Off with his head…
September 21, 2008 11:35 pmStorm V Warriors
September 15, 2008 12:45 amMore on Brown Vs Storm
July 26, 2008 8:07 pmSBW Walkout
July 25, 2008 12:24 amIndia - Opportunity Lost
January 27, 2008 2:06 amBy Rik E Boy
As I write this thread the Indians have just posted 400 which is what I believe to be the break even point of view in the current test match. Every run India get from here really hurts the Aussies from now on.
The Indians have come here with a very experienced combination with perhaps the best middle order they have ever assembled in their history to play an Australian combination that despite winning 16 tests in a row is quite vulnerable due to the loss of several experienced stars in the past 18 months.
I believe that when blokes like Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Gangully hang up the studs they may well look back at season 2007-08 as opportunity lost. No Indian side has won a series on Australian soil but when you consider the following facts this one might just be the series remembered as ‘the one that got away’.
1. The Indian board decided against a proper preparation for the Australian tour. Only one three day match was played by the Indian team prior to the first test. The Indians have now settled into Australian conditions and this is showing by the way they have gradually improved as the series has gone on. They coughed up a test with this decision.
2. Despite all the talk that comes from the sub-continent, this experienced Indian team is not a mentally strong group like the successful combinations that donned the Baggy Green prior to this Summer. India reflected too long and too bitterly after a series of poor decisons robbed them of crucial momentum early during the second test. That second test should have been saved. The batting performance on the last day was lamentable and cost India the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
3. The selection of the Test teams has been most mystifying. Why hasn’t Pathan being playing all season, or at the very least in the second test? Why persist with Yurav Singh and Wasim Jaffer in a shortened series?
4. The batting order is also a problem. I hate agreeing with waffling windbag Ian Chappell at the best of times but he is dead right about Laxman being wasted at number 6. Laxman has been one of the best this series for India but in the last two tests he has been forced to come in with the Aussies cock-a-hoop after Ganguly has failed and they have taken two quick wickets.
While the first test combination was reasonably well selected I reckon they’ve got it all wrong since then, even though they have started to play some solid cricket. This is the second test lineup that might have gone on to record a remarkable series win against Australia. Wassim Jaffer and Yuraj Singh were perservered with for one test too many when India did not have the luxury of doing this.
V Sewhag
R Dravid
VVS Laxman
S Tendulkar
S Gangully
I Pathan
M Dhoni
A Kumble
H Singh
R Singh
I Sharma
Australia haven’t exactly lost this test either BTW, but the main difference between India’s best combination and the strong Aussie combinations is belief. Deep down they didn’t believe they could succeed here or the board would have opted for a proper series of warm up matches. Again they lacked belief when Symonds got a leg up from umpire Bucknor in the second test.
With all their talk about being the new number one (LOL) deep down, they didn’t really believe in themselves and this is the primary reason why this series, regardless of the final result will be one they will remember with regret as opportunity lost.
regards,
REB
To Walk Or Not?
January 15, 2008 7:30 pm
Maybe the factor of non-snicked/not out caught, yet walked dismissals is under-exaggerated. Maybe not, let’s face it you don’t know either, but it’s safe to say they are extremely rare. I’ve seen one ‘walk’ in a game where I’ve played where a batsman has seen a catch taken on the half volley, rightly not walked, then walked purely because the fielding side kicked up a real fuss which he was to weak to bother listening to and put up with. I guess this would push up the percentage.
There have been amusing, possibly apochryphal, cases where a no.10 or 11 has walked when he’s got nowhere near it out of pure fright of the pace of the bowling on offer, but such tales are funny, not legion.
I still reckon all batsmen know when they’ve edged it at pretty much all times and resist the natural inclination to walk. Whether this urge is beaten out of you at age 8 (a total disgrace to the game imo and something I’ve never personally come across, yet don’t doubt it happens in England at the same time, but it’s definitely not institutionalised to the extent alluded to here) or comes from bitter personal experience at the hands of umpires, this self-imposed denial of natural justice has a guilty trade-off for the non-walker. Witness Mike Hussey’s shifty, uncomfortable, eyes-down ‘I don’t walk’ interview last year. I bet Andrew Symonds didn’t feel entirely proud inside admitting that he’d edged it in Sydney either. This was laughably lauded as honesty in some parts, I suppose in the world of the blind, the one-eyed man really is king. It’s a strange thing that half-honesty is more damning than outright denial, but we’re into the world of Potty justice here.
Nobody has contradicted the guilt-ridden life of the non-walker here yet either. Has cricket really become the sole preserve of the technocrat and the lawmaker? A world of chancing, see what-we-can-get-away-with pickpockets for players? I’d always thought cricket’s claims to a higher morality in the sporting world were bunk.
Spirit of Cricket
January 12, 2008 10:00 pmBy shortkeeper
Obviously the media are out there to make a buck, thus they pander to their respective groups/divisions/cultural backgrounds etc. Plus the media would have little to write about except that plenty of ex-cricketers are having a say despite plenty of tarnished records and at least 90%+ never having played international cricket under the 2000 code Spirit of Cricket preamble or like Inzi, believe such laws were for everyone else to follow.
