Bears/Pears/Domestic Cricket Thread

[dcdavecollett]

Kai Smith's previous best score was 44.

What an innings!!

[Rory]

Youuuuu Beeaaarrrsss!

[cdbearsfan]

Well, this isn't going very well.

[TopDeck113]

Semi-final humiliation

[edgysatsuma89]

I like (some of) you lot so I check up on the Bears to see if some of you will be happy and on Flashscore they are down as Warwickshire/Birmingham Bears. Can they not make their fucking mind up? I don't think I have ever come across a forward slash in a team name before on a results app.

[Rory]

I like (some of) you lot so I check up on the Bears to see if some of you will be happy and on Flashscore they are down as Warwickshire/Birmingham Bears. Can they not make their fucking mind up? I don't think I have ever come across a forward slash in a team name before on a results app.

They re-branded Warwickshire Bears (T20) around ten years ago, thinking they'd be ahead of the competition when it came to shifting counties to city-based franchises, like the IPL or Big Bash.

Except, when the time came, instead of franchising the T20, they invented a whole new (shit) format (the Hundred) which seemingly demanded a new franchise.

Consequently, none of the other counties followed us in T20, but presumably we're now too embarrassed to admit we fucked up by jumping the gun.

So we now have two silly operations (Birmingham Bears and Birmingham Phoenix) that nobody really supports based at Edgbaston, along with the one people DO support (Warwickshire).

In terms of the Hundred I don't care. I'm happy to ignore it. But I do feel like we've sold out our T20 team à la Wimbledon & MK Dons - except in this case it is an historic and prestigious club being sold out.

[edgysatsuma89]

Thanks for the explanation. This Hundred has a lot to answer for! 🙃

[dcdavecollett]

Especially the people who brought it in.

[Rory]

And if Warwickshire hadn't tried to be too clever, we'd still have a county T20 side - like everybody else.

Fuck knows where 'Phoenix' comes from. Although it's nowhere near the worst Hundred name. Invincibles? Superchargers?

Vomit.

[cdbearsfan]

Vomit.

Which team is that, Yorkshire?

[Rory]

Vomit.

Which team is that, Yorkshire?

Surrey, if they weren't the 'Invincibles'.

"Welcome, the Oval Vomit!"

[Gareth]

Hopefully in a couple of years the whole thing will be the ‘Invisibles’

[Nev]

There is an overwhelmingly positive article on the BBC website (hardly a surprise) but I think it's the competition is fading which is whey they are looking for that investment.

I watch because I like cricket although favoured the ODC on YouTube over it, but the quality has dipped, there are few "stars" and the crowds looked a lot smaller this year. The BBC coverage is unwatchable but Sky do treat the viewer with a modicum of intelligence so I always watch that. It was overshadowed by the Olympics and just seemed to drift along, finals weekend being at the same time as the PL didn't help either.

The biggest issue is the fracturing of the season to accommodate the Hundred with huge gaps in the T20 and ODC. Sort that and the competition won't be considered intolerable.

[Gareth]

Yay proper cricket back today!  Will probably change they view at about 11.30am

[charlatan]

Most bonus points in the division with no win is quite impressive from Warwickshire. Not sure how I feel about Worcestershire's survival chances with four teams playing to avoid the second relegation spot.