England to have a couple of hours off one afternoon at some as yet unscheduled point during 2017 summer

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Remember when September 29 was autumn? It’s summer now. England are playing the West Indies at the Rose Bowl on that day in 2017.

The 2017 fixture list is a triumph of “Two into one doesn’t go? We’ll see about that,” thinking. A bunch of one-day internationals (ODIs) is followed by the Champions Trophy. There are then seven Tests in just over two months before the season comes to a close with a T20 international and a load more ODIs.

September ODIs immediately after a major tournament and quite some time before the next one? We’re salivating already.

OH NO!

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10 comments

  1. This is ridiculous. 149 days of summer? 7 into 67 now goes, apparently.

    They’re also moving the RL one-day cup final to 1 July. It’s not like that’s going to play havoc with the already mental county cricket schedule, is it?!

    More cricket!

    Massive further devaluation of each unit of cricket!

    Yay!

    1. Some commentators suggest that devaluation of each unit is needed to provide a stimulus, although others are concerned that it may lead to a new ‘lower for longer’ situation with regard to interest (in cricket) rates.

      It’s all the fault of someone from the (former) colonies, of course.

    2. Actually, domestic one-day final to July is one move we’re in favour of.

      The current situation is that they play it a month or more after the bulk of the competition in the middle of September. Everyone’s lost interest in the competition by then, no-one’s in one-day form and it’s usually a bleak, melancholic early autumn sort of day.

      As sports finals go, we generally find it unutterably sad. We doubt they were aiming for that.

  2. Lessons the ECB learnt from losing Trott, Swann, KP and Prior in the space of about 6 months:

    Zilch, nada, nothing, sweet fanny adams and the square root of Giles Clarke’s humility. Presumably this is part of the master plan to ensure Trevor Bayliss has an alibi for England’s inevitable 5-0 thrashing

      1. I think I saw Mr Clarke at the Bristol ODI, although on second thought it could have been just a middle-manager from the regional headquarters of a multinational accounting firm.

      2. We saw Graeme Swann looking considerably taller than we thought he was.

      3. I saw former Somerset captain and Tasmanian opener Jamie Cox in a shop in Taunton c.2000-2001. He was on his way to the match and sadly I am unable to recall what he bought (it may have been a newspaper as they still had them back then) but the feeling was he could have walked into any shop in the country back then; I never saw him in any Australian shops, however.

      4. “We saw Graeme Swann looking considerably taller than we thought he was.”

        The weight of carrying the expectation of taking wickets in England in May is off his shoulders.

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