talkFORUM

First day of the domestic season (no franchises here).

Yorkshire to win the Championship, Nottinghamshire for the second division. Shame that Durham have lost so many points as they could've challenged.

So far, Surrey off to a flier, Glamorgan seven down at Northampton, Notts bowling attack includes Broad, Pattinson and Gurney.

Haseeb Hameed playing a blinder - bring on the tests.

Essex to win the championship.

The BBC County cricket radio/internet coverage to win a million Sonys.

Awesome thread. Good work, JW.

Great decision by Bell the bellend to invite Surrey to bat first. 152-0

Ian Botham - 'Beef' - still thinks Durham could challenge for promotion. As a Durham supporter, I can't see it myself after losing Stoneman and Borthwick over the winter, though Mustard and Muchall will be less missed. Cook and Latham as overseas openers need a lot of runs, whilst Rushworth must continue taking buckets of wickets, and Onions needs to be fit and back to form. Stokes and, presumably, Jennings will miss most of the season on England duty too; perhaps Wood too. When all are available, Durham still have a formidable first XI, but that will probably not be seen once all season.

Zambo yet to grasp how 4 day cricket works. Maybe come back and revisit your comment on Monday.

Durham need a few more teams to do a Leicestershire for them to challenge for promotion.

Lancashire 161-6

Just give us the trophy now.

Lou Grant wrote:Essex to win the championship

Lou Grant wrote:Zambo yet to grasp how 4 day cricket works. Maybe come back and revisit your comment on Monday.

I don't know about 4 day cricket, you know fuck all about any cricket or tennis for that matter. Any captain who puts the opposition in and they reach 150 without loss has fucked up. Have you any idea why a captain puts the other side in if they win the toss? Might be OK for T20, but 4 and 5 day games unless the pitch is a rich shade of green you bat first, particularly when the sun is beating down. No swing and little movement.

Bell is a dick.

Up to -14 points now, it's on!!

What sort of crowds do cc matches get these days and are the players paid or are the all on the dole?

Good last wicket partnership by Lancy, got to 319. Chuffed this is on 5live extra, bet the tennis lot are fuming the Davies Cup isn't on.

Just need Anderson to nip a couple out and Ronnie will be well pissed off.

The tennis was on BBC2, so doubt they were that annoyed. Don't think they usually do Davis Cup on the radio as it's covered on the Beeb by TV.

Essex suffered from Cook being out injured, but hopefully he'll be back for the Somerset game. Still think there were positives today and we seem to have made some decent signings in the winter.

finchman wrote:What sort of crowds do cc matches get these days and are the players paid or are the all on the dole?

Very small, members and a few paying punters. If I lived near a county ground, membership is pretty cheap and would join. Used to work at County Hall In Nottm., overlooking Trent Bridge. Damned lazy public sector workers spending all summer watching cricket from the windows.

Used to finish at 4.30pm and nip over to TB as Notts County Council types where allowed in gratis or for a quid to the gatemen depending if he liked a coin and spend a couple of hours gaily watching with a beer before trotting off home. Never more than a couple of hundred there. As per, best moment was some old boy giving the Umpire and Allan Donald of Warks stick for the number of bouncers he was bowling. In an empty cauldron, could hear every word, probably had a sherry too many at lunch, but was correct on the bouncers.

Anyway, heard recently on TS, so must be true, maybe Goff, saying average county players get about £30k a year.