County V Aus Domestic

[Adarsh]

The problem with 18 teams is that it's easier to get into them. Australia is a lot bigger than England but we only have 6 teams, which is of course because of our state situation.

In Australia, players have to work harder. First XI's in district cricket, such as Victorian Premier Cricket, would probably be as good as lower-middle end county sides.

The other reason is of course that Australian domestic sides don't sign international players, and the only kolpak player at the moment is Sean Ervine.

How is Australia bigger? Physical size counts for nothing, and they have a tiny population. It makes sense that they have few teams.

 

[Sureshot]

How is Australia bigger? We don't have a big desert in the middle of the UK, though the thought of replacing Birmingham and Derby with sand and roo's sounds good.

 

[Skater]

So there are only 6 Australian domestic teams. As someone who couldn't care less about their domestic cricket, and who was only 2 out, was it really worth negative reps? It's probably some immature idiot who I have had a run in with before.

 

[Sureshot]

Please don't discuss reps, they are just a bit of fun.

 

[Skater]

Please don't discuss reps, they are just a bit of fun.

Which people abuse, cause arguments and which needs to be removed.

 

[Animator!]

It caused an arguement because you care about them. They don't matter in the slightest so why should it matter if you truely believe that they should be taken away if someone neg reps you for something?

 

[RoboRocks]

Don't go into a discussion about reps. Stick with the topic.

 

[Will_NA]

Scrap the entire English County Cricket system. This will prevent Aussie youngsters from playing for English counties in English conditions and being forced down the pecking order at their club. Simple.

Australians are willing to go abroad, whereas English players very, very rarely play domestic cricket abroad.

I don't know much about overseas restrictions in Australia so I can't advise how to gain experince by playing for Australian State teams.

 

[Animator!]

A lot of English county players who have the required ability and potential to play internationally play grade cricket in Australia.

 

[Kev]

Before we go down the less teams = better because its harder to get into a team, lets actually look at some numbers

These are estimated populations in 2007 from a government website.

UK = 60,776,238
Aus= 20,434,176

UK Teams = 18, so that gives us approx 3.3 Million heads per team
Aus Teams= 8, so that gives us approx 2.5Million heads per team

So I really dont think that that argument carries all that much weight. As these figures would suggest that it is harder to get into an English team :P

I'd say its got a lot more to do with sporting culture and cricket's popularity and also the weather plays a massive part.

Cricket really isn't that popular in the UK, it fights for its popularity with a lot of other sports in a nation that isn't all that sporty (15th in the EU league table for time spent being taught physical education in state secondary schools and joint last in primary schools). In the UK cricket is seen generally as a upper class sport, its not played all that widely in schools and its not that popular as an after school/weekend occupation (or it certainly wasn't when I went to school and I'm in the same age group as a lot of International Cricketers). It did undergo a revival around 2005, but I doubt its changed all that much. And what did the ECB do to capitalise on this new found popularity? It signed an exclusive TV deal with SKY tv. A subscription service with (at the time) around 8Million customers, way to cut off your potential future players!

I think County cricket is probably played (these days anyway) just as competitively as its Australian counterpart, it might not have done in the past but it certainly is now. It is played with a little less sledging mind

As to overseas players, thats a tough one. European employees have equal rights to employment in member states and the Kolpak agreement has established that employees from countries that the UK has signed trade agreements with have equal employment rights. Quite simply it would be illegal to block the employment of players. It would not be illegal to limit the amount of foreign players allowed on the pitch however so it is possible (if there is a will to do so) to limit foreign players. You could have a system where only 2 non-english players were allowed in any given lineup because the clubs could employ more than 2 and rotate them, but I dont think County Cricket would accept such a system purely because they couldn't afford to sign a player and not use him. Blaming Kolpak players actually is a pretty weak argument, clubs sign players based on their ability and availability. If we produced more good young cricketers the clubs wouldn't feel the need to go elsewhere to sign someone. Certainly at Kent the club has imposed its own limits to Kolpak players (2) , don't know if they have changed that for this coming season in response to the reduction of overseas players allowed. I have no idea if other counties operate a similar system. In my view limiting overseas players to 1 has actually cut the number of places available to England qualified youngsters as clubs seem to have delved deeper into planetkolpak.

