Month: Mar 2015

2015 World Cup – Game 28 – India v West Indies

LordCanisLupus20 Comments

It starts at 6 am our time, and yet I won’t see much as I am off to work. I value my sleep and I need to have my wits about me tomorrow.

India seek to continue their dominant ways, while Virat Kohli may try to find someone else to scream at. The West Indies, meanwhile, better not win given the poverty they inflicted on the BCCI after the aborted tour at the end of 2014.

Comment away.

Ambivalent

LordCanisLupus46 Comments

Rather than jot down some thoughts this lunchtime, I thought I’d rather take a seat in a quiet place and have a relaxation of the eyes. After all, you lot are doing all the talking for me.

Let me say a few things on the issues that seem to be exercising the minds of those on here, and those on Twitter. The thing is, I don’t care enough to get angry about them. In fact, I’m to be persuaded on many of them. The fact is, you don’t need to be stridently in favour of something to write about it. I think, sometimes, I make that mistake.

Take the associates. The attitude to them has been that they’ve been a blast of fresh air, and indeed, the games between them have been quite exciting, been well played and enjoyable. For that reason, they should remain. The reason they shouldn’t isn’t because of 2007 and the elimination of India and Pakistan after three games each. But let’s face it, all sport is about money. I’m never one for the person who believes fervently in something to say “it just is” as I tend to see when it comes to keeping the World Cup with a full quota of associates. Indeed I’ve seen sports writers who moan like billy-o when our precious England footballers have to play San Marino, who then go on about how wonderful the associate play is. I hate seeded draws, I hate anything that isn’t totally even playing field about sport. It drives me mad.

The key issue is that the game needs to spread worldwide, and yet there is a vested interest in keeping the status quo. If I were the West Indies I wouldn’t go near any of the teams below me in the World rankings with a barge pole. If I were England, I wouldn’t give a shit as we are one of the Big Three. I have no idea what the right answer is. What I know it isn’t is the status quo, and it’s not the line-up in 2019 either. But sorry, and leave the WIndies out of this for a minute, but I hate seeing teams have 400 piled upon them in World Cup cricket. I’m a batsman, I love great batting, but this is now so loaded in the batsman’s favour that when bowling is sub-par, it’s play-time for good players.

I don’t have the answers, but I’m not comfortable with seeing Australia wallop 417 against a clearly over-matched associate team. Start your engines, as I feel a tidal wave of dissent coming my way. I’m also not comfortable with the 2019 set-up as it is too long, and believe me, there will be dead games. I’m inclined to say there should be eight teams playing, but there should be a pre-qualifying tournament involving all nations. So Asia has a tournament with 10 teams, and three qualify for the finals – this gives a meritocracy, and also means the associate nations like Hong Kong, UAE, Afghanistan, Nepal, et al will get regular cricket against the big boys and have a chance to improve. It’s pie in the sky because no World Cup can conceivably go ahead without India, but let me dream.

I’ve not thought it through because others are doing all that. Maybe I’ll think some more. There’s just not a way through with the system as it is, and the lack of opportunity for associates to make that quantum leap across to get through.

As for bats, well it now makes the game similar to golf. With the development in golf club technology, classic old courses were becoming a joke to pros. Something needed to be done when the US Open, which was won with a score very close to Par over four rounds, saw Tiger Woods annihilate Pebble Beach and win with something like -18. St Andrews became a pitch and putt, Royal Liverpool didn’t require a driver. Old courses like Augusta were lengthened, and now the top championship courses are miles over 7000 yards as technology expanded the horizons. You can’t “un-know” these things.

