Is any one else amused.................

that Yorkshire has a player called Ballance and one called Leaning ?

Limited media careers

 

 I suppose it's because I used to drink with the secretary of The Institute of Journalists that I'm very aware of the occasionally acrimonious debate about the relative merits of ex-sportsmen and trained journalists as reporters and commentators ( some of course - Benaud, Agnew for example - are both) and there now seems to be a new debate.

 

This is about the criticism that newly retired players make of their recent colleagues. Clearly Swann has upset his old mate Jimmy Anderson and Vaughan's pop at Trott was just crass (and I expect he now regrets it).

Whilst I accept that to report on anything properly you need to be able to give criticism, my own view (limited  by being neither a trained writer or an ex-pro) is that Swann has a limited career in the media - once he's another year or so away from being able to give us insight from the players viewpoint he'll be struggling. And as for Vaughan, I'm hugely disappointed ; he seems to veer from the bleeding obvious to the " nothing is as good as Yorkshire" line. Perhaps he's after Boycott's title.

The answer is simple - Charlie Dagnall, no one could ever fault his enthusiasm.

Gale harshly treated

There was all that stuff written about how Andrew Gale wasn't allowed to lift the County Championship trophy because of his various disciplinary issues, so I assumed he'd done something serious and didn't really think more about it.   It turns out his exchange with Ashwell Prince was as follows (as reported by The Telegraph):

Gale moved himself in the field in an attempt to squeeze in one further over. He moved closer to Prince who is alleged to have told him to “f*** off back to cover point.” Gale responded by saying “Well you can f*** off back to your own country you Kolpak f*****.

Calling someone a Kolpak is not racist.   It's just not, no matter how some over paid lawyer may argue it.   If as an Englishman I was called a f****** pommie bastard, I wouldn't consider it rude in any way....it's a statement of fact that I'm a pom.   It's a slang description rather than an insult and if I played cricket in Australia I would expect a bit of "f*** o** back to England" type conversations.   Ashwell Prince is indeed a Kolpak as he's South African and represented South Africa in 66 Test matches.

Apparently the umpires reported the "incident" which makes me assume it was the worst thing said in the whole game (which would seem incredibly unlikely).   I'm all for umpires cracking down on sledging if they want to but at the time on the pitch and on all abusive sledging, not just arbitrary interjections/reports.

Once again though, by getting into the slanging match, Gale made it less likely he'd get the wicket he was looking for.   As I've discussed before about sledging, why say things that will make the batsman all the more determined not to get out?

I'm never surprised by strange legal rulings because they happen so regularly, but I hope that this isn't one of them and Gale is cleared of using racist language.   If he is guilty of using abusive language then of course Prince is too but use of a swear word is not something that can justifiably called abuse unless the cricketing authorities make that clear at the start of the season and are consistent in taking action every single time a swear word is used (which will never happen).

What a sorry end to the season for the ECB.

Watching cricket isn't always enjoyable

 

It's accepted that we are all addicts on planet cricket but when we care about the result it's often very painful to watch cricket. And this is always more true when our side is batting since there is always the fear that a wicket will be lost to the next ball. This is why great innings for your side are better in hindsight than live and why your side's batting innings is always the most difficult part for the captain (particularly a bowling captain who can do little about a crisis). So today, still injured, I have to decide what games to watch. My club's 1st XI is on the brink of promotion but what if they fall short?

So I think I'll head down to another local club who are equally close to promotion but where there is no downside for me if they fail. And their bar will be open. Unless. of course James Taylor is batting at the time ( what has he done to make him so ignorable by the England selectors?)