That 50-over cricket is dead is beyond debate. Sure, it's still limping around, haranguing passers-by with beery breath and shouting about its World Cup next year, but it has been filleted by T20, which - it has long been obvious - is just 50 over cricket with the boring bits removed. It's a format out of time.
But T20 has its own inherent problems, the first being the speed at which players have learned how to play it: it will mature as a form far more quickly than 50 over cricket did. Once it has, its only promise for the future is of greater excess - faster bowlers, bigger hitters. It lacks a dimension beyond that. Then there is its commercial problem: it offers less ad breaks.
The solution has been pretty obvious for some time*. Find a way of extending the game, add in a tactical element and make sure that the crowd get plenty of star-power for their money. In other words, a 40-over game made up of two 20-over innings per side. If Giles Clarke and the ECB were as clever as they think, they would have introduced it by now [instead they have entered a war with Lalit Modi which neither will win]. Cricket Australia are about to beat them to it. If they do, expect next year's 40 over comp to follow suit.
* I blogged on it before this, but can't find where.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Where KP's at
Even if they rarely write the same thing, both Vic Marks and J-Rod had it right about Kevin Pietersen's batting against Bangladesh. It was a mad combo of boredom versus the utter determination not to be subjugated by what he saw as lesser bowlers.
I have a small wager on KP to end the year as top Test runscorer, based on his being fully fit again, the improvements he's made to his technique and the amount of cricket England have. Also factored in is his undisguised desire for greatness. I think it's still a good bet, although his lack of a hundred since last March has some people questioning him.
As his career has that halfway feel to it, and as comparisons with other England players are pointless, I ran a little progress check: KP versus King Viv, Sachin, Lara, Ponting and Viru Sehwag at similar stages of their career:
M I runs ave 100 50
IVA Richards 73 110 5579 53.64 18 23
BC Lara 64 110 5431 51.23 13 27
RT Ponting 70 109 4983 50.96 17 18
SR Tendulkar 70 109 5380 55.46 20 21
V Sehwag 64 110 5508 51.44 15 15
KP Pietersen 61 110 5102 49.05 16 18
While he has the lowest average, Pietersen still stacks up well in exalted company. Richards was in his fulsome pomp at the time, with his average and weight of scoring just peaking. Most of the others were about to enter the most productive phases as batsmen, an altitude that Sachin has almost maintained, but that Ponting has spent the last couple of years of his career slipping from.
For Viru and KP though, the next three or four years glow enticingly ahead.
I have a small wager on KP to end the year as top Test runscorer, based on his being fully fit again, the improvements he's made to his technique and the amount of cricket England have. Also factored in is his undisguised desire for greatness. I think it's still a good bet, although his lack of a hundred since last March has some people questioning him.
As his career has that halfway feel to it, and as comparisons with other England players are pointless, I ran a little progress check: KP versus King Viv, Sachin, Lara, Ponting and Viru Sehwag at similar stages of their career:
M I runs ave 100 50
IVA Richards 73 110 5579 53.64 18 23
BC Lara 64 110 5431 51.23 13 27
RT Ponting 70 109 4983 50.96 17 18
SR Tendulkar 70 109 5380 55.46 20 21
V Sehwag 64 110 5508 51.44 15 15
KP Pietersen 61 110 5102 49.05 16 18
While he has the lowest average, Pietersen still stacks up well in exalted company. Richards was in his fulsome pomp at the time, with his average and weight of scoring just peaking. Most of the others were about to enter the most productive phases as batsmen, an altitude that Sachin has almost maintained, but that Ponting has spent the last couple of years of his career slipping from.
For Viru and KP though, the next three or four years glow enticingly ahead.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Kieron Pollard does what he wants
The West Indies Cricket Board, like most cricket boards and panels, are a collection of late middle-aged men with lots to give alongside their pot bellies and the hair growing from their ears. Like contracts and tours stuff like that.
So imagine their shock and hurt when their offer of a glamorous A-tour [including matches against sexy England Lions and India A] was turned down by 23-year-old multi-millionaire Kieron Pollard.
Kieron's off to play T20 for Somerset for 'substantially' more money than the WICB were paying. 'We wanted to help his cricket develop by offering him an A tour,' sobbed a source to Cricinfo. 'But he didn't want to take it up'.
Hmm. Just why would someone who'd merely spent the last year belting many of the world's best bowlers 100 yards over the boundary in low-pressure situations like the IPL decide not to go on an A-tour for peanuts to 'develop his cricket'?
Boards need to get real. The traditional paths into Test match cricket are changing. England, to their credit, have realised this with Eion Morgan, backing proven temperament and outrageous skill over a decent plodder's average in county cricket. Pollard, whether the WICB like it or not, is a star, and players aren't serfs any more. They have alternatives, as Andy Bull's terrific interview with Andrew Symonds proves.
Now let's hope that the BCCI pick Yuvraj for India A...
So imagine their shock and hurt when their offer of a glamorous A-tour [including matches against sexy England Lions and India A] was turned down by 23-year-old multi-millionaire Kieron Pollard.
Kieron's off to play T20 for Somerset for 'substantially' more money than the WICB were paying. 'We wanted to help his cricket develop by offering him an A tour,' sobbed a source to Cricinfo. 'But he didn't want to take it up'.
Hmm. Just why would someone who'd merely spent the last year belting many of the world's best bowlers 100 yards over the boundary in low-pressure situations like the IPL decide not to go on an A-tour for peanuts to 'develop his cricket'?
Boards need to get real. The traditional paths into Test match cricket are changing. England, to their credit, have realised this with Eion Morgan, backing proven temperament and outrageous skill over a decent plodder's average in county cricket. Pollard, whether the WICB like it or not, is a star, and players aren't serfs any more. They have alternatives, as Andy Bull's terrific interview with Andrew Symonds proves.
