[Lord Snooty]

T20 World Cup in Australia later this year has been postponed.

[spireitematt]

Read a piece this morning about cricket starting to take off in Germany mainly down to Afghan immigrants however there is a book written by Sid Waddell's son called the Field of Dreams about German criket before and during the Second World War

Not just Afghan immigrants but immigrants from England, Australia etc are promoting and teaching the game in countries which don't normally play cricket or countries you wouldn't associate with the sport. A lot of the European countries don't understand the rules, the game or they are quite sceptical of it.

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Thanks to YouTube there's also a growing number of Americans taking an interest.  There's a couple of baseball fans who converted to the faith a few months ago, set up a channel called Cricket For Americans and they're currently getting up at 3am every day to do a livestream watch of the England vs Windies Tests.  You have to respect their commitment, and they've grown quite knowledgeable about the game in a fairly short space of time.

A lot of Americans don't know that the first ever international match was between USA and Canada in the 1800s in New York. A lot of them don't understand the rules or the game. They play American Football and Baseball which the rest of the World don't really play. The only countries I know who play Baseball is America, Japan, Taiwan etc.

They are trying to get American Football popular over here and Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar did play T20 games over in the states to try and get interest but I don't think it was very successful. Look at our Football or as they call it Soccer, it's only starting to be acceptable, I think Cricket will take a lot longer to be acceptable by Americans.

[St Charles Owl]

The problem with introducing cricket into a country that has never played it before is finding a place to play the game. Soccer over here can be played in NFL or Baseball stadiums but it still took years to develop at grass roots, and grass roots cricket is going to struggle because of the size of the field.

Matt, most of the Caribean, South American and Central American countries play baseball, as do a number of countries in Asia. Interestingly the first Baseball World Champions were the UK!!

[spireitematt]

The problem with introducing cricket into a country that has never played it before is finding a place to play the game.  Soccer over here can be played in NFL or Baseball stadiums but it still took years to develop at grass roots, and grass roots cricket is going to struggle because of the size of the field.

Matt, most of the Caribean, South American and Central American countries play baseball, as do a number of countries in Asia.  Interestingly the first Baseball World Champions were the UK!!

There is a cricket stadium in America, Central Broward Regional Park, in Lauderhill, Florida. They could use Baseball stadiums to play cricket in.

I did not know that the Caribbean, South America play Baseball. I always thought it was America, Japan and Taiwan, you learn something new everyday. Like you say the problem is grassroots. Grassroots is the problem in most sports. The only way you are getting to get Americans interested in Cricket is going to be the one day matches or the T20 matches.

[St Charles Owl]

Baseball fields are shaped like a piece of a pie, I suppose you could do it but the boundaries would be all over the place in terms of distance. Biggest problem would be the pitch in cricket and how you would prepare that.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

If cricket was to spread across America, can you imagine the variance in pitches? In a three-match Test tour you could go from playing in Caribbean conditions (Florida) to British/NZ conditions (Pacific Northwest) to Australian conditions (California)!

Honestly, if the ICC were to push for T20 to be shown on US sports networks, and then use a chunk of the ad revenue to fund facilities at universities where liberal-minded young people are eager to try something new, I think you'd see a steady growth. Most of the American cricket converts on YouTube are baseball fans who are sold on the idea once they realise that a batsman gets to stay "up" and continue scoring runs until he gets out, thus showcasing batting skills more than baseball ever has.

[themaclad]

In light of the shortened fixture list, eight points will be awarded for drawn matches, up from the current five points, while all other scoring remains unchanged.

In a bid to reduce injury risk, there will be a minimum of 90 overs of play each day, down from 96.

First innings can last no more than 120 overs per side, while the follow-on has been increased from 150 to 200 runs.

The new ball will be available after 90 overs, 10 overs later than normal.

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Men's opening fixtures (all 1 August):
Central group: Gloucestershire v Worcestershire (Bristol); Somerset v Glamorgan (Taunton); Warwickshire v Northamptonshire (Edgbaston)

North group: Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire (Trent Bridge); Durham v Yorkshire (Chester-le-Street); Leicestershire v Lancashire (venue tbc)

South group: Essex v Kent (Chelmsford): Surrey v Middlesex (The Oval); Sussex v Hampshire (Hove)

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The end of an era as the last remaining player of England's 2005 Ashes squad calls time on his first-class career, bowled for 90 in his final innings in Cardiff this afternoon. Good luck for the future, Ian Bell.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Something to look forward to amidst the gloom as England confirm a white-ball tour of South Africa, playing three T20s and three ODIs between 27th November and 9th December.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

With no immediate end to the pandemic in sight, the first-class counties have provisionally agreed on a structure for domestic first-class cricket next summer that will allow the County Championship and the Bob Willis Trophy to return as a combined competition. The teams have been split into three seeded groups based on recent performances and permitting traditional rivalries. Each will play ten matches in this initial group phase, and will then be reorganised into three new divisions based on standings. They'll play four final games in these new divisions, and the top team of Division One will be crowned County Champions, before playing the second-placed team in a five-day final at Lord's for the Bob Willis Trophy.

It's hoped that the County Championship will resume in its previous form in 2022, and the counties will reconvene next year to decide if and how 2021's results will affect the competition going forward.