Let’s do something I used to do. Thirty minutes, and thoughts I have about all things cricket.
- You might have noticed the lack of posts. As I said, I’m just about all written out and often can’t think of much new to say. But I’ll try to keep up with some stuff. Sometimes, and it is becoming more frequent, I wonder why I bother. I especially wonder that when all I’m doing is sounding an opinion. I can’t express into adequate words those who choose to ignore the malaise in the game, and instead attack those trying to put a case as to why things must change. I see my view, and that of many on here, now being jumped on as the DOAG bandwagon starts to roll. But some would rather creep up to a Selvey about online critics, than actually pose the question to him “why have you said nothing about the ICC?”.
- Which brings me on to Selvey. I have been excessively restrained on this. The frustration over his see no evil, hear no evil approach to the ICC changes and the lack of public critical judgement he has shown on them is palpable. What on earth has he got to lose, and do not answer that question? Both Chris and I are being careful not to print articles that are just about nailing this attitude from Selvey – we see it clearly enough. Articles of his spur on hits on here without us doing anything. We all know what’s wrong, you don’t need to read it. We’ve turned down a guest article on Selvey, and we hardly ever turn down articles! Instead of Selvey railing against his critics, and failing to address their points, he needs to realise what he’s doing. He’s abdicating his responsibility on these matters. I don’t know about office politics at The Guardian, but we have a sense of what is going on. This constant ignorance of the elephant in the cricket room is tainting him further and further.
- I still have a lot of anger. Don’t confuse my silence with not being angry. The fact is that the non-selection of KP for the World T20 has, finally, totally, closed the door. There was no reason to believe he would be selected, and I’m sure those whose work I see on the social media and BTL networks far too often for my sanity, are crowing with delight at us. That’s life. We weren’t wrong. We’ve been down this path far too often, and yes, we’ll go there again. The ECB have done nothing, no matter how much those who I thought more of contend that they have, to assuage my anger. Shut up. Pipe down. Move on. Pay your Sky Subs, and don’t you dare get any ideas.
- The proposed test match championship is just yet another wind-up. Well it is until I see the first ball bowled in it. I can’t but help get the feeling that this glasnost in the ICC is a temporary thing. A chimera (and I don’t mean the fire breathing monster type). It’s going to need TV deals to fund it, and it’s going to need India to be at the sharp end of it. That’s reality folks, and there are few guarantees for that. Also, I can’t also help thinking Manohar is gone when the next BCCI congress, or whatever, goes ahead. Or at least he’ll have his refreshing wings clipped. I have no faith in these people whatsoever, and their track record is not one of progressive thinking. I don’t blame India, but it doesn’t mean I have to like what they do. We can’t sit around dreaming up divisions and all sorts, when we’ve hardly heard a peep out of India as to if they want it. I have absolutely no reason not to be cynical.
- Believe it or not, I love watching Indian cricket, so please don’t take this as an attack on that nation, but good grief, their organisation on tickets for the World T20 is an absolute shambles. I know that in the case of matches not involving India it might be a little easier to secure tickets on an as and when basis, which for both test tours to Australia we did (even with the horrendous Australian Cricket Family ruse in 2006). But that’s not really the point. There’s been arguments over venues, politics being played out, and it’s just bloody wrong. Administrators and organisers need to get the effing basics right before they start lecturing any supporters about their issues. A potentially exciting tournament may not, in the end, be critically affected, but one day one will. Complacency for the people who go to games is the start of a terrible downward cycle.
- Of course I’m sad to see Brendon McCullum leave international cricket, although I don’t know about him doing it before a major tournament where his team may well have a decent shout. But you choose the time of your leaving. Of course his impact on the game is not to be judged by the numbers, because doing that over the whole of his career doesn’t make him anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps he wasn’t a great player but a player of great innings, eh? However, it is for his galvanising effect on the country’s almost moribund cricket team that he deserves all the praise. Last night I was transferring stuff from my hard drive recorder to DVD and had the end of the World Cup Semi-Final, with Grant Elliott’s six. They came a long long way under McCullum. I thought some went over the top in their paeans but that’s life. It’s not overly a sin to be nice to people, and say nice things.
