Category: Uncategorized

I really phoned in Friday’s blog about Glamorgan, and I honestly feel a little bad about that.  No, really.  But I have a good excuse: my work computer has what is known as a “Google Redirect Virus” – which is exactly what it sounds like: whenever I Google a term and click on a result, I am redirected to a spam website.  It is terrifically annoying and evil.  And as you can well imagine, it makes it very difficult to write about a County Cricket Club.

(This is a shared work station, so please no “stop downloading porn vids at work, dude” comments.)

I alerted IT, of course, but the virus is still there.  The good news is that I have found a workaround, so let’s do this:

Today we will talk about the county that is by far the most difficult to spell: Gloucestershire.

The club was formed in 1870, made its first class debut the following year, and has never won a First Class County Championship (though they won three “unofficial” titles in the 1870s.)  They were runners up in 1930, 1931, 1947, 1959, 1969, and 1986, but they have never reached the pinnacle of the English County Game.  Officially, anyway.

They have won several one day trophies.  Nine, in fact.  Most recently in 2004, and have recently become, according to Sam Collins, the “team to beat” when it comes to one day cricket.

Gloucestershire (got it right on the first try, no ctrl-v even) plays the majority of its home matches at the quaint little County Ground on Nevil Road in Bristol.

It seats 7,000 during county matches and 15,000 during ODIs (it hosts about one a year.)

It has been the home for Gloucestershire since 1889 and while most would not call it England’s most picturesque ground, it is steeped in history, as it was home to Gloucestershire’s most notable players, and one of the most famous and important men in the history of English cricket:  W.G. Grace:

He was captain of the side from 1870 until 1898, piling up 22,808 runs and taking 1,339 wickets.  He is widely considered to be England’s first true all rounder, and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.

Along with his two brothers, he also played in 22 tests for England.

His Wikipedia entry is long and fascinating, and worth a read.  The County game as we know it does not exist without his influence.

The most runs in the club’s history were actually scored by another very famous cricketer, Wally Hammond, with 33,664.  Hammond played for the club for 31 years and also played in 85 tests for England, and was captain of his country in 20 of those matches.  He knocked 22 test centuries and like WG Grace, was another true all-rounder, taking 732 first class wickets during his remarkable career.

Hammond reads like cricket’s version of Ty Cobb though: hard to get along with yet extremely talented.

Charlie Parker took 3,170 wickets for the club, the most in Gloucestershire’s history, and the third most in the history of First Class Cricket.

And in so many words, that is Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

As always, special thanks to Cricinfo.com and Wikipedia.org.

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Back on the pitch: not too terribly much happening.  The West Indies beat India by 16 runs in the 3^rd ODI in Ahmedebab, their first win on the tour, and that was the only international match happening in the last 24 hours.

But there is a whole lot of test cricket about to happen: the 2^nd test between Australia and New Zealand starts on the 9^th and is available to watch on Willow.tv.  The first test between Bangladesh and Pakistan also starts on the 9^th and is available to watch on ESPN3.  And…AND…the first test between South Africa and Sri Lanka starts on the 15^th and is also available on Willow.tv.  Life is good for cricket fans in the states right now, that is for sure.

Until next time.

In response to this article’s directive, here is my letter to the ICC:

To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Matt, I am an American, and I am a fan of cricket.

While that might instantly negate all I am about to say, I do ask that you read this e-mail in its entirety, as I do believe I can offer a unique perspective on your remarkable sport and the organizations that run it.

As mentioned, I am an American.  Raised on french fries and baseball and lawnmowers.  I did not discover cricket until my early 30s.  And this I believe might be cricket’s first problem: you ignore America.

Yes, you do.

I am friends with countless sports fanatics, guys who watch football, soccer, baseball, the Olympics, the Tour de France, and car racing, but who couldn’t pick Sachin Tendulkar out of a lineup, much less even begin to understand the intricacies and the minutiae of cricket’s scoring system.

However, when I tell these same people that I love cricket, that I write a blog about cricket, their ears instantly perk up, and they start asking me all sorts of questions: what do the scores mean?  who are its best players?  where are the best leagues? do matches really last for days and days and days?