In cricket we have stadia with pretty fixed dimensions so lengthening the boundaries isn’t an option. Nor is making the bat thinner, as the technology will get round that. So we need to think outside the box a little. Evening up pitches to make the contest fair between bat and ball is all well and good, but hardly definable. Loosening fielding restrictions will only increase those dead overs when batsmen milk 1s and 2s. Two new balls seem to mean the ball is harder to fly around the park at the end of the innings. Here’s a really silly suggestion. For ODI cricket, how about shortening the wicket a foot? Put in a fourth stump? Make the stumps a little higher? They are stupid suggestions, I know, but no more stupid than watching mis-hits fly for six, and so on. While I know a lot of you laugh at Scyld’s column, there’s something, sorry, rather dull than seeing some of this stuff. I am a massive baseball fan, but although I’m a batsman in cricket, I love the duel between pitcher and batsman. When the batters were juiced up, looking like weightlifters, the game went home-run mad. It was dull. It’s so much better to watch a 1-0 pitching duel, where scoring runs is hard, than seeing an 11-10 slugfest when it is easy. It’s a matter of taste. And for me, when it comes to evaluating innings like Warner’s 170-odd or Gayle’s 200, I look and think, that’s the equivalent of Sosa and McGwire back in the day.

I don’t expect you lot to agree, and given by your comments, you don’t, but I’m truly vexed on the issues. Maybe it’s because England don’t play that slugging game that I have the hump. Maybe it’s because I don’t like sporting bullying that I don’t know the answer on the associates. I haven’t seen the answers from anyone else.

Feel free to comment. I’m truly open-minded on the associates – and I do agree they need to play proper international cricket against full nations (for example, England, Scotland, Ireland and Netherlands play a European Cup – why not? Imagine the fun when we don’t win it…) – but I don’t think this format is the way, nor do I think the 2019 one is either. As for the bats…..

Oh well. I don’t pretend I’ve thought these through, so off you go….

Perspective

LordCanisLupus64 Comments

It’s been an interesting 36 hours, but one that has a silver lining.

No cricket for a day brought the silly squad out, and now everyone’s had their say, most notably about Pietersen, and less about the folly of Downton and the first plays of Colin Graves.

The South Africans did for Ireland in a big way, and the full test nation lobby has a little string to its bow.

There’s been the John Etheridge stuff which I’ve probably talked about too much. But it’s been revelatory.

Then there’s been another of our favourtie sponsored interviews, and Stuart Broad does little to disprove “the book” and its little take on our fading star.

But we don’t have perspective, we have guesswork, we have sneering superiority, we have arrogance. Oh well. Let’s move on. (oh dear, I sounded just like them).

Two games tonight, game threads to follow. I think we can say, without fear or favour, judging by hit rates and visitor numbers, that after a month re-establishing myself, the blog is back.

Derision

LordCanisLupus63 Comments

Let us go back to 26 November 1998. On that sad date Doug Ibbotson passed away. For those of a certain age, his columns in WCM were an entertaining and enlightening read. For the vast majority on here, you probably didn’t have a scooby who he was until this week. I’m not au fait with all the facts but I do believe his column in WCM was taken over by one Paul Newman. Now there’s a name we know and cherish. Invoking Doug Ibbotson’s legacy is up there with the most bizarre items of the last year in blogging, and I’ve had a few.

OK. So we’ve seen the events of the last 24 hours. John tweeted me a silly message. I took a little bit of umbrage at it, and replied. Then I got, frankly, a ton of old twaddle from John, objecting to my use of a picture of venerable old Doug as this blog’s “blavatar”. I’ve replaced it with one of Allan Stanford now, and am expecting a tweet from Norman Collier or Giles Clarke to say I’m reminding them of their dealings with this crook.

Then you lot stepped in. Thanks for the support and all that, but there’s no need, and while what you write is your own responsibility, I am not going to be split from the support I get. We all have views and I don’t agree with all of you all the time. I don’t want this to be an echo chamber. For personal reasons, I am not keen on Hillsborough references, for example. One thing doing this blog is that I’ve developed a marginally thicker skin, and am very solid in my position in writing my own views on the administration of the game in this country. I hear a lot of things that no-one told me about last year. I share them with you, or at least cast my views in weighing up the position at time. I’m not actually bothered at all by the “quite unpleasant” stuff because that’s water off a duck’s back. I’m not popular, I know that, among our writers such as they are bothered, but ask those who do talk to me online and they’ll give you a different view, I’m sure.