- The thing with England, and it’s a theme I’m talking about on a more frequent basis, is that cricket is in the market with other sports for my time. Now, writing a blog has kept me interested for a couple of years, but now one of the key cogs, the KP issue, is dead and buried, there is a sense of what now? I have a full-time job, and things to do at weekends. I get home at 7:30 and then have a limited amount of time to do or watch what I want. So what do I do? I’m seeing an increase in the time I watch the NBA. The baseball season is around the corner, and I’m looking forward to that. I quite like watching the PGA Tour golf on a Sunday night, now that the NFL has gone. We have the Olympics and Euro championships coming up. Cricket has to fight for space, and it did, well, for my lifetime. But now I see it and go, why? Why should I spend my time catching up with England cricket? They sacked their main highlight reel over something they might tell us a long way down the line. Why bother with a sport that does that?
- It’s a little more than half an hour, but let’s finish off with some points upcoming. Anyone care to take a guess at the five cricketers of the year, which will be announced next month in Wisden? Stick ‘em in the comments. What about the World T20? Looking forward to it or don’t give a stuff? County cricket will be upon us soon. Are any of you interested? Do you go to games at all? Also, anyone want to write an article for us, the offer is always open.
- Chris and I will be meeting tomorrow night, in one of our quarterly editorial sessions. Any results from that, and I doubt there will be many, we will relay to you.
- Finally, to those that seek to do this blog down. I laugh at you. Have a nice evening.
Being Outside Cricket 
Apologies, my Twitter timeline has probably resembled some all out war against the Guardian and Selvey recently. I know I shouldn’t care, but it is the total antithesis of why the Guardian was created in the first place and the “sweep it all under the carpet and don’t you dare comment on non-approved matters” approach angers me no end. This is not journalism, it’s basically propaganda and those that bow to it are no better than the crooks running English and international cricket.
Enjoy the Krusovice’s tomorrow night.
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http://off-guardian.org Is a good site that explains what has happened to The Guardian. Spread the word, and encourage any Guardian reader you know to cancel the paper. (So far I managed to get 4 people to stop buying it) It’s now become a wolf in sheeps clothing.
As for English cricket,it has left me, not me it. I don’t recognise the sport I fell in love with nearly 50 years ago. The powers that be are managing decline, or rather asset stripping and looting the sport before it dies of natural causes. It’s much more profitable and less hard work than to grow the game.
I find it funny that so many of the ECB arse lickers spend so much time reading this site and getting upity about it. Why? Guilty conscious perhaps? A deep down fear that we were right all a long. Or a desire to drive us all away. Way to go knuckle draggers. Push even more people from your pretentious little private club.
As for the 20/20 World Cup, I now couldn’t care less. Morgan’s f*** you to those who stood by him is not very edifying. You didn’t need to rub our faces in it Mr Morgan. By the way if you win the WC, it will be Strauss who is given all the credit not you or your players. That’s the way of English cricket. If you want praise you have to go to the right type of school.
If I can’t be a fan I will not be a customer. I have zero brand loyalty, and there are better run , more attractive options to enjoy.
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Spot on Mark, and the proof of the pudding is that you can’t post any criticism from off guardian btl, oh no.
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News has reached us here in Australia that TV coverage of WC T20 is not going to happen. Apparently not in New Zealand either.
This is due to the cost that Indian TV companies want to charge. the other problem is that they are stipulating that it be aired on the no 1 channel of any station that pays for the rights.
Can you imagine channel 9 putting it on their main channel when they don’t always show Aussie international games on the main channel.
I suppose Sky England is rich enough to buy it. Any insights into this?
Shame England have no KP or even Luke Wright in their team.
Keep up your good work Dimitri and Chris.
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Yes, Sky has got the T20 WC and is proudly proclaiming that it will show all 35 games.