In other words, you have sport fans in the United States eager to learn.  Despite what certain pundits might tell you, there is always room for another sport in America.

Also, lest you forget, there are over 2.3 million Indians currently living here, our only option for watching cricket online (legally) should not be Willow.tv.

That’s my first suggestion: stop ignoring us.

And it goes hand in hand with my second suggestion:  stop dumbing down the game.

As you start to dip your big toe into the American Sporting Waters, you will be tempted to dumb the game down for the unwashed mases: don’t do this.  And, in fact, stop doing this everywhere else, too.

What I mean is: test cricket is cricket at its very best.  Full stop.   And this is coming from the uneducated cricket loving American.

Fifty over cricket has its place, of course, and the occasional Twenty20 match can be fun, and I understand that domestic limited over tournaments have to exist for financial reasons, but these should always be secondary to the game in its purest form.

So when you do bring cricket to America, bring us first class cricket, do not bring us West Indies v England in a three match t20 series.

Finally, and most importantly, clean up your act.  Get rid of the mafia that runs your wonderful, wonderful sport, as they are the ones killing our game.  I really have no specific suggestions on how to accomplish this, and I am sorry to criticize sans proposal, but hopefully you are aware of who the really bad men are, and you need to root them out and ban them from the game forever.

There is a lot of money to be made here, stop letting the corruptors steal it from you, and stop letting them steal the game from the people who pay you that money: us, the fans.

You run your organization like the Roman Catholic Church, all secrets and black smoke and a seemingly endless stream of bad decisions.

Find a new system to copy.

FIFA is a joke, and the IOC is corrupt and shiftless, so do not emulate their models.  Instead, look at international organizations such as the Red Cross, or Doctors Without Borders, or maybe a well run multi-national corporation like Apple Computers, or Ford Motor Company.

Those are my three main suggestions:  America, Test Cricket, and Ford.

Oh, and one last thing: grant more countries full test status.  Start with Ireland, promote them yesterday, and then create a system that isn’t the interminable Intercontinental Cup for helping more teams reach full test status.  I think 16 teams playing tests around the world would be a real boon for cricket’s bottom line.

Other than that, remember this: it is a beautiful game.  Full of villains, and history, and magic.  I fell in love with it instantly and deeply, but only by accident.  Stop being so insular, celebrate your game, as it really is for everyone.

And that’s the rub right there, fellas:

It is the fan’s game. It is not your game.

Sincerely yours,

Matt Becker

Minneapolis, USA

limitedovers@gmail.com

limitedovers.wordpress.com

It’s Friday, let’s knock this out:

Glamorgan County Cricket Club, nickname: The Dragons.  Another younger club, another club that had to wait many years for its first County Championship, and another Club that has not really enjoyed a great deal of success.  (Seriously: who has won all the titles?)

They are also the sole Welsh representative among the 18 counties in the Championship.

Wales:

The club was formed in 1888 and was admitted to the Championship in 1921.  They have won three county titles: 1948, 1969, and 1997.  They have also won three Sunday League cups: 1993, 2001, and 2004.

Oh, and according to Wikipedia, they are the only County to have defeated every major test cricket side, though “major” is not defined.

They play their home matches (well, the majority of them anyway) at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, also known as the SWALEC Stadium (SWALEC is a Welsh renewable gas and energy supplier.)
It has been their home since 1997, before which they were quite the nomads, it was named after the wife of the Marquis of Bute., and hosted its first test during the 2008 Ashes (it also hosted Sri Lanka for a test this past summer.)

Here she is, bathed in a Welsh sunset:

Oh, and according to Wikipedia, Glamorgan’s Mike Powell had a rib that was surgically removed buried at the ground in 2007.

Glamorgan is one of many counties that suffered in the post war years because of players that were tragically killed while serving in the military.  Notably, the team lost is rudder, the batsman Maurice Turnbull.   Note to self: writing about English cricketers killed during the two great wars would be time well spent.

Alan Jones scored the most runs for the club, 34,056, in over 25 years with the club.   Don Shepherd took the most wickets: 2,174.

Currently, the team has had a hard time attracting major international stars, and therefore its form has suffered accordingly.

