England's ODI side

Watching Cricket Writers on TV with gritted teeth given that Michael Henderson's on it.   Not someone who's views I agree with or who's consiliatory enough to share a pint with.   He seems to think there is only his view!

They've been discussing England's ODI line up in the absence of their most talented batsman.   Personally I'd go for:

Cook

Bopara

Trott

Bell

Morgan

Bairstow (wk)

Patel

Bresnan

Broad

Swann

Anderson

Also in the squad: Finn, Stokes, Buttler, Briggs.

I feel a bit sorry for Bopara getting shunted around the order again, but I think it's needed and he can be told he has until the next world cup there to make his mark.   I did consider Carberry opening and Bopara remaining at 4, but England will feel Carberry is a little old.   I'd have no problem if he played though and Bopara batted 4 rather than Bell - I'm not sure if England will feel that Bell has had enough chances and he'll get omitted, but they need a bit of experience in there.

Your thoughts?

Colin Povey - mixed thoughts

 

Mixed views about seeing Warwickshire CCC chief executive interviewed this morning. Sad because it was about the financial implications for the fans , The ECB, the insurers and his county of yesterday's washout ( and possibly another one today). Encouraging, on the other hand for those that argue that sport keeps you young - he doesn't seem to have aged since  25+ years ago when he was a run-machine at our old tour friends Whitchurch CC.

Ed Smith's new book and article on Cricinfo

 

Interesting piece by Ed Smith about the value of certain players over and above their stats, in relation to Tim Bresnan.   He makes the point that Bresnan isn't an ideal subject for that though as his stats are excellent!

I'm going to have a read of his new book referenced at the end of the article, "Luck - What It Means and Why It Matters".   So far I've been impressed by everything I've read from Ed Smith....hopefully that will continue.   I'll give you a summary when I'm done...

The latest ECB deal

Slight concern that these deals get done so far in advance that they get in the way of sensible changes to strategy - i.e. this deal with ESPN Sports will net the ECB $240m apparently but it runs until the 2019.   I really hope that the ICC use the 2015 World Cup as a cut off for 50 over cricket and revert to two formats of the game, but I said that about 2011 so I'm not very hopeful.   Perhaps if the ICC is on the ball they can ask the Boards to all work to the same time periods when negotiating these kind of extensions so they can all aim for deals up to 2019.....I can't see it happening though.

Fault on both sides in KP limited overs retirement

I've been agreeing with those that say that 3 formats of cricket is too much for a while now and for me it's 50 over cricket that has to go.   So does Kevin Pietersen by the sounds of it.  

Where the ECB have gone wrong is stipulating that you have to play ODIs and Twenty20 or neither.   Clearly there's no reason for that because the formats are very different and the squads change between the two - e.g. Cook, Trott, Bell and Prior who all play ODIs (most of the time), but not Twenty20.  

An easy compromise was available - Pietersen to play on in ODIs and Twenty20s until the end of this contract and then all England contracts to change to split the formats when they were next agreed.   That would have left England with one of the best Twenty20 batsman in the world available for the World T20 later in the year.   As an aside, it would have meant he was available for the ODIs this summer, but they're of zero importance so England could have "rested" him if necessary to ensure he was available for Twenty20.

The problem with how things have turned out is that the ECB had the wrong contracts in place and would now be forced into something of a climb down to get their best Twenty20 batsman to come out of retirement for that format only.   How do you resolve that?   Ask all pro cricketers in this country for their opinion and then take their opinion on board wahtever the result - it would certainly mean that contracts would not group together ODIs and Twenty20 and the ECB could claim to be a forward thinking organisation listening to employees.

End result, England get their best team on the pitch for the world T20 and a happier more likely to succeed Pietersen for Test cricket.   Chances - slim to zero!

