Thought of the Day: This Week in Cricket

“No News is Good News” is the old idiom, implying that if there is nothing to talk about, then everything must be going well.  With everything that has happened in the last week, I wonder if Andrew Strauss believes the opposite; that it is necessary to create news for things to be well.

For those who have been avoiding all news, not just cricket news (as this story broke down those barriers like Dan Christian in a changeroom after being given LBW), ex-England Captain Andrew Strauss was made Director of Cricket for the English Cricket Team and started his reign by telling Kevin “KP” Pietersen he wasn’t going to be picked for England.

This may not be shocking in itself, but KP had just scoredover 300 runs in a First Class game and had been previously told that he would get picked if he scored runs.

Given Strauss’ relationship with KP, his handling of the situation is hardly surprising, though England hardly has a list of players scoring 300+ runs in a game that they can call on.

Strauss’ nepotistic management style dominated his time as England Captain and cast a long shadow on the team after he left, as the team was unable to continue winning when one of the preferred players suffered a loss of form or retired.

It was hardly about developing a winning culture for the benefit of fans, but a comfortable culture for the benefit of himself.

I'm comfortable, how about you?

KP has indicated that this (Strauss’) approach is now being embedded at the ECB, with Strauss telling him that England were prepared tolose the Ashes this year so they can develop new players.

Now, I don’t know how familiar Strauss is with running high performance sports teams, but he would do well to look at the recent plight of the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

The AFL has a draft system for all new players, with the worst performing clubs getting the better draft picks to help them get better in future. 

Some years ago, Melbourne took the odd step of deciding that they weren’t going to get any better by being better, so started getting worse to get better.  Get it?

Got it.

The decision by the Executive group at MFC to lose games toaccess better draft picks ruined the club to the point that the AFL had to step in to find the club a coach and CEO as the losing mentality had permeated every element of the club.

Now that Strauss has decided to go down a similar path, without the benefit of a Draft of players to pick from (England are won’t to pick other teams players already), its baffling to think what the benefit may be.

Anyone?

  

Should England start to fail further and turn more fans away from the game, will the ICC interfere?  Surely England could be demoted or penalised for deliberately being uncompetitive?  Will the ICC allocate revenues to better run countries (e.g. Ireland) to help them coax players to them and create better development pathways?

Probably not.

Regardless, the other impact that Strauss probably should be a little concerned about is book makers.  These poor fellows have their livelihoods supported by the ability to rig the outcome of cricket games, or even deliveries within games, and if England stops being competitive; whatever are they to do?

Poor bookmakers.

Whatever the reason for his decisions, Strauss is certainly making a name for himself.

Enter the Dragon

In an interesting coincidence, rumours have continued to spread about the development of a break-away cricket league featuring legends of the game. I’m always excited at the prospect of these leagues as they achieve two things most immediately:

1. Provide competition to current administrators, forcing them to improve the management of the game; and

2. Develop changes within cricket that inevitably improve it as a product

The most obvious example of this was World Series Cricket, which did impact the Australian team (in particular) for almost a decade, but also saw it become much more customer-focussed.

With all the rumblings in the ECB, a healthy alternative couldn’t come soon enough.

Thought of the Day: This Week in Cricket

Peter Obornes book, “Basil D’Oliviera: Cricket andConspiracy, the untold story”, gives a detailed look into the political and personal surrounding the career of Basil D’Oliviera, the South African-born English cricketer who (indirectly) led to South Africa being banned from Test cricket.

The book is a fascinating read and aside from the obvious racist and political outrages, gives a fascinating insight into how sporting administrators put the purpose of their role (promote sport, improve society) behind personal prejudice.

With that in mind, its time to take a look at This Week in Cricket:

All Change, All Change

Coming off a mediocre drawn Test series in the West Indies in which they were supposed to build momentum towards the Ashes, the England and Wales Cricket Board have appointed former Captain Andrew Strauss as Director of Cricket and sacked Coach Peter Moores.

The appointment of Strauss is an interesting one, given the strategic nous he has shown in commentary (e.g. referring to Englands bestbatsman as a c*nt) doesn’t really suggest he will move away from the boys-clubissues that have riddled English cricket of late.

Still, there is a lot to like about the potential of the English team, certainly the inclusion of players like Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali will provide a team that at least cares.

Ben Stokes, seen here at a family picnic

Further, the speculation is that Jason Gillespie may take over as head coach from Peter Moores, which should see the team start to enjoy itself in the way the Australian team has under man manager (not data manager), Darren Lehmann.  Is it too late to make an impact before the Ashes?  Probably.

Respect the Long White Cloud

Before the Ashes though, England has a chance to settle and build some momentum in a home series against New Zealand.  The likelihood of this, though, is slim.

