Journalism contest - Round 2 - "Cricket: A batsmans' game?"

It occurs to me that there are some budding sports journalists on this forum and that it would be nice to organise a contest to see some of their work.
Here is what will happen:

1. People will nominate topics in this thread to be written about e.g. Jones v Read, English rugby, money and football (plus other non-UK topics!)

2. I will start a poll in this thread and the topic will be choosen by the one with most votes.

3. Journalists will then have 7 days to produce an article (max 750 words). These are to be submitted to me via e-mail or PM.

4. All the articles will be posted anonymously be me in this thread and people will vote via another poll for their favourite. Voting will last 7 days.

5. The winner will recieve 1000 vcash and a user title saying PC Journalism Contest Winner.

6. We may then repeat this for another topic.

Terms and Conditions

Entry is open to all members. Maximum words is 750 and it should be written in good english with attention paid to spelling, punctuation and grammar. The admins reserve the right to reject any article which, in our opinion, does not meet basic standards of literacy although discretion may be applied where English is not the first language of the author. Usual rules apply on profanity and the admins' decision is final.
In the event of a tie, there will be a 48 hour poll with just the tied choices in. If this still fails to produce a result one of the admins who does not intend to enter the contest will be asked to choose.

Edit: Topics nominated so far

Competition 2
"Sporting culture in the UK and Australia. Why do Aussies win all the damn time?"
"OD cricket vs FC Cricket"
"Do the media have too much influence over team selections"
"Diving in Football".
"over appealing in cricket"
"Afridi: Brilliant hitter, or Mindless idiot?"
"Cricket: A batsman's game?"
"Andre Nel - love him or hate him? "
"Englands selection policy whilst touring, is it time for a change?"
"Statistics: the be all and end all?"
"Twenty20: Good or bad?"
"Cricket: A gentleman's game?"

Competition 1
"Fletcher's 'everyone must do everything' policy, right or wrong?" (1)
"The idea of England playing two spinners" (1)
"Jones vs Read" (4)
"Money in Football" (1)
"Why have England gone downhill since the Rugby World Cup 2003?" (0)
"Should drugs in cricket be taken more seriously? eg, harsher punishments" (1)
"Sporting culture in the UK and Australia. Why do Aussies win all the damn time?" (2)
"Does the camaraderie that exists add to or detract from the Ashes as a contest?" (2)

I will look forward to doing this .

Sounds good. Who chooses the topics for the polls.

Count me in.

I'll be delighted to put my English skills to the test but there is one thing I would like to know;

How flexible is the 750 word limit?

If I can nominate one, I would love to nominate:

"Fletchers everyone must do everything policy, right or wrong"

Would you like me to come up with some random ideas to be written about? I wont enter as I have a big workload at the moment, but will look forward to reading the articles, and whoever gets my vote should take ultimate pride

Oh I thought we were going to see some of the work done by Mr JJ3.

JamesyJames3 said:

Would you like me to come up with some random ideas to be written about? I wont enter as I have a big workload at the moment, but will look forward to reading the articles, and whoever gets my vote should take ultimate pride

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Well it'll probably be a week or two before we have a topic so just try and fit it in if you have time. It's anonymous voting and I'm going to have a crack!

Skateboarder said:

Sounds good. Who chooses the topics for the polls.

Click to expand...

Anyone who posts in this thread

evertonfan said:

Count me in.

I'll be delighted to put my English skills to the test but there is one thing I would like to know;

How flexible is the 750 word limit?

Click to expand...

Don't go over 1000.

Incidentally I'm nominating "Sporting culture in the UK and Australia. Why do Aussies win all the damn time?"

Sorry Sylvo! I would, but it's come at quite a busy time when I have to write quite a bit already! I will read the other articles though and give my input!

Then I suggest "the idea of England playing two spinners".

I'll write about anything sport related so i'm not too bothered about the subject. I do like the idea of "Jones vs Read" and "Money in Football" though.

I wrote a piece on technology in football once. It was around the time of that Mendes goal that never was at Old Trafford! It brings out some interesting views. However, remember, this is not an opinion thing! This is a piece of print journalism not a blog!

Is jornalism like essays where you must give both point of views and conclude at the end, because I am good at that.

I'll give it a go

Yeh anything in sport like Evo said

Journalism can be anything, opinionated or factual. A mixture of both would be best though.