Christmas cricket on the cards Down Under - report
SYDNEY, (Reuters) - The last barrier to a 365-day professional sporting calendar in Australia looks set to come down with a report in the local media yesterday saying cricketers had agreed to play Twenty20 matches on Christmas Day.
The most important feast in the Christian year has been a sport-free day for half a century with cricket fans having to wait until Dec. 26 to get their fix when the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosts the annual Boxing Day test match.
The Australian newspaper, however, has published a leaked e-mail from the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) telling player agents they had agreed to stage Big Bash League matches on Dec. 25.
The agreement has provisos for players to opt out of matches for reasons of religious belief and Cricket Australia, which has long been keen to stage matches on Christmas Day, indicated it definitely would not happen this year.
“At this stage, we have not finalised our Big Bash schedule beyond the upcoming season,” a CA spokesperson said.
“Any future scheduling will be worked through with appropriate parties including the players and the ACA before being publicly announced.”
The ACA was not immediately available for comment but has previously been opposed to the move.
“Christmas Day is important down time for players to spend with their family and friends,” ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson said last year.
“It is important that players, who spend much of their time travelling and playing the game they love, stay connected to their family and friends.
“Research tells us that this is important for player wellbeing.”
The idea is not completely unprecedented and Sheffield Shield matches were frequently played at Adelaide Oval on Christmas Day until the late 1960s. LONDON, (Reuters) - County champions Surrey could not make it a blemish-free season but their audacious bid for a recordbreaking victory against Essex ensured a magnificent finale at the Oval.
Shot out for a paltry 67 on Monday, Surrey looked down and out after conceding a mammoth first innings lead of 410 runs to Essex, who declared their first innings on 477 for eight.
Rory Burns’s team rediscovered their stomach for fight in the second innings, though, when centuries from Jason Roy and Ollie Pope powered them to 541.
Their bowlers, led by former South Africa spearhead Morne Morkel, then decided to complement that effort.
Chasing 132 for what appeared an easy win, Essex suffered a spectacular top and middle order collapse to find themselves reeling at 97-7 - rekindling Surrey’s hopes of ending the season without a loss.
Essex were still two runs away from their target when Morkel first hit Matt Quinn on the rear of his helmet with a bouncer and then arm with another short one, but the number 11 batsman somehow survived that over.
It was Ryan Ten Doeschate who snuffed out Surrey’s hopes of overturning the biggest deficit to win a first class match with an unbeaten 53, flicking Jade Dernbach for four to lead Essex to a nervy one-wicket victory.
“It was an unbelievable atmosphere out there, and that’s the fight we have shown all season,” Burns told the BBC.
“I’m so pleased with the character we’ve shown here - it still feels like we’ve ended on a high after that first innings, it’s an unbelievable finish.”