Cricket- the sport not the insect

[ramjambunath]

Marsh is supposedly playing in the 2 day game against India in a week.

Thick question, which one?

If Watson is fit I'd rather have him come into the side for Hussey or better yet, Ponting. Hughes needs to be replaced with Katich and if Clarke doesn't like it, the selectors need to hand down an ultimatum - Katich in or lose the captaincy.

I think that Warner and Katich opening together would work well, their styles would compliment each other. It's pretty obvious that Warner is the real deal, he's just a little raw. Give him a little time and he will be like a stronger Justin Langer or Desmond Haynes IMO.

Realistically, Katich's career is done. Of course pretty much all of us want him but I think Australia has moved on, controversially.

Phillip Hughes has been signed by Worcestershire for next season's County Championship. The last time he played County cricket, he was a revelation for Middlesex. It looks like a mutually beneficial deal, with Hughes facing swing bowling on a regular basis and Worcestershire needing anyone to strengthen their poor team.

Australia could use a player like Brownlie in their middle order.

 

[Ferminal]

Thick question, which one?

Which game or which Marsh?

Shaun, on the 19th - 21st (it's actually a 3 dayer).

 

[ramjambunath]

Which game or which Marsh?

Shaun, on the 19th - 21st (it's actually a 3 dayer).

Thanks. I meant which Marsh. Is he not in the squad for the first match (the 2 day match)?

 

[Ferminal]

Marsh not going to be fit for Boxing Day.

Paine's finger still stuffed, out for the whole season now.

 

[daveinzambia]

Marsh not going to be fit for Boxing Day.

Paine's finger still stuffed, out for the whole season now.

Sounds like Paine's finger is a real mess. Possibly career ending.

 

[ramjambunath]

Bad luck for Paine.

Big couple of days for Indian cricket, Kumble has resigned as National Cricket Academy Chairman after differences with the Board on how to run the NCA.

Reports say the BCCI has decided to terminate Nimbus' conract for television rights after a dispute over payment. If it goes to ESPN Star (ESS), then there's definitely more than meets the eye as it was due ESS that Zee lost telecast rights earlier and that led to the ICL.

Dravid has said that meaningless ODIs have to be reduced and should as far as possible be restricted to ICC events. How true.

Gavaskar has criticised the BCCI over the non payment of dues that he should've received as part of the IPL governing council. Crap tournament but if this relieves Gavaskar of his BCCI duties, then he could actually make a lot of sense.

 

[craig1985]

Phil Hughes has withdrawn from the Big Bash League with the Sydney Thunder in order to work on his technique. Smart man.

 

[ramjambunath]

Why is Cowan not playing today, do CA want to s**t his career?

Ishant Sharma seems to be injured. Only bowled 5.3 overs.

 

[daveinzambia]

Why is Cowan not playing today, do CA want to s**t his career?

Ishant Sharma seems to be injured. Only bowled 5.3 overs.

yeah but no one else has bowled the other half an over so think it is just updates freezing mid over

 

[ramjambunath]

I saw it at lunch with 26 overs and Sharma had 5.3 overs. I forgot who was the other one with half an over but I think it may have been Ojha or Mithun.

Why's it the Cricket Australia Chairman's XI and not the PM's XI?
CAC XI 2/75 after 32 overs
Ojha bowled Ishant Sharma's half over.

 

[daveinzambia]

I saw it at lunch with 26 overs and Sharma had 5.3 overs. I forgot who was the other one with half an over but I think it may have been Ojha or Mithun.

ok had stopped mid over when i looked but yep agree not Ojha did the other half so looks like he is injured.

 

[ramjambunath]

India struggling to take this young teams's wickets (although two of their best batsmen are playing now), Ponting may score a century in the tests and save his spot for another couple of years

It will be interesting to see if Cam Boyce can bowl well tomorrow. Shame it's not telecast.