But I expect people will just stream it.
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ESPN / Star Sports is about as Indian as Murdoch is… But, then it’s the world cup – an official ICC event. If a broadcaster is going to pay for it, they might as well show it on a channel where most people can see.
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On *that* subject, go to the Guardian website. Enter ‘Andy Flower’ into the search box. Here’s the radical bit; ignore everything post-2012 (which we’ve done to death) and go straight to January-April 2009. This will be around pages 7-8 of the search listings.
I was not on the Guardian cricket blogs at the time, so this was an education for me. Regardless of what transpired over the next two and a half years, the way in which Flower is written about (during a series defeat) is genuinely gob-smacking. Northern Light and some other familiar faces do sterling work BTL: quebecer describes the portrayal of Flower as “semi-mystical”. And that was then….
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Examples, from just one article:
kingofthehill 5 Apr 2009 22:33
If Flower and Strauss aren’t already paying Selv for his relentless prosleytizing of their supposedly blossoming partnership, they should start doing so now.
dothestrand 5 Apr 2009 21:18
Jeez, are the Guardian doing Flower’s PR for him? One pro-Flower article after another without any serious examination of his credentials.
clivejw 5 Apr 2009 13:28
I bought The Observer this morning expecting to read a full match report of the St Lucia game — after all, yesterday’s Guardian only had half the match to report on. Instead of which, we get yet another boring article plugging Andy Flower (fine player and top bloke, but why shouldn’t the ECB recruit a proven match-winning coach rather than a comparative novice with no track record?).
footballisfutile 5 Apr 2009 9:07
Andy Flower = the cute boy that everyone fancies in the Guardian office?
It’s almost as if there’s no neutral journalism about him at GU. If it was a Murdoch paper I’d think Flower was a Murdoch franchise. Why are they constantly writing articles in praise of him?
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But the piece de resistance came after the appointment was confirmed, with the magnificent opening to this article:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/apr/16/andy-flower-england-coach-team-director
“Now the real scrutiny starts”, he also said.
If only…
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I’ve been reading a lot about the end of Duncan Fletcher’s days in old cricket magazines. There were lots of tut tuts over a book. There were lots of mentions of his character flaws. How he was odd. Weird. Too stubborn to change. Amazing how you are portrayed when you treat the print media with utter contempt.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that Flower is an extremely manipulative person, to the extent that people simply don’t realise they’re being played. He probably thinks he knows best and is doing it for good reasons.
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Zeph, spot on. Just look at how he ruptured English cricket. And that is never EVER going away.
People still talk about the Gower Gooch wars in the early 90s, but that was child’s play compared to the last few years.
English cricket will never recover.
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He was part of it, no doubt. But you can’t interview Clarke without Graves. Or Silent Col as we should call him.
As for the rupture. What rupture? We’re just a bunch of “not true supporters” throwing a temper tantrum.
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@LCL
What? Are you saying that Fletcher was not sent on his way with articles like this one?
Still possesses the power to send me into a Colonel Kurtz impression.
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History has shown that Selvey seems unable to write impartialy about his chums. Whether it be Saker, or Clarke, or Cook, or whoever. When it gets too obvious he just doesn’t write about the subject at all. Like the ICC and the governing of the game. Claims there are no issues.
As for Flower, his and Strauss’s take over of the England team when KP and Peter Moores were sacked as captain and coach looks more Machiavelli by the day. And now they are no longer captain, and coach, one is running cricket at the ECB, (still stitching up KP) and the other has a cushy job doing whatever he claims he is doing. Running the Lions is the official title.
One good reason for not financially supporting English cricket these days is knowing you are not paying for their enormous salaries, and expenses. I’ll leave it to Nashville Pam and her like to pay their wages.
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February 1, 2014
“Andy Flower has a great deal to give English cricket,” Clarke said. “I’m very confident he’ll remain with us and I think he has a lot to bring us, particularly in the development of our young players.