If English cricket is serious about improving its emerging talents the absolute first thing they need to do is improve the Second XI competitions. Second XI county cricket is a complete non-event, play more games and raise the profile. Some sort of televised competition would be ideal, even if it was only a "final" of a knockout competition that was televised.

 

[karnog]

I've watched both and in my opinion Aus domestic cricket in ODIs dumps poo (i have more vulgar terms u know) all over county. County gets boring after an hour or two unless an India is doing well. I never get bored with Aus domestic cricket. My favourite players seem to be from WA- Sean Ervine is a legend (zimbabwean, kolpak and he uses the same bat as me) and i enjoy watching Langer. He's a little unlucky not to play in international ODIs. I like the look of Luke Ronchi- if only he finds consistency i guess Aus have got a new Gilly in the process.

Though i have to say Alan Border is the only good commentator. Campbell is annoying and gets a little taken by the female crowd... the others are ok. Brendan Julian is okish.

 

[stevo1]

The problem with 18 teams is that it's easier to get into them. Australia is a lot bigger than England but we only have 6 teams, which is of course because of our state situation.

In Australia, players have to work harder. First XI's in district cricket, such as Victorian Premier Cricket, would probably be as good as lower-middle end county sides.

The other reason is of course that Australian domestic sides don't sign international players, and the only kolpak player at the moment is Sean Ervine.

Thats true about the Victorian Premier Cricket, thats why our domestic competition is the strongest in the world because you have to be a decent player to play for the state's.

 

[smssia0112]

Before we go down the less teams = better because its harder to get into a team, lets actually look at some numbers

These are estimated populations in 2007 from a government website.

UK = 60,776,238
Aus= 20,434,176

UK Teams = 18, so that gives us approx 3.3 Million heads per team
Aus Teams= 8, so that gives us approx 2.5Million heads per team

So I really dont think that that argument carries all that much weight. As these figures would suggest that it is harder to get into an English team :P

I'd say its got a lot more to do with sporting culture and cricket's popularity and also the weather plays a massive part.

Cricket really isn't that popular in the UK, it fights for its popularity with a lot of other sports in a nation that isn't all that sporty (15th in the EU league table for time spent being taught physical education in state secondary schools and joint last in primary schools). In the UK cricket is seen generally as a upper class sport, its not played all that widely in schools and its not that popular as an after school/weekend occupation (or it certainly wasn't when I went to school and I'm in the same age group as a lot of International Cricketers). It did undergo a revival around 2005, but I doubt its changed all that much. And what did the ECB do to capitalise on this new found popularity? It signed an exclusive TV deal with SKY tv. A subscription service with (at the time) around 8Million customers, way to cut off your potential future players!

I think County cricket is probably played (these days anyway) just as competitively as its Australian counterpart, it might not have done in the past but it certainly is now. It is played with a little less sledging mind

As to overseas players, thats a tough one. European employees have equal rights to employment in member states and the Kolpak agreement has established that employees from countries that the UK has signed trade agreements with have equal employment rights. Quite simply it would be illegal to block the employment of players. It would not be illegal to limit the amount of foreign players allowed on the pitch however so it is possible (if there is a will to do so) to limit foreign players. You could have a system where only 2 non-english players were allowed in any given lineup because the clubs could employ more than 2 and rotate them, but I dont think County Cricket would accept such a system purely because they couldn't afford to sign a player and not use him. Blaming Kolpak players actually is a pretty weak argument, clubs sign players based on their ability and availability. If we produced more good young cricketers the clubs wouldn't feel the need to go elsewhere to sign someone. Certainly at Kent the club has imposed its own limits to Kolpak players (2) , don't know if they have changed that for this coming season in response to the reduction of overseas players allowed. I have no idea if other counties operate a similar system. In my view limiting overseas players to 1 has actually cut the number of places available to England qualified youngsters as clubs seem to have delved deeper into planetkolpak.

If English cricket is serious about improving its emerging talents the absolute first thing they need to do is improve the Second XI competitions. Second XI county cricket is a complete non-event, play more games and raise the profile. Some sort of televised competition would be ideal, even if it was only a "final" of a knockout competition that was televised.

There are 6 teams in Australia.

As for size, I meant physical land size, not population. I know England has more people.

 

[angryangy]

Yeah, Aus works out about 3.4 million per team if you do it that way.

 

[SciD]

Yeah, Aus works out about 3.4 million per team if you do it that way.

How many of them actually play cricket? In England most kids grow up on soccer.