Roar Rookie
Joined March 2014
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Territory boy, now living in the big smoke.
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Both AFL expansion teams are playing in the first half of Round 1, but the question still remains, were both Gold Coast and Greater…
The scheduling of cricket is an annoyance to many… Im am hating right now, that the the Stikers are missing Carey and Siddle for their campaign, and later Head will be gone too (after missing the first part of the season to test playing)… although the teams we play are also missing players, so its a bit of a what if scenario when we lose, but a good scenario when we win 😛
There is no schedule that will ultimately mean all players can play for each of their teams, however…
The majority of the shield season should be played prior to Xmas and concurrently with the first few test matches. Come 1 week before Xmas, the BBL starts and finished prior to the end of January. none of this mid Feb finals crap…
Teams that travel to Aus for the test, ODI and T20 series are encouraged to make their players available to the BBL franchises (max 2 players per club) to get them ready and in the country for the ODI and T20 internationals that will take place.
BBL does not have to occur every night of the week! If there is a ODI or T20 international on the 15th of January, the 14th and 16th can be cricket free so teams don’t lose their players (teams in the BBL have played 2 games in 3days, so CA obviously have no issues with it being overload… as they shouldn’t since atm our bowlers seem to bowl for 4 days in test cricket) … hell I would vote for the WBBL to be shown in prime time instead! and possibly schedule the WBBL final series to fit around these dates.
The BBL will only the successful in the best players are always available and cricket in Australia will only be successful is the national side is successful. Playing the right cricket at the right time is crucial for this to occur.
After the BBL season I would then play the remainder of shield season… and the domestic One day Cup (although I would rather One Day cricket be scrapped in its current format).
Fixing the Australian cricket schedule
Unfortunately for the strikers, the 2 games they got their asses flogged they didn’t have Siddle bowling at his BBL08 best of 4.89 an over and 1.3 wickets a game, and he wont be in the side anytime soon since he is included in the test squad to play SL.
But why is he in the test squad? He has played 3 matches (6 innings) for 10 wickets… thats 1.6 wickets in innings which isn’t that impressive, and there are many younger, potential future players that have done better… *CUE PARANOID ANTI SA THEORIES*
At the halfway mark of BBL08, every team can win it
Nope… If anything the comp should move to a 6 team finals series.
As it stands 44% of teams make the finals which is ridiculous! bringing that down to 33% rewards much greater the teams that deserve it, and history says that teams 7 and 8 only make up the numbers.
Since the turn of the millenium, only 1 team has made the GF from 7th or 8th, and yes that team won the premiership but many still talk about the fairy tale month they had (not to take anything away from the bulldogs, cause hell I would love for it to have been my team!).
Since 2000, 58% of the teams that have finished 7th or 8th have been eliminated in the first week of finals, 37% made it to week 2, but only 2 teams have made it the the prelims, one getting defeated and the bulldogs who then won the premiership. to add in team 9 and 10 would be stupid, but to eliminate teams 7 and 8 from the finals would make more sense.
The AFL is ready for a ten-team finals series
Maybe not 11 batsmen… but 9ish+2ish…
I think we need to play Lyon (who you can argue is a batter) and 1 specialist pace bowler (Starc, Cummins, Hazelwood or whoever.)…
Then the likes of Head, Stoinis, Maxwell, Laubaschagne, Marsh (but dont play him) and others can part time bowl… we might not get them out, but they will bat for long enough that it doesn’t matter… and given we hold the ASHES who cares if each test is a 5-day bore
Pulling the goalie: why Australia should play eleven batsmen in every Test