Cricket: More Than a Game

Bruce wrote:

12 minutes. 17 deliveries.
That was all it took to crush the hopes and dreams of the Barmy Army.

No sensible England fan had any sort of hopes or dreams for this tour

onewild wrote:
Bruce wrote:

12 minutes. 17 deliveries.
That was all it took to crush the hopes and dreams of the Barmy Army.

No sensible England fan had any sort of hopes or dreams for this tour

Exactly. But there are a lot on non sensible ones singing songs near the guy playing the trumpet that had plenty to say on day 4.

So apparently, not only is Bancroft (Aus) a cheat, but he did so on the instructions of Smith and whichever other dimwits make up Australia's 'leadership group'.

This seems to extend not only to the premeditated supply of implements to change the condition of the ball, but then using walkie-talkies to try to get the hapless Bancroft to shove the offending item down the front of his trousers.

This has been an exceedingly poor series, played in appalling spirit by two teams who are seemingly completely unfamiliar with the laws of the game.

If Smith had any integrity, he'd have resigned already as captain and be awaiting the inevitable suspension that will come his way, because as captain he is deemed to be responsible for the actions of the team. That he has not yet resigned should come as no surprise.

The rest of the (sic) 'leadership group' who came up with this ploy should also receive shorter suspensions. Maybe they could spend the time looking up the word 'leadership'.

They say Test Cricket is on the way out. Behaviour like this partly explains why.

davet010 wrote:

This has been an exceedingly poor series, played in appalling spirit by two teams who are seemingly completely unfamiliar with the laws of the game.

I'm not sure it's fair to include the Proteas in this statement. To me it looks like most of the issues stem from the Australian's attitude of sledging the opposition at all costs and consequences be damned. Well, the consequences are there for all to see now.

This part of an opinion piece by Michael Vaugn summed up a lot of what I was thinking before all of this occured yesterday.

There is a complete lack of self-awareness about this Australian team. They complain about sledging from opponents but are the worst abusers of the lot.

Darren Lehmann complained about abuse from supporters in Cape Town and Cricket Australia sent a letter to Cricket South Africa about it.

But it was only in 2013 that Lehmann issued a rallying call to all Australian fans asking them make Stuart Broad’s life hell and to send him home crying from that winter’s Ashes series. Now he complains to the ICC over a bit of abuse his players have received in South Africa.

Rabada certainly has to dial back his celebrations, but the Quintin de Kock / David Warner incident stems directly from Australia's sledging and some arbitrary "line" that was suddenly crossed by De Kock. Quick to dish it out, but beware anyone who has the gall to stand up to it...

"If we weren't caught I'd still feel incredibly bad about it."

Must've been feeling bad for quite some time, Steve...

If Smith think he's hanging on to his position, he's even more naive or stupid than he appears.

...and, both he and Warner are gone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/4...

No additions needed - when Warner is part of your 'leadership group'.

Australian cricket has had problems for years now. The best thing they could do for their reputation is drop Smith, Warner and Starc.

I can only hope this triggers a massive cleanup of the sport down here, theres clearly been cultural issues with this team for a while

Warner. Yeh the guy can hit a cricket ball but seems to have the brain of an oyster. No idea why he was considered leadership potential

Embarrassing day for Oz sport.

Local media still going ballistic several days into it.

Think they could probably use a couple of aspirin and have a bit of a lie down at this point. Not sure we need it as a ten minute lead story every news broadcast.

Much as I dislike the attitude of this Australian team, I think I've seen enough Aussies blarting their eyes out to last me for a good long time yet. Smith I believe to be contrite...Warner and Lehmann, not so much. It's probably time to end this particular ritual humiliation, although I think it would have finally put it to bed had Warner or Smith unequivocally stated who else actually knew what was going on, or that there was no one else...which I for one would struggle to believe. Are they saying that they were going to alter the condition of the ball and didn't tell ANY of the bowlers who would be handling it all the time ?

At least there was a relatively low number of ex-cricketers pontificating about 'in their day, etc'. I don't think I could have taken Boycott, Border or Imran Khan telling us how clean cricket was in their day.

Yeah, I'm all for the ritual humiliation of David Warner, but enough now. It still keeps popping up in my Twitter feed.

It's become so performative that it's clearly inauthentic. Like admins are trying to distract from the institutional problems that led to this situation.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Yeah, I'm all for the ritual humiliation of David Warner, but enough now. It still keeps popping up in my Twitter feed.

It's become so performative that it's clearly inauthentic. Like admins are trying to distract from the institutional problems that led to this situation.

Steve Smith deserves just as much crap, if not more than David Warner. He was the captain, the buck stops with him. His punishment should be just as, if not more severe than Warners.

Alistair Cook retires from International Cricket

Magnificent servant for England, but I think the writing has been on the wall this series against India he's looked like a player with his mind elsewhere for a while now. Hopefully though it'll make the England selectors try and get the opening batsman problem sorted out sooner rather than later.

Not sure that Cook was thinking about other stuff, it seems more that his body wasn't quite capable of doing the things it used to. I also think that an opener is more at risk because he's playing when the ball should be doing more and the pitch is more unpredictable - a bit like how a goalie's mistakes are more obvious.

As you say, he has been a magnificent player for England, and he's not from Yorkshire so there's less chance of him turning up on TV as a gobsh*te for hire a la Vaughn and Boycott.

Talking of people whose mind was elsewhere - if Bairstow isn't behind the stumps, can't they just give him a rest? The shot that got him out in the second innings was very reminiscent of something that I might play.

