This is getting boring

@Jackers - forgive my ignorance but it feels to me you haven’t understood the situation here.

I’m not sure if you’re unhappy at the notion of England having both Test and ODI squads concurrently, or whether they’re playing the Netherlands at all. If it’s the former, then it’s pandemic-induced and would not have happened had Covid never happened. This series was in the diary for June 2021 and was “replaced” with the non-WTC New Zealand Test series last year. The Netherlands asked for it to be postponed by a year so it could be played in front of spectators.

I fundamentally disagree about any outrage to do with the fact we are playing The Netherlands at all. They earned their spot in the Super League and they deserve respect. I think emerging nations (particularly in Tests) should be playing the big sides more often. Afghanistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent Bangladesh are often forgotten about in the Test and ODI arena these days.

Indeed I’ve been following the World Cup Qualifying for some time now. It’s likely that South Africa, West Indies, and Sri Lanka won’t make it and will have to do the Qualifying proper. Surely it’s a better system than plucking the top 10 out of the world ratings? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Cricket_World_Cup_qualification

RB wrote:@Jackers - forgive my ignorance but it feels to me you haven’t understood the situation here.

I’m not sure if you’re unhappy at the notion of England having both Test and ODI squads concurrently, or whether they’re playing the Netherlands at all. If it’s the former, then it’s pandemic-induced and would not have happened had Covid never happened. This series was in the diary for June 2021 and was “replaced” with the non-WTC New Zealand Test series last year. The Netherlands asked for it to be postponed by a year so it could be played in front of spectators.

I fundamentally disagree about any outrage to do with the fact we are playing The Netherlands at all. They earned their spot in the Super League and they deserve respect. I think emerging nations (particularly in Tests) should be playing the big sides more often. Afghanistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent Bangladesh are often forgotten about in the Test and ODI arena these days.

Indeed I’ve been following the World Cup Qualifying for some time now. It’s likely that South Africa, West Indies, and Sri Lanka won’t make it and will have to do the Qualifying proper. Surely it’s a better system than plucking the top 10 out of the world ratings? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Cricket_World_Cup_qualification

Thanks RB. I'm happy to clarify my views, even though having done so we may have to agree to disagree.

I am not happy about England (not "we" to me while there remains such an imbalance between Surrey players' availability to represent county and country) having both Test and ODI squads away concurrently, but - subject to my second, more fundamental point below - I get that this was due to the Covid backlog. This clash should not happen again, other than under very, very exceptional circumstances.  

I am not outraged that England are playing the Netherlands per se. I do think it ridiculous that the World Cup Qualifying competition has been introduced to an already congested and bloated international calendar. While I don't profess to understand how it works as well as you clearly do, a quick glance at the link you sent me suggests a tortuous, convoluted system which involves teams which "qualify for the 2023 world cup" and others which "qualify for the 2023 world cup qualifiers(!)".  All that is left is to have a third tier of teams which "qualify for the qualifiers for the 2023 world cup".  

For crying out loud, can we not simply stage a world cup finals tournament in India next year with all 13 teams competing, starting with a group stage with seeding based on the world ratings but which still offers the chance for the 'smaller' countries to progress to the knockout stage? Before the 2019 world cup, the finals consisted of 14 teams. If Holland are good enough to beat England or another bigger country when they meet in those finals, good luck to them.  But there is nothing to be gained from this bloated nonsense which serves only to add to the pressures on the calendar and on player fatigue.