A Line Under..
My opinion on the events of the Sydney test in my last post prompted Scorpicity of cricketfizz to write a lengthy reply to some of my observations and some of those elsewhere written about this subject. We’re both going to put a line under it after this probably as no-one wants to be going on about it for too long – lifes too short!
I was going to reply with some more thoughts on the difference of opinions on certain things to do with the umpires and match referees, but I’ve decided that without the hard evidence that only those people who were in the room heard when the Singh hearing took place that could be foolish. We would be going on hearsay and I don’t want to get that drawn into something that doesn’t involve my team and doesn’t get me that riled up.
Jonathan Agnew, a well-respected radio and print commenter he in the UK (and probably the world), has written a decent (although also long) piece on the bbc website. He has a lot of sense written in most of that post, and the short of it is saying the buck stops with the players in bring the game of cricket out of this, and I can see where he is coming from. I won’t re-hash what he says but I just urge you to read it, digest it and move on, I know I will be..
Australia vs India Goes Sour
The test series between Australia and India was supposed to be the two best sides currently playing test cricket and having a cracking series. Well the first test went one sided to Australia, but that was nothing compared with the fallout of the second test in Sydney.
Its difficult to know where to start with with all the things that are going on, but I’ll have a go from an un-biased English fan point of view. If we’re looking at the result first of all, it was a stunning win from the Aussies who showed the desire and belief to score quickly on the final day before bowling the Indians out - with Michael Clarke claiming an almost unbelievable 3-5 from less than two overs! However, there is a lot (and I mean a LOT) of ill feeling about the way that Ponting and his team went about winning. Some bloggers are getting a bit over the top (in my opinion) and claiming the result is fixed, cricket is dead, one showing the ill feeling back in India, amongst them.
On day one, Symonds nicked the ball behind but wasn’t given out and didn’t walk - big deal, this happens all the time and I don’t blame him. Then there was a possible grounded catch an another caught behind that was given in Australia’s favour. So are you telling me that 3 decisions cause all this fallout? Australia play the game hard, we all know that (jees we were on the end of it enough times), but to start moaning, demanding new umpires and then refusing to continue to tour just shows the Indians in a bad light.
The reasoning behind the refusal to continue the tour revolves around a potential racist comment made by Harbhajan Singh to Symonds, and if you believe what you read then there wasn’t an awful lot of evidence for this. However, don’t believe that you know the whole story as you can bet that the match referee made the decision he did for the right reasons - after a heated test he was hardly going to stir things up more just for the sake of it.
Anyway, I’ll probably get some stick for my view but this is a competitive game. Yes, it is a gentleman’s game as well and the boundaries get muddied every now and then but I think this was just an outstanding win for the most successful team for a while.
Australia March On
There are two, one-sided test series going on out there at the moment, and despite them not involving England I’ve been watching quite a lot of action from the games. The first one involves Australia battering Sri Lanka and the second is South Africa making mincemeat out of New Zealand.
Intrigue on how Australia would cope without the three stalwarts Langer, McGrath and Warne didn’t last long as the answer became very clear very quickly – they cope very well indeed! Australia have SO many good players that losing three of them seems to have made very little difference at all. Langer’s replacement Phil Jacques has already been scoring runs for fun, and Brett Lee has taken on the wicket taking mantle from McGrath. Warne’s replacement, Stuart MacGill, has not set the world alight but sometimes you just don’t get the chances in such a team. He’s taken some wickets and definitely looks like he’s taken the mantle of team pie eater.. (hence why the picture in this post shows him!)
Sri Lanka have failed pretty badly with the bat, and they also made a bizarre choice leaving out Malinga in the first test. But they are not at the races, and Murali hasn’t been bamboozling the Aussie batsmen how he sometimes does. It all looks pretty ominous for the rest of the test playing nations when Australia look this good.
South Africa have been the other team playing very well at the moment, although I’ve watched less of this series. Kallis has continued scoring runs for fun, whilst the Kiwi’s bowling looks woefully short of quality, and that was even when Shane Bond was fit in the first game. When he pulled up injured there was very little quality backup and the series never looked like being anything other than a whitewash in favour of the South African’s.
