How has the having Scotland play domestic one day games affected the game in Scotland has it seen more players take up the game from Scotland or is the game more for Non Scottish people

And being a Welsh man I have never had a problem with supporting England at cricket and would love to go to an Ashes series in Australia

But whilst the team is usually known as England, it is in fact, the team representing the England and Wales Cricket Board and therefore as a Welshman, it is your national side.  And whilst you hear of Ireland and Scotland competing in ODIs, you never hear of a Welsh side.

 

Cricket is still fairly healthy in the central belt and is boosted by the number of players of Indian and Pakistani origin.  Someone told me a few years ago that there are actually more Cricket Clubs in Scotland than Rugby clubs.  Not sure that is still the case.

General apathy apart, sadly the climate is not always condusive to cricket even in the summer. That sid, Inverness has two cricket clubs playing in a North of Scotland league. Both have enjoyed some success over the years.

The North League seems to go in fits and starts. As one club goes on the up another seems to slump, so the league never seems to really catch fire and capture much public imagination which is a shame. But Scotland has produced some decent cricketers. Wasn't Mike Denness the only Scot to captain England at cricket and didn't Bradman once play in Forres?

 

Doug Jardine in the 1930s had Scottish parents but he wasn't born here so presumably didn't count in those days. Denness became capt after Welshman Tony Lewis in the mid-1970s. 

I'm not a fan of cricket but I believe it's quite healthy in Scotland. I know there are teams in Perth and in the Falkirk District, Edinburgh and Fife. Indeed I remember Freuchie being famous way back in '85 when they won the Villages Trophy at Lords.

The North League seems to go in fits and starts. As one club goes on the up another seems to slump, so the league never seems to really catch fire and capture much public imagination which is a shame. But Scotland has produced some decent cricketers. Wasn't Mike Denness the only Scot to captain England at cricket and didn't Bradman once play in Forres?

 

Doug Jardine in the 1930s had Scottish parents but he wasn't born here so presumably didn't count in those days. Denness became capt after Welshman Tony Lewis in the mid-1970s. 

Although Douglas Jardine the bodyline captain was born in colonial India, he would refer to himself as a Scot.

Cricket - Paint - Dry

Inverness has two cricket clubs playing in a North of Scotland league.

And why one of these two teams should have such a stranglehold on a vital and major facility like the Northern Meeting Park to the exclusion of many others, I will never understand. The Inverness City problem could have been solved years ago and much more satisfactorily if they had been allowed to go there while Inverness's two cricket clubs shared Fraser Park.

Agree wholeheartedly..

Meeting Park has a better wicket

Doesn't matter what country cricket is played in, still bores the life out of me.

A couple of mates when I was in school tried to get me to watch some cricket, apparently it was the exciting version, 20/20? if I remember rightly. However I just couldn't get into it and was still bored to tears, perhaps if they supplied a bottle of 20/20 it would have been much more fun.

MD 20/20....there's a blast from the past.

Meeting Park has a better wicket

..... which only benefits a handful of people with terribly pernickety requirements, who still seem to have an amazing hold on this major facility which restricts other use of it by many other much larger groups.

Charles, you are becoming very narrow minded in your old age, not good for journalism I'm afraid.

MD 20/20....there's a blast from the past.

Imo Strawberry flavour was the t*ts! *gets flashbacks of Macdonald park back in the mid 90s*

Charles, you are becoming very narrow minded in your old age, not good for journalism I'm afraid.

Nothing narrow minded about suggesting that a small group with very stringent requirements has a disproportionate hold on a facility which could otherwise be used to the much greater public good. If there is narrow mindedness here, it's on the part of the cricket club who refuse to make allowances for the bigger picture.

In fact I would suggest that putting the case for that bigger picture is actually being rather broad minded!

Think I need a break in order to take stock of where my life is headed.....something is clearly wrong as I find myself agreeing with yet another Charles Bannerman point!!!

Would he be so concerned if his group of joggers were in charge of the facility, no, it's the fact that cricket is not high on his agenda that the tunnel vision takes over.  Live and let live.

Would he be so concerned if his group of joggers were in charge of the facility, no, it's the fact that cricket is not high on his agenda that the tunnel vision takes over.  Live and let live.

I think the problem is that cricket isn't very high at all on very many people's agendas, but still this tiny minority retains a stranglehold on a major public facility, seriously restricting its many potential uses.

I like cricket but I am not going to spend any time watching either of the capital's 2 sides playing the game and I don't think many other people are either.  Therefore I don't see why a team needs to play the game in a facility which caters for the viewing public.  I can see no good reason why the two teams can't share the pitch at Fraser Park.  Failing that, is there any good reason why a square could not be developed on the wide open spaces at the Bught?

I like cricket but I am not going to spend any time watching either of the capital's 2 sides playing the game. 

So do I... and neither am I. Or at least I like Twenty-20 or even one day version which can be very exciting, as opposed to the utter bore which which lurches on lugubriously for the best part of a week before it rains and they decide to call it a draw with that pedantic slow hand clap which seems to go with just about everything that is totally unexciting in a test match.

 

But up here people simply don't watch it so there's no need for a major venue with a 500 seater grandstand.

 

(I did hear about crowd trouble at a cricket match at Huntly once though!  )

 

"The English not being very spiritual people, invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity." (George Bernard Shaw)

It has been used over the years for other events. Rugby springs to mind, I'm sure it would be easy enough for interested parties to lay boards etc.

 

Why should they move?

It has been used over the years for other events. Rugby springs to mind, I'm sure it would be easy enough for interested parties to lay boards etc.

 

Why should they move?

It only seems to be available to other users when it suits NCCC - not only during their season but for a considerable time before it. Highland Rugby Club even found that in the 70s when they were playing in Scotland's top league but were still decanted to the Canal Field (from which the bypass now looks like decanting them again) to make way for MacAllan League cricket.

The cricket club also didn't like the Tattoo in there... especially the time about 20 years ago when the Military managed to BLITZ the cricket pitch with flash bangs and the like!!!

 

".... interested parties to lay boards...."? I'm not sure how easy it would have been for Inverness City to "lay boards" to play in the Junior League???!

 

Why should they (NCCC) move? Quite simply because the benefit to a very limited number of people with unrealistically restrictive requirements is vastly outweighed by the added benefit to a very large number of people if NCCC freed up the Meeting Park by sharing Fraser Park.

I would also be very interested to learn how much rent NCCC pay for such exclusivity.

Edited January 28, 201313 yr by Charles Bannerman

Wouldn't be all that hard for you to find out Charles....and unless it has gone up recently, it amounts to little more than what might be considered a "peppercorn rent".  It's certainly nothing close to what others wishing to use it are quoted/charged.

Why don't they move to the running track and let Inverness City use it as well.

 

Laying boards..............don't be pedantic mun.