Linking hip hop and cricket blogging

We’re not sure whether P.Diddy had county cricket blog writing in mind when he wrote, “Gotta make that money; bad boy, bad boy; gotta cash that money; gotta make that money, money; gotta take, gotta make, gotta catch that money, money; yeah, yeah”. Like we said, we’re not sure whether he had county cricket blog writing in mind when he wrote this, but the Jessop Tavern View has always liked to take it as its official motto. Everytime we’ve sat down to write something, our eyes glaze over and we can picture the money, the fame, and presumably the girls that would follow on from establishing the internet's only Gloucestershire cricket blog.

And here it is. The Jessop Tavern is finally about to catch that money. As Diddy would say; 'Yeah, yeah'.

Andy Bull, writing in the Guardian yesterday, suggested that we might not be living in an age of quality fast bowlers, or batsmen who know what to do when the pitch isn’t lifeless, but that we are living in a golden age of cricket writing. Admittedly he didn’t name the View from the Jessop Tavern specifically, but frankly who else could he have been referring to when he wrote that despite this golden age, the county game isn’t receiving enough attention, and his call to arms to all those people who report on the county game. We will also gloss over his point that the internet has made everyone a sports journalist, and that isn’t necessarily a great thing.

So there it is. Fame at last. We are now going to sit back, put our feet up, and wait for the girls to start piling up. And the money. Gotta catch that money. Yeah, yeah.

If this might be stretching the point too far, then we at least heartily recommend the piece, available here, and we also cannot encourage people enough to support the various publications mentioned in the article. The Nightwatchman in particular, is brilliant.

Michael Klinger- a (superficial) analysis

The Jessop Tavern View rarely needs an excuse to put some meaningless cricket on the TV and while away a few hours, but up until now we haven't had the opportunity to watch the 'Big Bash' t20 competition from Australia.

However, with Sky conveniently airing endless live matches from Down Under over the Christmas period and the Shire having recently signed South Australia's Michael Klinger as captain for the 2013 season, we had the perfect opportunity to settle down in front of the box and enjoy some mindless slogging, all in the name of 'research'. And then spend three months thinking about writing this piece.

Conveniently, the official site has recently published a two part interview with Klinger where he talks a bit about his career so far, his IPL experiences and his motivations for joining Gloucestershire. One thing which we find slightly concerning in the interview and from looking at his career record is a clear preference for the shorter forms of the game. Klinger is coming to Bristol off the back of a mediocre Australian domestic season, where he's averaging just 19 from 9 first class matches with a highest score of just 56. (He'll fit right in with those figures). He's fared better in the one day arena, with 341 runs at 42, but reserves his best performances for the Big Bash, where he has a highest score of 71 and has a solid strike rate of 114.

So, what does all of this tell us about Klinger and his likely impact? Not much, really. The title of this article was a bit of a clue. What the Jessop Tavern View is worried about is that we've signed a captain whose best performances in recent years have been confined to the shorter form of the game. That's not a bad thing in itself, but Glos did finish bottom of Division Two of the County Championship last year and you would think that our 4 day performances are the most pressing issues facing the new skipper. We're probably over-analysing his 4 day performances, but in 11 first class appearances for Worcestershire in 2012, he scored 606 runs at 35 with just one hundred. The Jessop Tavern View is mildly concerned that we may not be getting our money's worth from a man, who at 32, may be better suited to T20 thrashes as opposed to constructing a long innings on English early season pitches.

Time will of course tell, and Klinger said all the right things in his interview with the official site- apart from the bit about being pleased to receive an email from Alex Gidman offering his help ahead of the new season. Those are the kinds of emails which need to go in his junk mail folder, or better yet, be deleted without reading.

Anyway, onwards and upwards with the first pre-season friendlies only 8 days away. It snowed here in London yesterday, so we're not imagining the players are exactly desperate to pull on the triple-layered sweaters. Even they are full of a bit more enthusiasm than us, wait until their cold hands feel the sting of the first booming cover drive from  Marcus Trescothick down at Taunton in 10 days time...