New Zealand are vastly under-rated and have the talent to take 20 wickets and build 400+ scores in any conditions, anywhere in the world.  I expect New Zealand to dominate the series against England.

More to their credit, the Black Caps have achieved this without a massive population to draw cricketers from, or regular major cricketing trophies to pique interest from the crowds at home.

While Australia is supposed to play the “Chappell Hadlee” trophy every year, there was a break of 4 years between the latest contests. 

If the International Cricket Council is series about the future of the game and growing it, the Chappell Hadlee trophy should be played at least every second year, perhaps as a 3-test series in conjunction with another 3-test series with another team.

This would allow Australia to honour its commitments to India, England and South Africa by playing a 5 or 6 test series against them every other year.

Here's something I wrote on the issue a while back.

Regardless, the Black Caps are one of the most exciting teams in the world right now and deserve to be seen and challenged at the highest level.

The anxious tourists

Speaking of excitement, the Pakistan Cricket Board has announced that a Test cricket team will be touring their country for the first time since the Sri Lankan team was attacked there in 2009.

The International Cricketers Association have voiced strongconcerns over the series and advocating that it doesn’t go ahead, it’s a wonder that it has gotten up at all. 

The PCB must be thankful that Zimbabwe Cricket is so broke and value their players so poorly that they will send them anywhere for a buck.

With Pakistan proving that it is still a force in Test cricket in the last few weeks, none of these Tests should last more than 3 days, which will be a relief to the Zimbabwean players who will likely be surprised to find a place less appealing to play cricket than Zimbabwe.

Thought of the Day: This week in Cricket

Another week has past in Australia where winter is supposed to be coming, but like an annoying party guest, it arrived too early and is now making itself at home while you busily try and clean the house.

The early cold has never made cricket seem so far away and looking at matches proceeding in the West Indies and Bangladesh does little to cheer me up.  There have been a few other issues in the Cricket World this week, but they’ve been pretty well covered here, here, here, here and here.

I’m just dealing with the cold, man.

To help me deal with it, I’ve broken out the limited addition Cricket Australia Monopoly set.  

Almost as good as the real thing

This triumph of marketing follows the guidelines of the original game of Monopoly, but changes the street names to cricketers and the Chance and Community Chest cards (renamed to ‘Test’ and ‘One Day’) etc to something cricket related.

While entertaining, the game does raise a number of questions, such as:

What is Dan Cullen doing in there?

I’ve got nothing against Dan Cullen personally, but for a representation of the best Cricketers of the era that the game was made, I don’t think he is an appropriate inclusion.  

1 Test wicket? You're on there!

 

Valuing him at $100, or on par with Shaun Tait (a large part of Australia winning the 2007 World Cup) and Stuart Clark (fiercely underrated) is also bizarre.

The Avenue of Legends

Having Don Bradman and Steve Waugh as the most expensive properties (replacing Mayfair and Boardwalk) does make some sense, though The Don is the only player on the board to pre-date Australia moving changing currency to the Dollar.

Why exclude others like Warwick “The Big Ship” Armstrong, Neil Harvey, Keith “Nugget” Miller or even the late Richie Benaud?

As for Steve Waughs inclusion, that should be a no-brainer, but is his place in Australian cricket as entrenched as Don Bradman?  Surely it would make more sense to do a straight swap with Alan Border (of Alan Border Medal fame) as a Legendary Captain (which replaced the Train stations)?

Value

I touched on this earlier, but the value put on players seems to be whole heartedly out of touch with their value.

As mentioned, the asking price for Dan Cullen is $100, whereas Stuart MacGill (208 Test wickets) and Brad Hogg (17 Test wickets, 156 ODI wickets & another big part of the 2007 World Cup winning team) is a combined $120.

Michael Kasprowisz, who served Australia gallantly bowling long overs in India and/or into the wind when Glenn McGrath didn’t want to, is valued at $140 – which is parity with Jason Gillespie (199 Test Wickets and a Test double century).

Suggestions

So, how to make my cold winter weekends less consternating while playing the game?  Well, I could just talk to my family or do absolutely anything else, or I could dwell on this like someone with too much time on their hands and try to work out a solution.

The solution I have come up with is to change the streets from one era into many to create talking points and more interest, while also dividing the streets into skillsets and specialists from different forms of the game. 

And here are my suggestions:

Go: Rename to “Play”. It’s how the game starts.

Brown Streets: The most useless and annoying. Should definitely be Shaun Marsh and Xavier Doherty.

Light Blue: The streets you end up saving your $200 for passing Go for once the game is in full swing.  Can sting you early.  This should be the opening bowlers; DK Lillee, Glenn McGrath and Ray Lindwall.

Jail: Should be called The Long Room.  You spend your time in their waiting around to die after all.