Give me hard work and guts over a show pony any day

I enjoy it when the apparent alsorans make a big impact on a Test and so it proved in the last Test.   I find it amazing that the commentators can keep giving Darren Sammy a hard time over his position in the West Indies Test side - watching the England series and much of the West Indies v Australia series he's more than justified his place.   Not only can he be relied upon to bowl decent lines and be relatively economical (look at the disciplined lines he bowled to get Strauss out in the 1st inning at Trent Bridge), but he does take wickets too.   He's taken 5 in just over 3 innings - hardly a terrible return.   None of the commentators seem too concerned about Fidel Edward's position in the team (injuries permitting) and yet he's performed worse than Sammy in the last two series and can't bat.

Which brings me on to Sammy's batting.   He's not graceful but he's effective.   And on current form he should be batting in the top 6 for West Indies.   At a minimum he needs to bat above Ramdin.   It says much about his batting that he was feared by the Australians and when West Indies were given a sniff of a chance by an attacking declaration by Michael Clarke (which went to waste due to rain), it was Sammy who was promoted to 3.   Not Bravo or Chanderpaul, Sammy.

And that's without even considering that he has the world on his shoulders captaining a young and inexperienced (in general) team who are ill-equipped to deal with the best Test teams in the world.   Plus of course the continued noises about Gayle, Sarwan and Powell and their wrangles with the West Indies board.  

On the England side of the fence there's Tim Bresnan.   This is a guy who averages 40 with the bat, 25 with the ball and has won 13 games consecutively for England.   He'll probably never score 150 like Stuart Broad did, but he tries to reduce the risk in his batting to increase his chances of success for the sake of the team.   It doesn't look like England will go that way, but Bresnan, Broad and Swann at 7, 8 and 9 allows the team to play 5 bowlers if they so wished.

Just the 8 wickets in the last Test for him too.   Must be in line to be dropped then.

I hope the unfashionable players get a break some time soon, but I'm not sure it will happen.

5 Arrested in IPL fixing sting

Why are we not surprised and how much does it really matter? These matches are now becoming predictable monotonous and inconsequential. In other words an ideal target for this sort of thing.The bigger question is how long will it all last ?

Another, much less interesting, question is 'how sad do you have to be to spot, as I did, two mathematical errors in scorecards in the weekend's Times ?'

Best news for a very long time

The Sunday Times article seems to have evaded my cricketing / drinking cronies but it seems to me to be the best bit of cricket news for a long time. MCC have been working with Imperial College London ( from whom we have many friends) to create a system to monitor bowling actions during matches . Apparently it uses a couple of sensors fitted either side of the elbow joint and cameras. No longer, hopefully, will we have the nonsense of chuckers being tested in a laboratory and deemed satisfactory. Naming no names but you all know who I mean!

Never too old for new experiences on the cricket pitch

Two new experiences yesterday.
I've never seen a players breath condense in the air before and I've never walked in to bat with hailstones falling on my cap ( and I walked off with them too - another little asterisk thanks).

Matt Prior kept wicket without pads because of the heat...

....yesterday in Sri Lanka.

But it occured to me that at that level and a few levels below keepers never get hit on the pads anyway. So why do they bother with them when they could just use those lightweight ones that short leg fielders wear under their whites.

Habit, or tradition ?

Pietersen and Kohli show the way

Amazing watching the likes of KP and today Virat Kohli in full flight. When a batsman is really on top of a bowling attack it's incredible to watch them dictate the field and then place the ball where the fielder was before. Or in some cases ignore the field and just hit the ball for six.

I didn't get to see much of Pietersen's recent knocks but I saw the highlights of Kohli's and it really was sensational - the very best any of the commentators had seen so that's the combined spectating of the likes of Mark Nicholas, Tubby Taylor, Mark Slater and Tony Greig. It was essentially batting like the final stages of a Twenty20 innings for an extended period of time leaving one of the best ODI bowlers in the world, Lasith Malinga, with figures of 7.4 overs, 1 for 96. And also leaving Dilshan who scored 160 not out (off 165 balls) way short of the man-of-the-match award.

Kohli ended up with 133 not out off 86 at a strike rate of 154 to give India a chance of going through to the tri-series final if Australia do them a favour and beat Sri Lanka in the final group match. To get the bonus point they needed to win inside of 40 overs and did so with 20 balls to spare, scoring 321-3. Pretty special - why can't they do that every time?!?

