[Cricket] Favourite cricket pundit/anyliser

[Marshy]

Its amazing but I struggle to find a cricket pundit I don't actually like or enjoy listening too

Where as with football they all annoy me with the exception of Souness, Neville and Carragher.

 

[Barham's tash]

I don't think those messages were in the public domain until the **** in question (Liew?) published them, and to be fair I'd probably call someone a **** if they accused me of racism.

This. As much as it’s possible to be in the genteel world of Cricket Liew has previous in being the equivalent of a troll and eliciting a response from his audience whether they are famous or otherwise.

I see him as a proxy for Naylor but at a national level where controversy invites clicks/sells advertising space.

 

[Argartu]

Sir Curtly Ambrose for me, really enjoyed listening to him when the Windies were playing. Especially when he's threatening Andy the stats man on TMS!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Facilities (and access to them) are one of the key issues aren’t they ? My lad (normal secondary education) played in some representative and other matches, often held at public school grounds (locally Hurst College and Ardingly for example). The grounds are up there with some of the better league club facilities, but the local state secondaries don’t even have cricket squares. It’s no surprise such a high % of players come through the independent school network as non-public school kids just don’t have the same level of access to pitches, coaching etc. When I was a kid (70s) we had two good grass pitches at our comprehensive school, and several teachers who played and were happy to coach and supervise in their spare time - the school even arranged a relationship with Somerset CCC where one of the pros ran a session for us every week (either at the school, or the county nets which was about 20m away). Not sure many state schools commit much in the way of resource to cricket these days.

Personally, I think access to facilities and coaching are fundamentally key, and I'm honestly surprised that there are ANY state school educated County players outside of Yorkshire.

I grew up around cricket clubs due to my Dad playing, but otherwise, I doubt I'd ever have held a bat.

We (Hove Park, 1980s) literally never played cricket in PE, and the school never played any fixtures. The 'facilities' were an unused, un-maintained artificial wicket, on the edge of the rugby pitch. PE teachers are not interested in playing a game that involves half of the pupils un-involved for periods of the lesson - and not imaginative enough to think of a form of game that solves that. We played a handful of fixtures once my year were sixth-form, but these were arranged and run by a few of us pupils, with the mini-bus the only contribution from the school.

25 years later, my own kids had the same experience at a good school, in a middle-class Hampshire town. The school proudly displays an England shirt in reception, donated by former pupil Chris Tremlett, but he definitely didn't learn the game there!

Conversely, I've played through a long club career at many private school grounds (among them Brighton College, Winchester College, Lancing College, Harrow School, etc) over the years, and the contrast is utterly ridiculous. Full-time ground-staff. Perfect pitches. Outfields flatter than some club squares. Grass wicket nets. Indoor nets. Bowling machines. Catching cradles. Recently retired County pros providing coaching in lessons and after school.

How does a kid whose route into the game, is throwing a ball at his brother on the boundary at Wish park or Patcham Place, while his Dad plays league cricket, (until he's 12 and old enough to field at fine leg for the Sunday team) even HOPE to make up the head start that those private school kids are given?

It is close to impossible, in my view.

I was a good club cricketer, and played with a lad who was better still - invited to net at the County Ground, etc at the age 15, after we started beating all the local 'big' clubs in the Sussex Festival - this was the first actual TUITION of any kind I'd received in my life. You cannot help but ponder how much better you could have been if you'd had access to proper coaching at a formative age.

 

[Barham's tash]

Ah, I see. As a non-Twatter I did not know that was possible. Mind you, still not a nice thing to do.

Neither are thinly veiled accusations of racism when that’s clearly not the case.

 

[Mackenzie]

It seems that my son has struck lucky. Abergavenny has an unbelievable youth set up, age groups from U9 to U19, three mens league teams, a Sunday and midweek team meaning that he plays cricket practically every day. He is coached three times a week in the indoor cricket school in Ebbw Vale in the winter and has one to one sessions throughout the summer. Obviously some of this isn't free (we pay a fee for hiring the winter nets, usually £2 a session) but we only pay £40 for our family subs (annually) which seems pretty reasonable.

What this has done is negated the "private school effect" giving all the lads at Aber a fair crack at representing the county (Gwent) or Wales national teams. The focus on youth is a fairly new initiative but has done wonders for the club, competition for places in the mens teams is healthy and of course the parents bringing their children to practice/games puts money over the bar to keep the whole thing going. Seeing the amount of children playing "All Stars" cricket on a Friday gives me hope that this isn't a flash in the pan either.

