Test match start days and the concept of ‘appointment to view’

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This year they moved the Twenty20 Cup to Friday nights to create an ‘appointment to view’. The premise is if people know when matches are being played, there’s a better chance they’ll watch.

This year also sees a five-Test series taking place between England and India which boasts four different start days. That’s back-to-back scheduling for you. They have to leave an extra day or two to allow the players ‘rest’.

If you didn’t know, the third Test starts today.

OH NO!

Roelof van der Merwe just heard you haven't yet signed up for the King Cricket email...

...so he's on his way to see you!

7 comments

  1. Yup, for those of us who work, of course, it means that the “business end” of the game is all midweek and therefore most of the match will be hard to follow.

    However, the old regular Thursday start slot means that I rarely get to follow Day One from the comfort of the sofa/garden chair. So today I am enjoying the rare experience of a Day One at home in leisure time mode.

    But the ECB “appointment to view” hypocrisy is blatant, indeed flagrant.

  2. I feel that I owe the kingdom an apology. Both of my strike bowlers, Ishant and Liam, are out of this match – so Bhangra-Morris fusion is going into freefall. Sorry your majesty.

    That, and I forgot to make Alastair Cook one of my openers. Rookie error there.

    1. As ever, my Mohammed Shami dismisses my Sam Robson. I’m going to have to have a word with them.

  3. Looks like Cook is going to use up all the runs he’s being saving up in the last 12 months in the next 3 matches.

  4. Erm… can somebody please help? My username’s Balladeer, and… er… this’ll be hard to believe, I know, but I think I come from a parallel universe. No, really. It’s similar in a lot of ways to this one I’ve found myself in, but in my universe, there’s no way that 2014’s England cricket team would end the first day of a Test match 247-2. No bloody way. Their openers get out cheaply, which precipitates a middle order collapse, and then if you’re lucky the lower order put on a few runs. This may all seem laughable to you, but really, that’s how things are in my world!

    Anyone know how I get home? Or is this a regular thing? In which case, I might stay here – just to check, does Galaxy chocolate exist in this universe?

    1. Just go to sleep. By tomorrow evening you’ll be back in your own universe with England all out for 280.

    2. Help. I’m still trapped, and there’s a bizarre humanoid house-servant who just hit an English fifty at a strike rate of more than 100. I’m scared.

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