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I happened to be in my old stomping ground of Finchingfield yesterday and went for a walk up on the playing fields to see the state of the lovely cricket pitch, scene of many adventures when I played for the village team. The square was roped off, clearly unused and surrounded by still marked out football pitches. The covers were abandoned with loose plastic blowing in the wind, the roller clearly looked unserviceable and the nets looked unused. As far as I'm aware, cricket doesn't appear to be in the curriculum of state schools, certainly not in Essex. I recall 15 years ago, I became cricket coach to Finchingfield school and proceeded to give the boys some real coaching. As I was a member of the local team, I took them up to the square, padded them up, gave em'GM bats and taught them the real art of cricket using a special soft leather ball for kids. What happened, I got into trouble with Essex County Council who decreed that cricket should only be played in the playground with plastic stumps, bats and ball,'Quick Cricket' they called it. I could never work out how they could ever imagine that it was the real thing, it was a joke to see this in action, so I resigned from having anything to do with it. My son subsequently went on to Saffron Walden High School, he was a very keen and very good cricket player, he played for my company team and was amazing even as a kid, so good we called him Arkle after D.Randall esq. I assumed he'd develop his potential at that school, but they didn't do cricket, which really surprised me.

My missus picked up on this the other night, I was watching an interview with Stuart Broad, it started off with a comparison of accents, but as she quite rightly said, I bet he went to public school, he did in fact, Oakham. Like our local Felstead School, these establishments do cricket, state schools don't. Isn't it sad, you won't get another Larwood, or Trueman, and what with Test Match coverage being taken over by that evil Murdoch, the coverage is for the satellite people only.

Do people find it boring, is the sport to be consigned to the dustbin, what do you people feel.

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Nottstalgia's team to beat the Aussies,,     Carni. Great solid opener,who can sing,, Sue B can be relied on in a crisis Jill. Will punish,anything out of line,, Nonna. R

I think the problem with cricket is that, as far as I'm aware, it's only played at Public Schools now so the majority of kids are not exposed to it, even television coverage is on Sky rather than BBC,

YES !  England win the World Cup in dramatic fashion. I swear my ticker stopped at least five times. Ben Stokes, superb ! An extra G & T. Tonight.  

Go to the West Indies! We go to Jamaica for vacations from time-to-time, and one of the attractions (for me at least) is the enthusiasm for cricket! All kinds of stuff on the TV, school kids excited about it, local games all over the place and rum to go with it!

I suspect the "Americanisation" of the U.K. has a lot to do with it - pretty soon they will be teaching that Abner Doubleday invented baseball!

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Sport....boring Yes... ( thas my bit )

You name it, he'll trivialize it...

Eric:

And yet, there have been recent documentaries highlighting how baseball has now eroded cricket enthusiasm in the WI.

Supposedly a factor in the WI test team decline...

Pete:

Much of the youth encouragement now comes from active local clubs.

My own club now runs more than a dozen youth squads, in the age groups Under 9's up to Under 15's.

Many other clubs, such as Kinoulton and Radcliffe, do likewise.

Leagues have been created to give the juniors some formal games, against one another...

Cheers

Robt P.

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Didnt the English invent both Cricket and Football?

Whats all this Fifa cr4ap, and the Crisis (what crisis) all about?

Did we sell our games to some foreigners?

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Love the 20 / 20, I think it's going along way to revitalising the game , for the youngsters particularly, I still get a bit bored with 5 day stuff, but that was a great final day against Sri Lanka on Monday!!

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I just wish terrestrial TV would show live stuff , not just the edited highlites with Boycott airing his wisdom !!

As for the West Indies, i was in Barbados in '89 just before England were scheduled for a test in the Kennington Oval, we went out for a motorbike ride around the island and found the kids (and Adults) playing every where, the best we saw was at the top of a hill in the road in the middle of their village.

I chased down the hill a few times on my hired put put to retrive a well struck shot for them, and we were invited to play. (Bowled third ball , as was my mate Dave !!

I had a bit more success at the hotel where a game was organised every Sunday afternoon , the first week I played we lost to the hotel staff, the second week I was asked to captain us against the staff and we scraped a very narrow win (2 runs IMMSC) I loved it, especially where the owner of the hotel bought the 'winning' side a drink , and the captain got thrown in it too !! (The pool that is !)

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Robbie got my thoughts returning to Cricket (the game i loved) with his mention of it this morning,Grandad 1st took me to Trent Bridge when i was 5 and i fell in love with the game.As kids we played it everywhere,in the Garden,on the street,even in the cul de sac' where i lived.then on Vernon Park and Bulwell common.

We had street teams on Old Bestwood and played each other on what was to become 'High Pavement' school fields,all the schools had teams and played against each other after school times midweek,the Teachers were great and gave of their time freely,.I reckon Cricket taught our generation alot about life in general,and all the Cricketing terms are now part of the English language,.........caught out,stumped,clean bowled,hit for six,stonewall,bowled a maiden over,hat trick,down the order,.then theres all the magical terms for fielding positions,......3rd man,long off/on,gulley,the slips,silly mid-on/off,square leg,cover point,backward short leg,........then the bowling terms,...bouncer,off break,leg break,googly,long hop,grub hunter,yorker,beamer,.......and the batsmen........openers,tail enders,middle order, and their strokes......cover drive,leg cut,forward defensive,slash thru the slips (loved that one) on the back foot,

Anyway if you've read all that you must love cricket or by now be completly bored,either way i don't think the kids of today (most) have the same love of the great game,and i think its a shame in so many ways.

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There's more,

Wides,byes,leg byes,holding your end up,long stop,deep mid wicket,out for ungentlmanly conduct,no balls,nightwatchman,carrying the bat,runout,leg before wicket,left arm over,right arm round,move off the seam,off cutter,chinaman,cutters,fast outfield,sticky wicket,new ball,old ball,reverse sweep,heavy rollers,light rollers,long leg,silly point,off side field,on side field,take guard,

And what other sport stops for lunch and Tea breaks,and takes five days but can still end in a draw. :)

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Sorry, I'll just get another pillow. LOL

However, each to their own.

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Some games end in a TIE don't they ?

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I've watched England at Trent Bridge a couple of times over the past few years, being sold out each time. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for County championship games at Trent Bridge. They get bigger crowds for T20 matches, which is a shame. My six year old Great - Nephew has played ' quick ' cricket for Calverton CC and seems to enjoy it, so, any form of cricket is ok with me if it attracts youngsters.

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I think the problem with cricket is that, as far as I'm aware, it's only played at Public Schools now so the majority of kids are not exposed to it, even television coverage is on Sky rather than BBC, plus not all children are lucky enough to have a major Test ground on their doorstep. I spent many happy hours at Trent Bridge with my Dad and from a very early age have loved the game. When I was a child I played cricket with the boys, because I was the only girl around so had to join in the boys games.

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I used to love playing cricket and watching it but I do think it hasn't done the country much good in that we always 'play up, and play the game'! Sticking to other people's rules has caused us lots of problems.

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