And, that, in so many words, is Glamorgan County Cricket Club.

Special thanks to Wikipedia and Google and Cricinfo for all the information.

Back to work now, until next time.

A rare evening post, but I have Australia v New Zealand to inspire me.

I give willow.tv a great deal of slagging, but I have to say: it is better than nothing.

Tonight: Essex County Cricket Club.

The club was formed in 1876, made its first class debut in 1894, and won its first Championship in 1979.  (Note: all of these clubs had to wait so many years for their first County Championship.  First of all: holy cow their poor fans and second of all: who the hell was winning all the titles?  I have a feeling I will find the answer to that sooner or later.)

Essex won five more County Championships in the 80s and 90s, their last in 1992 (the year Durham made its first debut, interestingly enough.)

They have also won eight one day cups, a nice haul for its long suffering fans, for sure.

According to their wiki page, they have three home grounds, but I believe their main ground is the County Ground in Chelmsford:

While heir most attractive home ground is in Colchester, the Garon Park Castle Ground:

And, well, I cannot find a great deal of info on their third ground. (I get lazy during these evening posts.)

None of the three grounds has hosted a test, of course, but the County Ground, whose naming rights are now owned by Ford Motor Company, did host ODIs during the 1999 World Cup.

Here’s a better photo I found on its Wiki page:

Notable players?  That’s easy: Graham Gooch played for Essex, scoring over 30,000 in his time with the County (1973-1997.)  He also captained England and is their leading test scorer ever (8,900), and he currently is his home country’s batting coach.

Currently the squad features the dreamy Alastair Cook, as well as other internationals such as Ravi Bopara and Ryan ten Doeschate (he of the Mashonaland Eagles.)

Looking at ten Doeschate’s Wiki page tells me that he has played for the following cricket sides other than Essex: the Kolkata Knight Riders (Indian domestic), the Tasmanian Tigers (Australian domestic), the Canterbury Wizards (New Zealand domestic), the Mashonaland Eagles (Zimbabwean domestic, of course), and the Dutch national team (despite the fact that he was born in South Africa.)

Ryan ten Doeschate: modern day cricket mercenary.

And that’s Essex.

Back on the pitch: Australia are 27/2 (sorry, I mean, 2/27) after New Zealand were 295 all out before lunch.  Ponting is on 14 off of 17, and Australia are in desperate need of runs.

And now there is a ball inspection break, so a  good time to sign off.  Until next time.

Today is December 1^st, and yesterday was the first day of the Australian Summer of Cricket:  two tests against New Zealand, four against India, and then the ODI tri-series featuring Sri Lanka and India.  All of these matches will be live on willow.tv.

And what’s even cooler is that the matches will be on during prime time here in the mid-western US.  For some reason, I just assumed they would be starting at midnight or later, because that’s when Aussie Rules and A League matches start.  But test cricket is a morning sport.  I just never put two and two together.

Of course, I will be sleeping for good chunks of each match, but at least I will be able to watch some of it.

Part of me believes that I have strayed away from cricket because matches on the Sub-Continent are just not as accessible as matches in England.  They are on at odd hours, for instance, and I do not have the ability to watch them online.

Hopefully, this Australian summer will bring me back to the fold.  Last night I was following the match on my phone while at my wife’s show, that’s when I knew it was starting to happen for me again.

Sigh…

Most cricket blogs analyze cricketers, or cricket squads.  Or they tell jokes.  Or they dissect other cricket articles.  Or simply at the very least make interesting comments about the sport.  I do none of that.  This blog is so…surface.

But I guess the point here was not to write for Cricinfo, it was simply to write, which is what I am doing, albeit wanderingly (not a word, but should be.)

On the pitch, the first day of Australia v New Zealand was shortened by rain (or “truncated” as the educated cricket followers say.)  New Zealand had collapsed before lunch, losing four wickets in an hour, and then they lost another right after the break.  But four-eyes and Brownlie steadied the ship with the 6^th wicket partnership, 80 runs off 25 overs before the bad light and the rain.

They four young Aussie bowlers each took a wicket, with Starc taking two.  That’s a good sign for the summer.

