Quote Originally Posted by blue lewj View Post
We're talking modern day though. I'm not sure the modern sports fan cares too much where the players are from. Obviously nice if they're local products and you have that connection but the requirement for many is if they are any good. Many will take performance over shoe-horning Welsh lads in for the sake of it. Do Man City fans care they have very few Mancunians in the team while winning the Premier League? I very much doubt it.

What is any new team meant to be really other than have a name representing the place it is from and actually playing there? All of the things you accuse the Welsh Fire of could be aimed at say Cardiff Devils. Most teams have to start somewhere. Again, it is a game where a glut of Welsh talent isn't at its disposal, at least if they have any aim to be competitive.

I think that the ECB could have saved money by not starting from scratch and keeping all the counties happy. They haven't though and whether we like it or not people seem to like it in record figures. Crowds drop off at City if we are playing rubbish as they do at virtually every sports team regardless of history. They could potentially go higher if Welsh Fire produce a successful team too. It isn't unique to the Hundred.

I enjoy watching it but have tried to take it on face value rather than get caught up in where the players are from etc.
Some of the performances have been shocking though. Yesterday, having been in some kind of control, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Welsh Fire have a mostly domestic (English) batting line up full of players who, Pope apart, are county performers currently. Now, if I was a marketing man, I’d have tried to get the team to sign Welsh born Phil Salt who is currently closer to the England one day teams than the likes of Clarke, Duckett, Banton and Hain, so you’d be getting a good player who could be marketed as the Welsh face of the team representing the country - increasingly, people will notice the lack of Welshmen and women in the squads, especially if results stay as poor as they have been for a season and more.

I can’t comment on the women yet, but the men’s side looks a poorly put together cricket team to me - granted, they’ve been unlucky to lose Bairstow.