“He has huge coaching abilities and is also a great identifier and developer of leadership in young men, and I think that’s something we would all agree is something we need to develop more or and investing more in at Loughborough and in the counties as time goes on. ”
Clarke, speaking at England’s team base at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne the morning after England’s T20 defeat in Melbourne subjected them to lost series in all three formats, remained effusive in his praise for the benefits Flower had brought to English cricket.
He hailed him as “a man of enormous integrity” and asserted that he was “the most successful coach in England’s history.”
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/714937.html
Clarke, the great judge of integrity.
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and some more words of wisdom:
“Clarke was also steadfast in his belief that Alastair Cook will be lead England out at Lord’s as England captain, talking up the imminent future as “Cook’s era”.
As expected, the 5-0 Ashes whitewash was dismissed as a factor for Flower’s stepping aside. It is a surprise, not least because of the manner of the defeats and the visible weariness of players who, it has been argued, had been pushed too hard, too much.
Instead, Clarke recalled the comments made by Dennis Amiss, the former England opening batsman and vice chairman of the ECB, after he and Hugh Morris had interviewed Flower for the role.
“Dennis reminded me that Andy said he reckoned it was a five year job,” Clarke said. “And he’s been proved absolutely right.”
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It’s My Mate’s T20 Team Part II: The Rookie at the Guardian.
Don’t all rush over at once.
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“The hate that abounds in the game is extraordinary. The ECB and Kevin Pietersen fight has split English cricket in half. The lack of respect is startling. Trust is built over time, but respect should be a natural common denominator for acceptable harmony, or both parties are in the wrong game – which they clearly are today. …
This story is among the most controversial of all the sagas England cricket has endured over its history. The recurring nightmare has set back the natural evolution of their game; it will take more time than one might think to restore.
It has led to the ECB taking its eye off its sole purpose: to present an important pastime during the summer months that can lift the spirit of a nation and take their minds off the everyday struggle. In the last few years the board has forgotten its role of patriotism. The ECB aren’t representing their patriotic fans anymore, just their self-serving egos, to match that of Pietersen.”
Martin Crowe – RIP
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/875999.html
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RIP Martin Crowe
Far too young to go.
One of the best batsmen ever
NZ has lost 2 of its greatest & recent sporting icons unreasonably young within the past few months, with Lomu leaving us too.
Very sad.
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I’m in NZ at present and there is genuine nationwide sadness at his passing – he mellowed into a very rounded man post retirement and his writing on Cricinfo was superb.
As a batsman he was totally top rank – Wasim Akram rated him the best batsman he bowled to and his straight driving in the ‘V’ was superlative. His ton at Lords in 1994 on one leg was an incredible knock. He’ll be much missed. Era i roto i te rangimarie.
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Hear-hear, met him once when he was coaching the Italian cricket team, lovely memories. RIP
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palfreyman, BTL at the Guardian states:
“Death of a Gentleman” (to which the Graun is, as far as I know, entirely sympathetic)
I just typed out a response, but it will probably trigger that “duty of care”. So here it is instead:
With one very obvious exception, i.e. the one who appeared on CWOTV in the week of release, confessed he hadn’t seen it even though it was a subject for discussion on the programme, still hadn’t seen it by December, stated last summer on TMS he knew little of ICC politics but believed there was “an agenda” against Srinivasan, appears to agree with Clarke on everything apart from the ten-team World Cup, couldn’t even get as worked up about Stanford as his then-colleagues, and on the specific issue at hand has displayed no evidence of changing his thinking since this:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/jan/26/india-icc-proposal-ecb-cricket-australia
Anyone who thinks he is more sympathetic to DOAG than to the special guest of the select committee meeting is just being obtuse.
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I’m genuinely astounded that anyone take the man seriously any more when it comes to matters pertaining to cricket.
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takes*
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From that Selvey article:
“It was not regarded as an idle threat: Indian cricket is capable of existing nicely on bilateral agreements”.
