Tag Archive for 'cricket'

Let’s annex New Zealand

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 month, 1 week ago
in Sport
. 38 Comments

When talk of a sporting merger with our trans-Tasman cousins comes up, it usually relates to putting together a decent rugby team. But, at the moment, the Oceania cricket team looks like it’d be a hell of a lot more competitive than the Australian one, who just got completely thumped by India in front of tiny crowds in Mohali.

Specifically, we could do with New Zealand’s captain, Daniel Vettori. While Bangladesh aren’t exactly of the same class as India, how’d you like a bloke who took nine wickets bowling off-spin in subcontinental conditions, and topped it off with two half-centuries to take his team to victory? Given the uninspiring performance of Shane Watson, and the continued absence of Andrew Symonds, Jacob Oram might be a better bet as an all-rounder as well.

Failing that, you do have to wonder about the Australian selectors’ decision to leave out left-arm spinner Beau Casson, who bowled reasonably well in Australia’s tour of the West Indies, particularly after Bryce McGain got injured. Was Cameron White - excellent one-day slogger (not to mention, a Victorian) that he is - really going to be a better option?

The end of a sporting anomaly

Published
by
Robert Merkel
5 months, 2 weeks ago
in International and Sport
. 7 Comments

The structure of elite-level cricket competition is virtually unique. Soccer, rugby, the various American codes - you name it, they’re all based around clubs which are free to recruit players from where they choose, rather than representation from the country or state where one was born - though at the sub-elite level, England’s county teams have been full of Australian players for decades.

The recent Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition was strikingly different, with many of the world’s elite players distributed around the various teams like a schoolyard pick-up game. And, according to cricketer-turned-businessman Neil Maxwell, it’s the way of the future, and the cricket establishment must deal with it or miss out:

WORLD cricket is on an irreversible path towards a franchise club system in which players will be free to participate in three Twenty20 competitions and earn millions from contracts alone…Maxwell also believes that if Test cricket and player development are to feature in the revolution, governing bodies such as Cricket Australia must act fast.

Continue reading ‘The end of a sporting anomaly’

Hero or zero?

Published
by
tigtog
9 months ago
in Life and Sport
. 72 Comments

Sorry to post and run, but it’s a busy day today. Short video of the Symonds-Streaker confrontation (11 secs):

Longer video here with bemused commentators.

I’m impressed that the shoulder-charge was textbook in execution for a man who only trains recreationally with the League. The streaker is most unlikely to have any permanent injury to anything more than his pride. Still, was Symonds’ response appropriate to the trespassing nuisance, or was it indefensible thuggery?