Meanwhile, at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh…

…Pakistan crushed, CRUSHED, the hosts by five wickets with 146 balls remaining.  My new favorite cricketer, Shahid Afridi, was 24 not out and took 5 for 23.

(This brings up something I find interesting: in Australia, a team’s score is listed with the wickets first, then the score.  Australia is 5/123, for instance.  While in the rest of the world, it is the opposite: Pakistan is 93/2.  I wonder why that is?  Worth reading about.)

Oh, and finally, in the Stanbic Bank 20 Series, The Mashonaland Eagles beat the Southern Rocks by 70 runs in the last group stage match, qualifying for the semi-finals taking place tomorrow.

That’s it for today.  Until next time.

Normally, Tuesdays are no blog days, as I have an early meeting and class in the afternoon.  But the meeting this morning was cancelled, so I thought: let’s write a blog damn it.

And I am glad I did.

Yesterday, I mentioned that Derbyshire was one of the youngest first-class counties in England, but at the time I was not aware that not only was Durham younger, but the significantly younger.

Durham County Cricket Club was formed in 1882, but did not make its first-class debut for 110 years, against Leicestershire at the Racecourse Ground.  That’s right, Durham has only been playing first-class cricket for 19 years – and were the first club to be promoted since 1921.  Lincoln was the US president when Lancashire played its initial first-class match, but Bill Clinton was US president when Durham did the same.

I don’t mean to harp on the club’s age, as they do have a long and significant history in the lower divisions (including a six year undefeated run between 1976 and 1982), but I did find the above a bit shocking.

However, since joining the elite ranks of County Cricket, Durham has enjoyed a fantastic run of success: A Friend’s Provident win in 2007, followed by County Championships in 2008 and 2009.  That is a run of form that most clubs would drool over.

Durham has played the majority of their first-class cricket at the Riverside Ground (now known as the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground) which is located in Chester-le-Street, Durham, England.

It has a capacity of 19,000 and has hosted both ODIs as well as tests, the first of the latter being England v Zimbabwe in 2003 and the most recent being England v West Indies in 2009.

Considering its minor county role for the first 100 years of its existence, the club does not really boast a great many notable players.  However, it did act as a bit of a feeder club in its lower division days, sending players such as George Sharp, Colin Milburn, and Bob Willis down south to ply their trade on the big stage.

Colin Milburn is one of cricket’s sadder stories.  He played in nine tests for England in the late sixties, averaging over 46 and knocking two centuries.  However, he was involved in a motor accident in 1969 which took his sight and prompted his retirement.  He died very young from a heart attack in 1990 and his funeral was attended by hundreds of cricket lovers.  Ian Botham was a pall bearer.

Currently, the club boasts several players of note: Internationals such as Michael Di Venuto, David Miller, Ian Blackwell, Paul Collingwood, Phil Mustard, and Graham Onions.

Three cheers for Durham County Cricket Club!

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Back on the pitch, lots going on: India is chasing the West Indies’ 211 in their first ODI.  It is the 22^nd over, the current RR is 4.57 and the required is 3.96, and the hosts have 5 wickets in hand (Patel, Sehwag, Gambhir, Vohli, and Raina: all gone.)  Meanwhile in Dhaka, Pakistan crushed Bangladesh by 50 runs in their first and only Twenty20.

Plus there is a whole slew of domestic cricket happening, way too much to get into at this time, as I still have 11 more counties to write about!

Until next time.

“Good Old Sussex By the Sea
Good Old Sussex By the Sea
And we’re going up to win the cup
For Sussex by the Sea”

Along with Kent, the Sussex region of England can also claim to be the birthplace of the sport – invented in the area by the Normans in the 13th Century.  The club as we know it today was formed in 1839…

…but the county did not win a First Division County Championship until 2003…a period of 164 years.  The Chicago Cubs have nothing on long suffering Sharks’ fans.

The club did win several lesser cups in that period of course, so it is not really an apples to apples situation.  But holy crap 164 years!!??

(Side note: the Pro40 County One-Day competition used to known as “The Sunday League.”  That is so brilliant it makes me cry a little.)

