Cricket season is back!

Indeed cricket season is back, that is of course if you reside in the Southern Hemisphere. Yes, the Grand Final is done, Rugby Union keeps ticking along, and Australian State Cricket has commenced with the Ryobi Cup. It's a great feeling and great so many Australian international players are in the squad line-ups.

Frustratingly if you love live cricket, as I do, and don't reside in New South Wales you can pretty much take note you will have few opportunities to support your state side in the live arena. However, Cricket Australia have tried to soften the blow by ensuring all games can be viewed via free-to-air TV (Gem) and the competition will be done in one month. This will ensure the Sheffield Shield starts a bit later and cuts into Ashes preps for our potential squad.

Anyways, the concept it actually a decent one that the Ryobi Cup is played over an unbroken schedule, giving sides the ultimate chance to build momentum and confidence as a collective unit. I don't like the idea at all that all games get played in New South Wales. I have my Ashes ticket for day 1 of the Adelaide Oval Test though, so I am stoked about that.

New South Wales thumped Tasmania in the opening game. Oddly enough though this thumping came in a seriously low scoring encounter. You can read about it at The Baggy Green Blog Facebook page. In a nutshell, Steven Smith showcased further signs of admirable improvement in his development as a batsman, while Ed Cowan's running between the wickets came under the close examination by his former batting mate, David Warner during discussions with the commentary team via an on-field mic. Warner was on the money with his observations and finally caught Ed at gully. Nathan Lyon also made his debut for The Blues.

Excuse the lack of posts post-Ashes. As previously mentioned, I will only be doing what I guess is best referred to as opinionated pieces or feature articles. I feel after running the site for five years, I get more spam comments (why these sad people bother to do this really disturbs me) than genuine feedback and too few out there probably have an interest in my opinion as it is, so cut out the ego.

It seems Twitter and Facebook is the best place to share ones knowledge, passion and interest in their team and this great game, so for all I know The Baggy Green Blog will probably just die a slow death until something better comes about. Perhaps I need to become a comedian or something to re-animate it all.

Long live The Baggy Greens, long live our great game.

Welcome to The Baggy Green Blog!
Thanks for reading this article written by Ian.
To comment on this article, click on the 'Comments' tag at the end of the article.


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Limited overs discussions via Facebook

All the limited overs matches against England and future games can be discussed via The Baggy Green Blog's Facebook page. Only feature and analytical articles will be posted here as we build up to the 2013/14 home Ashes series.

Well done to Aaron Finch on scoring his maiden ODI century, which shortly follows his record-breaking maiden Twenty20 century - the first for an Australian at international level. Shaun Marsh partnered him yesterday who went on to top score with 151 runs, giving Marsh his third ODI century. The pair broke the record opening partnership in ODIs, which was 212 runs set by David Boon and Geoff Marsh (Shaun's father) in 1986. Their overall stand came in at 246 runs, just behind Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson's 252* run-partnership versus England in 2009.

Welcome to The Baggy Green Blog!
Thanks for reading this article written by Ian.
To comment on this article, click on the 'Comments' tag at the end of the article.


TWITTER
@BaggyGreenBlog
@Ianbaggygreen
@SylvesterAu
@Dan_Stapo