe not this time but the extra money from an IPL style tournament is needed to keep the poorer counties alive.

[JD]

Looks like Kent are blowing their chance to put pressure on Essex in the chase for promotion.

[Villan For Life]

Franchise-based city T20 is undoubtedly the way forward and it's been on the cards for a while. We have to make our domestic T20 as attractive as the IPL and the BBL etc.

Basing it in the test grounds is a logical step but the net effect will be to make the counties with a test ground even more wealthy. Sides like Northamptonshire who are a fantastic T20 side would be disadvantaged and they struggle financially. They came close to folding last winter and were bailed out by the council.

If it's based on eight teams, who misses out? You could have:

Lords, Oval, Edgbaston, Trent Bridge, Headingley, Old Trafford, Rose Bowl & Durham

Or you could have one London team and include Cardiff?

I can't see your average county member liking this but ultimately it's not aimed at them. This is aimed at the corporate market and families who will enjoy three hours entertainment from top players. I do wonder if we should continue with the current format. We already attract the likes of Gayle and McCullum, who is to say that trend won't continue?