So in all seriousness, as a cricket fan and player where do you see the sport at the moment?
I played as kid and loved it and also used to watch every game religiously from around 1992-2005. My gut feeling is that it is struggling since the glory days of McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist etc but I am genuinely interested in the views of someone more knowledgeable.
The growing bias towards the big three in Australia, England and India has basically created a situation where the rest of the world is becoming second tier, in both importance and ability. India tours here every two or three years, but we see the Windies or Pakistan or Sri Lanka once every ten years. So there's a huge sense of sameness about the schedule. Even the Ashes has lost a bit of its appeal.
At the same time you've got this idea that all tests must go the full five days because money. So pitches get flatter in Australia and tests get more and more lifeless. David Warners triple century was the most ho-hum big score of all time... Yay, two days of a bloke bullying teenagers on a strip of concrete from Rundle Mall. Thrilling.
Our flat decks plus other countries never touring here means we can't bat overseas anymore and we thrash all comers here. The nuance and struggle of Test cricket is largely gone. Home teams just win more often than not.
T20s and ODIs can't coexist at International level. It's an over saturation that comes off as a cynical grab for that bit extra cash. India are in NZ at the moment and they managed to shoehorn five T20s into the tour. I enjoy T20, but at international level it serves no purpose. And it cheapens the World Cup when you have a T20 World Cup every couple of years. T20s should be franchise only. Even then the BBL is three weeks too long and half full of grade cricketers who aren't much better than I am. And that's not trying to talk myself up because some of these players are legitimately rubbish cricketers. The Sixers have a bloke on the books who couldn't get out of the two's in Canberra.
In terms of Australia I don't think we have an overly likeable team. Warner is a total merkin and Smith is a genius but has zero notable personality. The public for some reason seem to hate Tim Paine, the one guy you would think they would like given he's come from nowhere, fallen into the captaincy by virtue of being the only bloke left, and turned us from cheating losers into a respectable side. Plus he's a great bloke. The bowlers are pretty popular but beyond that everyone is pretty much beige. So even when we win there's kind of this sense of so what? Who are these blokes anyway?
TLDR Australia England and India are killing cricket.
