Be Excellent To Each Other

What? It's the wrong way round for me. Having the ODIs last seems a bit like 'after the Lord Mayor's show'. They shouldn't have seven one-dayers, though. Five is enough.

Because I care more about the test series, and therefore don't want a series of ODIs which depress the fuck out of me ruining the lead up to the bit I care most about.

Oh - I read yesterday that Eng/SA now has 'Icon status' so all future tours are rebalanced to 5 tests and 5 ODIs.

Don't like milited overs cricket anyway.

Isn't the Ashes the only other icon status series? Interesting. I wonder which other series will follow suit.

22 off 17 for Luke Wright thus far. I said he should have been further up the batting order...

Man, I'm glad we all decided that Test cricket was the only thing that mattered.

"At the end of the day, cricket is cricket" - Tony "Cunting" Greig.

Give me the choice and I'd watch Test cricket all the time, but I still like one-day stuff. T20, not so much.

Tests>T20>Pro40>ODI

Wright's gone for 36 from 26. I suspect he'd have batted more conservatively had he not come in with 10 overs left.

Tests are best, but I enjoy every type.

Wright is out for 36 off 26. Good hitting.

We're still on a rubbish 180/7 off 46 overs. Hopefully the wicket is rubbish (it is in Ireland).

Also, does anyone else follow Swanny and Jimmy on Twitter? They're like an old married couple!

Jimmy having his phone stolen, then Swann offering an iphone for sale for £30 (and getting loads of tweets saying yes) was brilliant.

203/9. Yikes.

If it was a tricky wicket to bat on, why did we chose to have a bat when we won the toss?

We thought Bopara would score runs.

Strauss to come back in for Bopara and not Denly at this rate.

Back in 2003, I went to see Gloucester vs Glamorgan T20. We (Gloucester) won quite comfortably, but I was fairly bored. And it really didn't feel like it was cricket, frankly.

I find it hard to enjoy 50 over games now that 20/20 has raised our expectations about what big hitting and fast scoring should be. It's not long enough to enjoy in the way a test match is, but it is too long to have the quick fix thrill of 20/20. So as a result, I doubt I'll even cast an eye at what is going on in these outside of this thread.

And Prior or Wright should be opening really, not Bopara, and Shah should be higher than 6.

Rain stopped play! This is enthralling.

I think you might be right about the 50 over game, in all honesty. I'd forgotten how long it had been since I last saw one.

I've just realised they've changed the ODI shirt for this series. Fucking cunts, I only got mine last year and it's out of date already.

Oh, man - the cool kids are so going to laugh at you when they see that your cricket shirt is a year out of date.

It's annoying because they used to only change them once in a blue moon. Now they're getting like football shirts where they're out of date as soon as you buy them.

We're all wearing whites now.

Neither south Africa or english domestic leagues play 50 overs anymore. And after the 2011 world cup the icc is reviewing whether it should be played internationally any more. Has any other form of sport ever been killed so quickly?

Hang on, we play the Friends Provident Trophy - that's 50 overs.

Well, we fluked a victory due to the bowling of Owais Shah.

Truly we are not shit.

Not any more, according to this morning's metro

I can't find anything about that anywhere. I'd be surprised as it's meant to be the FA Cup of the cricket world.

http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2009/08/28/
Page 54

Was only announced yesterday. Although part of the stamford T20 plan was to scrap the Friends Provident for 2010 onwards, they are now scrapping it without a replacement.

No, I thought the FP was staying, but they were axing the Pro40. That was the original plan.

Apparently not. FP to be scrapped and a new Pro40 tournament in its place.

So there will be three things going on:

County Championship (4 dayers)
New Pro40 tourney
New T20 tourney

Yeah, I'm just saying that they've changed it as this season was meant to be the last Pro40.

Scotland vs Australia today. Should be interesting

Finally, some real cricket.

Scottish rules cricket is more interesting to watch, it has to be said.

*suppresses laughter*

Prediction: if you bat first, you won't get 150 and Australia will knock it off in 30 overs. If Australia bat first, they'll pile on 350 and you'll be all out for 90.

Ooh, it's streaming on the bbc website!

So's your face.

And on BBC1 red button. Woop!

Scotland have taken three wickets!

That'll teach them.

And Australia have scored 8 million runs

Goodness me.

I've just seen pictures of Stuart Broad's missus.

She is absolutely stunning.

I caught some of the pro40 game on sky today, and bloody hell the "B" team of commentators are shit.

They kept on saying that Hales (Nottingham's number 3) should slow down now, "He's got himself in, now he needs to play steady and be 90/100 not out come the end"

He ended 150 not out, off 102 balls, and Nottingham scored 282 for the loss of 7 wickets.

Worcestershire then went into bat (now I didn't see their innings because I watched Back to the Future 2) and proceded to make 286 for 3 with off less than 38 overs.

So if the so called experts in the studio had been listened to, Nottingham would have been beaten even easier...

Maybe that was the plan, the pundits wanted to get home earlier to watch X-Factor.

Pfishaw...

Malc

The 20/20 has just been abandoned due to the rain. Probably for the best due to England's dodgy start in their innings.

Well, what a surprise.

nil-all. Exciting stuff.

Good result for England

Australia aren't going to win nuffink!

I wonder what you all make of the comments from Jim Cumbes (Lancashire chief executive):



Were the players just being tarts, do you think? Should they have given it a bash?