I am bothered with the bit John left out of his comment this morning – the bit about “guesswork”. This is one stage away from “conspiracy theorists” and our pigeonholing as a bunch of tin foil hat merchants. I’m not that and very comfortable in my own skin in that regard. Being challenged is still tricky for me, but I’m not underestimating the support behind me. As KP would say “it’s very humbling” (as would Stuart Broad). For instance, I’ve contended on here since the Dean Wilson tweet last year when he revealed that Downton was very approachable behind the scenes, that Downton was an awful public performer. I have said, at times, it is cowardice. I’ve said it all year long, despite the media assuring us in the early days he was “nice old Paul” and that he would be a refreshing new face. Now we see the media really turning on him for ducking out of the last press conference and sticking Joe Root up. Brenkley, who I’ve really laid into, was spot on in his piece (I don’t want to hate reporters, in the same way I don’t want to hate anyone). My “guesswork” seems to have been slightly more accurate than those who have their jobs in this industry. It might be luck, it probably is, but I negotiate in my day job and you need to try to read people – I suspect most of us do – and he seemed an obvious all style, no substance type to me.

We “guess” because you’ve been proved wrong, reporters, and with few exceptions we find it hard to take what is said without feeling let down. I’m incredibly pissed off that this Graves comment has focused on KP and not on the potential impact at the organisation he takes over. So we have more attack pieces on Pietersen – today’s one in the Guardian about pouring scorn on England is rich – and Selfey’s lament yesterday being the only one to really focus on Downton that I’ve seen. Yes, I read John’s piece in the Sun, too.

I say it once, I’ll say it again. This is not about KP, it’s about how the game is run, and how fans are excluded by many manners of means. Some try to paint me as something I am not (a KP fanboy – I love his batting, thought him being dropped was terribly wrong, and not sure I want to see him back). It’s not being bought here. I don’t doubt how little influence I have, but it’s funny how our agenda points still keep being raised. A year on “outside cricket” is still going strong. I suspect “positive influence” will be joining it. I’m certainly the first, and doubt I’m the second. But we are still here, different venue, same points.

Thanks for all the supportive comments. I’ll buy you a beer if we ever should meet……

(Note – this post was written on a mobile connection so no bells and whistles. Any edits will be this evening, where I’ll try to keep up with you lot and watch some more of Season 2 of House of Cards.)

PS – John, I lost my wallet in Adelaide in 2006. If you find it, lost in Glenelg, then please keep it safe for me.

2015 World Cup – Game 24 – South Africa v Ireland

LordCanisLupus10 Comments

After the stupidity and rancour of the last 36 hours, let’s get back to cricket. Tonight’s game looks like a walkover, with AB the Unstoppable in prime form, and with Ireland looking a little over-matched. But this Irish bunch is a resilient team I think we all get a lot of fun from watching, and who we want to see a lot more of. Canberra can mean runs……lots of them.

Any comments from those who can should be left here.

If anyone is interested, John has followed up my blog post with a comment. You can read his views. I’m not particularly interested in responding, if truth be told. I made my point. He made his. Would I prefer restraint in the comments? Probably. Do I moderate? As little as possible. I’m not The Guardian BTL, that’s for sure. I would, actually, prefer if you all just left it where it is, and didn’t chip in now. But I won’t stop you. Keep it clean.

Enjoy the game, for those who can get to watch it.

