Ouch:
Surrey overnight looked like they could maybe make a fight of it, but by lunch they’d been totally blown away.
Following sport has not been so good lately, for me. Various England cricket teams, after a good start, getting beaten in India in all formats. England in the Six Nations. Spurs being Spurs.
And now this. Surrey, having Spurs money and Spurs talent but now getting (with apologies to 6k) Sheffield United results.
LATER: On the other hand, Patrick Crozier will be very happy about Watford getting promoted straight back to the Premier League. And in addition to supporting the England rugby men I also support the England rugby ladies, and also the Harlequins rugby men. So, the news got better as the day went on.
SUNDAY: Here is how Ravindra Jadeja ended the innings of the Chennai Super Kings against the Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Thirty seven off the over. RCB never got close. Surrey’s Sam Curran plays (rather effectively) for the Super Kings, so that cheered me up.
On the other hand …
Sadly (thankfully?), it wasn’t like I didn’t know it was coming.
Anyway, hopefully Surrey can emulate our recent (and possibly brief?) return to form by also beating Brighton and Hove Albion by a very slim margin in their next match.
But of course the big difference is that with county cricket, nobody ever gets relegated out of it. If there are two divisions, you can be relegated to the bottom one, but being kicked out of it altogether cannot happen. Sort of like the European Super League that isn’t.
If this respect, the English rugby Premier League strikes me as much superior. Just imagine if any old cricket club in England could dream of getting into the “Premiership”, one day.
I suppose the problem is you have to have a good pitch. Plus cricket has so little money compared to football that a club new to the big time might be totally unable to pay its new bills.
The basic problem of cricket is that the counties love their four day cricket, but not nearly enough people watch it. I do, about one day every two years or so, but that’s only because I know I’ll be able to get in and wander around.