t20 Ultimate Team

Five years ago, EA Sports launched FIFA Ultimate Team. A game mode that allows players to build their own team of players from across the world. It works very well for football, so why not cricket? Or more specifically, t20 cricket. Nearly a year ago I did a team of the week for the Natwest Blast. Last season I, somewhat retrospectively, rated all the players in the Blast and created Cricket Ultimate Team. Over the off-season, I've tinkered with it and expanded to the IPL, CPL (Caribbean Premier League) and later in the year the BBL.

The first 2 IPL Team of the Weeks are here. Take a look.

TOTW1

TOTW2

Franchise t20 in England. The Question.

The debate about whether England should or shouldn't adopt a franchise t20 system has raised its head again in the wake of the recently concluded Australian Big Bash competition.

Personally I’m open to the idea of franchises in England but have some major concerns about it.

In the Big Bash games drew in big crowds largely due to reasonably priced tickets and the competition being held in the Christmas holidays.

In Australia, the grounds where games were played are much bigger than grounds we have here. How can you get 44,000 fans into a ground for a London Derby when the capacity of Lord’s is 28000?

The way Australia is as a country geographically means 8 teams from 6 cities works. Have 8 teams in the UK and that’s a lot of people who will lose out. One of the best bits of our competition is that you can get down to a local ground after work just in time for the start. Let’s put that into context. You finish work at 5pm in Peterborough. The match at Northampton starts at 6:30. Simple (even with being stuck behind a lorry down most of the A605).

Now let’s try that again for a franchise competition. You finish work at 5pm in Peterborough. The match at Nottingham (the nearest franchise) starts at 6:30. More difficult.

If the Warwickshire/Worcestershire franchise played the Notts/Northants/Leicestershire franchise, is there a guarantee that more fans would turn up for it than they would for a Notts vs Worcestershire game?

The Test Series After Party (Or Main Event if Your Indian) Part 1

With Test Matches done for the summer, England's attention turns to white ball cricket. India's attention has probably been there since they produced a performance worthy of the occupants of the 'other' Old Trafford back in Manchester. There was a same old, same old feel to the squad announced for the one-dayers. A squad without Ravi Bopara. Thats the all-rounder Ravi Bopara who can hurry through ten overs of economical medium pace bowling and then clear the boundary with consummate ease.

Hales in action for Notts

The inclusion of Alex Hales in the squad is at least a positive move, but then he was in the squad for the Sri Lanka ODI's but didn't even play when Cook missed out through injury. Alex Hales has proven in County Cricket this summer that there is more to his game than just t20. In fact its become hard to not think he can open in all three formats for England in a way David Warner does for Australia.

England have scheduled plenty of ODI's over the coming months to prepare for the World Cup. Being in Australia where par is, more times than not, 300 "power hitters" should be in the minds of the selectors. Preserving wickets for an assault in the last 10 overs may well work fine in England but in Australia 60-3 after ten overs is better than 31-0. If England really are serious about preparing for this World Cup, the pitches in this India series should mimic those that will be encountered in Australia. I'd like to see the likes of Vince, Roy and Willey seriously considered to the extent where at least 2 of them will be on the plane to Australia.

Blast Off!

The changes to the domestic t20 game for 2014 were initially greeted with a mixed reception. Personally I wasn’t too fussed by the name (Natwest t20 Blast) and I especially like the “Friday night is t20 night” vibe coming from the ECB. However whether or not the new two groups of nine proves more successful than three groups of six remains to be seen.

I got my first taste of the new look t20 competition at Lord’s where Middlesex took on Essex and then Sussex in a double header. The two games were unbelievably contrasting. Firstly Essex, led by Mark Pettini’s 95*, superbly chased down 180. The pitch took a dramatic turn between games and Sussex ended up defending a modest 128.

As is the way with t20 these days, the Cricket is accompanied by other novelties. The music, part of t20 since the early days, has been kept up to date with present hits (a.k.a songs I don’t know!) with the old classics (Chelsea Dagger for example) still getting a spin. Flamethrowers shoot into the air with every boundary and wicket, while drummers provide piece of the pre-game entertainment. During the match “Blast breaks” now take place. In essence, volunteers throw t-shirts into the crowd between certain overs.

