Sign of the Times: What's the difference?

A recent view of the irrepressible Townsville Bulletin presented the two following stories under the National and International banners.  The question is, though, what's the difference?

Star Wars YouTube Clip of the Day

Thought of the Day: Australia's World Cup Squad much like the Rebels

Cricket Australia, the omnipotent rulers of the Australian Cricketing Galaxy, released the players who will be making up the World Cup Squad this weekend past, leading to a mix of nods of agreement and surprised eye brows being raised.

While there are some players who would seem to be automatic selections, there are many others in the squad whose presence cannot be rationally understood.

Taking a few parsecs to consider the team, I came to the conclusion that the selected players are very much like the Rebel Army that attacked the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.  Some are wizards, some are risk takers and others just seem to be there.

With this theory in mind - lets look at some of the comparisons:

Michael Clarke (capt) = Admiral Ackbar

Michale Clarke is a great Cricketer, and a great One Day Cricketer.  He can lead, bat, bowl and field; when fit.  

When he isn’t fit, he can sit and commentate and observe fairly obvious things going on.  Like traps.

Thank you Michael. Yes.  It's a trap.

George Bailey (vice-capt) = Mon Mothma
Mon Mothma is something of a conundrum in the Star Wars world.  She is a leader of the rebellion, but seems to brood over the death of Bothans like no-one else.  Actually, it is precisely no-one else that cares about the dead Bothans.  Watch the movie, she goes all quiet about them being dead and no-one seems to give even a single moments interest.

Anyway, onto Bailey.  He’s in the team and is a leader, but no-one is sure why.  Perhaps it has something to do with his ability to present to a crowd. Similar to Mothma, it seems a long, long time ago since he actually earned his place.

David Warner = Han Solo 

Powerful player with an impressive track record.  Also isn’t afraid of smacking around his enemies, though I dare say Joe Root is a little less intimidating that Greedo.

Aaron Finch = Chewbacca 

Han Solo’s partner.

Shane Watson = C3PO 

Moves around robotically and doesn’t look like he could catch a ball unless it was hit right at him.  Claims to have some fairly incredible skills (e.g. fluent in over 6 million forms of communication / bowls at 130 km/h and can open the batting) though they don’t seem that effective in practice.

Steven Smith = Wedge Antilles

Fly under the radar and kill all our enemies with no reward or recognition? No problems.

Do you even know who wedge is in Star Wars?  You should.  He’s awesome.  He turns up to all the sky battles in which pretty much everyone dies but comes out unscathed.  

He has flown (literally) under the radar for most of his career but is in actual fact a literal destroyer of the opposition, much like Smith who wasn't even in the team until Ackbar got injured. 

Brad Haddin (wk) = R2D2

Handy and rather vocal member of the team who always seems to have a crucial role in any battle he is involved in.

Like R2D2, Haddin seems easy to replace (surely there are better droids out there that can be foiled by something as simple as stairs?), though continues to provide value through runs, leadership and conning the computer systems of a space station to tell you which garbage compactor your friends are in.

Glenn Maxwell,  = Luke Skywalker

Seemingly blessed with every talent under the (possibly multiple) sun(s), Maxwell is still young, a little hot headed and prone to the odd decision (e.g. while on an attack mission, hand yourself over to the enemy).

The Force is strong with this one.

Could turn a game with either bat or ball in his hand, no confirmation as to whether he kissed his sister.

James Faulkner = Lando Calrissien 

Best finisher in the Galaxy, Faulkner (like Lando) will stay cool under pressure to deliver the knock out punch from any situation, regardless of how dire things look.  He’s also the coolest guy in the team.

Xavier Doherty = The Dead Ewok

Much mystery surrounds the inclusion of Ewoks in a Rebel Army; they don’t stand taller than the Storm Troopers hips and, more importantly, they don’t have laser guns.

Similarly, Xavier Doherty can’t really bat or field, and his bowling has been described as “holding”.  Given that there are spin/slow bowlers in the country that can bat and field (e.g. Steve O’Keefe, Adam Zampa) and/or take wickets (e.g. Fawad Ahmed, Jon Holland, Cameron Boyce) there isn’t any clear explanation to Doherty’s inclusion in the team.

In the end, his inclusion is just a bit sad.

Question of the Day: NSW, can we have some more batsman please?

One of the oldest quips in the Australian Cricketing lexicon is that whenever a player gets handed a Blue cap on debut for NSW, they get given a Baggy Green cap along with it.

While there have been more than a few NSW players to have gained National selection without much basis in the past, it is hardly true today.

Not naming names.

Indeed, NSW seems to be THE place to produce International standard cricketers these days.  A glance at the Australian team that took the field for the last Test in Adelaide shows that 5 of the team are from NSW, while another (Shane Watson) has moved there - seemingly in an effort to improve.

A quick look around the Sheffield Shield competition shows that there are NSW players plying their trades in other states all over the country as it is too hard for them to get a game at home.  Even in the parochial (and great) State of Victoria there are 3 New South Welshman in the team (Dan Christian, Chris Tremain and John Hastings), not to mention the Western Australians (Chris Rogers and Marcus Stoinis), Tasmanian (Matthew Wade, the Captain) and Pakistani (Fawad Ahmed).

