Gift horses and mouths...
So, it would appear that Monty Panesar's plans to play club cricket in Sri Lanka ahead of the India tour have fallen through over a financial dispute. But it is not, as one might initially expect, an issue of a local club being unable to meet the player's appearance fee. On the contrary, the club have demanded £7,500 from the ECB for letting him play!
It transpires that the ECB offered a £500 donation to the building of a new clubhouse, but received an email reply with this more ambitious demand, claiming that the ECB would benefit more from the deal - which they, of course, refused.
Unbelieveable! I find it hard to imagine there's any lowly club side in the world that wouldn't appreciate a cameo from a current Test match spinner. I'm sure my club would jump at the opportunity (though I hope that Burble's Mark Davis would still be given choice of ends).
I wonder if Monty would mind changing on the boundary or doing an umpiring stint at square leg...
6 comments:
Interesting post! I was actually considering a post from the exact opposite angle!!
My take would be that this is anything but a "lowly club side" given that Jayasuriya and Dilshan play there (I think!) and they play first-class cricket. Their current left-arm spinner, Shanuka Dissanayake, was their captain last year and has a first-class average of 21.33 - if any County player averged that over 87 games they'd be in the England squad. (He also has a first class batting average of 23, unlike Panesar).
So I was thinking that the cock up here was the original choice of team - Bloomfield don't need Panesar so I'm not surprised they wanted £7,500. Given that it was coming from the cash-rich ECB, it's like asking you Dave to handover a 2 pence piece. (If Panesar was as keen as is alleged, then he may have even considered dipping into his own pocket to finance it - that would have shown his desire to progress and improve.)
Of course Bloomfield shouldn't have initially accepted £500 and then changed their minds. But why was the deal considered with Bloomfield - isn't there a team that actually needs a world class spinner in the Sri Lankan first-class set up?
Fair enough, sounds like they're a bit better than I gave them credit for! I wish our match subs were only 2 pence though!
what, no debate, no contrary opinion? I feel let down....!
what, no debate, no contrary opinion? I feel let down....!
So I'm confused. Do I still get choice of ends when Monty comes and plays with us ?
I may be agreeing with you on this occasion but you're still entirely wrong about every other issue we have ever disagreed upon!
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