Rugby League professional clubs went down this avenue some years ago and my own Rugby Union professional team are now known as Sale Sharks. Something that seems to be borrowed from the American "gridiron" football league possibly.
Was there already some renaming of the top county cricket sides in the short game as borne out by the title Lancashire Lightning.
My take of it is that it's not the adopting of team nicknames (i.e. the 'Bears' bit) that's contentious but that they are competing as Birmingham rather than Warwickshire.
We went down this road in Australia two seasons ago, with the state teams (complete with the long-established nicknames like the Southern Redbacks, Western Warriors etc) continuing to compete in the First Class and List A competitions and separate T20 Big Bash League teams in the six capital cities (i.e. the Adelaide Strikers instead of the Southern Redbacks) with two teams in Melbourne and two in Sydney.
I'm not sure it's been a good thing though, Australian domestic cricket has always been the best in the world primarily because having only the six state teams maintained an elite standard - the wicketkeepers Tim Ambrose and Luke Ronchi have played internationals for England and New Zealand respectively despite having been unable to make the first XI for their state sides here. I think a better move would have been to expand the number of matches to a full home-and-away schedule instead of spreading the talent over more teams.
Seems silly calling it T20 blast when it lasts nearly the whole season. Also Middlesex are going to be playing 2 matches on May 17 as they entertain both Sussex & Essex in the T20 blast at Lords, the first time a T20 match is being played as a double header outside finals day
That's going to be interesting to see how Middlesex handle two matches in one day from a fitness and performance point of view, and whether it makes a distinct advantage for their fresh opponents in the second match. There's a big difference in the performance you see in a T20 compared to a List A match, having to field for 50 overs necessitates the fielders pacing themselves early on.
One of the things I love about T20 that you can't have in other formats is having a double-header with a women's interstate match in the afternoon followed by the men under lights. The power and speed might is less than you see in the men's matches (although Ellyse Perry and Megan Schutt can both bowl as fast as Chris Tremlett) but the skills are still excellent.
Glad to see our antipodal forum member is still gracing the Cricket thread. Not being too sure how long you have followed the game, but how do you think that your very own Bill Lawry would have reacted to being asked to open for Australia in a T20 match ?
As a patriotic cricketer I think he would have loved it, but not as much as if he was asked to open for Victoria in a T20
I'm not anywhere near old enough to have seen him play, but according to what it says of his batting style on
the fount of all knowledge I think he could have done quite well. Rotating the strike is an underrated skill in T20 batting, because going the tonk isn't always possible. Lawry did get a List A century in the first season of domestic one day cricket in Australia (his only season) which would suggest he would have had little trouble adapting to the different format.
We're only one Test into the season now and I already miss Tony and Bill from the TV coverage, for my whole life it had never been summer without them until last year.
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The local newspapers here in Adelaide spotted Jonny Bairstow, Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad out drinking until after 3:30am yesterday morning. Sounds like good preparation for a Test Match.
