**Official** County Cricket 2017

[S.Kennedy]

If you are trying to produce the best facilities, doing it at the county level is always going to be difficult without providing advantages to some counties. How much does the ECB contribute towards county facilities?

Not much considering they are sitting on 70 plus million, just in case, (this was the reason provided - I kid you not), ''Her Majesty the Queen dies''! It is actually MCC/Lord's which runs the cricketing universities, the MCCUs as they are called, e.g. Durham MCC University, Loughborough, etc.

 

[Tom Flint]

What's the future for rashid at Yorkshire? The mood towards him from senior players and captain/new coach gale was extremely negative after he pulled out of the modded yorks title decider. You reckon they are going to try to bring through their young spinner in the championship even when rash is available?

 

[S.Kennedy]

He cited personal reasons (a family member taken ill?) yet certainly went to Bangladesh three weeks later so I bet the Tykes are suspicious. Gale's ''he wants to rest. That’s his decision. I’ll take 11 lads on the field who will give everything to win” was cutting.

Vaughan's defense of the Bairstow decision yet criticism of Rashid's, that is that Bairstow ''is an England player'', did not make a lot of sense since Rashid is also an 'England player'' and that neither were centrally contracted at the time, but then Vaughan speaks a lot of nonsense these days including his advocacy of four day tests and his support for the Durham penalties.

 

[Tom Flint]

Yeah i wonder if they'll just give rafiq a proper run in the side now for the red ball stuff instead of changing the team every time rash is availible. Although they will probably miss his lower order runs more than his bowling.

 

[theegyptian]

Can't help but be excited by England's batting options going into the 2019 WC. Theoretically the group should all still be improving upto 2019 (possibly with Morgan the only exception).

Billings played a very impressive knock yesterday in PSL. PLayed the spin really well. Has the big shots but also scores of most deliveries. Calm and composed. Looks to be on the verge of really breaking through but will he get the opportunity with England?

Still hard for him to get into the England ODI side. 8 into 7 doesn't go (or 6 into 5). Billings is going to put some serious pressure on Roy, Hales and Morgan for their spots but I don't think any of them really deserve to be dropped. Hales is the most vulnerable but Billings is best suited to the middle order. Hales (and Roy) is still a better opener imo. Billings if he played for a year I feel would be better than Morgan but that isn't going to happen.

The only way I could get Billings into the side is bring him in for Hales, promote Ali to open, and slot Billings in at 5 or 6 with Stokes dropping to 7. i.e Roy, Ali, Root, Morgan, Billings, Buttler, Stokes
It would make better use of Moeen's skills and the middle order would be a lot stronger and more adaptable. I can't see it happening though as they seem to have completely disregarded Moeen as a white ball opener.
There's no perfect solution though. Even with this team you'd have two openers who aren't really capable of going on. Too many 30,40s and not enough big hundreds and you want at least one of your openers capable of making those massive scores that settle games.

Billings in for Morgan would be the decision I'd make if the captaincy wasn't involved and it would be incredibly harsh on Morgan.

Stokes and Ali kind of get a free ride for their spots at the moment with England wanting the 6 bowlers. Stokes is improving as a bat, very good fielder and average to poor bowler so is guaranteed a spot. Moeen on the other hand could be vulnerable - his odi game has gone no-where. But Billings for Mo is a no go really giveen it leaves the bowling really light.

 

[Pothas]

I think put Root up to open, Stokes up to 3 and then Morgan, Buttler, Billings, Moeen.

Would be really harsh on Hales, but they should at least try it while he is injured.

 

[grecian]

I see the Loins have been consistent by going for England's strict "no Somerset" policy, got to admire the consistency.

 

[Tom Flint]

Unbelievable not to play leach, they will probably say it's down to the issue with his action but it always looked perfectly fine to me. I'm mddsx myself but I've no leach is the better bowler especially as it's being played in sri lanka

 

[S.Kennedy]

I thought he'd been away remodeling his action, (that is if there ever was any truth in the chucking claim in the first place)? It has all been handled appallingly by the ECB and could lead to the decline of a spin bowling talent.

 

[Bijed]

I thought he'd been away remodeling his action, (that is if there ever was any truth in the chucking claim in the first place)? It has all been handled appallingly by the ECB and could lead to the decline of a spin bowling talent.

I've got a feeling he's played in a Lions game or two since remodelling his action, but I may be mistaken and in any case he may have worked on it further since. Apparently he was left out of this one "to provide him more time to groove it in the nets before testing it under the pressure of a match situation" after taking 0-68 of 14 in a warm-up match, which is not an especially promising sign but not exactly enough to form a conclusion from. Really, really hope he comes through.

 

[S.Kennedy]

It doesn't sound like it is going well for Wood.

 

[JRC67]

I've got a feeling he's played in a Lions game or two since remodelling his action, but I may be mistaken and in any case he may have worked on it further since. Apparently he was left out of this one "to provide him more time to groove it in the nets before testing it under the pressure of a match situation" after taking 0-68 of 14 in a warm-up match, which is not an especially promising sign but not exactly enough to form a conclusion from. Really, really hope he comes through.

I watched him play against Afghanistan and he didn't look comfortable. I suspect it is going to take him quite a lot of time to get back to where he was.

 

[Bijed]

I watched him play against Afghanistan and he didn't look comfortable. I suspect it is going to take him quite a lot of time to get back to where he was.

Ahh, that's a shame. I was getting really quite excited by his success during the last season.

 

[SeamUp]

Leicestershire playing Titans at Super Sport Park as part of their new partnership. Anyone have any idea where to find a scorecard? Just seen Titans scored 317/8 on twitter.

 

[ImpatientLime]

TRJ absolutely gunning it for the lions.

get him in the test squad dammit.

 

[Watson33]

It's getting a bit silly to have the 2016 thread still here when we're talking about new stuff

Anyway MCC include Haseeb Hameed & Ben Duckett for county season opener against Middlesex - BBC Sport

MCC XI:

Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire)

Tom Alsop (Hampshire)

Sam Northeast (capt, Kent)

Ben Duckett (Northants)

Joe Clarke (Worcestershire)

Ben Cox (Worcestershire)

Lewis Gregory (Somerset)

Matt Coles (Kent)

Matt Fisher (Yorkshire)

Mason Crane (Hampshire)

Jack Leach (Somerset)

Good to see a selection of Worcs players in there, though i'm amazed Joe Leach isn't in the team. Harsh for him to take 60+ wickets and amass about 600 runs and not get a look in. Performs in both forms of the game too. Have the North vs South squads been announced? It would be horrendous for him not to be included in that.

 

[marc71178]

TRJ absolutely gunning it for the lions.

get him in the test squad dammit.

Ahead of who though?

 

[theegyptian]

Good day for Sussex and Durham. They'll get their cut of this Mills and Stokes money. Durham I think will only get the value of Stokes' central contract that he misses so maybe £100k or less. Mills isn't on a central contract so it's not so clear but in the past it's been 10% of the IPL paypacket, so possibly £145k to Sussex. Not bad for sussex given Mills wouldn't be playing in that time anyway. Mills will want to drop that Sussex contract at some point and become a freelance guy maybe if (a big if) he's going to get similar contracts at the IPL

Woakes getting a contract is excellent news for England's white ball teams imo. Kind of mediocre to this point as a bowler and especially average at the end of the innings. A month or two concentrating on white ball cricket should be great for him.

 

[S.Kennedy]

It is all about money, cricket these days.

 

[Howe_zat]

It is all about money, cricket these days.

I too miss the days when cricket was done entirely for sunshine and rainbows