3 December 2010

Ponting right but arguing with the wrong person

It was interesting to see Ricky Ponting in animated discussion with Andrew Strauss as the players left the field on day 1, after England had faced just one over. They were meant to face 2 to complete the 90 overs for the day, but the time had just gone past the latest the players are allowed to be on the field. That's not Strauss' fault.

He is however right that a complete absence of common sense from those organising the game meant that the paying public were left short of one over. Sun out, enthralling contest, an over still to be bowled that will take a maximum of 5 minutes.....and yet it's the end of the day's play. It's insanity of course and Ponting has every right to be upset, but Strauss wasn't the right person to vent his anger on.

3 comments:

Peter Lamb said...

As has been said many times before on this forum and elsewhere, the authorities need to realise that they are in the entertainment business and should be making every effort to give the paying public maximum value for the considerable amount of money they have forked out to watch a day of cricket. As well as looking at hours of play, they need to consider over rates and the interpretation of what constitutes bad light.

Muttley said...

Not sure that was the issue. I was in the ground and it was announced very early that there would only be 1 over for England to face. Apparently in Oz there is always 3 overs for the innings change.

The word over here was that Ponting was moaning about sub fielders (again!) - he's clearly feeling the pressure and long may it continue.

Ed said...

Perhaps....the TV commentary seemed to think there should be 2 overs. If Ponting was talking about sub-fielders he doesn't seem to have learnt his lesson from 2005!