I know it's a batsman's game and all but that seems an odd directive. Surely an umpire needs to be sure in their own mind before giving something out?
I know it's a batsman's game and all but that seems an odd directive. Surely an umpire needs to be sure in their own mind before giving something out?
Well that's exactly what they're saying. You should only give things out 'beyond reasonable doubt' as opposed to 'on the balance of probabilities'.
They even went through a whole load of Hawkeye replays where the ball is barrelling into the top of middle, umps has given it out and then barking CORRECT DECISION, BUT A BAD DECISION.
Ah, so lbw is only the bottom half of middle? Gotcha. Batsman's charter as ever.
Think we probably need some sort of 'certainty' that doesn't evoke the two legal standards, seeing as there is a massive margin between the balance of probabilities [51%] and beyond reasonable doubt [90%+?].
Shame we don't have appointed umpires for the 3s then, we need all the help we can get. We were bowled out for under 50 4 times last season.
Deadly's done for.
I'm sure there would have been ECB directives aimed at countering him were he playing today.
This seems like the worst form of affirmative action.
All a part of the grand scheme to reduce the number of LBWs given against Bairstow. Top work. That'll keep him in the team for a few years more.
I've full faith he'll overcome and just revert to getting his stumps spattered insteadOriginally Posted by Gray Fox
And still review it.
I regret not dipping in to visit here during the World Cup final.
We've had a good run in the cricket. Probably winding up soon though.
Last edited by ItalAussie; 20-04-2024 at 10:47 AM.
Ital 😍
I'm hoping to float around a little more. I don't have much interesting to say, but everyone else here does.
What next? Mellin rising from his grave?
Picked up a bat (along with gloves, pads, bag) a couple of weeks ago and have been steadily knocking it in each night. Probably have done about 2.5-3 hours of work; is that ok to use in the nets tonight against old balls?
Aim is to use it this weekend as I have a friendly on both days.
In my mind it's 4 hours, so after 3 I'm sure it will be fine against soft old ones.
Snow expected on the higher ground around here today, then more rain tomorrow and Friday.
Saturday's game looking sketchy, which is a shame because we're being livestreamed against a team who've signed up Trent Boult's club opening bowler partner, so I was looking forward to watching myself get castled in High Definition.
Good stuff. I'll give it another 20 mins before I head to nets just to be sure (and infuriate the missus even further).
Met Office seems to have the rest of the week as fairly dry (albeit bloody cold). You should be ok. League season started or a friendly?
League season. We were meant to start last week but that got nixed by the steady rain we've had since October. 22 games in our league so it runs from now to mid-September.
What does "knocking in" a bat entail? And if it's required how come they don't come, I dunno, pre-knocked?
Just hitting it with a ball or special mallet, I guess to fully compress the face of the blade to prevent any sudden impacts causing it to crack/split/chip off when in use - although that can still happen. My recent foray into bat buying suggested you can pay for the service nowadays, ie get it knocked in by someone presumably, or have it done automatically on some bats - lower end ones I would guess. It's probably more ritualistic at this point. Do people still oil their bats?
Basically hitting the bat with either a bat mallet, or an old ball in a sock. You need to do this for a number of hours to compress the fibres in the bat which helps with bat life and performance. It does seem weird to me that I spent a fair chunk of money on a nice new bat and then immediately have to wear it down a bit to get it ready for use.
You can pay to have it knocked in when you buy it. Some also come pre-pressed which I believe reduces the amount of knocking in needed.
It's basically just whacking the main hitting area, edges and toe with an old ball and/or mallet for 9-10 hours to compact the wood/grain so it doesn't just split and splinter the first time it's used in battle. You used to rub linseed oil in while knocking them in, not sure if that's still the done thing or not. My parents agreed to buy me a fancy bat growing up on the proviso I knocked it in for about 20 hours. Damn thing still split after about five uses.
3 replies inside 10 minutes.
Good to see TTH still has its finger on the pulse of the big issues of the day.
Linseed oil smells fucking great, tbh.
The bat survived nets.
Going to do a little more knocking tomorrow and Friday just to ensure it's ready for the matches at the weekend. I'm chomping at the bit to get out there now. "Met Office Carmarthen" has become my most visited page over the last few weeks.
Inevitably, the friendly today was rained off. More hope for tomorrow as the forecast looks dry until Monday.
Tried to watch @Ben get worked over but the livestream doesn't seem to be up.
They had it on but we got delayed for rain so they took it down and never got it going again. Thank God, scratchy as fuck.
We managed to get a 25 over game in, home team had a New Zealand first class seamer bowling from my end whom two Surrey scouts had come to watch. He was fucking shit.
Who? He'll probably be our opening bowler soon at this rate.
Simon Keene (Auckland)
Managed to get our friendly in yesterday - ended up playing two T20s so we could flip the batting and give everyone a chance.
It was a good laugh, but on a pitch I never want to play on again - an artificial wicket slap bang in the middle of a rugby and football field. Too much bounce on those wickets, and the outfield was awful, muddy and soggy. I was constantly worrying about my grip in my run-up and when fielding, so it wasn't particularly representative of the league season but good to at least get out and play a bit.
