England V Australia 2013-14 Ashes - ODI & T20 Series

Mitchell Starc has been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the lower back & is expected to be out for a prolonged period & miss the Ashes.Incidentally this is the same injury as Tim Bresnan,but England have said very little on how bad it is.

(09-09-2013 22:50 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  ^ Finn is currently England's highest ranked ODI bowler

Finn is higher than Swann? On what basis?

(06-09-2013 11:37 )Jack Bishop Wrote:  Shame if it does. £20 million? I thought it was only the non test ground counties (apart from Waricks) that were in trouble.

The debt is due to a bank loan used to fund stadium development at Headingley .
They needed to upgrade facilities ,in order to retain test match status .However ,due to the competition from other county grounds ,test matches are now up for "auction" to the highest bidder .It approximately costs £1m to win the right to stage a test match now .So its become a catch22 situation for Yorkshire .Can they guarentee that the fixture will be attractive enough to encourage a big crowd ? Will the weather stay fine for the duration ? Will the match last the duration ? When your already out of pocket to the tune of a million ,you need all the above factors to go in your favour .
For the record I think this is 4 out of the last 5 ODI's at Headingley to be ruined by bad weather .So you can see it's a big gamble nowadays wether to bid on a test match now .Its probably the same for the other counties .I think Durham's first few international matches were ruined by bad weather too .Back to Yorkshire , a couple of years ago ,they decided to take Pakistan v Australia instead of England v Bangladesh .Given that the Aussies were still No 1 and the large asian population of West Yorkshire ,you would think this would have been a shrewd move .Not at all . The match was sparsley attended and Yorkshire lost close to £2m !

^ my friend is a member at Hants and they had similar issues and lost a lot of money the other year due to rain. It is a tricky one. Fortunately I "support" a non test ground county. Not that our finances are any better.

Hampshire ,along with Durham have both built impressive new cricket grounds .They have both got magnifcent practise facilities adjacent to the main stadia ,particularly Hampshire .
The problem with new venues is the pitches take 5-10 years to bed in and pass Test quality standards .So for these 2 its been a long journey to get to where they are now .Throw in the revamped Sophia Gardens (SWALEC) into the mix and you now have these 3 + the 6 traditional test grounds .Making it NINE venues needing international matches to justify the expenditure .You don't need Carol Vorderman to work it out that there isn't enough matches available to go round .
Its another catch22 though ,too many ODI'S and 20/20's water down the product and make what should be an event into "just another match"thats quickly forgotten .

^ Yes been to the Rose Bowl (as it was then) and very impressive although not that easy unless you take the car. Durham looks great and Cardiff too from what I have seen on TV. As you say very completive market.

(09-09-2013 23:06 )William H Bonney Wrote:  

(09-09-2013 22:50 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  ^ Finn is currently England's highest ranked ODI bowler

Finn is higher than Swann? On what basis?

Don't shoot the messenger,I would imagine by virtue of taking more ODI wickets.Of late Tredwell has been more of a wicket taking bowler than Swann who likes to keep the runs down.
Swann is just the opposite in Tests,Agar & Lyon combined were more economical than Swann,but his strike-rate was 57.4 to their 110.27.

Bad start for England... Big Kevin ran his opening partner out in the first over and then got himself bowled cheaply by Mitchell Johnson

Rain stopped play with England 59-3 off 15.1 over

The weather saved England another potentially embarrassing defeat.

(11-09-2013 23:09 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  The weather saved England another potentially embarrassing defeat.

Chances are it did, but in reality probably too early in the game to say that with certainty. Look how England turned their innings around against Ireland last week.