Friday Five- July 17th

Friday Five- July 17th

Corruption, cold lager and a six-foot set of cricket stumps. It can only be our whistle-stop tour of the week's news!

This week’s Friday Five is an international affair, whisking you from a pub in Cardiff to a court in India, off to Australia then all the way back to a traffic island in Derby. Stay with me …

#IPL For those interested in the world of high finance, this week the IPL was in the news. After a cricket corruption scandal that involved more than two dozen people, including players and umpires being arrested, a panel set up by India’s highest level court has recommended that the franchise owners of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals be suspended for two years. If the BCCI decides to implement the recommendations the two teams – who have been amongst the most successful in the history of the IPL – will not be able to appear in the tournament for the two years unless sold. In addition to this, three players have been charged with spot fixing. Two of the three have been banned for life by the BCCI, while the third’s case is pending.

#Ashes2015 The big news from the England camp this week is that the Australian side refused a post-match beer after the first test at Cardiff. Eager to scream bad sportsmanship, James Anderson couldn’t wait to gab about how the Aussies were not like New Zealand, because the Kiwis had enjoyed a post-match drink. Presumably Anderson is unaware that Australia and New Zealand are two different countries with two different cricket teams. It might be that, in the grand tradition of Allan Border, Australia prefer not to socialise with the opposition mid-series, but it’s more likely they wanted to take some time to start discussing just what went wrong at Cardiff (and whatever was said, it seems to have worked, judging by day onr).

#Ashes2022 Fresh from England’s victory in the first test, Glamorgan have announced that they will bid for a 2022 Ashes test. There were criticisms of the pitch early in the first Test, but as soon as England started to dominate they were forgotten and Glamorgan chief Hugh Morris feels his ground delivered a high quality experience. Just for the record, Hugh, the Australian fans disagree. The SWALEC has missed out on a 2019 Ashes test as the Northern grounds that missed out this year – Headingley and Old Trafford – were awarded them.

#T20Blast Back in the realm of county cricket, many of us had a giggle at Yorkshire who slid out of the Natwest blast and took their moaning supporters with them. Captain Andrew Gale copped some grief on Twitter, but the fact is that both Derbyshire and Worcestershire were too good for them. Never mind, Yorkies, you still have the LVCC sewn up. As we draw close to the end of this year’s group stages, there are still 17 teams who can technically reach the final eight. Birmingham are already through and have almost taken Worcestershire with them. Likely to join them are either Lancashire, Nottinghamshire or Northants. In the South, Kent are already through and it’s Gloucestershire, Essex, Glamorgan and Hants who sit on the edge. Surrey and Somerset aren’t out of it yet, but their progression is less likely.

For more on this see Ross Lawson’s brain-busting piece on the various permutations. Warning: don’t read with a hangover.

#WomensCricket Last but definitely not least, there’s things going on in women’s cricket: the ECB has set up the Women’s Cricket Super League; Cricket Australia has decided to launch a Women’s Big Bash League; Alyssa Healy is behaving like a good Aussie by preparing to get verbal during the women’s Ashes series; but none of that compares to the news that Derby now has giant cricket stumps on a traffic island. It’s part of Derbyshire CCC’s bid to host the 2017 Women’s World Cup. I’m not quite sure how it helps the bid, but at least it shows willing or enthusiasm, or maybe it just shows giant cricket stumps.

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