Five years. Good to know that this is what you get for wrapping a cricket bat round a team mate’s head, flouncing around the place and generally being a bit of a prima donna. Shoiab Akhtar is not getting his international ban rescinded - meaning that he will probably end up playing IPL, if he’s not already, followed by a stint for Lashings or an English county. These are profitable times not to be playing international cricket and the Rawalpindi Express can expect to cash his chips in thanks to that 70 yard run-up and 95mph yorker of his.
Justin Langer’s latest column on the beeb is an interesting one. He is full of respect for Flintoff who bowled a terrific spell against him and Trescothick. The Lancastrian is ‘back’ apparently, runs or no runs and if he really is fit then both him and Hoggard should be reunited for the first Test. Anyhow, here’s what JL had to say:
“For about an hour I could have been in the boxing ring with Joe Calzaghe and by the end of it I had literally copped a hammering. My ribs, elbow and chest were so bruised I could have been confused for Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas! Both Marcus and I agreed his spell was one of the great ones either of us had ever faced and while it was ugly – and at times intimidating – it is what we miss about playing international cricket on its toughest days.”
Meanwhile, Dimitri Mascarenhas has jetted off to pick up his Indian pay cheque and….been left out. There are only 4 overseas players in each side so he misses out.
One of Taunton’s least favourite commentators, Jonathan Agnew, has come riding to the resuce of the counties by dismissing the idea of city-based cricket franchises in England, proposed to mirror the Indian model. I can’t agree enough.
If anyone remembers, it was done in rugby union (and might still be) but this time in addition to club rugby, there were county rugby sides. With a Somerset county rugby side playing against Cornwall in a county championship. It didn’t work or create great support because fans had already deep-rooted support for their clubs.
Likewise with cricket, a Bristol city side won’t work because fans of Gloucestershire and Somerset won’t want to merge, not should they. There are hundreds of years of history and tradition in each county and there’s no way this should be swept aside because of a concept currently flourishing in India. As Agnew mentions, this mania for Twenty20 needs embracing and incorporating around Test cricket:
“Twenty20 cricket is entertaining, but shallow. It commands nothing like the depth or enduring interest of Test cricket and, one day, will run its course in which case we will have a Ten10, and then a Five5. It commands nothing like the depth or enduring interest of Test cricket and, one day, will run its course in which case we will have a Ten10, and then a Five5.
The point being that Test cricket has to be nurtured and protected, and Twenty20 can sit along side it, but in its proper place and, crucially, without over exposure. Meanwhile, the 50-over game has to go. It is now dull and predictable, and although that creates a headache for the ICC as far as the World Cup is concerned, it has had its day.
The idea of City-based teams fills me with dread and I really can’t see that generating the necessary interest. Any tournament here has to involve the long-established counties who might have to play a qualifying round in order to thin down the numbers a bit – perhaps the first division of the new domestic T20 might be the way to go.”
Regarding Shoaib: He cannot play in the IPL.That leaves him with two choices – either ICL or county cricket.
Interesting to read what JL had to say about Flintoff. I’ve been tending towards the view that he should be left to play for Lancs until the South African series, but if he’s bowling as well as that…well, maybe there’s an argument for bringing him back sooner.
While agreeing with you (and Agnew) re regionalisation, it’s not quite correct to say that, back in the old days (and I’m talking mid-1970s backwards), there wasn’t support for county rugby. In fact, the County Championship was a big competition, with matches like Gloucestershire-Somerset, or any game involving Cornwall, drawing relatively big crowds. This was, of course, before the era of club cup and league rugby (which began in 1972 and 1987 respectively in England), and so the CC was the only proper competitive rugby tournament below international level. The competition which illustrates the point is what was known as the Divisional Championship, which ran in various formats from the late seventies to the mid-nineties and was played by teams ‘representing’ London, the South-West, the Midlands and the North. There was never any real interest in the games and they only seemed to exist as trial matches for international selection. But rugby then (in the final throes of shamateurism) was a very, very different animal from today’s game.
Brian…when I was writing my comments I did think I might have been muddling county rugby with regional rugby. I know that Cornwall has a fanastic support for all games. I was actually thinking of the ‘South West’v ‘North East’situation that must have died a death and then been brought back at some point in the 90’s perhaps. I never thought there’d be much support for a South West team much in the same way a team supporting Bristol won’t work if you live on the other side of Somerset. Thumbs down to city-based franchises in England for cricket, it’s a slippery slope…