Reporting

LordCanisLupus26 Comments

Ah, with that off my chest, let us turn to the latest by Dmitri #1 George Dobell:

England have lost 16 of their last 21 ODIs against Full Members. The last four of those have been thrashings. In the last five-and-a-half World Cups they have won five and lost 17 matches against Full Member nations. They have not won an ODI series for a year; when Ashley Giles was coach, Stuart Broad was captain and Michael Lumb made a century on debut. They have dropped several chances in recent games, including Aaron Finch before he had scored in Melbourne and Lahiru Thirimanne on 2 in Wellington. Both went on to make centuries. Sunday’s result was not an aberration.

Root, of course, was in an impossible position.

Joe Root was put up as the interview person for the day or so after the loss to Sri Lanka. Many are questioning why Moores wasn’t fronting up. I made many of those same accusations in Sri Lanka (how he came out when we won a game, then didn’t speak until we’d lost the series) and was told I was being unfair. OK. But come on. Root was emotional after the game. This can’t be right, can it?

The man who, at 24, had just become England’s youngest World Cup centurion deserved a better fate than being wheeled out to explain the team’s latest calamity. The ECB might as well have thrown out a piece of meat.

I concur, George.. now to the pay-off.

But their logic was simple. They no longer trust some of those in management to defuse situations – Paul Downton was originally pencilled in to take this press conference and every time Colin Graves speaks he undermines his executive team – and they hoped that, by producing one of the few men who has performed well in recent days, they might distract attention from the wretched performance of England’s most senior cricketers in the field.

Well I never. That’s just so out of character. A trait we were mentioning, what, a week into his tenure?

That’s “guesswork”.

It was a desperate ploy. The ECB knew full well that a report leading with Joe Root’s century would be like leading a report into the sinking of Titanic by noting that the band played beautifully.

It’s why we like you George. You tell us things we don’t know, and you do it as if you are our eyes and ears.

Unpleasant

LordCanisLupus52 Comments
And don't come back....
You are either Inside, or you are guessing

It has been quite a day, hasn’t it? The line that the ECB spun last night, that the Graves position yesterday was not, in fact, an opening of the door, but merely a restatement of current positions is eroding before our eyes. Nick Hoult’s latest piece in the Telegraph seems to paint a very different picture, and even Selfey’s article gave the game away because he writes it as if there is a chance KP might come back before defending Downton et al. Other articles in The Guardian, here and here, intimate that the existing ECB line last night might be a little, er, premature. I don’t know – maybe someone really in the know can keep those of us outside really informed. Then we might not get so up in arms, eh?

There are clearly, it seems to us trying to figure out what the hell is happening through the prism of our journalistic corps, divisions in the ECB; differences of approaches and perhaps personalities and nuances to do with timing of posts being actually filled. Nature, and bloggers like me abhor vacuums. There’s something afoot, because we’ve seen it before. We remember how Cook was disposed of, the modus operandi of putting something out there, getting the reaction, and moving from there. We aren’t out of the World Cup, yet this looks like jostling for positions to me. The World Cup had better come right or there could be more of this on the way. In the absence of clarity, in the absence of the full context, we’ll try to fill in the blanks.

This blogger, as you know, has a job, watches cricket when it fits in with his life, and has many other things to do. I do not pretend to be a journalist, and I doubt you will ever find a claim to it on here, it’s not my job and I do this because, believe it or not, I enjoy it.

I’ve written on the sport I really enjoy and am thoroughly saddened by in the past year or so. I indulge in speculation based on comparing articles with what I hear, with what I’m told, with what I read, trying to cross reference where I can, but time is limited. I watch the sport, have a vast back catalogue of books, dvds, magazines and podcasts. I’m a cricket nut with not enough time. I also think I know a little, not a lot, about human nature. I am not friends with any cricketer. I hear gossip, much of it told to me by the way, by people who might know. If this is guesswork, then so bloody well be it. But it’s guesswork based on caring, based on looking and reading and trying to draw conclusions. You know, the sort of thing we all do.

Why the anger? Well, a journalist today, who we all know, and I’ve been pretty civil to on here and, from communicating on social media I quite like, posted this on my Twitter feed.

My giddy aunt.