England Provisional ICC Men's T20 World Cup & Vitality IT20 Squad versus Pakistan Squad:
Jos Buttler (Lancashire) Captain
Moeen Ali (Warwickshire)
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Harry Brook (Yorkshire)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)
Tom Hartley (Lancashire)
Will Jacks (Surrey)
Chris Jordan (Surrey)
Liam Livingstone (Lancashire)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
Phil Salt (Lancashire)
Reece Topley (Surrey)
Mark Wood (Durham)
How many games until Archers arm falls off?
On paper that should have too much for both Oman and Namibia.
A tough first day at the office for the league season.
Up to the 2s to help out as availability is inevitably poor to start the season and we got soundly beaten. It was a glorious day but the weather had been so bad, the pitch was soft and slow and a nightmare to bat on. We were actually the only game in the division to go ahead. Got myself a wonderful 2-ball duck, slapped a short one back to the bowler as I tried to cut and went through the shot too early. They chased down our mediocre total and won by 7 wickets with little issue.
Back to our club to watch the 1s and they started well with a comfortable win; it was beautiful to sit in the evening sun with a pint watching the wickets tumble.
I've done four games so far, three warmups and a national cup first round tie on Sunday for which I was very ill but somehow dragged myself through it. This weekend I have a Premier League debut and then national cup second round. The week after, standing with my old pal off the NZ first class panel. Then in a couple of weeks, Surrey v Middlesex U18, followed by an 'exchange' in which I have to go and umpire a Hertfordshire Prem game, that will be shit.
Things starting to escalate quickly, already done a South African Test match player last week, and another one coming at the weekend. Honestly not sure how I've got this far so quickly. I always thought that one would have to be a much bigger 'character' than I am to make it to the higher levels, turns out just savage consistency and good decision-making can do the trick.
I complained (well, just noted really) in my umpire's report for the game on Saturday that one of them missed a boat load of front foot no balls (their opening bowler pretty much every ball). It didn't affect the result or anything but those are the basics you expect. I've been rewarded for trying to get the coordinator to bring it to his attention by having him appointed for our game again this Saturday. Dodgy LBW incoming.
Although I got a tough one in the cup yesterday too but I get it; it was a full outswinging yorker that just missed everything. I was waiting for the death rattle and nothing came. The bowler appealed because he thought the only way it hasn't cleaned me up is because it clipped my pad/boot on the way through.
Having the same umpire two weeks in a row is terrible practice, even if there wasn't a problem, but especially if there was. Never happens in our league.
If I saw that about not calling no balls come through on my captains' comments I'd be fearing the chop. God knows how some of these counties operate.
The umpire (and fixture) arranging in our league is terrible. The league has a wide reach (60 mile diameter) so some of the clubs out in the countryside tend to get the same umpires most weeks, which as you can imagine is dreadful.
Come on Jim you tease. Give us names.
If they were good names I would have done. Clyde Fortuin and Sarel Erwee
That first one made his debut in Feb, wasn’t that the series where they sent no one of note cause of their domestic T20. Fairs it’s an international cap but still.
Erwee is pretty legit though. I bet he scores a shitload for whoever snapped him up.
Saying that, Fortuin probably has/will. Levels.
Clyde has been over before and churns out 1,000 per season without even blinking. That said on Saturday he tried to pull a full one on a slow wicket and got a snooker cue end that looped up to cover, welcome to England bru.
I also did this lad on Sunday https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricket...k-rowe-1130758 and he looked absolute mustard, the amount of time even lesser pros have compared to mere mortals is amazing.
Yeah, one of my best mates all the way through school played National League North(football obviously) and would sometimes play with us on a Sunday when we were all in our mid 20’s the difference between him and everyone else on the pitch was incredible and he never even made it to pro.
Jimmy is retiring (being retired?) Probably the right call, but still it'll feel weird without him.
Also just saw that he's played in a fifth of all England tests.
That cannot be right surely. *looks it up* 187 from 1071. Pretty close to it.
I don't think they should retire him. They should pick the strongest team for each game. If he's in it pick him, if he isn't then don't. Far too much 'planning' going on.
My thoughts on it too. If he is fit and playing well why wouldn’t you pick him.
Edit: looks like he hasn’t played this season and apparently won’t until the end of May to ‘manage his workload’. Odd decision.
Last edited by Danny; 10-05-2024 at 06:10 PM.
Wonder if it’s him who has leaked it or if it’s the ECB? If it’s the ECB then they need to have a long hard look at themselves.
I had an interesting weekend. Doing my first Premier League game was pressure enough so then imagine my surprise when we were out for the toss, out came the captains and one of them was Mark Stoneman. He is still playing champo for Middlesex so how he found himself in this position playing for a Surrey club side with which he has no previous connection (to my knowledge) is anyone's guess, but there we are. This was in fact his first visit to their ground and it was interesting to watch him managing his really quite shit bowlers and being baffled when the oppo were not able to rotate the strike at will like pros can. The carb-fest beige tea also seemed not to his liking. He was actually a nice guy, with his alreet and play-ahs and what have you the accent stuck out a bit in Surrey. The useless other team dropped him twice on his way to 55 and then he holed out to deep square, much to the delight of the emotionally unstable Saffa who was bowling at the time.
Only once during the game did I incur the wrath of Stoneman and his Kiwi bowling accomplice when not giving them an LBW, I felt it was sliding down but they were of the opposite opinion and he barked at me HE GOT ACROSS, LIKE in purest geordie. I had been warned that top-end teams like to 'test' umpires they don't know and perhaps that was it.
Is that the Kiwi you mentioned further up? Is he quick or are New Zealand looking at a barren era?
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