What is the current level of forummers cricket interest?

Yeah, I know people here supposedly hate the JAMODIs & T20s. Looks like T20s will soon kill both itself and JAMODIs as well. I had stopped caring about JAMODIs & T20s completely and think I have reached a point where I feel a disconnect with any kind of cricket [tests as well now these days. Perhaps not enough exciting teams and players left or enough good contests happening all round].

I dunno. But I get the feeling the game is dying a slow death and nothing that gripping and exciting happens too much on the field. I think in India till some point Indo-Pak contests and some JAMODI wins fuelled a huge interest back in the 90s till a couple of years back. But now I just don't feel like watching any game on TV. Is it an overdose? Too much rapid commercialization? Selling the game too much to corporates? Can't quite point a finger to the exact cause, but I feel like enough is enough! I just don't feel very enthused for the game. Barring India-Aus, Aus-Eng, Aus-SA & India-SA, even the test rubbers are kind of boring drag down affairs now!

Has saturation point finally hit me? Do others here feel the same, a feeling of deja vu when they catch a cricket game? Feel bored or tired of it like I do?

What does the game really need now to stay afloat? Too many questions and too few answers!

Too much cricket of all types Batty and the game ceases to be an event. Just one game after another.

Roll on the SA series for England, we'll get humped but at least it'll be decent cricket to watch.

I haven't watched anything but test cricket for a while now. I use to enjoy the odd JAMODI when I was feeling too lazy too even have a wank, but yeah there's a lot of overkill. I'm getting to the stage where I'd rather watch a Zim/Banga test than a JAMODI WC final.

It's hard to raise any level enthusiasm for anything outside of a meaty test series. Having said that I can raise a fair bit of disdain and revulsion for other forms of cricket which I guess is a type of enthusiasm...

Not to worry folks. The 2009/10 Sheffield Shield competition is underway. It's the highest standard of cricket anywhere in the world, higher than test cricket & even T20 internationals.

And ...........................................
.......... for the first time, overseas forummers can join in the fun by adopting a state. Just send fifty Aussie Dollars to Wide Wally & you can become a paid-up supporter of your favourite state. Follow them through good days & bad as they battle to win the most cherished prize in the world of cricket - the Sheffield Shield.

As an added bonus, you will also be in the running to win a great prize. If your team finishes top of the points table after the ten fixture matches, your name will go into a draw with other supporters of that team. The winner will be the guest of one of the Australian forummers & will attend the Shield final with them. The following Australians have made themselves available if their state hosts the final -
Queensland - Mick Sawyer
NSW - Skully or JGK
Tasmania - Lardbucket
WA - Zimmy or MB
SA - JC
Victoria - Horrie, Red, Fred Nerk or Nath. I guess everyone will choose Nath.

Five days with an Aussie forummer - has there ever been a better prize offered in an internet cricket competition?

3.1

WideWally wrote:Not to worry folks. The 2009/10 Sheffield Shield competition is underway. It's the highest standard of cricket anywhere in the world, higher than test cricket & even T20 internationals.

And ...........................................
.......... for the first time, overseas forummers can join in the fun by adopting a state. Just send fifty Aussie Dollars to Wide Wally & you can become a paid-up supporter of your favourite state. Follow them through good days & bad as they battle to win the most cherished prize in the world of cricket - the Sheffield Shield.

As an added bonus, you will also be in the running to win a great prize. If your team finishes top of the points table after the ten fixture matches, your name will go into a draw with other supporters of that team. The winner will be the guest of one of the Australian forummers & will attend the Shield final with them. The following Australians have made themselves available if their state hosts the final -
Queensland - Mick Sawyer
NSW - Skully or JGK
Tasmania - Lardbucket
WA - Zimmy or MB
SA - JC
Victoria - Horrie, Red, Fred Nerk or Nath. I guess everyone will choose Nath.

Five days with an Aussie forummer - has there ever been a better prize offered in an internet cricket competition?

And you will be where? Rio? Good choice. Eichmann farked up when he left.

That is a peculair and unique concept- choosing to adopt and Aussie state team. Again a bit like choosing your favourite Nazi but if I had to...I'd probably go for Tasmania as it's almost a different country. I'm not paying any money for the privilege though.

I agrree with Batman (which happens about once every 14.8 years best I can work it out) about the lack of outstanding teams or contests, and that too much cricket that nobody GAF about is happening, wearing out the players for the 'real' stuff. Too many all-time great players have packed it in in the last few years and nobody has even half-adequately replaced them. In any other era Mitchell Johnson, who I still rate highly as a player, would not have generated half the hype and hot air he did pre-Ashes 09. Some of the other Oz players to debut since the exodus have done quite well, such as Marcus North, but none have the 'bums on seats' potential of a Warne or a Gilchrist.