 

[ramjambunath]

3/280, Wes Robinson 143 and Tom Cooper 98*.

Dravid's Bradman oration, pretty good speech
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-15/dravid-delivers-the-bradman-oration/3731906

 

[Ferminal]

Dravid's Bradman oration, pretty good speech
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-15/dravid-delivers-the-bradman-oration/3731906

Pretty good stuff.

Nice to see Rahul believe that the "meaningless" bunch of ODIs thrown in here and there by the 5 or 7 needs to be revamped.

I'd like to see a couple of blocks on the calendar (i.e. North & South seasons) set aside exclusively for ODIs.

 

[ramjambunath]

Cricket Australia Chairman's XI declare at 6/398 after 86 overs. Tom Cooper 182*. India should have 2 overs to bat.

Edit-Stumps have been called before India bat.

Pretty good stuff.

Nice to see Rahul believe that the "meaningless" bunch of ODIs thrown in here and there by the 5 or 7 needs to be revamped.

I'd like to see a couple of blocks on the calendar (i.e. North & South seasons) set aside exclusively for ODIs.

It's a nice idea and could be very successful (Australia do follow this type of schedule) but the problem will be in India again. Favourable conditions for 8-10 months and a board that's happy to make as much as possible and not taking into consideration what fans and players want, like the India England series which was pointless and unnecessary.

 

[craig1985]

I'm not confident about India going into the Boxing Day Test, I fear they won't have enough preparation in Australian conditions. A two day with 12 plays aside and then a three day game straight away in conditions they won't play anywhere else. England were able to get it right with three FC games going into the 1st Test at Brisbane and after a slow start, they were able to save the Test and ended up winning the series. I know this isn't always possible with the West Indies touring, but in an ideal world a team would have get enough warm-up games. The BCCI has so much power in the game, they should have insisted that the game got played in Perth than instead of Canberra.

 

[ramjambunath]

Add to that Sharma's probably injured. This match was a late addition, India were originally going into the test series with only the three day match or maybe not even that.

 

[Ferminal]

Cricket Australia Chairman's XI declare at 6/398 after 86 overs. Tom Cooper 182*. India should have 2 overs to bat.



It's a nice idea and could be very successful (Australia do follow this type of schedule) but the problem will be in India again. Favourable conditions for 8-10 months and a board that's happy to make as much as possible and not taking into consideration what fans and players want, like the India England series which was pointless and unnecessary.

Australia has a pointless standalone ODI series there every few years too.

The thing with the ODIs in Australia is even that gets stale after two weeks. Something more like the SANZAR tri-nations for Rugby (soon to include Argentina) could work, with each team playing home and away games. If it's your "home" season you might play 10-12, most in your country but some in the others whose "home" season it is. Away teams would play fewer games.

Use the results as qualification for a more compact World Cup, or bin the WC altogether and make it a league championship.

 

[craig1985]

Just as well they did that as it was going to be a recipe for disaster. The problem for India I see is that do they have any bowlers that can move the ball away from the Australian batsmen on a consistent basis? That is how Bracewell ripped through Australia on the 4th day in Hobart but constantly being able to move the ball away from the batsmen and the Australians kept nicking it the slips where the New Zealand slip cordon were good enough to take their chances. Kumar can, but he is injured, and Ian Chappell is of the opinion Kumar should be in Australia doing everything he can to get fit in time for the series, even if it's to play the 3rd and 4th Tests. Batting wise I think India will be fine, with the 'big three' of the Indian middle order experienced enough in batting in Australian conditions with Laxman who loves playing against Australia and I'm sure the Hobart wicket would have suited Dravid. Sehwag doesn't care who is bowling and he has scored Test centuries in bowler friendly conditions (think back to Trent Bridge in 2002).

I would probably go with Ashwin over Ojha if you're going to play the one spinner, but if the Indian seam attack keeps falling apart then the decision might get made for them.

 

[craig1985]

Australia has a pointless standalone ODI series there every few years too.