Now let's hope that the BCCI pick Yuvraj for India A...
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Hype, and why Steven Finn falling over is a problem
The England selectors have done well of late. The English media, on the other hand, have gone insane. First Jonathan Trott, who was annointed a Test match number three 'for the next ten years' after two innings against Australia batting at five; now Steven Finn, who, upon taking a few wickets against Bangladesh in favourable conditions, is apparently the next Glenn McGrath. The hype is relentless.
Glenn McGrath? Finn can't even stop falling over, a foible that has caused nothing apart from hilarity in the commentary box and the papers. I don't know much about bowling, but I know one thing: England, with their schedules and their fitness gurus and physiologists, will not be able to resist trying to fix it. And they probably should be trying to fix it: after a while, it won't be funny, and there are a few places where you won't want to keep falling over: it's not got for the physical or mental equilibrium.
But a bowling action is a bit like a golf swing. If you change one bit, all of the other components change too. You can't just reach into it, remove the part you don't like and pop it back in fixed. Finn, like Trott, has some hurdles to clear yet, and it will be easier for them to do that without the man in the street thinking we've found the next McGrath.
Glenn McGrath? Finn can't even stop falling over, a foible that has caused nothing apart from hilarity in the commentary box and the papers. I don't know much about bowling, but I know one thing: England, with their schedules and their fitness gurus and physiologists, will not be able to resist trying to fix it. And they probably should be trying to fix it: after a while, it won't be funny, and there are a few places where you won't want to keep falling over: it's not got for the physical or mental equilibrium.
But a bowling action is a bit like a golf swing. If you change one bit, all of the other components change too. You can't just reach into it, remove the part you don't like and pop it back in fixed. Finn, like Trott, has some hurdles to clear yet, and it will be easier for them to do that without the man in the street thinking we've found the next McGrath.
Friday, 4 June 2010
'Wow, this feels really good': guess the quotes special
'The other day I went and picked wild cherry tomatoes that grow on my property with the boys. It took us about an hour and I'm thinking, 'wow, this feels really good'. And then we go back and make a puree out of them, strain them out, make a reduction and I cook a meal out of them in the evening'.
Answer here.
'Waves r inspiring, not becoz they rise and fall, but becoz they never fail to rise again'.
Answer here.
Answer here.
'Waves r inspiring, not becoz they rise and fall, but becoz they never fail to rise again'.
Answer here.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Twilight of the gods
So, this is how it's ending... Patrick Kidd caught up with Andrew Flintoff this week, and it was hard not to feel that the world has moved very slightly away from the big fella.
This can't have been the life he foresaw as a young and uncomplicated lad; the last of his playing days being seen out in the exile of Dubai, a city that, it's too tempting not to point out, now glitters with unfulfilled promise. He couldn't, he says, find a bar that was showing England's T20 final, so he had to catch the highlights the next morning on the TV at the gym. He listened to the Australia-Pakistan semi on a radio in a cab. He could hardly have been more separate from it all.
He is still making the right noises about his comeback, but even if he makes it - and Fred knows it's if not when - what exactly is he coming back to? England have left him behind now, and the momentum of the T20 game as a whole is forwards. There is talk of a contract to play T20 in Australia, of the IPL next year, but what would that make him, apart from a few quid better off? A mercenary from Dubai? He played in IPL II and was by his own admission exposed.
Maybe it's sentimental to say so, but it doesn't seem fitting, or right for him. Perhaps his real end was that last day at the Oval, even if it doesn't turn out to be so. Ian Botham, who cast the longest shadow over Flintoff's career, finished up at Durham on a nondescript day, running up to bowl with his tackle hanging out, for a joke. It's not how he's remembered [thank god for that], and his real career had come to an end some time before, but he was at home, where he was loved, and it was quite funny. Better a finish like that than the soullessness that seems to be stalking Andrew Flintoff.
This can't have been the life he foresaw as a young and uncomplicated lad; the last of his playing days being seen out in the exile of Dubai, a city that, it's too tempting not to point out, now glitters with unfulfilled promise. He couldn't, he says, find a bar that was showing England's T20 final, so he had to catch the highlights the next morning on the TV at the gym. He listened to the Australia-Pakistan semi on a radio in a cab. He could hardly have been more separate from it all.
He is still making the right noises about his comeback, but even if he makes it - and Fred knows it's if not when - what exactly is he coming back to? England have left him behind now, and the momentum of the T20 game as a whole is forwards. There is talk of a contract to play T20 in Australia, of the IPL next year, but what would that make him, apart from a few quid better off? A mercenary from Dubai? He played in IPL II and was by his own admission exposed.
Maybe it's sentimental to say so, but it doesn't seem fitting, or right for him. Perhaps his real end was that last day at the Oval, even if it doesn't turn out to be so. Ian Botham, who cast the longest shadow over Flintoff's career, finished up at Durham on a nondescript day, running up to bowl with his tackle hanging out, for a joke. It's not how he's remembered [thank god for that], and his real career had come to an end some time before, but he was at home, where he was loved, and it was quite funny. Better a finish like that than the soullessness that seems to be stalking Andrew Flintoff.
The existential nightmare of fielding [part 347]
'Never mind the spectators being bored, we as players are bored fielding. It's almost pointless'.
Kevin Pietersen on overs 15-35 in one-day internationals, thus revealing two truths in one quote: the shocking truth about fielding and the looming end of 50-over cricket.
Kevin Pietersen on overs 15-35 in one-day internationals, thus revealing two truths in one quote: the shocking truth about fielding and the looming end of 50-over cricket.
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