Thought of the Day: This Week in Cricket

Tiger Woods must love Lance Armstrong.

Woods was the worlds biggest sporting scandal once the details of his widespread infidelity went global, until Armstrong outdid Woods by; being busted for drug use, suing everyone who accused him of drug use, then being busted again for more drug use, admitting drug use and finally defending his dug use.

Suddenly, Woods’ indiscretion with waitresses in broom cupboards in the Pancake Parlour didn’t seem so bad at all.

Similarly, the ICC must love FIFA.

Only an organisation so corrupt and poor that its officials actually get arrested for being corrupt and poor can make the ICC seem halfway competent. 

That being said, perhaps the reason that Cricket is struggling to develop in the USA is that ICC officials are afraid of US investigators looking into what they are doing?

Regardless, its been a big week in Sport and a good one for cricket in which the game provided all of the highlights.  There is also much to look forward to including…

…Australia v West Indies

As a young boy growing up in Australia in the 80s largely meant that there were 4 TV stations you could watch and summertime was a time of Cricket and Sun Burn. 

The majority of the cricket I remember was One Day games against the West Indies, who would inevitably towel-up Australia with a mix of frightening pace, chewing gum and laconic slugging.

These contests made me respect and revere the West Indies, an opinion I still hold today, despite this series being snuck in the middle of Ashes contests and being seen as little more than a warm up for Australia and a test for where the West Indies are now.

The warm up game for the series, against the West IndiesPrime Ministers XI, was of as much consequence as a Shane Warne Tweet, with Mitch Marsh bowling Leg Spin, Chris Rogers bowling beamers and a drawn result in the end.

Josh Hazlewood did manage to shine though and should be a starter for the First Test at least.  Injuries and form permitting, he could be opening the bowling for Australia for some time.

The state of the West Indian pitches, slow and flat, are as much a contrast to their team of yesteryear as they are a sign of things to come for Australia. 

The ability of the Australian team to blast-out any opposition team at home in Test or One Day games with its seemingly endless list of fast bowlers (Starc, Pattinson, Cummins etc) is something other teams will have noted & prepared pitches accordingly.

While that is a shame, it does offer an opportunity to all-rounders like Mitch Marsh, James Faulkner and Glenn Maxwell who have been known to do some exciting things from time to time.

Flat beer, flat pitches

On the subject of flat pitches, the Test between New Zealand and England has turned into an absolute corker despite the lack of assistance from the pitch.  Indeed, credit (and possibly 50% of ticket sales) needs to be given to Kiwi Captain Brendan McCullum for his aggressive approach to the game & trying to force an outcome.

As equally appealing as McCullums captaincy has been Englands younger players who have been inconsistent in that hilarious way that young people are, while showing plenty of promise.

To put the contest in context though, England has been troubled by the likes of NZ bowlers Henry and Craig.  Also, the Kiwi batsman have flayed the English bowlers. It will be interesting to see how they go against Australia.

Michael Vaughan has suggested that there is a lot to comparethe Ashes-winning English side of 2005 to the current side, though this may be more to keep him in a job in the media given that he missed on the England Director of Crickets role & the only similarity between the England team of 2005 and today is the number of players in the team (XI).

There is little chance that a team with a bowling attack comprising of Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Steve Harmison would be hit for over 4 per over by the New Zealand team.

You may want to think about that 2005 statement Vaughany

 

Flat spot

The flattest note of the week in Cricket related to thesuicide bombing that occurred in Pakistan in the middle of the current ODI series against Zimbabwe.

The reception of the Pakistan fans to the re-introduction of international Cricket, even when represented by Zimbabwe, goes to show how important the game is there and how important Pakistan is to the game.

While some misguided person thought their life was of equal worth to the interruption of a cricket game shows how we still haven’t got it right as a race, the fact that the game goes on & people continue to enjoy life shows that we are getting there.