Pink: A bright colour should be represented by the best of the cricketers who wear colour, the ODI representatives.  In this instance we go with Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee and Dean Jones

Orange: One of the better value streets on the board, which can ultimately win you the game and fittingly represented by the Batsmen, being; Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Alan Border

Red: These streets can really hurt you if you’ve already been punished by the batsman in the Orange streets, so these are the middle-order bats, being Ian Harvey, Doug Walters and Mike Hussey.

Yellow: The last street you hit before you enter the finishing line and often one of the costliest, this is represented by the spinners in Stuart MacGill, Bill “Tiger” O’Reilly and Nathan Lyon (he does have 138 Test wickets)

Green: These are the second most expensive

Dark Blue: The ritziest and most expensive properties on the street, these are represented by equally flash cricketers or characters in Keith Miller and Kerry Packer

Train Stations: Are a notable part of the game, so should be represented by notable characters of the game.  In this case, Warwick Armstrong, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud and Shane Warne

The Utilities: These enable the place to run, so are best represented by the Test and ODI formats

Taxes: Simply change them to Match fines.

Chance: The great risk taker, Ian Chappel

Community Chest: I was going to suggest Kerry Packer again here, but given the hit and miss nature of these cards; lets go with T20 Cricket.

Sign of the Times

Seen in Block Arcade earlier....

Thought of the Day: This Week in Cricket

The cricketing novel "Tales from Far Pavilions", compiled by Allen Synge and Leo Cooper, is a fine and entertaining collection of cricketing stories from non-Test playing nations that was first published in 1984. 

It is easy to categorise most cricket books into "crap" and "not crap", with most being ghost-written players autobiographies that churn out often-heard anecdotes. This, though, is formerly in the latter (not crap) category.

Apart from giving a colourful and historical (some of the stories are from the 19th century) account, what it demonstrates is that there has been a real passion for the game the world over, regardless of administrative support.

With this in mind, I thought it a good time to revisit the major occurrences in last week in Cricket:

Brendan Taylor resigns
Zimbabwean batsman Brendan Taylor resigned from international cricket this week to concentrate on playing County Cricket, or more accurately, on playing a form of cricket in which he will get paid.

That Taylor was paid 58 cents per run in the World Cup may sound ridiculous to many, it seems to be koscher to the good people at Zimbabwe Cricket and the International Cricket Council. 

Artists impression of ZC board

Given the tournament took place in Australia, I'd suggest that the Australian Fair Work ombudsman could get involved to investigate underpayment of staff.

The availability of County Cricket as an escape for Brendan is good for him and other players who have the opportunity to play in leagues where they are paid, but it is hardly a solution to the overriding issue of misadministration occuring in cricket that is threatening its viability and future.

This was also re-enforced by Sri Lanka's Cricket Board accusing the ICC of withholding funds from the World Cup from the teams that participated.  If the ICC is serious about the future of the sport, surely it should pay the participants?

England in trouble, West Indies resurgent?
The first Test between England and the West Indies in Antigua ended in a draw, with new West Indian captain Jason Holder scoring his debut first-class century to save the match.

Given that the West Indies were arguably missing some of their best players in Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, one could argue this was Englands to lose.

That England were unable to put on a decent score, even with Suliemann Benn as the West Indies primary spinner, says much of the ability of their team.

England have a steady contemporary history of using tours of the West Indies as a means of finding form and momentum going into Ashes series, though it looks like this series may just be a continuation of the travesty that was their World Cup campaign.

I can literally look at this photo for hours

There is a romantacism about West Indian cricket that has helped keep interest in the side internationally for decades, despite falling performances.  Without wanting to be romantic, this side has shown to have some fighting spirit which has been missing from the Carribean for some time. 

Here's hoping some of that local interest and love of the game is still alive in the West Indies.

Bangladesh rises...or is equalisation here?
It wasn't a couple of Test matches, but Bangladesh defeated Pakistan in two consecutive ODI matches this week, which probably shows more on their growth in ability than anything to do with Pakistans decline in it.

Pakistan are still a side with players so talented that they don't seem to need an academy; they seem to almost fall out of the sky.  Bangladesh, in comparison, have been a poor side for a long time but are now starting to put in impressive and consistent performances (in ODI cricket at least).

Perhaps this, and the West Indies - England, series represent the new equalisation in cricket that fans have been wanting?  It has taken time, but Bangladesh and the West Indies are now more competitive than they have been of late, while England and Pakistan have been caught up to.

If only the same could be said for Zimbabwe...

350 reasons for the English to cheer up (not involving the weather)
While it isn't looking great for the English side in the West Indies, there was some happier news for them at home with Liam Livingstone hitting 350 in a National Club Championship match. 

