"Not alot of people will ever understand this or experience it. This is not your "crush", your highschool sweet heart love, your fairy tale ending, your soul mate. There are times when you don't get the girl. The feelings may never be mutual. She may never love you like you love her, but she is your everything. This is LOVE at its truest, rawest form. unconditional."
Yep... so very true.
Favourite players
My favourite 10 ten current international cricketers are:
Mainly teams full of expats that make little or no effort to involve locals in the game. I understand expats are needed to spread the game in countries like Bulgaria and Turkey, but when a country has been a member of the ICC for over 20 years then it just gets stupid to keep funding them. The ICC should not waste money on the following countries.
Canada aka Asian & West Indian Rejects XI & Canasia
For all your work creating Hampshire articles, I know from experience that even tiny cricket articles aren't as easy as they look! Now.. about Somerset.. Harrias (talk) 22:58, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
For your incredible industry on the articles for individual cricket players from every corner of the UK and beyond. Johnlp (talk) 20:27, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
A non Barnstar Barnstar. The Doctor salutes you!
A virtual warm ale and poor quality radio for TMS, for all your good work on improving cricket coverage, my dear boy. Benny DigitalSpeak Your Brains 14:26, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
The Special Barnstar
For your many article contributions, especially to cricket related articles. CRICKET ROCKS!!Solar Police►Talk 13:01, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
The Afghanistan Barnstar of National Merit
I hereby award you this barnstar for your outstanding work on Cricket articles of Afghanistan in Wikipedia.--Ahmadfaisalsidiqi (talk) 11:25, 18 December 2011 (UTC)
Where will we be in 10 years???
Of course this is fantasy as the Idiots Controlling Cricket do their upmost to make sure the cosy club remains the cosy club, Sharad Pawar and Haroon Lorgat the main criminals in the piece, destroying the values of the game for their greedy aims.
Test
It's the end of the noughties, so here is my prediction for the Test rankings on December 31, 2019:
Yes, County Cricket isn't in the best financial health, but hopefully the County Championship will admit a new county in the future... but who? My money is on either:
Pictures of Hampshire players and officials from 2004 to 2009 can be viewed here.
The full list of former first-class cricketers to have reached 100 years is:
1. JM Hutchinson. Derbyshire 1920-31. B. Nov 29 1896. D. November 7 2000. 103 years 344 days
2. S W Ward. Wellington 1929-30 to 1937-38. B.August 5 1907. D. December 31 2010. 103 years 148 days.
3. R de Smidt. Western Province 1912-13. B. November 23 1883. D. August 3 1986. 102 years 253 days.
4. EA English. Hampshire 1898-1901. B. January 1 1864. D. September 5 1966. 102 years 247 days.
5. J Wheatley. Canterbury 1882-83 to 1903-04. B. January 8 1860. D. April 19 1962. 102 years 101 days.
6. EJ Martin. Western Australia 1932-33. B. September 30 1902. D. June 9 2004. 101 years 253 days.
7. DB Deodhar. Hindus 1911-12 to 1936-37, Maharashtra 1934-35 to 1946-47. B. January 14 1892. D August 24 1993. 101 years 222 days.
8. GH Harman. Dublin University 1895. B June 6 1874. D December 14 1975. 101 years 191 days.
9. AG Finlayson. Eastern Province 1921-22. B September 1 1900. D October 28 2001. 101 years 57 days.
10. CH Braithwaite. English Residents 1881-1890, Players of the USA 1885-1893. B September 10 1845. D. April 15 1946. 100 years 217 days.
11. GO Deane. Hampshire 1848. B December 11 1828. D February 26 1929. 100 years 77 days.
12. GC Perkins. Northamptonshire 1934-37, Minor Counties 1951. B June 4 1911.
Dean Jones on Dominic Cork - "There's one ugly incident that has not gone past the dressing room door until now. It happened in 1997, when I was playing for Derbyshire against the touring Australians. I'd had some stern words with Derby problem child, Dominic Cork, about his attitude and fitness. After we'd spoken, and while I was in the middle batting, he proceeded to distribute the contents of my coffin - five bats, many pairs of gloves and a host of other pieces of equipment - to a heap of kids, leaving me with nothing.
He then proceeded to move my car from the car park to a street some two kilometres away. I informed police, thinking it was stolen, and it was found 48 hours later. Suffice to say I didn't stay too long with that club."
Rants
Because a celebrity or group of celebrities does something, does it make what they're doing notable? While wikipedia relies on widespread coverage, if a media which has a hissy fit at anything a celebrity does reports widely on it, how does that still make what they're doing notable?
Before the 2010 season, Hampshire County Cricket Club went to Caribbean before the start of the season: the result was a shocking start to that season, they ended it just about staying in Division One of the County Championship. Prior to the 2011 season they went back to the Caribbean, when they returned they started the season awfully and ended up getting relegated from Division One. Now, perhaps those that are logical amongst us can start to see a pattern emerging here, but I'll press on. Prior to this, the 2012 season, yep, you've guessed it, Hampshire went back to the Caribbean once again, upon their return they once again started the season poorly. It's obvious that going on a jolly to the Caribbean before a season isn't working in getting the team prepared for the coming season, so why keeping wasting time and money when practising on seaming, swinging green pitches you're likely to come across in England is far better preparation than playing on slow, low, dead flat Caribbean pitches. Seriously.
Marlon Samuels got off rather lightly for letting bookmakers know team info in 2007: he should have been banned for life. Zero tolerance to cheats and frauds.