Sussex play matches at grounds throughout the county, but their official home ground is the County Cricket Ground, aka the Probiz Ground, in Hove, England.

“Hove” as it is affectionately known, has been home to Sussex CCC since 1872.  It has a capacity of 7,000 and has hosted one ODI: India v South Africa in 1999.

Over their long history, Sussex has employed many memorable players.  John Landridge, whom Wisden called “the greatest cricketer to never play a test match,” starred for the club from 1928 until 1955.  He accumulated over 34,000 runs for the county in his time there, the most by any Sussex cricketer in the club’s history.  Also, John’s brother, James, who did play in eight tests for England – played for Sussex at the same time – taking 1,416 wickets, the  fifth most in the county’s history (the great Maurice Tate took the most, with 2211.)

Another bit of trivia regarding the Landridge brothers: in 1938 the two brothers player with two other sets of brothers: Charlie and John Oaks and Harry and Jim Parks.

Currently, thanks to England regulars Matt Prior, Monty Panesar, and Michael Yardy, as well as internationals such as Murray Goodwin and Ed Joyce, Sussex has enjoyed a nice run of success.  They had to wait 164 years for their first County Championship, but only three years for the 2nd, and then they won it a third time the very next year.   The drought surely is well and truly over for Sussex .

Celebrity fans?  Still nothing.  However, Sampson Collins, he of the “The Two Chucks,” wrote the history of Sussex CCC for Cricinfo…so, um, that’s something.

And that, in 374 words (and counting) is Sussex.  (Sam’s history was way better, so I am not going to link to it.)

As always, my sources include Wikipedia, SussexCricket.co.ok, as well as Cricinfo.

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Back on the pitch: in Johannesburg it is stumps on day four.  Australia will bat tomorrow needing 173 with seven wickets remaining.  The way the Aussie’s have collapsed in this short series, I think this might be South Africa’s match to lose.

Meanwhile, there is a thriller of an ODI happening at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the U.A.E:

Sri Lanka are 157/5 chasing Pakistan’s 200.  Their current run rate is 4.04 and their required run rate is 3.97.  Like I said: a thriller.

Finally, I inserted the above photo for two reasons:

1) I love photos of cricket stadiums.  Love, love, love.

2) If the current internet copyright legislation that is being discreetly and dangerously rushed through Congress is passed into law, this blog could be shut down permanently and I could be fined thousands of dollars…just for posting a copyrighted image on a blog nobody reads.  Heck, even if a reader (stop laughing) posted a link to copyrighted material in the comments section of this blog, I could be shut down forever with no access to my site, my writing, my archives.  Scary, huh?  This is worse than net neutrality, this is the death of the Internet.

So do me a favor, if you live in the U.S., read this, and this, call your congressmen and congresswomen, sigh the online petition, and let’s save the fucking Internet, okay?

I spent the last 20 minutes or so looking for something worthwhile to write about tonight.  There is the final day of the rain soaked test between Bangladesh and the West Indies down in Chittagong (finally test cricket to watch and it has done very little but rain for the last four days), there is the fifth and final ODI for India and England (big chance for a white-wash, there is just no middle ground with these two), there is the match fixing trial in London which has just entered the closing argument stage, there is the 1st ODI between South Africa and Australia that I am watching a replay of on willow.tv, and there are several domestic leagues worth writing about as I thought about doing many moons ago (shoot, I still owe this site a write up on the English counties.)

(I really love this stadium in South Africa – the SuperSport Park in Centurion – as it has a grassy knoll for the fans to hang out on during the game.  Bring a chair, a blanket, some food, some drinks, and enjoy cricket in the sun all day…much better than a seat in a plastic bleacher if you ask me.  But no one did, so there we go.)

However, none of the those topics really struck at me and for whatever reason, I have a very difficult time writing this blog at night.  It’s odd, as I do a great deal of my writing for school in the evenings, but when it comes to this blog, getting inspired and finding a topic is infinitely easier in the morning. This is something worth looking into, both for this blog’s sake as well as all the other times when I need to write.

So, without a topic, I will sign off.  I am looking forward to watching the final day of Bangladesh v West Indies tonight; hopefully the weather will cooperate.  Oh and test cricket returns to willow.tv on in the form South Africa v Australia on November the ninth, which is coming up quickly (next week is November 1st already.)

