The Sheffield Shield Returns

This thread originally started with another title...

Cricket Australia is set to announce "an exciting and important partnership" at the MCG

I can't find out any more on this from my usual sources, so they're playing it close to their chests.

Anyone got any idea what it'll be?

Anyone got any idea what it'll be?

A massive let down.

The APL?

No domestic fixtures out yet...

Dunno how I got the month wrong...

Apparently Brett Lee and Brad Hodge will be there.

Is it some new sort of competition where fast bowlers are put up against lead-footed batsmen?

New sponsor for the Franger?

Probably a replacement sponsor for the Shield. Pura finished up at the end of season 07/08, didn't they?

Maybe they're going to revert to the Sheffield Shield as a comp name. I'd event accept something like The <Insert Corporate Monolith Name Here> Sheffield Shield.

It's probably a woftam for the sponsors anyway ...the ABC which is the only radio to give ball by ball commentary continually refers to the 4 day domestic competition and the one day domestic competition when talking about cricket ...

Here you go:

Sheffield Shield regains its place at top of the order


Chloe Saltau
July 16, 2008

THE Sheffield Shield today will be dusted off and restored as the prize for the toughest domestic competition in the world.

Cricket Australia will hold a breakfast at the MCG this morning to herald the return of the Sheffield Shield, which has been exhumed after a decade-long absence during which it was replaced by the Pura Cup.

That sponsorship has ended, and while CA is poised to announce Weet-Bix as the new sponsor of the domestic first-class competition, it is believed the six states next season will once again compete for the Sheffield Shield, albeit "presented by" the breakfast cereal.

This arrangement is expected to be more palatable to the game's purists than the previous one, which was said to have sacrificed over 100 years of history.

It is, in part, a reflection of the difficulty in attracting a naming rights sponsor (as opposed to a "backing" sponsor) for the competition that underpins the Australian Test team's success, but also a recognition of the sentimental and symbolic value of the ornate silver trophy donated by Lord Sheffield in 1892.

The shield was knocked around in that time by jubilant teams and had fallen into a state of disrepair, but it has since been restored by Brisbane jewellers Hardy Brothers, a job that was done for nothing despite the trophy requiring more than 400 hours of repairs.

It has been held at the National Sports Museum at the MCG, and is expected to be housed in a cabinet when it emerges from retirement, to avoid further damage.

While the Sheffield Shield has long been regarded as the best first-class competition in the world, and one of the more revered trophies, it is Twenty20 that continues to preoccupy the game's domestic cricketers. Certainly, that is where the money is.

The chief executives of Cricket Victoria and the Western Australia Cricket Association - who are both scheduled to play in the Champions League Twenty20 - each expressed confidence yesterday that the tournament would proceed in late September or early October, but the English counties are likely to be excluded because the Indian board will not allow players from the Indian Cricket League, a direct competitor to its own Indian Premier League, to compete.

"All indications are that the tournament will still go ahead. Our boys are preparing as if they will be involved," CV chief executive Tony Dodemaide said.

It has been reported that teams from Pakistan could be invited to join the best sides from Australia, India and South Africa if the England counties are excluded.

No more sniffy MooMoo ridicule.

Why isn't it renamed the Win Shield?

Good stuff.

The Steel Works Shield.

The Michael Vaughan Hometown Shield.

The Full Monty Shield.

The Wednesday Shield.

Just as long as it isn't the Who the Hell's this Sheila Shield.

Henry wrote:
The Michael Vaughan Hometown Shield.

What's Manchester got to do with it?

For that matter, what's Sheffield got to do with it?


FWIW: Good that it returns to a serious name.

Good news, good news. It's what the fans want.

From the Dily Telegraph article...

FORMER Australian captain Steve Waugh and Blues spinner Stuart MacGill have welcomed the return of the Sheffield Shield as state cricket embraces both its history and the future.

Cricket Australia will today announce the domestic competition will revert to the "Sheffield Shield, sponsored by Weet-Bix'' this summer after being unpopularly known as the Pura Cup for a decade.

While the state teams will play more Twenty20 cricket and embrace additional innovations this season, Waugh and MacGill said it was important to recognise history and the 115-year Shield would be embraced by the old and the young.

