Hate this time of year

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="Bor Bor Bor"]Those cricketers filming thai prostitutes while racially abusing them, all that crowd trouble whenever we play Sri Lanka, the laughing gas inhalation by our fast bowlers, cricketers raping girls in hotels, foreign owners buying county sides and changing their colours and names...[/quote]That''s it....I shan''t be watching the Ashes now.....cricket has lost all credibility. [:@]

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]Sky money has gone a long way towards helping the game of cricket as a whole and has contributed to the construction of the new stadia throughout the game, probably via the MCC.

On the other hand, with television live viewing restricted to Sky customers, many have become somewhat detached from the sport.

I actually became a Sky customer 20+ years ago when they out-bid the Beeb for test matches, with an Ashes series due.

I watch every minute of a test match, even fitting toilet breaks in with drinks breaks.

There are a few like me.[/quote]Another one here...

[lake district canary 4,531]

[quote user="Bor Bor Bor"]If you don''t think football has more than tarnished its reputation, then I think you see what you want to see.[/quote]

I never mentioned football apart from my enjoyment of 5 a side.  As it happens I do think professional football is pretty much tarnished beyond credibility, but the problem for supporters is that their club is often in their blood - and that is pretty much the only reason I follow football at all.  

You take any sport these days and you can find something wrong with it - greed, power, selfishness, drugs, match-fixing etc etc - and plenty of people are p**d offf with all that, but at some level we all like sport - either doing or watching it - and we ignore what we want to ignore. I don''t watch cricket any more for various reasons, the main one being the time it takes - but underlying that is the image it has cultivated over many years.  

NCFC I will always follow, unless we get bought out by a Tan or an Evans type - that would push things too far - but as for summer sports - apart from tennis - I''d rather paint the house and sit and watch that dry, to watching most of them.

[Katie Borkins 1]

So the behaviour of cricket players was a complete red herring then, wasn''t it... you like football and you don''t like test cricket.  Footballers and their governing bodies appear to be far worse role models than cricketers but that''s okay because you like football so you can ignore it.

Slightly hypocritical, maybe?

[Mr Angry 1,561]

20/20 is cricket for people with ADHD.

[lake district canary 4,531]

[quote user="Bor Bor Bor"]So the behaviour of cricket players was a complete red herring then, wasn''t it... you like football and you don''t like test cricket.  Footballers and their governing bodies appear to be far worse role models than cricketers but that''s okay because you like football so you can ignore it.

Slightly hypocritical, maybe?

[/quote]Whatever you want to think.  My first few posts on the subject were to do with the sport itself, only on later questioning did the behaviour of it''s sportsmen come into it, but  you might be correct in thinking that  I went off cricket a) because it became too tedious over several years and that b) the behaviour of some of it''s stars contributed to it''s failing image in my eyes. My connections to NCFC as a life-long supporter - and my interest in football in general because of that - has always held my interest more because it has more  personsal interest involved and I follow it because of that, despite the antics of some of its stars. If that is hypocritical, so be it.  

[Hairy Canary 704]

Another one here too Broadstairs.

Test cricket is a thinking man''s game LDC. It clearly doesn''t suit you.

[morty 0]

[:D]

[Molly Windley 76]

Full day in front of the telly watching test cricket, nothing better.They even schedule in lunch, tea and drinks breaks, perfectBTW the Gower incident was way back in 1991 and Flintoffs in 2007

[lake district canary 4,531]

[quote user="Hairy Canary"]Another one here too Broadstairs.

Test cricket is a thinking man''s game LDC. It clearly doesn''t suit you.[/quote]

[H] Or perhaps I have other things I would prefer to think about...........Five day cricket, four days, three days whatever, I''ll leave that for those of you that like watching paint dry [;)]

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="lake district canary"][quote user="Hairy Canary"]Another one here too Broadstairs.

Test cricket is a thinking man''s game LDC. It clearly doesn''t suit you.[/quote]

[H] Or perhaps I have other things I would prefer to think about...........[/quote]Clearly. Like all your thought provoking posts on here. A triumph in academia.I think I''d prefer it if you watched test cricket.

[BroadstairsR 2,167]

How come a rather tongue in cheek opening post lamenting the absence of decent football in the Summer turns into a lengthy and spurious debate about the merits and de-merits of cricket, in all it''s forms.

Some people like bungee jumping. I don''t.

Some people play Scrabble. I don''t.

Some people like Marmite. I don''t.

Good for them, say I.

Live and let live, say I.

Wait for it, now comes a few pages of debate upon the merits and de-merits of Scrabble.

(Not on Marmite though, please.)

[Gainer the Gopher 0]

What kind of immobile lump actually wants to watch 1 show for 5 days? There''s a reason rounds 1, 2, and 3 in golf tournaments aren''t on network tv. Reasons, really. It''s boring, meaningless, and 95% of golf fans (99% of general population) don''t give a crap. Days 1 - 4 of a test match are the first 6 or 7 rounds of tge FA Cup. Nobody beyond those playing really cares.

As for cricket being England''s best contribution to world sport, the popularity of and global interest in boxing, rugby and football would suggest otherwise.

[Hairy Canary 704]

Test matches are very often over before the fifth day nowadays.

Round 7 of the FA Cup is the semi-finals. I think I''d give a *** if we got that far.

[Katie Borkins 1]

[quote user="Gainer the Gopher"]As for cricket being England''s best contribution to world sport, the popularity of and global interest in boxing, rugby and football would suggest otherwise.[/quote]

You appear to be suggesting that popularity is a measure of quality.

Stupid boy.

[Mr Angry 1,561]

Oh dear Gainer, that comment about the first 4 days of a Test match display an amazing ignorance of the game of cricket, I suggest that you find out a little about the game before making any further comments.

[morty 0]

Muricans.

[Mr Angry 1,561]

Oh right, now I see. By the same argument, only the last 10 metres of the Olympic 100 metres final is worth watching, only the last 10 minutes of the World Cup final, etc etc.

[PurpleCanary 5,562]

To be be fair to Gainer the Gopher (seen here in what I imagine is a typical pose)...

...cricket must be next to impossible to understand properly unless you have played the game. It is technically difficult and odd (cricketers don''t propel and hit the ball in the natural way), psychologically complex, and tactically subtle.The good news for Gainer is that if there is a heaven that is the game they will play there, and he will have all the time in the otherworld to get to grips with all its fascinating facets.