Caribbean Premier League - General Discussion

[Velocity]

Tridents literally only two actual batsmen in that lineup, with the rest allrounders. They've got way too many bowlers, don't know how they'll make it through the tournament like that with a lack of batting depth with very few specialist batsmen.

 

[Bevab]

I'm genuinely surprised that the BBL is rated this highly. The league does have a huge brand and aura around it given it's history and the sheer amount of money put into it. I believe that the entertainment factor that is mentioned frequently has to do with crowd and attendances in which case Australia does shine given that the league occurs perfectly in line with the holiday break for schools over there. This was the golden goose that got killed by the extension of the league though as most crowds started to decline towards the later stages as schools resumed.

Refuse to accept that the BBL offers quality cricket though. Reasons include

• The standard of umpiring is genuinely horrific and unprofessional (remember the incidents where run-outs were messed up even after 3rd umpire consultations, the lack of DRS, the moment where an umpire scratches his nose after signalling it was a wicket then claiming that he never intended to do so for a clear wicket for examples). The fielding is also very poor, it is genuinely surprising when a fielder actually takes a catch.
  
• Two overseas players is just too less. Most other leagues have three or four (barring the T20 Blast I guess which is rightfully rated at the bottom of the barrel) overseas pros and most if not all of them are good players on the T20 circuit with experience. On the other hand, for every Buttler or Miller the BBL offers up players like Richard Gleeson and Samit Patel last season. It was way worse in the past where players rejected the BBL in favour of a stint in Bangladesh due to the better value of deals. Good on the board to belatedly realise the issue and bump up wages the previous season to attract the likes of AB de Villiers but the huge hype that was created around the current version of him tells all that you need to know about how poor some of the overseas quality in the league is.
• The league is one of the very few (yet again the Blast might be the only competition here ) that doesn't have the availability of it's international stars for most of the season as they play for the country instead. It does make sense given that the summer fixtures are a big deal in Aussie cricket but there is also the meaningless LO fixtures that frequently occurs such as a T20I tri-series two years ago and the needless tour of India for some ODIs a year ago. This robs the clubs of genuinely good players and in their place we see the likes of cricketers who do not even make their state sides on most occasions and these players often are clearly so bad that they are included just for the sake of making up numbers. I kid you not, compare the lineups that the CPL currently offers (amidst a pandemic where in they don't have access to all the potential overseas signings they could have attracted) to those right in the middle of a BBL season and you shall find the clear difference. In addition, some of the stars do not even have a BBL contract (Smith and Hazlewood until last season, Cummins, Starc and Warner currently).
  
• To finally illustrate how much decline the BBL has experienced, you only need to look at someone like Shane Watson who chose to retire from the BBL exclusively and still play in the IPL and PSL despite being an Aussie. Watto also offered his thoughts alongside Dean Jones on what is currently the issue with the BBL and offered some solutions too. Now that I think of it, @CerealKiller could have led with this point to prove PSL>BBL I guess.

I haven't watched much PSL at all so cannot compare it to the CPL. I do hold the CPL in high regards though, it has a good niche where in the T20 specialists of West Indies can thrive and earn some money along with goodwill from the fans who in the past felt that their players abandoned their country for overseas leagues. Cannot describe it accurately but I also feel it has genuine passion with regards to how everyone involved view and interact with it and the traditional Caribbean flair is something that is always welcome. Not sure if it is true but I believe it is also one of the few leagues that is run sustainably without a heavy financial loss that threatens the long-term viability of most leagues. So, at the moment I would say that the CPL is slightly ahead or equal with the PSL but I expect the PSL to become a lot bigger and better now that it finally has the home support it needed for so long.

 

[Ed Smith]

That's why The Hundred was invented.

We have this round thing thats great to attach to cars and help them move. I know. Let's reinvent that only..... worse.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Imran Khan bowling to Rahk Attack and Spiceman.

Love to see it.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Ben Dunk bowling wearing sunglasses and a wide-brim hat. Like a boss.

 

[qpeedore]

Heh. I wish our Imran Khan was as good as his more famous namesake.

Speaking of that Champion's League, remember Dave "Tadpole" Mohammed? If ever there was a player with a personality suited to T20, it was him.

 

[qpeedore]

Hmm, Narine not playing again. Haven't heard much about why. Tion Webster has been thereabouts in the past few years though, he's capable although not who I'd call an outright superstar.

 

[qpeedore]

Khary Pierre being a beast for the TKR at the moment. Hell, Raza doing damn good too. This is going to be a spinner's pitch.

 

[qpeedore]

That was a very good run out by Seifert. To throw and be accurate with the gloves still on.

TKR for the tournament, definitely.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Loving DJB in the 500 shirt.

 

[qpeedore]

Despite that six from Keemo Paul, a total of less than 110? A run a ball here on out would give 105 I think.

 

[qpeedore]

Bravo still doing his thing with those multiple slow yorkers that he can just decide to bowl almost like if it's fun for him.

 

[Yash.]

Two overseas players is just too less. Most other leagues have three or four (barring the T20 Blast I guess which is rightfully rated at the bottom of the barrel) overseas pros and most if not all of them are good players on the T20 circuit with experience.

THis is a completely invalid point IMO. You are forgetting that the BBL and the Blast are the single DOMESTIC T20 competitions of Australia and England respectively compared to the IPL and PSL which are just Franchise based cricket leagues.

BBL and Blast offer so little overseas players because they have the main purpose of giving the local players a competition to show their mettle. India and Pakistan have Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and National T20 Cup for them repectively.

 

[Bevab]

THis is a completely invalid point IMO. You are forgetting that the BBL and the Blast are the single DOMESTIC T20 competitions of Australia and England respectively compared to the IPL and PSL which are just Franchise based cricket leagues.

BBL and Blast offer so little overseas players because they have the main purpose of giving the local players a competition to show their mettle. India and Pakistan have Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and National T20 Cup for them repectively.

I agree with the Blast's role and I wasn't criticizing it given how useful it is and the uniqueness of it's Finals Day. But the BBL deserves to be compared with other franchise based leagues even if the clubs are owned by the board in the end given how it is marketed and viewed and how there are two extra teams compared to the usual six state sides. Don't agree with it's main purpose being a local market showcase as the previous KFC iteration was doing a perfectly fine job of it and the revamp was necessitated to bring it more inline with franchise based leagues (excellent foresight there from CA). By that logic, the CPL is the sole tournament for T20s at a national level and West Indies has no problem producing quality T20 cricketers either.

Right now the BBL has around 72 Aussies playing each round and at the very least, 10-20 of them are not good enough to start. This is made worse by the Chappell era policies of favouring potential over experience in grade cricket which led to early retirements for some players even when they were contributing and the promotion of players who were clearly not ready yet over deserving candidates who were overlooked because they were in the mid 20s and believed to be no longer valuable (Daniel Solway for example had to grind a lot before receiving a chance just because he wasn't a hotshot rookie). Ways to combat this would be to increase the funding of the league to have more overseas pros per team or reduce the number of teams to six whilst keeping the home and away format that the CA likes.

 

[AsadRM]

CPL this season is too boring. For me, CPL used to be entertaining till 2017 but has lost its spark since. It feels repetitive now.

The lack of crowd this season has also damaged it further.