MCC champion women’s cricket at Loughborough Thursday, February 21, 2008

I was delighted to read today that Loughborough University has been named as the country’s first women’s University Centre of Cricket Excellence (UCCE) thanks to additional funding from Marylebone Cricket Club. MCC’s investment of nearly £30,000 in the Loughborough centre takes the total Club spend on the six UCCE’s (collectively known as MCC Universities) past the £2 million mark since 2005, the year that it began funding the scheme.

As a graduate of Loughborough University and an MCC member, I am delighted by this announcement because of the important boost it will give to the development of the womens game. .

Labels: cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 10:51 PM Permanent Link ,

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MCC deal with Saga inevitable Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I offer the heading in jest, but confess to a wry smile when I read in an Marylebone Cricket Club ["MCC"] circular to members, which I received today from Lords, that there are over 3,500 members of the club aged over 72 and who were elected at least 27 years ago.

The same circular advised that there is now an estimated 20 year wait for new candidates for club membership to be admitted to full membership.

Labels: cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 7:19 PM Permanent Link ,

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Matches at Lords 2008

In case you're a cricket fanatic like myself, I've created an ical enabled calendar of matches at Lords that you can subscribe to and thereby incorporate the match dates in your own online [google calendar, airset...] or Outlook calendars without having to rekey the information.

Simply use the ical link below http://www.airset.com/services/iCal/public/15699/TheLordsCricketCalendar2008.ics

I will endeavour to maintain it to take account of any changes to the fixture list, but always check the official Lords site for safety.

Labels: 2008, calendar, cricket, fixtures, ical, lords, matches

posted by John Wilson @ 6:41 PM Permanent Link ,

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India triumph at Twenty20 World Cup Monday, September 24, 2007

I was fortunate enough to see the thrilling end of the Twenty20 final today whilst waiting for someone to show up. India set a doable total for Pakistan to chase but Pakistan made hard work of it and looked to have left it too late, especially when losing 2 quick wickets in the final 17 balls.

However, the game suddenly swung Pakistan's way when they hit a huge six, leaving them requiring six off four balls. It was their's for the taking. So what on earth possessed their batsman to move across the wicket and attempt to lob the wicket keeper only to leave an easy catch for long leg, only he knows.

So India won the final in thrilling style. And what an important win for Cricket.

After India and Pakistan exited the One Day World Cup in the qualifying rounds, viewing figures and related ad revenues plummeted. India is the world's biggest cricket market enjoyed by over 1 billion people, with a further 350 million across S E Asia. India v Pakistan games attract 400m viewers in India, transfixing the nation on a sport that generates $300m of ad revenues for the cricket authorities in India.

Twenty20 is a fast paced game with lots of excitement in an ideal TV format and which pulls in big live audiences. Unfortunately, things are going to get messy in India as two competing leagues battle out for supremacy. Worse, as one of those is the official Board of Control for Cricket, it means the players that join the rival commercial league look set to be banned from the game.

I hope they resolve this amicably and the finest teams can be assembled to compete in a domestic Indian league.

Meantime, JP will be one happy chappy tonight!

Labels: cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 10:48 PM Permanent Link ,

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Cricket on Google Thursday, September 13, 2007

Many thanks to Mike Butcher (now re-installed in Techcrunch UK) for this spot.

Google is extending its intelligent searching with cricket scores for the Twenty20 world championship. All fans need to do is type “cricket” into a Google search box and they’ll get a brief score of all the current cricket matches. A single click will also give you access to a detailed cricket score card. “Cricket india” or “cricket score India England” will bring up results for Indian matches, or whatever country you put in.

I'm sure that JP and I will be big user of this.

Labels: cricinfo, cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 10:59 AM Permanent Link ,

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Livening up test cricket Monday, July 23, 2007

I spent a fabulous day in the Pavillion at Lords on Sunday watching some great cricket including Kevin Pieterson's hundred and Sachin Tendulkar's last innings at Lords. The game was fascinating, with India fending off England's attempt to win the match.

The game sadly (for England) ended today in a draw with bad light halting play, with only one Indian wicket remaining. In part England were at fault for a slow over rate - a faster over rate would have given England more opportunities to bowl India out in time.

JP Rangaswami had gone to the game on Saturday (we'd hoped to meet up during the Test but it was not to be) and I know he will have been mightly relieved that India held out. In blogging about the game here, I was most entertained by his suggestion how to liven up a test match, which he submitted to a national paper.

someone in the FT asked the question “If you could introduce one new rule, or amend an existing rule, to bring the fans back to Test cricket, what would it be?” or words to that effect.
My entry was simple. Introduce a new rule. Henceforth, a batsman is not allowed to have faced more than six dot balls in succession, he must score off the seventh. In addition, he must score a boundary within every 24-ball sequence. If he fails to do either, he is given out for “Abusing the audience”. [I guess there weren’t that many entries, because I won the competition]

Nice idea JP, but it's just not cricket. Then again, they said the same about 20/20 when it was mooted.

Labels: cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 11:46 PM Permanent Link ,

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Barbarians got past the gate (and onto the wicket) Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Churches are normally considered sacred, not to be entered/violated/harmed by invading hordes.

So the news that ESPN has bought Cricinfo is sad indeed. It perhaps does explain why Andrew Hall, the Product Manager at Cricinfo, kept cancelling our after-work drinks in the last few weeks. Sure, ESPN will be able to make considerable investment in the brand to further develop this veteran of the online world, which launched in 1993, and which has a huge global following (7 million unique visitors per month and is ranked in the top 300 sites online according to Alexa). But, you have to worry that soon the commentaries from Cricinfo may get editorial interference from across the Atlantic, looking to spice up a game the Barbarians have never understood

So Gabby, we're at top of the 4th innings with WI needing 63 off 90 to level the series with 2 batters left to get to the pitching zone! Monty pitches and it fizzles into the mitt of the defensive guard.

Fellow members will be tutting in the Lords Pavilion. Sacrilege indeed.

Labels: cricinfo, cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 9:18 AM Permanent Link ,

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Cricket World Cup has begun Monday, March 12, 2007

Completely off subject, but the cricket World Cup has kicked off in the West Indies. Thoroughly expect England to get murdered but it's going to be a great tournament to watch. Don't forget you can keep up with ball-by-ball commentary and 3d avatar replays on Cricinfo if you can't remain glued to a TV set. However, you obviously can't just stay at home to watch this - nah, think I'll head up to Lords to watch it in the Members Lounge. Wonder if I can persuade them to install wireless internet.........

Labels: cricinfo, cricket

posted by John Wilson @ 10:50 AM Permanent Link ,

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The pitfalls of sporting arrogance - Aussie style Sunday, February 11, 2007

A couple of weeks ago, this was what greeted the English cricket team.

Australian cricket coach John Buchanan has poured scorn on England and New Zealand, saying their lack of opposition in the one-day tri-series is undermining Australia's World Cup bid.

"In essence, the batting efforts of our opposition are not assisting the development of our bowlers' one-day skills, and the decision making that accompanies being placed under the microscope of competition."

So after England's 2-0 victory over the Aussies in the Commerweath Bank Cup, these headlines made for a pleasant change. Guess it proves Buchanan's point.