Anyone else find it ironic that Cow Corner Warner walked off the field in a club cricket match due to having been sledged ? Apparently the other party was the brother of sadly deceased Australian test player Philip Hughes, so one wonders what exactly was said.

Or what was going through the mind of the other team, given that Warner was absent for two minutes and then was allowed to return. Illegally.

Thereagain, Warner's stint in club cricket has been replete with odd incidents...like him celebrating a century at this level like he'd scored a test century, leading to much derision from all sides.

It's the perfect illustration of the fall of aussie cricket.

I don't know about that, MrDeVil, they've still got some good players, and a clean out and change of culture should do them some good in the long run. It'll be painful in the short term though, that's for sure.

Sky UK broadcast a program about that SA - Aussie series and the ball tampering nonsense, and it still baffles me how the Aussie 'leadership team' believed they could get away with doing what they did. They had one of the Aussie TV commentators on, who said that they had 34 (!) cameras on the ground, and the cameras were focussing on Bancroft as he was tampering with the ball, and the definition was so high you could see the outline of some foreign object in his pocket. Then the 12th man running on and Bancroft trying to put something down the front of his trousers made it look more like the Keystone Cops than a Test match.

And the sledge that forced CCW off the ground for 2 minutes for a good cry ?

"You're a disgrace, you shouldn't be playing cricket".

If that has him going for a sob, heaven help him if he ever plays in England again.

Thinking about getting the 4 day pass for BLACKCAPS v Sri Lanka starting on Boxing Day.

Double post, but I imagine the fact they are over a month apart should make it OK!

Got my tickets for the Black Caps vs Sri Lanka test in Christchurch. It's the first time I have tickets for every day of a test match since university, looking forward to it

Hope the weather stays good for you, SpaceDog. I've never done more than one day at a Test, so I can only applaud your commitment !

SpaceDog wrote:

Double post, but I imagine the fact they are over a month apart should make it OK!

Got my tickets for the Black Caps vs Sri Lanka test in Christchurch. It's the first time I have tickets for every day of a test match since university, looking forward to it :D

Enjoy!

SpaceDog wrote:

Double post, but I imagine the fact they are over a month apart should make it OK!

Got my tickets for the Black Caps vs Sri Lanka test in Christchurch. It's the first time I have tickets for every day of a test match since university, looking forward to it :D

That sounds great!

Next summer is, so far, looking like the first time I won’t see England play in 9 years. The cost of the whole thing has just gotten a bit much for me. I applied in the fan ballot for tickets to see England at Chester-le-Street in the World Cup, but was rejected for them. Between two of us, we actually applied for 6 different games and didn’t get selected for any of them. And for the cost of the Ashes, we thought we might as well go to Europe to watch a football game.

We still might do England v Pakistan at Trent Bridge (my mate I go with lives in Nottingham), but last year I got a little bit disillusioned with cricket. Mostly due to the price.

There surely can be few finer sights in the world than Cheaticus Maximus (aka Warner) sat back on the balcony with a face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle.

Reading Clusks' post above, it's sad that he and his mate didn't get tickets for any of the games, because a lot of them didn't exactly seem to be packed to the rafters...

I GENUINELY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE RULES OF CRICKET IN THE SLIGHTEST AND I GET THAT THIS HAS BEEN EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT STUFF

EDIT: A "Super-over"?

Alright, you don't get to make fun of Americans for having silly names for sports anymore.

ENGLAND WON A THING

It really isn't that hard. You just have to watch it for a while regularly and it is just like the ability to pick up any other sport.
If you took baseball and made the field 360 degrees but kept the same number of players in the field so that there are no fowl balls. Then lower the number of bases to 2 and allow your 1 and 2 hitters alternate until one is "out". When one of the batters gets "out" you go to the next batter in line (until the end of the "inning" I believe)

Series are a cumulative games played over days. So you can lose the prior 5 days by 40 runs total but win day 5 by 50 runs and win the match. There is also the consideration that it isn't about the total runs but often about the total runs per pitches. So if you score 150 runs in 100 pitches you can end your at bat and force your opponent to score more runs in the same amount of pitches. This is why getting one of the first batters (your top hitters) "out" is such a huge celebration for your team because they are far an away the best at runs per pitch average.

If you hit the ball and it rolls to the line at the edge of the field it is 4 runs. This is why it is critical for defenders to block it from hitting that rope line. It forces the batters to run and quite often they are only able to get a few runs by running than the automatic 4 from hitting the rope. "Homeruns" or hitting it over the fence is an automatic 6 runs.

Batters don't have to run. In fact if the ball is a dribbler that doesn't go very far, you might not want to run because all the fielder has to do is touch the ball to the "base" (the wicket or wooden post) in order for you to be "out" if you try to run. Another thing of note is that when you run, you have to reach your bat out across the imaginary line from the "base" before the ball reaches the "base" in order to score a run and be safe.

That may not be 100% accurate or there may be finer details and exceptions. But if you follow that, you will get whats going on enough to enjoy what you are seeing.

Oh my god. OH MY GOD!!! That was just incredible!!! Greatest final in the history of sport I reckon - certainly in my lifetime.

Deepest Commiserations for the Kiwis though - I’m genuinely uncertain that anyone deserved to lose that.

Jesus Christ my heart.

It's been a great World Cup, and that was the perfect way to finish it off. Glad they put it on terrestrial TV as well so people could see it, hopefully the viewing figures will be enough to convince them that they have to start showing more cricket on it! (But I doubt they will.)