den

Huge question. I haven’t got a scoobys.

“Wage cap”.

I remember talking to John Williams about financing a squad. He pointed out that there were two options. You either limit the wages paid individually to all players (in effect a wage cap) meaning you could have a bigger squad, or you paid the going rate and brought in a number of potentially better players but had to survive with a smaller squad. He opted for the second option. I agree with that. I guess the point is that there are different ways of managing player salaries within the same budget. Implementing a wage cap is just a choice. In my opinion a wrong choice.

That’s a plan from people who have no idea what brings success to a club. You need a solid squad irrespective of age. Promising youngsters should be introduced into a solid first team, not be its entire makeup.

Letting Baath leave is criminal. It just screams that they don’t know what they’re doing.

Yeah, I’ve seen Cowdray, Barrington, Dexter and just about everyone since. Also been on Madras cricket ground 35 years ago - although there was no game on then. Such a lot of greats, such a lot of memories. From all that two cricketers stick out in my mind. Firstly Shane Warne. Two reasons. Firstly what a fabulous bowler and secondly - what a man. I found him so interesting to listen to and would have listened to him all day. He had the lot, he did the lot. Secondly Clive Loyd. Just seeing his 6’5” frame ambling slowly to the crease. He was immense. Never forget that sight. Then obviously his batting and the way he could destroy any bowler. Sometimes his fielding was overlooked. You would think he’d be so slow in the field but he fielded in the covers and was known as supercat. Try taking a quick single to Clive and you were taking a mighty risk. It only took him about three strides to cover the 22 yards. Fabulous players. So lucky to have seen them.

Don’t forget Rohan Kanhai. Sunil Gavaskar rated him as the best batsman he’d ever seen and named his son Rohan. Saw him playing for saint annes at Leyland around ‘61. He lived in Blackpool for 60 years.

5 day test cricket. It’s the tops. How much improved is test cricket now since, limited overs cricket arrived onto the scene? The modern cricketer has skills and ability far beyond the guys of 50 years ago. They’re incredible.

So is there also an impediment to investing anything at all into the playing squad? If Venkys “wanted” to give the manager - say £5m for players, would they now have to also give a £2.5m guarantee to the courts?

Go 2 up and we stop playing. The only tactic now is to stand on the edge of our own area. Spain got one back and they’ll get at least one more if we don’t start posing a threat to them.

It was all a bit strange really. From 40 overs in the ball was swinging around, yet as you say they weren’t beating the bat. India batted superbly. I’m not sure England would find it so easy under those conditions. Our best chance is for rain, a draw and move on.

I watched it as well. God it was boring. Safety first every single time. Nobody prepared to take a risk in order to win the game. I can understand defenders playing that way - but midfielders, wide men and strikers?

Twat with a tele! 😀

Fantastic. Such quality.

If that is their ultimate strategy, then it’s naieve and is going to get us nowhere. The number one aim and the whole reason to exist is for the first team to be as good as it possibly can be. Focussing everything on the Academy and bringing through young players is totally missing the point. It’s getting harder and harder for lower league clubs to either keep these youngsters or sell them on for anything like their true value. The number one focus has to be, to get together the strongest first team squad we can, in any way we can. Get into the top division and then we have a far better chance of either keeping our academy lads or getting their true worth in the transfer market. This current set of owners are so naive they swallow whatever amateurs like Gestede tell them - and Gestede just tells ‘em what he thinks they want to hear. Totally and completely wrong.

Want to keep developing kids to make the first team? Easy, just drop down the leagues.

Ground development including the point and two hotels and also the new ground currently being built in Farrington.

Wish I could give this 2 likes.

We obviously have different opinions on what makes him so good in the air. For me the timing of his Jump and connection on the ball is the worst part, closely followed by his direction. Just being a big lump that occasionally manages to get his head on the ball means very little. How many headers has he scored since he’s been here? I genuinely don’t know but doubt it’s very many. Good headers from the past? Absolutely loads of them. He doesn’t come close IMO.

Had to happen. Gary Croft standing in for T20’s. The problems run deeper though. This is a poor squad. As David Loyd said a bowling squad needs real pace and quality leg spin. Hartley apart it’s full of medium pacers. On the batting front Lancs have been scoring at just over two runs per over. That’s no good, that’s just standing there and letting sides bowl at you. There are also rumours of club debt running too high not helped by being banned from staging concerts at the ground. I also dont think we have enough involvement from real cricket men in the boardroom. Chilton comes across as weak. It’s primarily short on cricketing knowledge.

A big lump who is one of the poorest headers of a ball that I can remember.

I was on the riverside for that game too. 40,000 packed into Ewood. Imagine it with 61,000 on!

30,000 in a ground nowhere near as big as the modern one. Imagine what it was like when the record attendance of 61,000 was set. 50,000 wasn’t uncommon then. Notice also - if you look closely enough - kids sat over the wall on the running track on all sides of the ground.

It’s a welcome move for me and normally I’d be looking forward to moving forward. Venkys have latched onto the obvious unrest at the club and with the fans. The problem is that they don’t understand what’s really happening down here, how the fans feel or have felt for the last 15 years, or what they need to do to turn all that around. They might be doing this with good intentions, or they might have other reasons but in my opinion they don’t understand and they never will. if you don’t understand the problem you can’t fix it.