I’d like to be a fly on the wall when an Indian administrator tells Virat Kohli that India aren’t playing any more in World Cups.
“It is believed this programme will see India play each of the other top eight ranked countries, including, significantly, Pakistan, home and away (or in neutral territory), as well as Zimbabwe and Bangladesh away. Getting the BCCI to agree to this when it has been steadfast in its refusal to commit to an FTP represents a considerable diplomatic achievement”.
So, how’s that “considerable diplomatic achievement looking now”? Wait, he has to tell us more about his mate’s T20 team first.
Only a complete idiot – or worse – could ever have believed any of this.
I’m not even sure that he disagrees about the ten-team WC anymore – all that stuff in the first Renegades’ piece about growing the game through T20 seemed to be moving in the opposite direction.
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“It was not regarded as an idle threat: Indian cricket is capable of existing nicely on bilateral agreements”.
That in a nut sell is the group think that has taken over world cricket. We must go along with it or they will take their bat and ball home. What does that say about the confidence of world cricket that they are so scared of one country?
As Simon points out do you really think India, and its best players would have liked playing no international cricket? Do you think the Indian fans would have enjoyed playing in no WC? Instead the Selveys and Clarkes of this world fan up the White flag. He would be a lousy poker player. If he had four aces he would immediately fold. Saying
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Who said this, June 2008:
“He [Stanford] is a legendary entrepreneur and he has the entrepreneur’s ability to spot an opportunity and seize it and take it forward.”
Who said this, April 2008:
“the honest admission from Stanford that he is investing in cricket for the long haul and that he is not a wealthy philanthropist in search of a new toy and an ego trip but a businessman, an entrepreneur who wants a proper return which might one day come from his native country… A real legacy could be created. It may lack the business attraction of a gladiatorial contest but I bet there is bit of the philanthropist in him.”
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/apr/24/indianpremierleague.twenty20domestic
The second paragraph of that link is really quite something. One particular word especially.
And so are some of the comments.
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I was wondering, given added emphasis on ODI cricket if Jos might get one.
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But, SimonH, you might even prefer this quite astounding piece from a couple of months later. I got to the paragraph about Atherton and Fraser and thought it could not *possibly* get worse.
It does.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/jun/13/englandcricketteam.cricket
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Interesting stuff Arron – I was still buying the print edition of the Guardian in those days so I missed much of this first time around. “Selvey/Bull used to be good until their sudden, recent, mysterious decline…..”. Hmm.
Bull is industrial-strength emperor’s new clothes for me (to mix my metaphors). That breathless, gushing style he likes to concoct conceals the lack of any proper analysis underneath. The BTL comment about those who judge business enterprises by the quality of their toilets nails how superficial his writing is.
As for Selvey, “Your attitude is an embarrassment to your predecessors and your newspaper and an insult to your readers” pretty much summed it up in 2008 and pretty much continues to sum it up in 2016.
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I’ve just re-discovered a good line that I feel should be inserted into every comment below a Selvey article from now until the end of time.
“Mike Selvey used to be a medium to fast medium bowler who played three Tests. But his real calling appears to be spin.”
Its author will no doubt recognise it 😉
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Thought I might have a stab at who the Wisden Cricketers of the year might be.
Steve Smith, Brendon McCullum, Ben Stokes, Andrew Gale, Jack Brooks
Any thoughts?
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Thought Kane Williamson might be.
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Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Mike Selvey, Giles Clarke and Ali Cook.
Nailed on.
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Yes he might get in ahead of perhaps one of my Yorkshire selections.
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@LCL
I can’t see the whole of the Cook article you’ve posted to Twitter. But would I be right in saying he’s excited about that personal milestone of 10,000 runs?
There was an interview with him a couple of years ago, in which he was still able to reel off all his school records. He sounded like Cliff Richard, who is still obsessed with all of his singles chart positions. On the basis of what I’ve seen and heard over the last few years, anyone who thinks he’s somehow less concerned with personal milestones and his own feelings than team success is talking out of their backside. Mind you, if you can argue that the ECB got into bed with Stanford out of “altruism” (see yesterday’s links), you can probably prove that black is white, so Cook being the ultimate selfless team man isn’t that much of a stretch.
