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How many consecutive centuries are you away from Test selection?

Jarquis

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
A question borne of a disussion with Cribb about his objection to Joe Burns' coverblocks.

I am quite the purveyor of the gulleyblock myself; which apparently is fine as I'm not trying to play Test cricket with them... or aren't I?

Ultimately, we all try and score as many runs as we can, each time we go out to bat. If we were all of sudden to find ourselves successful in that pursuit - how rapidly do we think we'd be able to ascend to national honours/making our debut at Lord's/donning the bagging green/having an effigy made in our honour? Delete as appropriate depending on what floats your boat.
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
I think it's impossible even if I scored a hundred consecutive hundreds.

I would have to start by getting a local club to give me a game. And because I'm not young, scoring big runs in birmingham south division 6 or whatever isn't going to be newsworthy.

If I kept moving up the divisions and did that for a few seasons it might be enough to attract the attention of some county scouts, but I don't think any of them are looking at local club cricket for successful 30+ ear olds as I would be by then. Their entire system relies on a different pathway (youth cricket->university cricket-> county academy/seconds->county) and doesn't feature the kind of clubs I'd be able to get a gig for in the next three years.

So even if I made an unarguable case of being the best player in Warwickshire (and Warwickshire cared) I'd be 33+ by the time I played for them, and so England wouldn't care.
 

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
I think it's impossible even if I scored a hundred consecutive hundreds.

I would have to start by getting a local club to give me a game. And because I'm not young, scoring big runs in birmingham south division 6 or whatever isn't going to be newsworthy.

If I kept moving up the divisions and did that for a few seasons it might be enough to attract the attention of some county scouts, but I don't think any of them are looking at local club cricket for successful 30+ ear olds as I would be by then. Their entire system relies on a different pathway (youth cricket->university cricket-> county academy/seconds->county) and doesn't feature the kind of clubs I'd be able to get a gig for in the next three years.

So even if I made an unarguable case of being the best player in Warwickshire (and Warwickshire cared) I'd be 33+ by the time I played for them, and so England wouldn't care.
Surely if you managed to get to county level and score a century in every match in a season they’d have to give you a shot. That adds up to a lotta consecutive centuries tho.
 

Daemon

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Singapore won’t get Test status anytime soon. Very difficult to know.

I’d be playing ODIs/T20Is by next year though.
 

Arachnodouche

International Captain
I'm almost forty and I still daydream about being selected at my age out of nowhere and having a GOAT series with both bat and ball (Bradmanesque AND Marshallesque) in the toughest of conditions while the rest of the side fails miserably :laugh:
 
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cnerd123

likes this
I'm almost forty and I still daydream about being selected at my age out of nowhere and having a GOAT series with both bat and ball (Bradmanesque AND Marshallesque) in the toughest of conditions while the rest of the side flails miserably :laugh:
the day that dream dies is the day we die as cricket fans
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
I just need to translate my super international cricket form to real life and ill be in the mix within a year.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I feel like I could slip back into local a-grade here on the back of only one or two centuries in lower grade. From there if I made maybe four or five consecutive centuries in local a-grade, I think premier cricket might get interested as there'd be a bit of media. Might play a premier seconds game on the back of that. One or two more there would get me into premier a-grade. From there I think I'd need another four or five in premier cricket for Victoria to think about me, but there'd be quite considerable media hype around a guy in his late 30s making so many tons. Into the Shield team and from there, with the way things are in Aust, another four or five (maybe as little as two) would get me mentioned and most likely selected for Australia.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 15-17 I think is realistic.
 

Burgey

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Generally speaking, once you're playing for a reasonable grade club, a patch of decent form will see you promoted. So say you started in fifth grade, made a couple of tons - went to fours and did the same, you'd go to threes where you'd probably need at least three to get you into twos then another two or three at best to get you into ones, depending on the club and how they're going. So ten, give or take.

Then it gets really tough. You'd have to make enough in a row in first grade to got Second XI. So if you're doing it at less than age 20, you'll need none if you're Sangha or Edwards, but anyone else that age, say five or six in a row to catch the eye. If you're 22 or above, you basically need to have Bert/ Solway runs of form for two-three years to get a Shield game. Anyway, now you're up to say 15-16 tons in a row to get to second XI.

With blokes away on national duty, if you made three tons on the bounce you'd probably get a look into the Shield side. Once you're there, you'd want to peel off 5 tons in a row as a rookie to be considered for the test side, and only then if that side is struggling. If it isn't and they're scoring bulk runs, then you'll need to keep doing it indefinitely to get a go.

So at a minimum, 20-23 tons in a row might do it. In other words, it's impossible.
 
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