"Horror show" is about right

Before Sunday's Twenty20 against West Indies I read this piece on King Cricket that rang true - it was all about how some of England's youngsters were being rated very highly with little proof of their credentials. I have to say that I agreed with the sentiment.

So it really grated when the commentators just assumed England would chase 114 yesterday - I certainly didn't feel the same given England had no experience in their batting line up. To lose though they did have to put in a terrible batting performance, which is what they duly did - rightly termed a "horror show" by Swann.

It's never nice to watch England lose but I think it will help in the long run - Swann only bowling 2 overs and Bresnan not coming back for the last over instead of Bopara gave the impression of a little bit of arrogance. 4 run outs is clearly disasterous. And the shots from Stokes and Bairstow were ill judged. Not to mention Bresnan seemingly picking out the fielder at long-off to give catching practice too. So just the 3 wickets that were the result of good bowling (and I'm being charitable to Kieswetter)....

Perhaps England still have a bit of work to do. Hopefully the loss will help in the mid and long-term.

New ritual

Watch James Taylor and Jacques du Toit celebrate a boundary. Fist bump, bat tap, fist bump. They'll all be doing it soon !

http://www.middlesexccc.com/news-detail.asp?NewsID=2387

Strange behaviour

Apparently when you bat you're supposed to make mental notes of the abilities of the fielders around you as part of the planning process for a long innings ( I say apparently, for obvious reasons).
Well a batsman we met last week took this aspect of his game very seriously - I think he might have been traumatised by a run out in his early career - he called out the information as he went from end to end. So we'd hear 'left handed throw' or 'underarm throw' as he went. Curious and surely an opportunity to fox him with a couple of misfields.

If you buy a house next to a cricket pitch...

....you have to expect balls in your back garden. So while I might agree with the overall point of this piece about a woman being arrested for her complaints after one too many cricket balls landed in her back garden, it's actually great to see an over-reaction on this issue as it may mean that others desist!!

You need your head read if you buy a house next to a cricket pitch and then complain about balls being hit into your garden or house - even a 5 year-old can work out that there is an inherent danger in the local geography. In this case, judging from her gated huge house entrance, it seems Maria Chaippini really does have more money than sense.

At Durrants (the old home of OMTs), as many readers of this blog will testify, local residents complained about balls being hit into their back gardens until they realised the alternative was loads of houses and no nice green field backing on to their garden. Amazing how their views changed so quickly when they realised that.

So tough luck Maria - get used to the cricket balls in your back garden or sell up. If only every cricket match involved a couple of off-duty police officers to arrest people like Maria, the world would be a better place.

Anderson under bowled?

Is there any reason why Anderson isn't getting his full quota of overs these days? I noticed that he looked unlucky not to have bowled 10 overs in the match on Saturday when more expensive bowlers bowled their full quota, but it's always dangerous looking at the stats like that because you don't know who bowled the powerplay overs. I know Dernbach and, to a lesser extent, Bresnan have been identified as England's death bowlers but if that's the case I'd like to see Anderson bowl all his overs at the start of the innings unless he's having an off-day.

In the first match, Trott bowled overs 32 and 34 when England desperately needed a wicket and Anderson was left with an over of his quota left. Today Anderson bowled just 3 overs for 11 as Dernbach and Bresnan bowled 5 and 4 respectively, and went for 1o an over. I wasn't watching or listening but any clues as to why Anderson didn't bowl at least 4 overs, if not 5?

BCCI thwart Indian minister on transparency....for now

While I've been otherwise engaged, the Indian minister Ajay Maken has had his Sports Bill voted out that would have enforced a certain level of transparency amongst Indian sporting bodies including the BCCI. It of course created quite a few headlines in India and it now seems that the bill will be amended in an attempt to push it through.

Overall, it seems a good thing to expect greater transparency (and therefore increase the likelihood of good practice) by sporting bodies. But I can't help feeling that there are a few specifics that seem very strange. If it is correct that the government want to enforce retirements at 70 and stipulate a percentage of ex-players, or even allow themselves a say in selection(!!!) as I saw in one report, then this is clearly going way too far.

One of my pet hates (as readers of Cricket Burble probably know) is the emphasis on giving ex-cricketers jobs instead of running Counties and National Cricket Boards like the businesses they are. So any attempt to have more or less ex-players seems crazy to me - why not interview people on their suitability for the business-based role? If you're going to stipulate anything in terms of experience (which I wouldn't) then ten years+ of business experience wouldn't go amiss. An understanding of sport (ideally cricket) is of course required, but that is very much secondary to the business expertise required.