Interestingly enough, both the teams on the wrong end of results in the above two series are the two teams England play against this winter. Although Sri Lanka and New Zealand will obviously be on home turf as opposed to currently being away from home, we should get a good idea of where England are compared to two of the better test playing nations. My thoughts are currently that the Sri Lankan series will be the hardest of the two, but we should look to get at least a drawn series if not a winning one. New Zealand on their showing the past couple of weeks, are a team there for the taking and if we don’t win in the series against them I will be very disappointed. Still, that wouldn’t be anything new for an England fan!
Pink Cricket Balls
I let out a little chuckle when I read this today, and I fully expect some of you to do the same when you hear that potentially we will be watching pro’s playing one day cricket with pink cricket balls from 2009 instead of the current white balls.
When you first read about it, it does seem a little ludicrous, but the more I think about it I don’t see why not. White was picked as it would supposedly stand out against a number of backgrounds, but there have been so many problems with the balls losing the “whiteness” that now after 34 overs the ball gets changed anyway in international cricket. So why not try something else, with the hope that the colour will last better, the ball will be able to be seen against the night sky ok and just as importantly, show up well on tv. Although why stop at pink - how about an illuminous yellow?! Something similar to Chelsea’s away kit would work well if you ask me!
If you know anyone that wants to send me a trial ball, get in touch and send me one and I’ll give it a review!
Live Cricket Returns - with a blackout!
Whats the black image on the right all about I bet you’re wondering right now… Well apparently there is a news blackout of the Australia – Sri Lanka game going on at the Gabba right now, leaving you to come here for the latest news!
I think its all to do with certain companies like Reuters not being allowed to “own” the images they take, as Cricket Australia want the rights. Well that goes against everything these photographic companies were set up for so the likelihood is a lack of images from the current series! So onto my take on the day’s events…..
Well unfortunately, I’m not in Australia this winter like last (no matter how much I wish I was), and I managed to watch only one over when I woke up this morning so I’m not really in the right place to tell you what went on either! I was quite surprised when I head that Jayawardene had won the toss and put the Aussies in to bat (obviously not learning from Nasser Hussain a few years ago!), but some time was lost to rain and maybe it seemed like the right thing to do. However, Phil Jacques showed how he wanted the opening spot with Hayden, scoring a century before charging down the track to Murali, missing the ball and getting stumped! There’s no doubt that Australia are in the best position at the moment, but the game is only one day old..
There are two other games going on today as well – South Africa host New Zealand in a test match and lost skipper Graham Smith for only 1 run before I left for work this morning, and that should be an interesting game. India and Pakistan play their second one dayer today as well, which means that the highlights on skysports this evening should be action packed! Just as well really, as nothing is going on in England terms at the moment…
Fletcher, Pack Your Bags
Any respect I had for Duncan Fletcher is quickly evaporating this week. I didn’t think much of the fact that the Daily Mail was going to be serialising parts of his new book at first, it wouldn’t be the first book from someone involved in sport in some capacity being released in this format. They normally pull a few interesting bits to try and get people interested in the book and raise sales, in what appears to be the most popular time for book launches (with Christmas just around the corner, what a surprise!).
However, the moment I read that “Freddie let me down” on the net on Sunday I was worried what might come out this week. It seems that Duncan Fletcher is hell bent on pulling down the England camp for his own satisfaction and bank balance, and abandoning any trust placed in him in the position he held. This was the England coach who people placed full trust in for many years, going to him with problems and issues, and now he feels it right to air those views to everyone, without a thought for those he used to deal with.
When you take on a senior position in any job you hear thing which aren’t meant to be repeated, and those with any self restraint and with the right personality will keep stuff to themselves. Fletcher obviously isn’t this kind of person. He wants to pass the buck for his own failings onto the players, and so far Tresco and Freddie have borne the brunt of what has been said. I’m not going to link to the pages where the serialisation is being written as I don’t think it deserves to be linked to, and I sure as hell won’t be buying or reading the rest of the book.
Duncan, you could have written about so much else, and sold the book on recollections of winning the Ashes in 2005. Instead, you add some controversial happenings about the most famous English cricketer at the moment to attempt to push your sales. Well, I hope you fail miserably.