Where is Samit Patel?

When the England squad was announced for the Pakistan series I commented on one of the many cricket sites that I read that I would have taken Samit Patel, either instead of Bopara or a pace bowler, giving England the opportunity to match Pakistan's 3 spinners if they wanted to. With speculation mounting that Morgan will be dropped, it seems Bopara is near certain to play but talented though he is, I don't feel any more confident in him than Morgan. Personally I'd stick with Morgan and tell him to look to be aggressive. It looks like they might both play now anyway, as Bell is ill.

Interesting that most of the pieces that refer to Morgan being likely to be dropped use Pietersen as the headline when surely the headline should be about Morgan? This piece on Cricinfo is an example - titled Pietersen low on runs and time...then suggesting Morgan will be dropped and Pietersen won't. Pietersen pulls in reader interest like no other clearly.

It will be interesting to see how England's batting line up, sans Samit Patel, fares - I can't say I'm feeling confident!

Encouraging signs from Jos Buttler

Another century, this time in a losing cause for England Lions, for Jos Buttler. That comes after a 56 ball 102 before that too.

Surely IPL monies will be coming his way in 2013....

Way ahead of themselves on TMS

Blofeld and Boycott's commentary is verging on the ridiculous. Pakistan are only 4 down and have 2 specialist batsmen in....they only need a lead of 100 to have a reasonable chance. As they're professional commentators they've watched England implode against spin in the sub-continent before, but they seem to have conveniently forgotten England's past history. This match isn't the foregone conclusion Blofeld and Boycott would have you believe.

England are doing brilliantly but there's a long way to go yet. Fingers crossed.

Why do we say that ?

Yesterday Stuart Broad executed a perfect long barrier at mid on to field the ball. The commentator said what we'd possibly all say - " he got everything behind that".
But surely what he did was get everything in front of it !

Playing cricket with a hangover

It's rare that I do these days, but back in the day one of the things I've always liked about cricket is that it's much easier to play with a hangover (compared with say, rugby)! And I've never found it's impacted on my performance....in fact it feels like it's the other way round, particularly when batting, but that might be wishful thinking.

So I enjoyed reading about Gary Sobers hundred at Lords made when hungover and after no sleep in 1973. That takes it to another level, the no sleep thing. A pretty super-human effort.

Aussie pitches

I've watched a fair bit of Australian cricket this English winter as I've been up loads in the early hours. There's no doubt that Australia have some quality seam bowlers coming up the ranks. James Pattinson has a touch of the Stuart Broad's about him (i.e. a good bowler, but unpleasant on the field), Pat Cummins was man-of-the-match on debut before his injury, Ben Hilfenhaus is back to near his best as he was before the last Ashes, Ryan Harris is as good as ever when fit, Siddle has proven he can move the ball as well as just being a good honest trier, and Mitchell Starc is, for my money, the most scatter-gun of them all, but he's proven against India he can bowl viscious wicket taking balls a la Mitchell Johnson (occassionally).

So the bowlers are definitely on the up, but there's also been another contributor to all the seam-bowling success - the wickets. There was something a little substandard about the wickets in Perth for the last Test against India and in Hobart where Australia lost by 7 runs to New Zealand. Strange - normally Australian wickets are up there with the very best in the world - pretty flat, but with enough in them for the quality bowler.

In Perth the match started with largish cracks in the wicket and on day 1 the ball was moving off the seam when it hit the cracks at the angle you'd expect the ball to deviate from a leg-spinner. So it's not surprising that there was a bit of concern at the "pitch party" on the WACA strip just 12 hours before the start of play, primarily from the visiting Indians.

I can't imagine there was any damage done - the wicket was going to be dodgy anyway - but why did anyone think it was ok to have so many people wandering around and sitting on the Perth wicket just before the game, with beer in hand? The groundsman has been quick to defend it, but it seems very strange behaviour to me....but more importantly, the groundsman needs to defend the big cracks that were evident.

Hopefully Cricket Australia is on the case to ensure the wickets in Australia get back to normal, whether there's a pitch party involved or not!