The business focus can be taken too far as Alan Hamer has shown in his mis-handling of Glamorgan. The assumption when Alviro Petersen was signed was that there was a long-term strategy in place but it appears not as Glamorgan are now trying to work out who their captain will be next year - either home grown pros or Marcus North of Australia it seems. Hamer's actions have actually left Glamorgan in a worse place than they were a year ago and shows what happens when business people push for unrealistic instant success football-style. They've fared badly in 40 and 20 over cricket and are in the bottom half of division 2 rather than being promoted which looked likely at the end of last season. Whatever amount of money Glamorgan make this year (or loss), it would have been better had there been a more gradual change to playing staff, captain and coach with a long-term vision in mind.

It will be interesting to see whether an amended Sports Bill makes it through India's parliament, but whether in India, England or anywhere else, the less the better in terms of enforced percentages of ex-players, enforced retirement ages, etc - just assess people on merit against each other and may the best man or woman win and take the sport forwards.

Two new arrivals

You might have noticed a distinct lack of posts just recently and there is a pretty good reason - I've become a dad. You might think this is not a cricket related post, but I'll refer back to this when the girls are teaming up in an England Women's cricket team in years to come! (They were born 1st September so they'll be the very oldest in their year.)

The girls came extremely early but they're getting the very best of care at the Trevor Mann High Dependency Unit in Brighton. They've done well in the first 48 hours so fingers crossed that continues. Michelle is up and about and recovering pretty well.

Abbie Sarah

Tia Charlotte

Dubious Decisions

Did anyone notice that Dhoni took the ball in front of the stumps when he stumped Pietersen the other night in the T20 game?

On dubious decisions, it seems to me that the position over LBW decisions is getting more bizarre. Not for the first time this season a batsman was given not out for one that would have missed off and leg and hit middle about half way up. Also, there have been several occasions when Sky commentators complain that a batsman was given not out because it would have clipped the stumps, or so hawkeye tells us. I am not a good enough mathematician to work out how many fractions of one degree this is but it is an incredibly small margin.

My plea is that either the technology should be used to the full or not at all. If none is used then Sky should only be able to show the game in real time, a bit like it used to be all those years ago.

Younger, younger and younger again...

You're probably getting sick of me saying how young the Steyning 1st XI is, but surely this is some kind of record for a league 1st team - if it isn't it should be! On Saturday, we fielded a side where 36 out of 47 overs were bowled by under 19s and 6 wickets were taken by 14 year-olds.

Sam Grant, 15 - 14 overs, Mike Brown, 19 - 5 overs, David Croshaw, 14 - 6 overs, Lawrence Green, 14 - 11 overs.

Incredible really. And Lawrence Green is a leg-spinner who bowled with fielders all round the bat at all times and still only went at less than 4 an over.

England deliberately scuffing the pitch?

I wasn't able to watch or listen to England wrapping up a 4-0 series win yesterday, but having got the first wicket it looks like England dominated (again). To think, prior to the series I was upset that the battle for number 1 Test nation wasnt' a 5 match series - in the end it all seemed very easy for England.

But one thing seemingly glossed over in victory worried me - did I read that Strauss was officially warned about his players continually walking on the pitch? If that is true, that sounds extremely worrying. Nothing Afridi-esque I assume or it would be far more important than the one line of coverage it seems to be getting....

Contrast - just like the old days

The advent and proliferation of league cricket has meant that we no longer, or rarely, play the one team village sides we used to, but we got a lovely reminder on Sunday. Looked as if we had enough to run a an extra side and, as the old man who's been to most local grounds I got an e-mail on Thursday - did I know Old Berkeley CC? I didn't but, since their ground directions referred to a pub 50 yards away and the pub got a good write up on beer in the evening, we agreed it was a good fixture and I suddenly became available.

So Sunday, I got there first and found the pub - barely touched for 30 years, but that's not always a good thing, and met the publican and his mate who told me that about 50 years ago Captain Courage (of Brewery fame) gave them the land and they (the publican and his mate) laid it out and created the ground. I was also involved in conversations about rabbit hutches and ferret boxes but baulked a bit at his answer to a request for food from another customer 'doesn't your wife know how to cook?' - that was called 'common sense'.

At the ground we found that both teams had been a bit optimistic and it ended up as 9.5 v 8. The half player was theirs - the big house that had been Captain Courage's included a son down from Eton who was inveigled into playing, which involved sitting on a deck chair between the house and the ground until his (brief but unlucky) innings and then returning to it until he had to come over and explain to his team mates that he couldn't field as he had a train to catch.

The house was straight behind the bowlers arm and closer than the similarly placed one at Mill Hill Village. 'Has anyone ever broken a window?' 'No, but someone once hit the heliocopter parked in front of it - stupid place to park a helicopter'.

We lost but it didn't seem to matter much and it was all back to Horace's (the publican who'd bought it from Aylesbury Brewery Company, soon after building the cricket ground).

And I was the last to leave since I had to have a bowl in the net in the pub garden.