More telling about the 5 New South Welshman who played in the last Australian team, only 1 was a bowler; Nathan Lyon (who was Man of the Match).

Injuries from the match have opened the door to more NSW players to play for Australia, with Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc likely replacements for Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris.  This would mean that there would be 7 NSW players in the side.

This number, 7, is unlikely to be attained though as Captain Michael Clarke is not going to play again in the series (if at all).  His likely replacement will be Shaun Marsh, who as been unable to cement a spot in the Australian side for four years, such is the derth of batting talent demanding selection in Australia.

Cheers, Shaun.

Looking around the Sheffield Shield competition for likely Batting candidates, the top contender would have to be Ed Cowan, a New South Welshman who had to move to Tasmania to get a game as the batting depth in his home state was too deep.

The main issue here is that Cowan is an opener, so more of a natural replacement for the out-of-touch Chris Rogers. This will mean there will be another New South Welshman in the team, but it doesn't give too much confidence around batsman who can come in.

And so pride must be swallowed and the call must go out: "Please NSW, can we have some more batsman?"

Star Wars YouTube Video of the Day

Star Wars YouTube video of the day

Thought of the Day: C is for....

With the recent One Day International series between Australia and South Africa now over, Australia has moved to the number One ranked ODI team in the world and are in prime form ahead of the World Cup.  Apart from a few issues.

Firstly, the World Cup doesn’t start for nearly 3 months, so a lot can change in that time.

Secondly, though Australia did win, it hardly was convincing as a settled unit and neither was South Africa.  Both sides dropped their best players at different times, making it more of a test to see if certain players could play certain roles.  This wasn’t about obtaining the all-important “M” in modern sports; Momentum.

Given that it was more of a test and learn series, there can be little confusion as to the small crowd sizes, which seems to have taken up a lot of the medias attention.

Some in the media were quick to defend the series, and by extension Cricket Australia, pointing out the high TV ratings for the contests.

Nice and smug there Malcolm

TV ratings are great and important, particularly given that is where Cricket makes most of its money, but crowd numbers indicate public interest and excitement about the sport.

The head of Cricket Australia, James Sutherland, has come out and launched an investigation into the small crowd numbers, though (as adroitly pointed out by Titus O’Reilly) this is a little like a murderer investigating his own crime.

If CA are serious about engaging the public and ensuring interest in Cricket is something more than an alternative to repeats of M*A*S*H on a Wednesday night, it would seem that looking at the positioning of the game would be a great starting point.

< 

Eyes you could swim in for hours>>

That is, what does the “C” in “CA” stand for?  At the moment it isn’t Cricket, so is it…

Confusion

Sorry, I just love using this one.

The latest ODI series was played in the context of nothing with most of the best players unavailable.  Why would fans be interested?  What does it mean?

There is a lot of cricket being played in Australia this summer, not least the Matador Cup (already finished), the Big Bash League, another ODI series against England and India and a Test series against India…before the World Cup begins.

What are fans to think?  There is almost too much going on and none of it seems to relate to each other.

I have put forward my thoughts on making the Cricket Calendar more relevant to fans before, but perhaps this could be expanded to include short form games in the same way as the Womens Ashes; so that all games are worth points that lead to an out-right trophy that can be easily understood?  Too simple?

Calendar

Some pundits are claiming that poor attendances are due to too much cricket being played, specifically citing that most fans aren’t used to Cricket (particularly ODI Cricket) in November.

Well, the A-League didn’t even exist 10 years ago & fans certainly weren’t used to having soccer on mid-week, but they have gotten used to it.

Make the game accessible and relevant, and the fans will turn up anytime of year.  They certainly seem happy enough to switch on.

Thanks again, Malcolm.

Children

Despite being unable to set a sporting Calendar or Competition that fans can follow, CA certainly are good at getting children into the game.

Census data shows that 951,933 people participated inorganised Cricket in 2012-13, which is a startlingly high number.  Regardless of everything else it is inept at, Cricket Australia is good at getting young people interested in Cricket, even if this seems to equate more to TV audiences rather than match attendance.

Unfortunately pocket money doesn't stretch this far anymore.

Complacency

In all, CA seems like it really doesn’t give a shit about the game, fans, or a long-term future.  They are making a ton of cash for doing a crap job, so why start caring now?

This attitude seems to have carried over to the national Test team, supposedly the pinnacle of Cricketing excellence in the land, who not only lost a Test-Series comprehensively against Pakistan, but did so while picking players who wouldn’t normally get a game.

Not naming names. (photo courtesy of Getty Images)

The performances of young players coming through is also evidence of a lack of proper investment.  While Australia has been able to produce good fast bowlers in the last ten years, the number of spin bowlers and specialist batsmen (roles that traditionally require more time to develop) has declined.

Dave Warner is an obvious exception to this rule, but he is an exception to all rules, starting as a T20 slogger and developing himself into a successful test opener.

So what has Cricket Australia done to help produce better players or attract more to the game?  Nothing it seems.  Young Australian sportsmen are leaving Cricket to play other sports in greater numbers than ever, after all, why would you play a sport with a confusing schedule in front of 14,000 people when you could play 22 games a year in front of 40,000?

Just ask him.