Post by chrischammond on Oct 26, 2023 16:03:42 GMT
Do you want to know what’s wrong with the England ODI team?
Lots. The players are tired and jaded. They are playing by numbers. They don’t have downtime in our winter. They are flitting between franchises with a whole day off after matches. Their agents only care about maximising income. By the time it becomes obvious that their value has fallen in the next season bidding, or the one after, everybody will be richer. This is showbiz - not sport.
At home the Hundred has its supporters - mainly women, as it’s female cricket and family friendly, but the guys still have to go through the motions for an exhausting month. Money. A tournament floated to make money alone. Nobody else in the world plays it, it’s not based on traditional cricket allegiances, it’s entirely an invented ‘contest’ designed to be an anodyne, family friendly version of T20. Bit like the Monkees were invented to be anodyne Beatles/Stones. At least the Monkees had a few worthwhile performances.
Again, players agents have the wet cricket authorities by the balls (not cricket ones). Too many in authority only care about woke action. They will spend all their efforts on breaking the likes of Yorkshire County Cricket Club for imagined slights against a proven anti-Semite Pakistani race grifter rather than getting a grip on the game as it slowly implodes and the money men loot barrow loads of money through the broken shop window of the English game.
Oh - and the Captain. His precipitous descent illustrates what his problem always was/is. No player should ever be Captain/Batsman/wicketkeeper. However talented. Jos has been operating at 98% for several years. He has just paid the price and burned out.
Franchise playing isn’t a kind of over-paid on-field practice. It’s utterly draining - especially in India where foreign players are mainly there to act as food & fun for the local heros, and the climate is killing on the body. The players come back from the IPL, late to the English season and are chucked straight into a kind of Eton Mess of a cricketing summer. The blood is hidden. Not all of the players know when to stop or listen to their bodies, so they get injury after injury. Some - like Marcus Trescothick, and Michael Yardy try to do too much in the winter and pay the mental price for it. How many more who weren’t playing for the national team don’t we hear about?
Will this England non-performance spark a change? Doubt it. The wrong sort of people are in charge at all levels in the game. Come to think of it, the team is a good metaphor for the country itself.
Lots. The players are tired and jaded. They are playing by numbers. They don’t have downtime in our winter. They are flitting between franchises with a whole day off after matches. Their agents only care about maximising income. By the time it becomes obvious that their value has fallen in the next season bidding, or the one after, everybody will be richer. This is showbiz - not sport.
At home the Hundred has its supporters - mainly women, as it’s female cricket and family friendly, but the guys still have to go through the motions for an exhausting month. Money. A tournament floated to make money alone. Nobody else in the world plays it, it’s not based on traditional cricket allegiances, it’s entirely an invented ‘contest’ designed to be an anodyne, family friendly version of T20. Bit like the Monkees were invented to be anodyne Beatles/Stones. At least the Monkees had a few worthwhile performances.
Again, players agents have the wet cricket authorities by the balls (not cricket ones). Too many in authority only care about woke action. They will spend all their efforts on breaking the likes of Yorkshire County Cricket Club for imagined slights against a proven anti-Semite Pakistani race grifter rather than getting a grip on the game as it slowly implodes and the money men loot barrow loads of money through the broken shop window of the English game.
Oh - and the Captain. His precipitous descent illustrates what his problem always was/is. No player should ever be Captain/Batsman/wicketkeeper. However talented. Jos has been operating at 98% for several years. He has just paid the price and burned out.
Franchise playing isn’t a kind of over-paid on-field practice. It’s utterly draining - especially in India where foreign players are mainly there to act as food & fun for the local heros, and the climate is killing on the body. The players come back from the IPL, late to the English season and are chucked straight into a kind of Eton Mess of a cricketing summer. The blood is hidden. Not all of the players know when to stop or listen to their bodies, so they get injury after injury. Some - like Marcus Trescothick, and Michael Yardy try to do too much in the winter and pay the mental price for it. How many more who weren’t playing for the national team don’t we hear about?
Will this England non-performance spark a change? Doubt it. The wrong sort of people are in charge at all levels in the game. Come to think of it, the team is a good metaphor for the country itself.