Paparazzi action yesterday...

...at The Cricketer Cup final...

Edgbaston goes £29m into debt to fund ground development

Interesting to see just how far Warwickshire have had to go to ensure there is the realistic prospect of international cricket at Edgbaston long-term. £29m into debt in fact.

I haven't been to the ground since the building work but certainly the old ground beat Lord's and The Oval for comfort with room for people to walk through the aisles, rather than everyone having to stand to allow others to squeeze past. The only slight downside compared to London grounds is the walk to/from the station (as getting a cab is near impossible, especially on the way back), but I certainly hope Edgbaston remains as a Test venue.

Looks can be deceptive

A few years ago we played a side which included a player with, apparently, freshly inked arms who spent a large part of his team's fielding session ensuring that his short sleeves were pulled up to his shoulders so that we could see the artwork. He'd also changed his name by deed poll to something quite aggressive. Now I've nothing against tattoos per se and I'm quite happy for people to call themselves what they like but I'm afraid I was amused by his antics with his sleeves and I know that my team mates were equally amused.

Well we played against this chap on saturday and he's now the skipper - he batted for a long time and we later had a spell when we were trying to save a draw and he was bowling. Amusing friendly banter all the way through both sessions and we shared a beer together afterwards and what a nice bloke!

So 1. looks can be deceptive and / or 2. cricket brings out the best in people.

Anagrams

I'm told that someone 'phoned in to TMS on friday to point out that A Mishra and I Sharma, bowling in tandem at the time, have names that are anagrams of each other and to ask whether the occurence was unique. Does anyone know whether they were able to find another example?

Contrast

On the front page of yesterday's Telegraph Sport were two headlines :-
1. 'On top of the world' about England beating India at cricket
2.Wenger accuses Barton of cheating - Arsenal manager furious over Gervinho red card but Newcastle midfielder says referee was right.

Whilst I like it as a sport and have kicked a few big round balls in my time I hate the start of the football season.

Malvern cruise to Cricketer Cup final win

Old Malvernian's won the Cricketer Cup final today at Shenley against Old Etonian's by a big margin - larger than the one that OMTs' lost to Malvern by in the semi. Old Etonian's 141 all out, Old Malvernian's 145 - 4 with 17 overs to spare.

Next year's draw was also made - the final will be replayed in the 1st round next year! And OMTs have been drawn against Old Alleynian's (Dulwich)....

Moaning about the U19 over limits (again!)

It does my head in as a skipper. We've got two 19 year-olds who love bowling and hate the fact that they have to end their spells after 7 overs of slow-medium bowling (the keeper stands up for both of them). They're without doubt not even vaguely tired but they have to come off. One of them opened the bowling and had 4 for 27 so had to give up the chance of a 5 for. The other came on first change and had 3 for 6 from his 7 overs of slow medium. You can view the scorecard here.

Fortunately it looks like we're going to get through this period without losing them to non-cricket related activities on a Saturday as next year they'll be able to bowl normal spells of unlimited length. But one of them in particular moans all the time about not being able to bowl longer spells - it can't be good for cricket that keen youngsters are kept from maximising their role in adult sides.

As a skipper it creates farcical situations - when selecting we have to consider how many "unlimited" bowlers we have as it can become very problematical if all your seamers are subject to the 7 over maximum rule. And when in the field I have to consider giving batsmen in the top 5 of the opposition 1, just so our one strike bowler, who is 15, gets to bowl at the opposition's best batsmen before he has to come off.

It's a crazy situation to be in and I've got a simple solution - keep the maximum overs per day but lose the maximum per spell. A maximum number of overs per spell surely increases the chances of injury as players have to warm up 2 or 3 times and if a bowler is tired the skipper will take them off anyway as they'll be costing the team runs. That would ensure that young bowlers really enjoy playing a full part in adult cricket. It seems particularly unfair on bowlers - no-one hauls our U16 opening batsman, who leads the league runs, off after he's scored 50 - he's allowed to bat all day....

CMJ: "there will be some good players there"

Just heard CMJ discussing the Cricketer Cup final on Sunday between Old Etonians and Old Malvernians. "There will be some good players there," he said "including Alex Loudon who's scored a couple of hundreds". Probably just as well OMTs lost in the semi if CMJ expects "good players" although I suppose the definition of "good" varies! I suspect that CMJ's definition of good is good by professional standards....

Needless to say, when it was mentioned that Alex Loudon's girlfriend may well be watching, Boycott had no idea who Pippa Middleton is. She's not a cricketer so she doesn't exist in Boycott world.

A combined England/Australia XI

Amazing to see how the tables have turned so quickly - as one of the commenter's points out, perhaps only one Englishman would have got in the Australian side in 2006. 5 years later and the consensus is that only Watson (for Morgan) would get into England's side....