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I’ve not read the article as yet. I have that fun awaiting me. On a rapid skim he does mention 10k, he refused to countenance quitting after Sri Lanka but “thought about it” after the Lord’s defeat against India.
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Part of the problems with this is that there are so many in the media going on about 10k, which they were certainly doing at the back end if the SA series. It is they who beef him up beyond his actual capabilities, most certainly as a captain and to a certain extent as a batsman. They nigh on erase from existence his rather poor performances against high class quick bowling. They also won’t point out that Cook has now played only a few fewer tests than Alec Stewart, who was of cousre a wicket-keeper for a significant amount of time. Stewart was a far superior play of quick bowling to Cook though an inferior player of spin. That said, Stewart played far better spinners than Cook has had to face as the latter faced Warne and Murali right at the end of their careers for a handful of games
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Cliff Richard has nothing on this bloke. You should read his Wikipedia page. It’s a work of art. Here’s a taste…
“During his summer holidays, he would play cricket for nearby Maldon Cricket Club, and by the age of 11 he was already playing for their adult side on the Third XI. He played sporadically for them over seven years, with an average of 168 in his final year at a club of which he is now an honorary life member.”
And his time at Bedford school….
“Over the next four years, he hit 17 centuries and two double-hundreds, to total 4,396 runs at an average of 87.90, captaining the cricket team in his final year……as well as being president of the music society. He also gained three A-Levels and nine GCSEs in his time there.In his final year at Bedford, in 2003, he scored 1,287 runs for the school, including two unbeaten double-hundreds, averaging 160.87 to take the school record.”
…….and on, and on, and on, and on, and on it goes. The idea this man is a team player is horse shit.
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Just to re-iterate, my argument is not that he *isn’t* a team man, just that he patently isn’t the holy paragon of selfless virtue he is so often made out to be.
It isn’t that Britain hates winners. It’s that some of us still really don’t like prigs – and that goes for his devoted myth-makers more than it does Cook himself.
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He also lists his numerous nicknames….
“Captain Cook, Cookie, Cookie Monster, Chef, The English Bradman”
I kid you not!
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He also lists his Bowling style…..which is both ….”Right-arm slow, and Right-arm medium.”
Who knew? I wonder if The Anaylist wrote this?
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http://www.skysports.com/cricket/ICC-World-T20/features/27118/10189936/stuart-broad-and-james-anderson-join-sky-sports-icc-world-twenty20-team
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So no conflict of interest there then.
Why does Sky think the only people who can comment on cricket are ex or current players? Their best jounalist and presenter is Charles Coalvile (a non ex player) and they are clueless how to use him probably.
Sky has become a cushy old peoples home for ex players to grift a living. Who gives a shit what Stuart (party line) Broad has to say? And can Jimmy Anderson manage to get through a whole show without calling someone a f***** c***? It shows no imagination at all. I’m surprised they haven’t signed up Cook.
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Ah, so that’s the point of David Miller.
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Lordy, Mark Waugh is a terrible commentator. In one T20 he managed to cram in:
1) Repeatedly calling Australia “we”.
2) Dismissing the whole rankings’ system because Australia are ranked seventh “which can’t be right” (there are plenty of reasons to dismiss rankings but that isn’t one of them. Australia’s five consecutive T20 defeats passed unremarked of course).
3) One “I haven’t seen a whole lot [i.e. any] of Chris Morris”.
4) Going on about how Australia didn’t need Matthew Wade’s batting because he’d come in at No.7 and wouldn’t be needed in T20 because Australia’s top order was so strong. Peter Nevill came in with 8.3 overs of Australia’s innings remaining and promptly failed.
5) When the first T20 WC matches next week were mentioned, immediately banging on about how it’s the week after when the tournament “really” starts.
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