What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?

" For much of my life I have rushed about in a great whirl of activity, feeling very busy but not always making much progress. There is a certain comfort in frantic activity. When in doubt, do something that looks important, even if it's only the manic use of a mobile telephone which has, for millions, become a comfort blanket".
John Barclay from Life beyond the Airing Cupboard.
How true! Think I'll have a gentle day today.

Effective alarm clock

In bed, half past six in the morning earphones in, hoping that I haven't woken my wife and listening to England's bowlers toiling. Just one more over..................
Oh! Henry Blofeld - might as well get up, now.

Nice to hear.......

.......... that Messrs. Gower and Willis agree with me about elbows and doosras and also agree that the logic that says that if other countries have players who do it we should teach it to our own kids is horrifying.
And this is not about the 15 degrees 'law'. Try bending your elbow at right angles i.e. 90 degrees then reduce that angle by 50% and the reduce that to a third and your arm is practically straight - not the angle that produces doosras.

Ponting's getting on a bit...

...as you can see here.

My new hero suffers

So Ed Cowan comes into the Test side at last and is given out caught behind when he didn't hit it and LBW when ball-tracker showed that it was missing. I expect he's wondering why he bothered.

On the other hand Hussey (three times) and Ponting (once) survived because the umpires review system was not available - a major contribution to Australia's win.
Statistics are supposed to show that use of the review system increases accuracy of decisions from 95% to 97% - how they prove that I've no idea but Cowan's experience seems to be a fairly strong contra. But India don't want to use it because it's not perfect (I can't think of anything that is) and so it's not used in their Test matches. But there seems to me to be no reason why you shouldn't allow their opponents access to it even if India don't have such access in the same match and I bet that would bring them round quickly.

Almost groinal

Great new word coined by a commentator when a batsman got hit full on the box last night !

The "sodukku" ball....

Being up half the night with the kids has advantages at this time of year because the Boxing Day test in Australia has proved to be an exciting one. And I'll remember the shot Tendulkar played to the first ball after tea yesterday for a long time (a contemptuous upper cut over the slips for 6).

I've also learnt about a new ball that Ashwin bowls - the sudoku - at least that's how Channel 9 have been spelling it. Apparently the word should actually be "sodukku" rather than sudoku, whick means snapping of the fingers in Tamil (சொடுக்கு). It's kind of a doosra from the front of the hand, with the longest finger flicking the ball out with slight leg to off rotation, but it doesn't turn a great deal. It might need Jack Iverson style skill and finger strength to be able to bowl it, but there are those that think it's impossible to bowl a doosra without chucking it - for them the sodukku is the legitimate way for an off-spinner to turn the ball away from the right-hander.

It looks like tomorrow has the potential to be a thrilling day of Test cricket once again....and not just in the Australia v India match.....Sri Lanka have the South African's under a lot of pressure too. 2011 has certainly been a vintage year for edge of your seat Test cricket. It seems to come from the fact that all international sides are flawed in some way at the moment so there's a lot of sides playing to a similar standard. And there have been some exceptional new bowlers in 2011 too, from Ravi Ashwin to Pat Cummins to James Pattinson to Vernon Philander and the most recent Marchant de Lange taking 7 wickets for South Africa.

A new hero

Well if Peter Roebuck's diary of a cricket season is among the best 10 cricket books ever written Ed Cowan's must be too because it's better. Hope he scores a pile of runs in the boxing day test match.
References to Moneyballs ( don't think I'll watch the film - in my mind's eye the hero Bean has to be ugly or at least weird looking and he's played by a pretty-boy actor) and to 'Foxy' Fowler's season-diary ( where he's expecting to break into Test cricket but has a car crash season which leads to his relationship breaking up ) makes for familiar territory.
Somehow it also reminded me that I received my first ever cricket book 50 years ago today - Jim Laker's Australian Tour of 1961. I'll need to re-read that one next, if only for the passages describing the first tied Test and Tom Graveney's gardening leave when he moved from Gloucestershire to Worcestershire.

Happy Christmas.