Cricket : The General Cricket Thread

[iadom]

Some brain dead batting from Ali and Root especially.

[denphone]

Its quite clear there is still a fair way to go if England are to ever get to be called the best team in the world as Pakistan's bowling have revealed considerable technical weaknesses in England's batting line up.

[iadom]

Really like watching paint dry, 154 deliveries without a single run being scored.

Cricket, boring nah

[denphone]

Nothing boring about seeing those arrogant Aussies losing old boy..

[iadom]

Great innings from Moeen Ali, pity that Hales, Vince and Ballance all failed again.

[denphone]

Yes its the players lower down the order who seem to be constantly rescuing England.

[iadom]

England break the record score for ODI internationals helped by a poor display from Pakistan it has to be said.

[denphone]

Still it was still nice to see it though.

[iadom]

It's quite funny watching the Sky TV summarising during this current test series in Bangladesh.

They have got tiny Ian Bell stood beside Gus Fraser who seems to put on more weight every day he comes on the screen, he is huge.

[Mr K]

Just a heads up that BT sports are showing the AUS v SA test series at the moment. I came across it by accident today. SA are giving the Aussies a good going over .

BT have the rights to all Aus home cricket for the next few years, including the next Ashes. Breaking Skys monopoly on cricket is long overdue.

[iadom]

Originally Posted by Mr K

. Breaking Skys monopoly on cricket is long overdue.

Why?

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by iadom

Why?

Anybody having a monopoly on anything isn't good. Ideally there should be some live cricket on terrestrial, even footy manages this, however those in charge of cricket in the England are more interested in short term money.

[iadom]

Unlike Sky no terrestrial channel has ever broadcast live, ball by ball, five day tests matches from all over the world. Some edited highlights are usually available on terrestrial and BT are unlikely to broadcast a full five day test match free to air apart from a possible 'loss leader' enterprise. BT's coverage of the major European football cup competitions has been a disaster as far as audience figures go and is likely to be much worse for cricket.

Sky has been a major innovator of various technologies that have dramatically improved the viewing experience, some of which are now used for the DRS protocols.

In short a monopoly can be a bad thing but if the product is first class and they don't continually hike the prices way above the norm then I don't see a problem.

[Mr K]

imo all England home Test matches should be on terrestrial tv. Channel 5 would be interested, they've sod all else to broadcast. Sky/BT could have all one day cricket, away test matches - still most of it, that should be more than enough for the greedy ECB. Viewing figures for home test matches plumetted after Sky took over from Ch4. There's a lot of kids not seeing any live cricket any longer.

[iadom]

Even when the BBC TV had a complete monopoly they never, ever broadcast ball by ball test cricket and as much as I have always been a cricket nut I accept that the demand for full, ball by ball test match cricket, even home test matches would have limited appeal.

How could viewing figures for home test matches plummet, apart from highlights there was no live test match cricket to view in the first place so how can you say viewing figures plummeted? Channel 4 never showed full, live test cricket.

---------- Post added at 20:51 ---------- Previous post was at 20:47 ----------

Many years ago the BBC used to broadcast in full the Sunday League 40 over competition and I used to watch it from start to end. The Gillette Cup final may have been shown in full but nothing else has ever been broadcast in full, from start to end until Sky came along.