Voll Blau

Nah, 50 overs is a top format. Full day out and enough time for a game to ebb and flow. Like the fact teams have to think about batting out their overs. Seen a few players in this One Day Cup say what a testing format it is because it's the longest day you can have with the fewest breaks.

Unlike Trevaskis, he's undroppable. Thomas is smart enough to realise that. Top win tonight and great character shown.

Oldest curry house in the town. Sad to read that. Hope it doesn't go to the wall like the Bengal did. Both proper curry houses.

Hmmmm. The ECB might have pulled off a bit of a con job but the investors won't be arsed in the slightest if Indian TV eyeballs stay on it. Don't think it'd too daft to suggest we could see the men's games moved into daytime slots to cater for the subcontinent in future. Not sure it was all worth it for the ECB to burn through all of the credit they had witt the people who actually keep the game going in this country, mind. Especially given the disparity it's going to end up creating between the counties. That's nothing compared to some of the influencer jokers who are apparently now given parity with respected cricket writers at these games.

Belter, that.

Best way to do hopping there and western Germany, though Belgian fixtures made it a pain to plan a Friday night game from memory. Ended up going all the way to Maastricht, which I really enjoyed.

Mentality impressive after those two defeats. Even the players who are leaving are giving their best. Great to see.

Remember George Dobell saying in a tribute to Piper it would have only cost something like 40k to have kept it open. Peanuts in a game where much greater sums of money so often go into the wrong hands.

Fair.

Reckon the last three are nailed on to go. Retaining Hull feels like a gamble right now but hard to let go of an academy product in case he comes good. Cox will be the biggest loss of the lot.

Harsh on Stokes. How is he Mr Ego if he's not more bothered about doing his bit for Durham, rather than flouncing off to make daft cash on the franchise circuit?

If people want a skipper who's a good captain and been in form then Kiran Carlson would be a good shout. Failing that, it's genuinely Ben Stokes or no-one if you want that to be the criteria.

Not even eight cities as London has two! I was at Trent Bridge yesterday and there was nothing at all around the ground to suggest that this was the ground of the home team. We were told The Hundred was meant to be a gateway to county cricket, but instead it's just meant once a year casual fans (nothing wrong with them, by the way) have simply stopped going to the Blast and have no idea they're meant to support for the other 11 months of the year. Mind you, One Day Cup ticket sales being up and Hundred ones being down says all you need to know - you can't change teams' entire identities on a whim in England and expect people to feel a connection. 4k freebies at The Oval the other night. Desperate stuff.

It's been a real benefit of the competition. Counties are reconnecting with their fans away from their headquarters.

Looks like de Swardt's done... https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/county-cricket-premium/leicestershire_suffer_overseas_blow_player_left_in_tears.html?t=639208634610688043

Drove through Congleton and Leek earlier. Both gave me the sense of being reasonable little towns for a swig. Shame they're too far to justify a day out.

Neither would Hansa have done when they were the size of the biggest English groups...

Imagine all the awaydaybanterfootylads are falling over themselves wanking over this, then go back to posting "cringe" the next time a UK group do something...

They don't outrank scampi or bacon fries, I'm afraid.

Luckily not a vice for me but fvck me, how are Midnite allowed to get away with the gambling ads that show up in my YouTube? Hope everyone involved in the production of them has sleepless nights.

Really pleasing to see Rishi hasn't checked out. Such a great cricketer to watch.

Scampi and bacon fries should be top two ffs...

Nope, card. And I got called Bossman.

Just me who gets a decent trim in a Turkish barber then?

Compared to last year. It's in the article.