So ultimately we look at the media spin being put out by the relative associations involved in the game:
An association with short-term moneymaking goals like the BCCI would of course try their best to get the results they want. Though too busy making money than realising they might have actually been a bit more competitive in the first test if they hadn’t played yet another series against Pakistan or shortened it slightly so that their players could be ready to start on the front foot.
The ICC are showing their powerful-looking false teeth in a jar while running around screaming we will not give in. Then Bucknor was dumped from the 3rd test. Threats of leaving the series having forced their hand neither side retained any association with the Spirit of the game with these actions. This is a massive failure by the governing body to maintain control of the situation, instead they have handed control over to the BCCI who can play their trump card of ‘leaving the series’ whenever they like knowing that the ICC will fold like the string puppets they are (even the jar holding the false teeth folds away nicely as well).
So what are CA doing? Well not all that much. So encumbered by following the rules are they and so weary of bad publicity, even from complete nutjobs who enjoy giving out spankings, they stick to following the rules as they are set out. In the corrupt old days of the ACB this would not have happened, but so fearful of the past is CA that it will not been seen even remotely like the old body.
So what will get us out of this mess? The only hope is that the players lead by example, or follow the one that CA have been asking the crowd to set for the past 18 months. This isn’t Australian players setting an example, but both sides. Kumble is far from a shining light with excessive appealing, appealing when knowing the batsman is not out etc and the expectation that perhaps all the legwork must surely be done by Australia is a completely unreasonable one. Ponting needs to learn more diplomacy both on and off the field, this does not mean he should ignore directives and laws…. but rather be reasonable in at least making time to discuss things with your opposite number before things really get out of hand.
Long-term objectives:
More vigilance on the Spirit of Cricket. Excessive appealing, dissent… smack it down.
Threats to remove teams from tours because some decisions do not go their way MUST be targetted as well. Fines are well and good but until the associations realise the ICC means business many will pay the fine and chuck a hissy fit. Now if that association had the upcoming series cancelled it would certainly serve (at least in part) a financial penalty.
As part of long-term objectives every player is found to accept and understand the Spirit of Cricket preamble. You cannot play unless you accept to abide wholeheartedly by them or out you go.
To sum up the Spirit of Cricket was often talked about but not formalised into what we see today until 2000. Most of the experts fail to understand it, many of the players chose which bit to accept and which bits to ignore and the associations want only the money from the media deals.
Cheers
Shortie
Shaun Pollock Retires
4:53 pm
After having been dropped for the first time in his international career lately, Shaun Pollock has chosen the occasion of his recall to announce that this match will be his last. Given the position in the game (WI 139, SA 556-4 dec, WI 13-0 at the end of day 2), his valedictory test in his home town is likely to be a triumphant one. Somewhat fitting for an outstanding player that comfortably fits the oft-used criteria for top all-rounder status by averaging more with the bat than ball. This he achieved both in test cricket and ODIs. There won’t be too many players for whom that applies. In this age of controversy, the international game loses one of its quieter, more unassuming characters. With his pace now much reduced and the next wave of Bokke fast bowling in the form of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel edging past him, his timing is spot on and he bows out at the top whilst he still can.
I’ve no idea how he’s viewed in Australia. There appears to be something of a healthy antipathy towards the Boks and Graeme Smith clearly attracts the majority of that. Was Pollock the acceptable face of South African cricket? If so, are they now left without one in Aussie eyes?
Michael Clarke’s Tattoo
January 8, 2008 11:08 pmBy The Park
Too many words have been written about trivial issues such as racism, onfield standards, technology and umpiring and gentlemen’s agreements.
The most obviously pressing issue to come out of the Sydney Test is why the hell did Michael Clarke show the texta scribble on his arm after taking three wickets in one over. I thought it was his pact with the devil that saw him sell his soul for the chance of decimating the Indian tail in one over.
But apparently it is just another of those lame quotes that sportsmen get inked on after bonding with teammates a bit too long into the night.
Is there anything quite as lily-livered as a sportsman wearing a tattoo of a foreign, mystical motif in a language he doesn’t understand? The answer, for those still wondering, is a palpable no, and yet they’re all at it these days. David Beckham kicked things off - his arm is basically a testing ground for blind artists the world over - with such sickly, sanctimonious claptrap as “Let them hate (me) as long as they fear (me) (sic)”, “Perfectio In Spiritu” and “Ut Amem et Foveam”. Michael Clarke is the latest cricketer to proclaim his spiritual side with the following desultory Arabic, that apparently reads: “The pain of discipline is nothing like the pain of disappointment.” But which ancient philosopher - which wizened, grey-bearded owl - whispered this pearl? Clarke’s former team-mate, Justin Langer.
I think the BCCI should grow some balls and take a stand on the real issues. Place the tour in limbo until Michael Clarke has the tattoo surgically removed. This is the real threat to the “Spirit of Cricket”.