Here’s why I put a picture of Doug Ibbotson on my blog feed, (and it only really seems to appear on my dashboard, which you don’t see, and on blog posts copied onto Twitter) John. Because the edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly in around 1988 it comes from had it, and the thought that a journo today could have a photo like that as his identity pic, complete with pipe, amused me. Plus, as you say John, he was a damn fine journalist. As was David Foot. As was Neil Hallam. The brilliance of the county scene in those WCMs is a million miles away from what we get today in our cricket magazines. So maybe it’s a little nod to a previous era. And maybe, just maybe, a pic of an old journo with a pipe is pretty damn good. I’m not comparing myself to him, I’m not thinking I’m a journalist, and I’m certainly not meaning the use of the pic in any mean-spirited way. I do hope you are not implying that. And please don’t invoke the old “he’s more of a journalist…” stuff because I know he was. Because I’m not.

I’m sorry if you find this blog “quite unpleasant”. I plead guilty to this being guesswork in the main, because I’ve not pretended to be ITK. But you aren’t exactly playing by the rules on your side either.

I actually have a fair bit of time for John Etheridge. I’m surprised he picked on this as something to try to beat me with. Come on, sir.

Right, got that off my chest.

By way of a public service, I managed to capture some of the BTL comments from the Selvey article that got deleted. I have reproduced some of them here. If the author wishes me to take them down, then please let me know and I will be happy to do so. I stored a few others, but they haven’t been deleted yet.

Bag of smoke…
“That theme of course was Kevin Pietersen, the fruit-fly, the pest that will not go away.”
Don’t sit on the fence, Mike.
Honestly, it makes you wonder doesn’t it, about the supposed impartiality of so-called ‘journalists’? Since when was it acceptable to so nakedly express one’s opinions of a player like this? I suppose it beats the normal innuendo, but quite how Selvey thinks this sort of thing is acceptable is beyond me. It’s faintly amusing that he should be so hostile towards our best ever batsman (going on statistics…), whilst affording the current shitshower of an England team and its hierarchy every courtesy.
This bit too made me chuckle – could it be any more matey? Proof, if it were required, that Selvey is essentially a mouthpiece for Downton. What a puppet.
“Downton takes no offence, thinks it was merely something clumsily expressed and in no way malicious :but it is grist to the mill at a bad time.”

Bagsofsmoke again..

“…the fruit-fly, the pest that will not go away.”
Don’t sit on the fence, Mike…
Since when is it acceptable journalism for a correspondent to be so nakedly hostile to a player? I understand you don’t like the man, but afford him some respect, Mike, as England’s best ever batsman. You sound like Etheridge. Since when is this sort of journalism acceptable in the Guardian?
Ah, it all becomes clear. I forget that you’re essentially a puppet, a mouthpiece, for the execrable Paul Downton. Proof, were it required, that that is the case:
“Downton takes no offence, thinks it was merely something clumsily expressed and in no way malicious :but it is grist to the mill at a bad time.”
Gluck
How can His Lordship still be considered a journalist anymore? Is he angling for a job as ECB PR chief (and pray, how would we tell the difference?)
Sorry about the fonts going all over the place….
The Slogfather…
Well.. I’ve waited until now to become an ‘under’, as well as having been a long-term ‘outsider’… but having read this from ‘lordselfie’…
The reality is that the new (yet to be confirmed) ECB (or whatever the next name becomes) Chairman, has now rattled a few cages within the press…
Following on from this, it would/should appear, that the current Team management and overlords (DowntownShabby, MooresThePityful, ForGodsSake -er, HisGreasyGilesness and TheFlowerpotman) are being found out…
There is no team management, just jobsworth incompetence – but then we’ve known that for many a month…
Sadly, most of the mainstream press (with a few notable exceptions) have chose to ignore reality.
So us, being the (outside) meek, shall inherit this dearth…
Others were saved but remain, lots more I missed….