Dunno about other countries - England without Flintoff would look like a pretty colorless lot and the West Indies don't look liike finding a star attraction fit to tie Lara's bootlaces. God knows the minnow-bashing prima donna Gayle (yet to play a Test in Australia) or the moody Sarwan will never be that man.

Programming is a total shambles, and was going that way years before the IPL lurched into view. In five or six weeks Aus play a Test against the Windies and we still don't know who's in the touring party. Not that that series promises much - except more 'not much chop' versus 'no chop at all'. And by the time I can tell the Windies players apart one from another, they'll be off to their next series. Yeah, these days cricket is so tedious it's irriotating me, to the stage where I rarely read stories in the paper about the game.

The lack of interesting cricket is also killing the forum, but maybe that's another thread.

Tom: Two heads are better than one?

Double the pleasure and tripple the fun I believe.

Youd' have to say the Ashes was an ace test series- not legendary or of particularly high quality but it had lots of flow to it and a massive surprise ending. Like a good novel really. Before that for a series involving England...the Kiwis away the winter before last was adequate, a heck of a lot of chuff inbetween.

Having given it a bit of thought beyond England-centria- both the 20/20 world cup (Shahid Afridi and the Netherlands!) and even that ICC trophy thing were pretty decent. The SA/AUS test double header was a minor classic. So it's not all hopeless- clearly it's the JAMODI series, one off 20/20s and mismatched test series which are the problem.

England/South Africa this winter will be interesting if possibly a bit one-sided and Pakistan will no doubt bring something to the next English summer -so a few things to look forward to.

It's a bit strange having this break with no international cricket of note (don't think Zimbabwe v Kenya JAMODI series counts as "of note" - even Sky aren't showing it!) but in another way I think we need a break really.

The Ashes was great in terms of drama even if it didn't have the quality of 4 years ago, the limited overs tournaments this year have had their moments but by the end of the Champions Trophy my enthusiasm was fading - obviously the knockout phase wasn't up to much as Australia walked it mainly due to the other decent teams all going out early, the only thing of note was TAYne losing his POC... for now at least!

While unlike some on here I don't mind T20 in moderation I haven't really been able to get into the CL at all, have watched a couple of games but just feel it's teams I don't really care about playing on at times awful pitches. A month off before the Yarpia tour and I might get some enthusiasm back, at least it's the right way round with the short stuff as a warm-up to the Tests.

WideWally wrote:Not to worry folks. The 2009/10 Sheffield Shield competition is underway. It's the highest standard of cricket anywhere in the world, higher than test cricket & even T20 internationals.

SA FC cricket used to be on that level, but AA killed it off.

"SA FC cricket used to be on that level, but AA killed it off."

Yeah - why couldn't those interfering clowns just stick to helping people stay off the booze?

WideWally wrote:Not to worry folks. The 2009/10 Sheffield Shield competition is underway. It's the highest standard of cricket anywhere in the world, higher than test cricket & even T20 internationals.

And ...........................................
.......... for the first time, overseas forummers can join in the fun by adopting a state. Just send fifty Aussie Dollars to Wide Wally & you can become a paid-up supporter of your favourite state. Follow them through good days & bad as they battle to win the most cherished prize in the world of cricket - the Sheffield Shield.

As an added bonus, you will also be in the running to win a great prize. If your team finishes top of the points table after the ten fixture matches, your name will go into a draw with other supporters of that team. The winner will be the guest of one of the Australian forummers & will attend the Shield final with them. The following Australians have made themselves available if their state hosts the final -
Queensland - Mick Sawyer
NSW - Skully or JGK
Tasmania - Lardbucket
WA - Zimmy or MB
SA - JC
Victoria - Horrie, Red, Fred Nerk or Nath. I guess everyone will choose Nath.

Five days with an Aussie forummer - has there ever been a better prize offered in an internet cricket competition?

That's pretty funny. Nice mention of JC too...bit of a back handed compliment?

Fred Nerk wrote:"SA FC cricket used to be on that level, but AA killed it off."

Yeah - why couldn't those interfering clowns just stick to helping people stay off the booze?

Riding the gravy train takes up too much of their time. The local Minister of Basic Education just spent R260 000 of taxpayers' money on a party to celebrate... believe it or not... delivering her budget speech in parliament!

only series i am looking forward to is when lanka tour in november. want to see m&m neutralised and the ghosts of 2008 laid to rest

mynah wrote:

Fred Nerk wrote:"SA FC cricket used to be on that level, but AA killed it off."

Yeah - why couldn't those interfering clowns just stick to helping people stay off the booze?

Riding the gravy train takes up too much of their time. The local Minister of Basic Education just spent R260 000 of taxpayers' money on a party to celebrate... believe it or not... delivering her budget speech in parliament!

