THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

At its best, it really is streets ahead of the other forms if the game, for me.

I think whatever form of cricket it is there should be a real close battle between bat and ball. With test cricket there is more opportunity for that as there is time for a team to recover from a bad session that you just don't get in the shorter form.

An interesting point made on sky commentary earlier, possibly by Michael Atherton, is that the Duke ball that we use in England makes that contest between bat and ball closer than the Kookaburra ball used in most other countries which favours the Batsmen more. I'm not sure whether that is the case or whether it's just that we're used to the Duke ball

Test cricket is the Gold Standard. At it's best, no other form beats it. The bullshit about it being dull, or not appealing to Yoof etc etc is just so wrong. The cricketing authorities "wouldn't even know a diamond if they held it in their hands". Wake up, market it right, get it on free to air telly, and reap the benefits.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Not even close. It’s like comparing chess with draughts

The laws regarding restarts after rain does not help the sport though.

Scenario: Rains for five minutes- covers rightly go on. Covers then dried and play cannot restart for another 50 minutes. Rain then restarts during the break where it's purely dead time- not too wet to play, but due to silly laws no play happened when half an hour was possible.

Was at the Oval last evening- it hammered down and as a result where the covers were sat off-field the grass was sodden. Women's game abandoned, men's game delayed. The Men's game should always have started on time- the boundary was eventually brought in and play started at 20:20, 80 minutes late. Farcical. To highlight this, the players of both sides were out warming up at 6:20 and completed their warm-ups by 7pm, and just stood in the pitch chatting to each other for about half an hour waiting for the game to start, before going back inside and THEN coming out for a second warm up before beginning.

Hear F- hear.
I'm not really a cricketing fan but it is wot it says 'on the tin' - A TEST MATCH.
A long period of attrition.
When you watch it (and know what the situation is), it becomes very absorbing.
Junior Ramones agree with me!

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

England fan: “Piece of piss this Cricket lark…”

I really hope Hameed gets to 100 tomorrow. He'll have earned it the hard way!

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"I sometimes buy the Big Issue out of social embarrassment. I don't buy a fucking bank!"

The unpredictability of Test Cricket. One day everything can just miss the edge and the opposition are 250/2 at the close of play, another day they edge everything and are all out for 78, or even better all out for 60 before lunch! But even then the game isn't over and there's plenty of time for a fight back