Future of Cricket - Lord McLaurin Suggests Axeing Sussex CCC

[The Large One]

Idiot.

 

[sagaman]

Lord McTesco/McVodaphone has lost the plot

Funny when England win it's nothing to do with the Counties but when they lose its all the fault of the Counties!

Would be better looking to reduce the bloated cost base of England support staff

 

[Pinkie Brown]

I would rather axe Lord....whatever his name is. Clear off back to the House of Lords and carry on napping through some obscure debate......

 

[AgerBomb22]

He wants to get rid of the best county team of the last decade? His lordship can off in the general direction of ****.

 

[Brixtaan]

Alot of brave lives were lost when the people of Kent took land from Sussex so to now suggest that the two counties merge in the name of cricket is disrespectful. Besides, i can't see how an historic sleeping giant like Kent could incorporate little Sussex. Have they not learnt from the Gillingham ground-share fiasco?

 

[sparkie]

Can't really lose both Sussex and Kent, or do we all just merge with Surrey

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

MacLaurin has been involved with the EBC for years now and does have an understanding of our game. I think the point he is trying to prove is that there are far too many meaningless games in the Championship. I'm might be wrong but I don't think that two Divisions has worked as we see the likes of Carberry playing in Division Two one week opening in Tests the next week.
He might end up playing in division 3 the way Pants are performing.

We need our players playing against the best players in the world week in week out, I've said on here before go back to two overseas players, in the 70's and 80's every County had a quality quick bowler and top class batsman. Currently we see players who really aren't good enough moving from County to County as there is nothing better around, Gatting to Hampshire being a classic example.
That is never going to happen again because of money spinning 20/20 leagues.Big Bash/IPL etc

Do away with Central Contracts, get the Test players playing in the County Championship, make them hungry for success and ensure that they are playing against the best players in the world and not just twatting average bowling around the park or taking cheap wickets.
They wouldnt care, they would just end up with freelance 20/20 specialists

CC cricket and to a degree Test Match cricket has been shafted by Sky and Indian TV money.
The Ashes should be played every 2 years, alternating home and away.
This last series was wasted because they have only just finished the last one in August, all to suit the Cricket World Cup and Champions Trophey and 20/20 World Cup

 

[Postman Pat]

Aren't we paying in part for the whole Kolpak issue, we lost a number of young players from the game as many clubs were happier to sign 23/25 year old South africans/Zimbabweans etc.. and then blocked any development of young players. These are the young players who would have been maturing now and pushing for a place in the England set-up.

 

[keaton]

3 leagues of 6 counties each might make things a bit more interesting

it's seemed like the logical thing for a while to do that. You'd then have more teams playing more competive games a season ( for the last two months of the season half of division 2 becomes meaningless)

Going back to main point his logic makes no sense.
I would say the CountyChampionship is far better at getting players prepared to play for England than the England set-up is. Look at the youngsters England have coached, put in Lions and given debuts to that they've messed around: Finn, Root (soon), James Taylor, Adil Rashid, Amjad Khan, Woakes, etc. It's the players who've been called up and gone straight in that have a decent job and kept going: Trott, Prior, Bresnan, to some extent Compton and Carberry

 

[keaton]

CC cricket and to a degree Test Match cricket has been shafted by Sky and Indian TV money.
The Ashes should be played every 2 years, alternating home and away.
This last series was wasted because they have only just finished the last one in August, all to suit the Cricket World Cup and Champions Trophey and 20/20 World Cup

How is that Sky or Indian TVs fault. The ECB made the decisions

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Maybe not their fault, but they are paying massive money to lure players and as you say The ECB, so in a roundabout way, I hold them responsable.
Them and govening fat cats that get gifts and backhanders for agreeing to their demands. Much in the way Blatter does for FIFA .

 

[Pavilionaire]

I don't see that the two division set-up has made any difference in improving the standard of English cricket. They may as well have split the sides into a North and South conference to save time and money on travelling.

 

[Pavilionaire]

For the record, since the county championship split into 2 divisions in 2000 only Lancashire have spent more seasons in Div 1 (12) than Sussex (11). Of the three seasons we spent in Div 2, twice we finished champions.

If a league table were drawn up with points given on a sliding scale with 18 for finishing Div Champions and 1 point for finishing bottom of Div 2 then Sussex would be in third place on 185 points, just behind Lancashire and Warwickshire. Kent, incidentally, have spent 10 seasons in Div 1 and would sit 7th on that table.

If you want to see what's been wrong with the English game then look no further than Lord's and Middlesex - only 6 seasons in Div 1, placed 11th in the table, their best-ever finish 4th place in Div 1 in 2004.

 

[brakespear]

the thing is, there isn't really enough time in a school year to play much competitive cricket, as it comes just before the biggest holiday and smack bang in the middle of exam season. I remember playing about 4, perhaps 5 games a year at school level. not really worth a state school preparing and maintaining a grass wicket for that.

This. When I was at school (albeit in the non-traditionally cricket county of Cornwall) we only played cricket in the last term of the last year, and only three or four proper matches.

 

[joeinbrighton]

surely more teams = more potential youngsters getting a chance?

It depends. There are some counties where a lot of their team are taken up by Kolpak players, Northants for example.

 

[BrianWade4]

He's probably suggested Sussex & Kent as our grounds are not international venues and we don't make enough money for the ECB, who are the other counties he suggests culling, let me guess, Gloucs, Derbys, Leics, Essex, Somerset ?

He said merge: Sussex and Kent; Gloucs and Glamorgan / Somerset; and Warwickshire with Northants

Alan Lamb then came on and agreed with him

 

[getreal1]

Why would a reduction in counties improve the national side?

Has he dreamed this up overnight? Do we need a radical change or do we accept that the side is in a state of transition. If anything, we need to cull the amount of international cricket.

Lose Sussex? His Lordship can **** right off.

He certainly can.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

An interesting take on the future of international cricket.

Worrying times ahead?

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/710789.html

 

[Mackenzie]

That's funny because I suggest we axe Lord McLaurin....preferably in the head.

 

[Sloe Joe]

Future of 'Lord McLaughin' - axe the tw*t asap before he heads into total dementia.

Fit and proper - your guess is as good as mine.................
Time for the old folks home McLaughin before you wet yourself again in front of 90 year olds perched on their zimmers.
When did YOU last watch a county game, you incontinent, decrepit tw*tface ?