Getting kids involved is key.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

It seems that my son has struck lucky. Abergavenny has an unbelievable youth set up, age groups from U9 to U19, three mens league teams, a Sunday and midweek team meaning that he plays cricket practically every day. He is coached three times a week in the indoor cricket school in Ebbw Vale in the winter and has one to one sessions throughout the summer. Obviously some of this isn't free (we pay a fee for hiring the winter nets, usually £2 a session) but we only pay £40 for our family subs (annually) which seems pretty reasonable.

What this has done is negated the "private school effect" giving all the lads at Aber a fair crack at representing the county (Gwent) or Wales national teams. The focus on youth is a fairly new initiative but has done wonders for the club, competition for places in the mens teams is healthy and of course the parents bringing their children to practice/games puts money over the bar to keep the whole thing going. Seeing the amount of children playing "All Stars" cricket on a Friday gives me hope that this isn't a flash in the pan either.

Getting kids involved is key.

Sounds great - and yes there are plenty of clubs around the country doing similar.

But no youngster will come into contact with any of that unless their family seeks it out, and chooses to get them involved.

Without supportive / interested parents, no kid whose school doesn't acknowledge that cricket exists, is ever going to play the sport.

 

[Mackenzie]

Sounds great - and yes there are plenty of clubs around the country doing similar.

But no youngster will come into contact with any of that unless their family seeks it out, and chooses to get them involved.

Without supportive / interested parents, no kid whose school doesn't acknowledge that cricket exists, is ever going to play the sport.

That's true and it's the same for any sport not played in schools. Unfortunately not every parent has the enthusiasm, time or cash to get the kids out to these clubs. Makes you wonder how many talented children fall through the net.

 

[Frankie]

I like Atherton and Warne for analysis , Holding for in play commentary , i also love to listen to Kumar Sangakkara who knows pretty much everything about everything concerning cricket .

 

[vegster]

I don't agree. Aggers lost his shit in a private message to a self-righteous journalist who has completely miss-read the Archer situation for his own ends. Takes a lot to bother me but when I read that article I was annoyed.

I think C*** is a measured response.

I'd like to think that as a senior Cricket commentator for the BBC he might have had enough about him to constructively dismiss any sense of racism rather then just blow up like that. He certainly came over as prickly, thin skinned and pretty spiteful which is not most peoples idea of his persona.

 

[brakespear]

Jeremy Coney for me. He's got a great turn of phrase and a really dry sense of humour

I wish TMS would sign him up for the Ashes

Definitely this plus the other New Zealander who is sometimes on with him and whose name escapes me I like Glenn McGrath too. And Ebony Rainford-Brent. And Jim Maxwell.

edit: having read through the thread to remind me I need to add Vic Marks and Tony Cozier as well.

Obviously this is just from current selection otherwise it would just be everybody who carried out the role in the 70s

 

[LVGull]

Athers for me.

 

[LlcoolJ]

Sounds great - and yes there are plenty of clubs around the country doing similar.

But no youngster will come into contact with any of that unless their family seeks it out, and chooses to get them involved.

Without supportive / interested parents, no kid whose school doesn't acknowledge that cricket exists, is ever going to play the sport.

Yes that's true. But I guess it works the same in other sports, even football.

At my son's primary school they had no proper football pitch so they played on concrete. Every day, every opportunity. Because kids love football.

The lads/girls who were really into it all went to clubs to play properly. The school just didn't have the facilities.

Happened to be that my lad preferred cricket (although he's a decent football player) so I found a local club for him to go to when he was 6. Luckily I picked Sheffield Collegiate CC.

His mates who are really good at football have all now been playing for clubs for years and one or two are involved in academies, United, Wednesday (lol), Rotherham...

School football has had about as much influence on their development as school cricket has for my son.

I think it's all down to the parents these days.

 

[bobbysmith01]

John Arlott, who once described the Sussex bowler of the 70’s John Spencer, who had very broad shoulders ‘here comes John Spencer into bowl, looks like he has left his coat hanger in his jumper’ superb. Think he died on Alderney and had a wonderful wine cellar.


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[Invicta]

Of present day commentators I like Nasser Hussein. He genuinely loves cricket, it's his total life. Admire him for that.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I really like Nasser, because he takes having the piss taken out of him and he isn't a stupid person when it comes to this game. But I like Michael Atherton better, would like Botham there, no contest.