What additional innovations?

Coloured clothes for FC matches?

I have been passed a sneak preview .... I can't reveal my source.

1. Weetbix to be eaten by both captains during the toss.

2. Each team to wear caps sporting EAT WEETBIX in 36 point minimum, front and back.

3. "Corridor of uncertainty" to be renamed "Corridor of Weetbix Opportunity"

4. LBW appeals and dismissals to be renamed "leg before weetbix"

5. "Wicket" to be replaced by "weetbix" wherever possible

6. Sightscreens to flash "ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH WEETBIX?" with stroboscopic effect at the end of every second over.

reversion to the shield is good news for everyone except the QBillies

Must admit I'm surprised it wasn't called the 'Weet Bix Bowl'.

I'll get me coat...

PeterCS wrote:For that matter, what's Sheffield got to do with it?

Is this a serious question, or is it just PCS smoking again? It was donated by Lord Sheffield as the pinnacle of domestic dominance in the great game in Australia. Not surprisingly NSW has won it way more than any other State with 45 wins (including Pura Cup wins) with the next best being the Vile Vomits on 26.

Phurt ...only because of anti-wozzie bias

Bah. The silly Wozzies got the Shield on a pro-rata basis in their first season. Australian Cricket has been bending the rules to suit the Sandies from day one.

Then again, you guys were pretty invincible in 70s and 80s.

PeterCS wrote:I have been passed a sneak preview .... I can't reveal my source.

1. Weetbix to be eaten by both captains during the toss.

2. Each team to wear caps sporting EAT WEETBIX in 36 point minimum, front and back.

3. "Corridor of uncertainty" to be renamed "Corridor of Weetbix Opportunity"

4. LBW appeals and dismissals to be renamed "leg before weetbix"

5. "Wicket" to be replaced by "weetbix" wherever possible

6. Sightscreens to flash "ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH WEETBIX?" with stroboscopic effect at the end of every second over.

Toss decided by which captain ate the most Weetbix at breakfast

Nath wrote:

PeterCS wrote:I have been passed a sneak preview .... I can't reveal my source.

1. Weetbix to be eaten by both captains during the toss.

2. Each team to wear caps sporting EAT WEETBIX in 36 point minimum, front and back.

3. "Corridor of uncertainty" to be renamed "Corridor of Weetbix Opportunity"

4. LBW appeals and dismissals to be renamed "leg before weetbix"

5. "Wicket" to be replaced by "weetbix" wherever possible

6. Sightscreens to flash "ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH WEETBIX?" with stroboscopic effect at the end of every second over.

Toss decided by which captain ate the most Weetbix at breakfast

Inzi to make a comeback?

skully wrote:

PeterCS wrote:For that matter, what's Sheffield got to do with it?

Is this a serious question, or is it just PCS smoking again? It was donated by Lord Sheffield as the pinnacle of domestic dominance in the great game in Australia. Not surprisingly NSW has won it way more than any other State with 45 wins (including Pura Cup wins) with the next best being the Vile Vomits on 26.

Thanks for the info, skulls. No smoking. Purely (puraly??) appalling ignorance on my part. Other people's (countries') domestic championships are a frequent blind spot. I don't even know the names of some of them. Is India still the Railways Cup (?).

I could have googled it, but perhaps not with immediate success ("sheffeld shield" "origins"? - googling is never entirely intuitive. It's a minor art.)

So thanks again.

I wonder if - in view of its aristocratic tint, in a democratic land of green and gold - it shouldn't be renamed though. "The People's Shield" or "The Gough Whitlam Shield". Or the Fair Dinkum Shield. Or something.

The only serious point there being: is the (justified) celebration mainly due to the return to "Sheffield ..", with its greater historical resonance - or more to the removal of the sponsor's name (especially a strangely uddery one) from the central position in the trophy's name?

Possibly both.

skully wrote:Is this a serious question, or is it just PCS smoking again? It was donated by Lord Sheffield as the pinnacle of domestic dominance in the great game in Australia. Not surprisingly NSW has won it way more than any other State with 45 wins (including Pura Cup wins) with the next best being the Vile Vomits on 26.

But the most important win was Tasmania's.

Says the silly Vomit.