(Steyn just bowled Warner – what a great ball! Castled him even.)

One last thing: the 500 word minimum requirement has been lifted permanently.  I think it was the one thing keeping me from posting more, honestly.

Until tomorrow.

 

I am still here.  I am still alive.

As mentioned previously in the space, the longer you go without posting, the more difficult it is to post.  It has gotten to the point over the last few weeks that even visiting Cricinfo.com makes me break out in a stress related cold sweat.

But then, last night, I noticed that the first day of the first Bangladesh-West Indies test was on ESPN3, so in between episodes of Doctor Who, I flipped over and watched for a bit: and fell in love with the sport all over again.

The stadium was empty, and the cricket itself was by no means flashy or brilliant, but the pace of the game was there.  There is just something special about test cricket on the sub-continent.  Love it, love it, love it.  If it wasn’t for work, I would have watched the entire day, all night long.

What is unfortunate about my hiatus (well, not quite a hiatus, as I have yet to decide if I am going to continue writing in this space), is that there is so much international cricket happening right now: India v England, South Africa v Australia, Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe v New Zealand… Plus a whole slew of Associate member matches and all of the Southern Hemisphere domestic leagues…I have missed so much, and I have missed writing about cricket.

Until Monday.  Yes, I think I will write another post on Monday.

The CSA Provincial Three-Day Challenge is one of many domestic competitions in South Africa.  There is also the CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge, the CSA Provincial T20 Series, The SuperSport Series, the South Africa One Day Competition, and the South Africa T20 Competition.

(The latter two tournaments lack sponsorship in this go ’round, hence the generic names).

I was unable to find a great deal of information on the CSA competitions.  I just really loved the names involved in the above match. Boland… Border… Paarl…. They are just so, I don’t know, post-apocalyptically sci-fi.  Like they are set in the distant future, when humanity is hanging on by the thinnest of threads, and those from the Boland region travel across the frontier to the Paarl crossroads to challenge their fierce enemies from Border in a smashing game of cricket.

Yeah, that is how I think about most things.

Anyway, there was not a great deal to be found on the CSA tourneys.  In fact, the teams above cannot even be found in Cricinfo’s CSA Three Day Competition points table.

But a couple quick notes on South African cricket: it has gone through several major overhauls over the last 30 years, as the country grew into its post-Apartheid image.  There have been a ridiculous number of competitions through the years: The Benson & Hedges Series, The Standard Bank Cup, the Standard Bank League, the MTN Domestic Competition, the MTN40, the Gillette Cup, the Datsun Shield (woah…remember Datsun!?), the Nissan Shield, and the Total Power Series – and those are just the one dayers.

Currently, the one day series has been expanded to 50 overs to match the length of the international version of the one day match, and as in most countries, their T20 tournament is quickly overtaking the other competitions in popularity.

The SuperSport series is their first class, four day tournament, and according to Cricinfo, those matches maintain the village atmosphere similarly scene in first class tournaments around the globe. And if I were to attend a cricket match in South Africa, I think that is the competition I would seek out.  Of course, I might be the only one there…but there is just something so intruiging about domestic first class cricket.  I think it is tremendously important to the world wide success of the game in all its formats.

Back on the pitch, and in the glaring floodlights of the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, India, the second semi-final in the Nokia Champions League Twenty20 is just about to start.   It features the Mumbai Indians from India against Somerset from jolly old England.  Honestly, it should be a rather decent match.  The first semi-final between Royal Challengers Bangalore and New South Wales ended in favor of the former.

The final is set for tomorrow.

Just to bring this back home, two South African domestic teams, the Cape Cobras and the Warriors took place in the Champions League this season. They each finished second to bottom in their respective groups and are more than likely on their way back home.

However, the Warriors captain, Johan Botha, a fine one-day all-rounder, once played for the cricket powerhouse of: Border.

Captain Botha of the Warriors, brings his Border Men from the lowlands across the Frontier to meet the strange band of stragglers from Boland in an ancient game of bat, ball, and….oh nevermind.