But while quotas go overboard, hasn't your domestic competition been strengthened by the fact that it now has a much larger pool to select from?

Batman wrote:
I dunno. But I get the feeling the game is dying a slow death and nothing that gripping and exciting happens too much on the field. I think in India till some point Indo-Pak contests and some JAMODI wins fuelled a huge interest back in the 90s till a couple of years back. But now I just don't feel like watching any game on TV. Is it an overdose? Too much rapid commercialization? Selling the game too much to corporates? Can't quite point a finger to the exact cause, but I feel like enough is enough! I just don't feel very enthused for the game. Barring India-Aus, Aus-Eng, Aus-SA & India-SA, even the test rubbers are kind of boring drag down affairs now!

Has saturation point finally hit me? Do others here feel the same, a feeling of deja vu when they catch a cricket game? Feel bored or tired of it like I do?

What does the game really need now to stay afloat? Too many questions and too few answers!

This annoys me but is now common to most sports at the top level. I'm more disenchanted with our local football (now AFL) competition than cricket. What used to be a passionate game born out of fierce suburban rivalries has been hijacked by corporates. Much of the local passion and loyalty to club has been sacrificed on the altar of commercialism.

We do have ODI/T20 overload, too many meaningless matches and a bit of a farrago of fixtures but at least the test matches are still much more like the original form of the game than what has happened in many other sports.

yeah nothing too exciting these days

Didn't watch a single ball during the IPL
Watched only PAK's games in the T20 WC and champs trophy
Didn't watch ANY of the Ashes.
Haven't watched any of the champs league.

There is an overload of cricket at the moment (and for the foreseeable future), but the problem is that it is mostly poor quality dross limited overs stuff which even many of the players seem to have little appetite for.

The Ashes post-prandial "fest" of 2 T20s and 7 ODIs is the epitome of my point and really should be a parody if it wasn't such a tragic symbol of the current Zeitgeist of milking the cash cow dry and making sure the golden goose is as dead as Python's parrot.

How TF were two teams who had been so geared and focussed for the REAL challenge of the Summer really going to be able to play good cricket after the main event? It was not going to happen.

Some of these ODI or T20 competitions may be OK and quite stimulating in severe moderation, but we have had the ICCWC in 2007, T20 WC in 2008 IPL all the time (well the fall out of the IPL/ICL both before and after each event) Stanford's Jamboree in 2008, the Champions Trophy which followed the post Ashes debacle immediately and which was followed immediately by this Champion's T20 League ( which actually isn't a bad idea in essence, get to see some local players from other nations, quite interesting for both us and them).

And then the HUGE event of the Ashes (which is of interest to many other nations just as India V Oz or India/Oz v SA is to any cricket fan) was preceeded by the joke of a 2 Test WI series....no-one was interested or wanted it given what was coming round the corner.

I would wager that if high quality Test series were cultivated and protected by reducing the number of Tests per season, but mainly by reducing the number of meaningless and supposedly more meaningful limited over competitions, then all cricket followers except perhaps those brainwashed in India would rediscover their verve for what remains the most multi-faceted game going. (Shame their are so many of the brainwashed in India...money talks.)

I have a bit of fatigue, but I know as soon as a good Test series comes on between any two decent teams I will be right back in it.

Oh yes that reminds me...get proper cricket back on media accessible to all. I know Sky do a great job, but if you can't see it readily you will eventually lose interest.

Oh and another thing, now I am no old fogey believe me, but FFS get rid of these FARKIN cheerleaders, Fark the Americans, they are not going to go for cricket and whether they do or not, WTF ape the worst of that crappy culture. As if cricket wasn't demeaned enough by T20 (BTW I am not and never have been Horrie)

And also sort the Farkin pitches out to give 3-5 days of good "testing" cricket instead of 5 days financially beneficial FTB heaven.....QUNTS!

Test cricket.

Everything else - and there's so much of it - is like a fog of paralyzing stupefaction. The senses twitch occasionally, this or that stage of an ODI or 20:20, before subsiding into ennui.

In other words, if it's not Test cricket, f*ck 'em all.

I still love the game. I'll watch any Test I can, play until I'm immobile, and crap on about it to anyone who will listen.

I did try to watch a bit of the T20 yesterday - my first attempt - honestly, it was so tedious I couldn't stand any more after about 8 overs, and got stuck into the assignment I'd been avoiding.

T20: what a poor imitation of the real thing. The lotterisation of cricket.

furriner wrote:Test cricket.

Everything else - and there's so much of it - is like a fog of paralyzing stupefaction. The senses twitch occasionally, this or that stage of an ODI or 20:20, before subsiding into ennui.

In other words, if it's not Test cricket, f*ck 'em all.

Sage squared.