The thing with the ODIs in Australia is even that gets stale after two weeks. Something more like the SANZAR tri-nations for Rugby (soon to include Argentina) could work, with each team playing home and away games. If it's your "home" season you might play 10-12, most in your country but some in the others whose "home" season it is. Away teams would play fewer games.

Use the results as qualification for a more compact World Cup, or bin the WC altogether and make it a league championship.

You only have to go back to last year before the Ashes, Australia played three pointless ODIs against Sri Lanka followed by two T20's. I don't think I watched the series because it seem that interesting to me.

 

[ramjambunath]

Australia has a pointless standalone ODI series there every few years too.

The thing with the ODIs in Australia is even that gets stale after two weeks. Something more like the SANZAR tri-nations for Rugby (soon to include Argentina) could work, with each team playing home and away games. If it's your "home" season you might play 10-12, most in your country but some in the others whose "home" season it is. Away teams would play fewer games.

Use the results as qualification for a more compact World Cup, or bin the WC altogether and make it a league championship.

It would be great for competition among the top nations but the problem with that may occur is how will the likes of Zimbabwe get in the WC and the likes of Ireland, who are on the cusp of being competitive, may well fizzle out in the future. The ICC don' really do too much for safeguarding associate nations' interests as it is.

 

[ramjambunath]

Just as well they did that as it was going to be a recipe for disaster. The problem for India I see is that do they have any bowlers that can move the ball away from the Australian batsmen on a consistent basis? That is how Bracewell ripped through Australia on the 4th day in Hobart but constantly being able to move the ball away from the batsmen and the Australians kept nicking it the slips where the New Zealand slip cordon were good enough to take their chances. Kumar can, but he is injured, and Ian Chappell is of the opinion Kumar should be in Australia doing everything he can to get fit in time for the series, even if it's to play the 3rd and 4th Tests. Batting wise I think India will be fine, with the 'big three' of the Indian middle order experienced enough in batting in Australian conditions with Laxman who loves playing against Australia and I'm sure the Hobart wicket would have suited Dravid. Sehwag doesn't care who is bowling and he has scored Test centuries in bowler friendly conditions (think back to Trent Bridge in 2002).

I would probably go with Ashwin over Ojha if you're going to play the one spinner, but if the Indian seam attack keeps falling apart then the decision might get made for them.

The past couple of years, I think the pitches in Australia have been a bit more conducive to swing bowling and India don't play very well in swinging conditions. I'm not just talking about the England tour but even the tests in Ahmedabad (where there's a lot of swing in the first session) against South Africa and Sri Lanka, they folded for 77 and 4/32 (against Sri Lanka's weak pace attack) in the first innings on day one. Dravid and Tendulkar should be fine though.

So, there are many reasons to be worried as an Indian fan as well. It's just that the media tries to focus away from India's weaknesses.

 

[Ferminal]

It would be great for competition among the top nations but the problem with that may occur is how will the likes of Zimbabwe get in the WC and the likes of Ireland, who are on the cusp of being competitive, may well fizzle out in the future. The ICC don' really do too much for safeguarding associate nations' interests as it is.

You could have promotion/relegation to a 2nd tier competition, although the problem there is what happens if Australia, India etc have a bad run and relegated.

 

[ramjambunath]

Another problem, England will never be promoted

It's tough and thankfully we're not organisers.
My opinion, very willing to be changed, is that the number of ODI's could be reduced. One ODI per tour (if needed), a 3 match 2020 series and play an extra test (when it's ridiculously low like Australia's past two series). I say there should be 3 2020's because of the money that it draws in and after all that has to be taken into consideration. Lesser ODI's could also make the top teams less dominant in the format. If we removed England from the WC, there wouldn't have been many great matches and it would have been a dull-ish World Cup.

 

[ramjambunath]

Sri Lanka 7/170, Philander 4 wickets.

8/175, Philander gets 5 again.