The Cricket Thread

[Balladeer]

Crawley: LBW 0 (1).

Sussex batters really need a better showing today.

[Drumstick]

Yes come on Sussex!

[Balladeer]

How're you feeling Drumstick?

[Drumstick]

Crawley: LBW 0 (1).

Crawley 238 (267)

How're you feeling Drumstick?

Pretty good - it has to be this year, doesn't it?

[Balladeer]

They're going up, mark my words. God knows what's going on with Yorkshire though (their turd of a chair aside).

[Drumstick]

I don't understand why or how Graves has been allowed back into the club or cricket as a whole.

It's almost like the racism scandal never happened.

[Rex Kramer]

Sunrisers getting a spanking here from Starc.

[Drumstick]

KKR look unstoppable.

IPL starts today. Any predictions?

Winners: Rajasthan Royals
Runners Up: Chennai Superkings
3rd/4th: Mumbai Indians / Lucknow Super Giants
Wooden Spoon: Kolkata Knight Riders
Most Runs: Yashasvi Jaiswal
Most Wickets: Mohammed Siraj
MVP: Yashasvi Jaiswal

Dat reverse mockers.

Hopefully my County predictions are closer to the mark.

[Rex Kramer]

Good start for RCB. Have hit form at the perfect time and no Buttler for Rajasthan.

Edit: Mockers applied

The big show

[Balladeer]

Thank christ that's over.

Also: Jofra...?

[Rex Kramer]

Windies making heavy weather of this.

[Rex Kramer]

I've spent the morning listening to the Namibia vs Oman game on BBC sounds. What an absolute belter. Still not convinced there is a point to these smaller teams being at the competition but PPG made a game of it yesterday as well so maybe I'm wrong.

[Balladeer]

Heavily disagree with you there. Cricket is already a sport with a degree of haves and have-nots that massively surpasses the likes of football or even rugby, and unfortunately tournaments like the IPL only make that worse. The very least the ICC can do to grow the game is give some smaller teams a spot in their tournament which, nominally at least, is a world cup.

[Rex Kramer]

I agree but I also don't want to see sides getting completely walloped. At this point in history, 20 teams feels like too many to have a level of quality throughout. 16 sides with the likes of Ireland or the Netherlands capable of a shock result would be a tighter competition. But I also see that you don't raise the level of the smaller sides without giving them big games. I guess we'll see how competitive this initial stage is in a few weeks.

[Balladeer]

I'd like to see more bilaterals with smaller sides to close that gap! Paid for with a regulatory tax on franchise tournaments ideally. I mean it when I say "the very least", but it's all they'll do.

[Rex Kramer]

Rebranding as Sunrisers Oman would do it, that would get the funding flowing.