So far then, the Natwest t20 Blast has left a good first impression on me. Next stop: Northampton on Friday.

Team of the Week

There were some impressive performances over the first weekend of action. Here is my FIFA Ultimate Team style team of the week...
Dawid Malan (Middlesex) 86* vs Essex

Mark Pettini (Essex) 95* vs Middlesex

Calum MacLeod (Durham) 80 vs Worcestershire

Scott Styris (Leicestershire) 63 vs Derbyshire

Paul Collingwood (Durham) 62 & 3-29 vs Worcestershire

Samit Patel (Notts) 56 & 2-25 vs Lancashire

Ben Duckett (Northants) 39* vs Yorkshire (wk)

Ian Butler (Northants) 4-25 vs Yorkshire

Will Owen (Glamorgan) 3-32 vs Hampshire

Steffan Piolet  (Sussex) 4-0-15-2 vs Middlesex

Dirk Nannes (Somerset) 4-21 vs Gloucestershire

The argument against franchises

It’s good to see the ECB haven’t bowed down to franchises for the domestic t20 competition. Here are two arguments against franchises;
1) The current format allows people to get to a t20 game straight after work and be home in good time. If you had, for example, 8 franchises each based at 8 major grounds (Lord’s, Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Headingley, Trent Bridge, Ageas Bowl and the SWALEC Stadium) you’d lose that convenience factor. If the ECB went to 8 major franchises, how could Joe Soap  who works 20 odd miles away from Taunton get down to a t20 game after work if his nearest teams were based in Wales and Southampton!?

2) The IPL may be full of superstar players, but none of the teams in it can call themselves underdogs. Let’s not forget, humble Northants are the defending t20 in England and their victory last year was a true underdog story.

Final Over

For t20 Cricket, an IPL game seems to take forever to get through. A seemingly unnecessary amount of time is taken between consecutive deliveries being bowled. I don’t understand why there has to be two Strategic Timeouts in an innings. They seem to slow the game down. Why the IPL doesn’t have a 1 hour 20 minute timeframe for an innings is beyond me. Then again, it is a competition derived by the BCCI!

And it begins....

Its the same old story these days, and no I don't mean Sebastian Vettel winning all the time, I'm referring to Shane Warne's usual pre-Ashes series prediction which always has Australia to win the series. This time, his 2-1 prediction is based on Alastair Cook's captaincy.

According to Warne, Cook can be 'negative, boring and not very imaginative'. Traits he believes could cost England the series. He went on to claim 'Cook would never have a leg slip in place'. Except then Mr Warne, at Lords last summer when he put himself there and caught Michael Clarke. 

Here's one for Shane Warne, Cook's 'negative' captaincy has seen him to a record (as of November 4th 2013) of 16 tests, 9 wins, 6 draws with just one defeat and is yet to lose a series. 

Cook fulfilling a childhood dream-an Ashes winning captain. (Daily Telegraph)

Warne carried on, claiming Cook 'lets the game drift and waits for the game to come to him'. Was Warne watching England in India where Cook, on three consecutive occasions, took the fight to the Indians. Or what about the test in Dunedin where Cook led by example by in the second innings by scoring a hundred and giving England a foothold in a game they drew. Perhaps Shane Warne wants Cook to employ lose-to-win more often. But, I'm really struggling here to think of an occasion when England had a chance of doing that. Lords against Australia with a first innings lead of 233? Was Cook supposed to go after a quick 50-odd runs and set Australia a target of 280? Which captain would be foolish enough to do that in a test match? What about the last test in India on a dead pitch? Dhoni declared a few runs behind with a day left. With England 2-1 up in the series and on the brink of a historic win in India what did England have to gain by offering 'joke bowling' and setting up a result? Nil. 

Perhaps if anything is boring and unimaginative it's Shane Warne's comments on Cook. He was never overly impressed by former England captain Andrew Strauss either.

Sports Personality shout outs

2013 Sports Personality of the Year? (Daily Telegraph)

Its getting near that time of year again as the BBC start to turn their attention to Sports Personality of the Year nominations. As well the main award, every region has their own local award. My nomination for the East's SPOTY? David Willey. As great as Andy Murray winning Wimbledon was, I know who I'll be voting for. Anyone who thrice defies the Aussies is a deserving winner in my book. As for team of the year? Its got to be Northants.

