Sussex team for Worcs

[Brovion]

...
The declaration bowling was the first I had witnessed in a CC game and cheapened the efforts of the teams on the previous days, and Luke's mock celebration on reaching fifty was testament to this, Luke actually declared himself by walking off before he was attributed to a CC century and I admire that.
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Exactly. 'Cheapend the efforts' is a very good expression. And fair play to Wiright for not accepting what would still have gone into the record books as a 1st class century, even though it was anything but. I think that's the thing that pisses me off, the fact that the runs 'scored' in the Sussex innings still count as first class when they shouldn't really be in the record books as they were simply given to him as a means to an end. And I, under the mistaken assumption that it was a 1st class game, was surprised when Sussex declared before Wright got a ton.

And I don't think anyone's said THE result was contrived, they said A result was contrived. I'm all for having something like a reduced over slogfest (like in a rain-affected one day game), but at least in those circumstances both teams are going for it and there isn't anything like the farcial pre-amble you witnessed.

Some might call that 'entertainment', frankly I think I WOULD rather watch professional wrestling.

 

[withdeanwombat]

On Wednesday evening, I started a thread about the potential for a bit of corrupt betting by captains of teams involved in the Division 2 race for promotion. But I wasn't being serious.

Because things turned out as they did at Worcester (and Cardiff), we can still keep that debate going. But nobody should be pointing the finger at Murray Goodwin or Sussex. It was the Worcestershire captain who decided to use 10 bowlers and concede easy runs to Sussex. The target set (301 in 70 overs) was a real challenge. Worcestershire reached it because they had two batsmen who scored quick centuries against decent bowling - one of them a rookie who had never scored a first class century in his entire first class career. Once these two had been dismissed, wickets started to fall quickly.

If the two century makers had got no more than 70 each, there is a very good chance that Sussex would have won, and nobody would be thinking that Sussex had stitched things up to deny Glamorgan promotion.

As Gwylan says ... an entertaining contest, played fairly. Worcestershire won, because they played well enough to do so.

But Sussex had nothing to gain by winning,so why go out of the way to give the other team even a whiff of a chance ? Bat on, take the draw,go home.No hint of suspicious circumstance,no doubt about the character of the game. It might have made Worcester bowl proper bowlers,it might have led to them winning anyway.It would have been less controversial,and stopped ' less than fanatics' like myself think that county cricket is a joke played in front of small audiences and which might as well be decided by the toss of a coin and just let people enjoy the deckchairs and the beer tent.

As I've said,it's right up there with wrestling.