This is shaping up to be a busy year for English Cricket.
The Red Sox will be playing the Yankees at London Stadium June 29 and 30. Part of me wondered why they wouldn't play at one of the hallowed cricket grounds in London, such as The Oval or Lord's. It turns out that one of those grounds will be busy during those two days, and generally well-used all summer.
First, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup:
-This year, it's hosted by England, and will use the best known cricket grounds they have to offer, including the aforementioned Lord's and Oval in London, Old Trafford in Manchester (the football stadium doesn't convert, they just have two different stadia with the same name), Edgbaston in Birmingham, Trent Bridge in Nottingham, and other smaller grounds that get used from time to time. They'll also have some matches in Wales (Cardiff's Sophia Gardens), but the Welsh cricket team won't get the same automatic invite to the tournament both Australia and New Zealand did four years ago when they co-hosted because, well, no one in Wales seems to give a crap about cricket.
-The tournament will feature 10 teams in one group instead of 14 in 2 as in prior years, and the knockout stage will just be a semifinal-to-final bracket. This means we're less likely to get the big stories like Ireland 2011 this time around, since they're not coming, and also since the 10 teams represent the top 10 ranked ODI teams. In other words, no one's coming out of nowhere to surprise because the teams that are there are basically supposed to be there. Granted, Afghanistan may have been bumped up to make it look better, but considering the other qualifier is the West Indies, I'm pretty sure it didn't matter who the tenth team was going to be.
-As it gets closer, I'll try to learn and then teach the difference between Test cricket (the 5-day matches) and ODI (One Day International), but I can point out that there will be visual differences from Test cricket that has nothing to do with rules. The ball will be white instead of the traditional red to make it more visible for night matches, and the teams will wear coloured kits with names and numbers (remember that last part, we'll talk about it again a little later).
This year, we'll see:
-Australia (defending champion)
-England (host nation)
-Pakistan
-India
-Bangladesh
-Sri Lanka
-Afghanistan
-South Africa
-New Zealand
-West Indies
All squads
First match will be England v. South Africa at the Oval on 30 May, with the final on 14 July at Lord's. Like the ODI rules, I'll edit this post to include links to the teams when May starts.
After that, England and Australia will be engaging in the most well-known Test series in cricket: The Ashes.
We've had threads for prior Ashes, both in Australia and in England, so I'm sure the history is well-covered ground by now. Last time out, the Aussies retook the Ashes at home, winning the series 4-0 and missing out on a chance at a whitewash only because of rain on Day 4 at Melbourne (insert SydneySox comment slagging Victoria...here). Here's how it looks this year:
-1-5 August at Edgbaston, Birmingham
-14-18 August at Lord's
-22-26 August at Headingley, Leeds
-4-8 September at Old Trafford (the other one), Manchester
-12-16 September at The Oval
The two sides are right next to each other in the Test rankings, and if everything holds to form, England will win back the Ashes, something like 3-1. We'll see soon enough, though.
Oh, I almost forgot: England and Australia will have numbers and letters on their Test whites.
The Red Sox will be playing the Yankees at London Stadium June 29 and 30. Part of me wondered why they wouldn't play at one of the hallowed cricket grounds in London, such as The Oval or Lord's. It turns out that one of those grounds will be busy during those two days, and generally well-used all summer.
First, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup:
-This year, it's hosted by England, and will use the best known cricket grounds they have to offer, including the aforementioned Lord's and Oval in London, Old Trafford in Manchester (the football stadium doesn't convert, they just have two different stadia with the same name), Edgbaston in Birmingham, Trent Bridge in Nottingham, and other smaller grounds that get used from time to time. They'll also have some matches in Wales (Cardiff's Sophia Gardens), but the Welsh cricket team won't get the same automatic invite to the tournament both Australia and New Zealand did four years ago when they co-hosted because, well, no one in Wales seems to give a crap about cricket.
-The tournament will feature 10 teams in one group instead of 14 in 2 as in prior years, and the knockout stage will just be a semifinal-to-final bracket. This means we're less likely to get the big stories like Ireland 2011 this time around, since they're not coming, and also since the 10 teams represent the top 10 ranked ODI teams. In other words, no one's coming out of nowhere to surprise because the teams that are there are basically supposed to be there. Granted, Afghanistan may have been bumped up to make it look better, but considering the other qualifier is the West Indies, I'm pretty sure it didn't matter who the tenth team was going to be.
-As it gets closer, I'll try to learn and then teach the difference between Test cricket (the 5-day matches) and ODI (One Day International), but I can point out that there will be visual differences from Test cricket that has nothing to do with rules. The ball will be white instead of the traditional red to make it more visible for night matches, and the teams will wear coloured kits with names and numbers (remember that last part, we'll talk about it again a little later).
This year, we'll see:
-Australia (defending champion)
-England (host nation)
-Pakistan
-India
-Bangladesh
-Sri Lanka
-Afghanistan
-South Africa
-New Zealand
-West Indies
All squads
First match will be England v. South Africa at the Oval on 30 May, with the final on 14 July at Lord's. Like the ODI rules, I'll edit this post to include links to the teams when May starts.
After that, England and Australia will be engaging in the most well-known Test series in cricket: The Ashes.
We've had threads for prior Ashes, both in Australia and in England, so I'm sure the history is well-covered ground by now. Last time out, the Aussies retook the Ashes at home, winning the series 4-0 and missing out on a chance at a whitewash only because of rain on Day 4 at Melbourne (insert SydneySox comment slagging Victoria...here). Here's how it looks this year:
-1-5 August at Edgbaston, Birmingham
-14-18 August at Lord's
-22-26 August at Headingley, Leeds
-4-8 September at Old Trafford (the other one), Manchester
-12-16 September at The Oval
The two sides are right next to each other in the Test rankings, and if everything holds to form, England will win back the Ashes, something like 3-1. We'll see soon enough, though.
Oh, I almost forgot: England and Australia will have numbers and letters on their Test whites.
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