Good afternoon sports fans, I hope I find you well! As I’m sure you know The Olympic Games are just coming to an end in Paris and with the worlds finest athletes gathered together in a orgy of sporting excellence it’s been easy to miss some of the exciting and intriguing cricket going on all over the world.
If you know anything about cricket then you’ll know the major hotspots for support are the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, Australasia, the Caribbean and of course, good old Blighty but, you can find the leather and willow all over the globe.
Just before the start of the Hundred came the final of The Major League Cricket tournament (MLC) in America. Fresh off the back of the T20 World Cup in the states, The MLC was carrying a strong momentum of support into its second edition. As you know about us at All The Cricket, we like to watch all the cricket! Unfortunately due to the time difference most of the games were past midnight and because of the old day job, I wasn’t able to catch much of the tournament this year. In the final, Washington Freedom, flushed with international players such as Lockie Ferguson, Travis Head, Marco Jansen and Glenn Maxwell took on The San Francisco Unicorns and won. My American boys, The Texas Super Kings also had a good showing, finishing 3rd over all. The MLC has IPL money behind it so it’s only going to get bigger, I look forward to quitting the day job and being able to watch more of it next year!
This year’s edition of the Women’s T20 Nordic Cup (Nord T20) is being hosted and organised by the Norwegian Cricket Federation. A three day tournament taking place between the 9th and 11th of August, the competitors include Norway, Estonia, Denmark, Finland and, for some reason, Guernsey. That said, the Channel Island team are the highest ranked of the 5 competing nations, 41st best women’s T20 team in the world don’t you know. Sweden, who are reigning Nord T20 champions aren’t participating in this years event so there will be a new Champion, let’s hope Guernsey can bring the trophy home to British waters. Nord T20 games can be watch for free on the Norwegian Cricket Federation YouTube channel and trust me, this level of cricket has the potential to be the most entertaining!
The Global T20 Canada (GT20 Canada) is the oldest T20 franchise tournament in North America, now enjoying its fourth edition. Six teams drawn from cities across Canada have competed to be proclaimed the ultimate champions of the Great White North! As I type the Brampton Wolves are facing off against the Toronto Nationals in the second semi final and the victor of this contest will earn the right to meet the Montreal Tigers in tomorrow’s final (Sunday 11th August). Now fellow traveller, I will forgive you if you’re not a huge aficionado of the GT20 Canada, frankly neither am I, but you can judge the quality of a contest by the quality of the players. Lining up for Brampton Wolves include the likes of top cheater David Warner, scourge of England Carlos Brathwaite and Scottish star George Munsey. The Toronto Nationals are fielding former New Zealand International Colin Munro, current West Indian international Romario Shepherd and South African legend Rassie van der Dussen. These are serious players who demand serious money. There is also a healthy list of West Indian and Afghani internationals in the Montreal squad, tomorrow’s final could be a belter! There is just too much good cricket!
RIP Thorpey
Earlier this week the cricketing world was saddened to hear of the untimely passing of the great Graham Thorpe at only 55, after announcing that he was suffering from a serious illness in 2022.
For a decade, from the early 90’s to the early 2000’s Thorpey was a lighthouse in what was all too often the darkness of English cricket in that period. I can remember vividly, around the turn of the millennium, watching Test cricket with my Dad and Grandad at my Grandad’s house. I was not but a lad then but I can still now see my forbears lamenting England’s position at the foot of the world rankings as they lost series after series. What England needed was a man to take the team by the scruff of the neck and drag it into some form, come Karachi in 2000 and then in the steaming heat of Columbo in 2001, that’s exactly what Graham Thorpe did. On the back of some legendary Thorpe innings, England won those two series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka and cemented the foundations for the England team that would go on the rule the world in the mid 2000’s. Graham Thorpe was the best player of his generation, a proto Joe Root and it goes without saying that All The Cricket send our heartfelt condolences to his family, we’ve lost a great.
Closer to home The Hundred is rumbling on. The Northern Superchargers men and women are still in the chase, and of course, we will be at Glorious Headingley for the last home game of the season on Tuesday! I will fill you in with all you need to know for the finals next week!
Until then, as ever, thank you for reading.
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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