2013 Team of the Year? (itv.com)

The Northants turnaround

It was a cloudy evening in central Northampton. The back of Somerset's run chase of a modest 116 has been well and truly broken by Richard Levi and Craig Kieswetter and Jos Buttler and James Hildreth simply take the sting out of the attack to see Somerset home. It was one of 7 defeats for Northants in the 2012 Friends Life t20 group stage. In fact, the Steelbacks won 4 games in all forms of cricket in 2012. This year, things seemed different. It started in the County Championship and YB40 as they more than doubled their wins tally from 2012 by the end of June. So when I made my first visit of the year to Wantage Road to see Northants take on Warwickshire in their second home game of their t20 campaign, in the sun I might add, there was a sense of positivity around the ground.

Northants chose to bat first and all four required batsman scored at over a run a ball. Kyle Coetzer carried his bat. Richard Levi, who as mentioned earlier played for Somerset against Northants last year, also played a useful knock as the Steelbacks racked up 161 off their 20 overs. Over to the bowlers. Mohammad Azharullah was excpetional taking 4-25 and rightly being named man of the match. It was a fantastic all round performance and in complete contrast to 2012.

The Warwickshire game

I returned to Wantage Road a few weeks later for the Somerset game. A brilliant innings from Steven Crook saw Northants to 150-8. It turned out to be enough as Mohammad Azharullah was again in the wickets taking 3-16 from his 4 overs.

Somerset under lights

After several impressive performances in the group stage, Northants are in the Friends Life t20 quarter finals. I'll be there for the Durham game on Tuesday. Northants are the surprise package in the England domestic game this year. I hope people write us off. I hope we continue to surprise teams. What a turnaround in just over twelve months if we get to Finals day...

A Day at the Cricket

There are few better things to do on a Saturday in April than watching some cricket. Especially when one of the teams has a player as dynamic as Jos Buttler and the other is captained by the leader of the best cricket team in the world. As soon as the weather forecast looked good and the day dawned bright and sunny, my mind was completely made up. I was going to the fourth day of Surrey vs Somerset at the Oval. The Oval is relatively convenient for me. A short trip to Huntingdon station followed by quick train to London then a stint on the Northern line down to Oval station.

It was a beautiful day for cricket. Completely blue skies, with so few clouds you could count them on one hand. To get in for the day, an adult ticket was, Football take note, £12. For juniors it was just a pound. One pound! About an hour or so before the start of play, there was still a fair bit of action going on. Somerset were warming up in nets on the outfield, with Marcus Trescothick and then Alviro Petersen practicing their slip catching. Surrey meanwhile were having a game of football (careful lads!). Despite being a hot day, it was cold in the
shade. Especially when all your wearing on your top half is a shirt and a jumper thats half way between full-on knitwear and a long sleeved top.

The tranquility of the day is pierced by the odd low flying aircraft, the occasional "oooh" as the ball misses the outside edge as well as the solid, unmistakable tone, of leather making contact with willow. The occasional cry of "Come on the Reeeey" comes from the Laker stand.

Somerset resumed on 6-0, a lead of 24 after Surrey declared 18 runs behind. Stuart Meaker bowled well all day (he'd finish with 5-60) and Trescothick departed in the 6th over. 3 more wickets fell before lunch and at 100-4 there was a slim chance of a result if Surrey could take quick wickets. Alviro Petersen played extremely well for his 91. There is no home or away end in cricket so each milestone is applauded and respected as if the player or team was being supported all round the ground.

At lunch, and tea, fan
s are allowed onto the outfield. The equivalent of being allowed on the pitch at Wembley at half time in the FA Cup final. After sitting in the shade (cold) in the morning session, I moved closer to the pavilion for the afternoon session and to the Bedser stand for the final session. The Bedser stand is situated right in front of the dressing rooms meaning the players walk right past you. Being a raised stand, the view is fantastic.

Somerset went into the final session 8 wickets down with a lead in excess of 200. This ensured the draw was the only realistic result. So after Jos Buttler was out for 94 (knowing he was facing the last over went for a six to try and bring up his hundred and got caught on the boundary) Marcus Trescothick declared, ensuring the draw.