Liam hasn't played a first-class match yet, but with selectors needing new batting talent (particularly exciting talent) to pick given they won't pick Kevin Pietersen et al, he can't be far off.

Vale
Ankit Keshri sadly passed away this week after suffering a stroke caused by running into a teammate while fielding.

Ankit was a substitute fielder for the game and was obviously playing with great conviction and passion.

The cricketing world has lost another of its team-mates, one who loves the game and participates for enjoyment.

Thoughts and best wishes go to his family and friends.

Star Wars YouTube clip of the Day

Top 5: Questions about Return of the Jedi

With the Australian cricket season being over and a new Star Wars film due out at the end of this year, I suddenly have a lot more time and motivation to ignore my family and re-watch the old Star Wars movies (not including episodes 1 and 2, obviously).

I've written here already about my thoughts on the start of Return of the Jedi, in which Luke sets up all his friends as bait - then kills everyone apart from his friends in a simply blood-thirsty plan, but I haven't really touched on the rest of the film.

Taking the movie in last night while ignoring cries from my children, I picked up on the following points that really make you wonder how aliens so stupid ever managed to make the jump to light speed:

5. The Rebels pick Solo and Lando as Generals, why?
After Luke has saved / killed everyone, the Rebels all meet to discuss how they are going to blow up the Death Star this time (totally different to last time) and not show any sign of concern when they hear about Bothans dying.

Whilst in the briefing room & after the lack of interest in the Bothans, we are all told that Lando Calryssien is being made a General by the Rebels to lead the assault on the Death Star.

Given that the audiences only experience with Lando is that he:

• Sells out his friends to the Empire
• Takes a job as a security guard with the mobster who is holding his friend frozen in carbon; and
• In the only battle he is involved in, almost gets eaten by a hole in the ground

...this seems like a very poor decision.

"Grab this! I will save you from the hole in the ground!"

I've already voiced my thoughts on Hans appropriateness as a leader, but he provides another great example of his commitment to the team when his Girlfriend is shot by a Storm-trooper, which he sees as a great opportunity to play dress ups.

4. The Ewoks were going to eat Luke, Han and Chewie...which everyone seems to forget
When Luke, Han, Chewie and the Robots go looking for Leia they manage to get themselves captured, overpowered and have their weapons taken off them by large rats known as Ewoks.

Now, a lot of people criticise Return of the Jedi for the inclusion of Ewoks as they are cute and fluffy and just used as a marketing tool for kids, rather than part of the grisly space story.

But not me.

Once the Ewoks have managed to tie everyone up apart from the effeminate gold robot, whom they rightly make their god, they carry them back to camp to be cooked.  That's right, the Ewoks were going to straight up EAT the main characters of the film.

Monster.

Luke manages to not screw up for once and convinces the Ewoks to let them all go, at which point they all become friends and suddenly forget that their guests were about to have them for dinner.

They then go on to blow up the Death Star and kill a small army of Storm Troopers, which we can only assume got eaten at the celebratory party.

Yub nub indeed.

3. Chewie does the Tarzan cry while swinging on a rope, why?
During the battle in which  the Rebels and their new best friends are attacking the Death Stars defences, Chewie takes off at one point and swings on a rope. 

While doing so, Chewie makes the Tarzan cry.

This makes no sense at all.

2. The Rebels have access to light speed, but not text messages?
Following on from the inspired decision to appoint Generals based on whether they were a white shirt with a black vest, the Rebels plan to blow up the Death Star seems to focus on knocking out its defences by a certain TIME, and then everyone showing up shortly afterwards and then shooting it where it hurts.

Now, given that they have access to light speed, space ships, light sabers and more; surely these guys also have access to text messages, emails or even a phone?

Rather than show up at a prescribed TIME, they could wait until Han sends them an SMS letting them know when the shields are actually down, then attack.

Exhibit A

1. Given Annakin is the main character, his death is a real understatement
Spoiler Alert: The movie ends with:

• Luke Skywalker cutting his Dads hand off, 
• Luke refusing to 'finish the job', 
• The Emperor electrocuting Luke, 
• Darth Vader then throwing the Emperor down a hole (this movie really has a thing about holes...), 
• Darth losing all his life force (presumably because his boss is dead) and then 
• Vader dying in Lukes (2) arms.

Sorry about the 2 arm joke their Darth....

....and without any understatement, that is the end of the main character of the movie.  Star Wars is essentially all about Darth Vader; his conversion to the Dark Side and then him coming back to the Force.

Sure, there is a bunch of other stuff that happens with robots and holes, but Star Wars is basically about Annakin Skywalker.

So how does the movie acknowledge this?  With Luke burning him in a forest all by himself like some sort of mass murderer, covering his tracks.

"Burn Daddy, burn"