England vs Pakistan: 1st Test Preview (of sorts)

thelegglance26 Comments

A fundamental difference between the world of the blogger and the world of the journalist is that real life intrudes on our witterings. There are other differences of course, not least that some of the latter have little but contempt for those who dare to write on the game (and it needs to be said that others still find the blogs of interest), but that is probably the principal one.  What it means is that we have jobs and cricket is a side interest.  That side interest both waxes and wanes depending on circumstance, but even when at its zenith it doesn’t mean that cricket – or any other interest – is in the position to take priority.

So it is that in my own case I have been unable to watch more than a few overs in the last month.  It might have been a little bit more were it not for the truly impressive incompetence Southern Rail bring to proceedings, but even if they were capable of such unusual abilities as running a train service, it wouldn’t have been much.  As some know, I was a month in Asia, travelling around Laos, Thailand and Indonesia (minor plug for the blogging results of that – go to http://www.thoughtsonatrip.com), which as work goes is hardly being condemned to working down a pit, but it was work nonetheless.  Returning from there it was a week away working, and after that an actual real life holiday for a week in Turkey.  This week is the first time I’ve had more than two days at home since early May, all of which is a roundabout way of saying two things; first an apology for silence and second to note that I don’t have a clue what’s being going on.

The Sri Lanka series was comfortably won, even the wider points based version that precisely no one gives a stuff about, but my own experience of it consisted of reading the odd newspaper report and Sean’s excellent precis of the action on here.  That means that for this series the pretence to hold is that the approach is one of a fresh mind, open to all possibilities, and the editor’s decision is final on that one.

Having said that, I am also at Lords tomorrow, so anyone who wants to say hello get in touch.  It makes for a curious feeling, one of trying to re-engage – not with the England team, that still seems some distance away which is a saddening truth, but with the game of cricket itself.  For everyone here and beyond does hold that in common, a love for the game and its vagaries and sub-plots.  The presence of Pakistan adds to that, for it has been six years since they were last here, on a tour that will go down in cricketing infamy.  The relationship between England and Pakistan has been anything but smooth over the years but that particular tour was the one that caused considerable damage to the game itself rather than to assorted egos.

Such discord seems rather less likely this time around, barring the odd bout of booing for Mohammad Amir.  As an aside, I will not be joining in any of that, my own view is that once punishment has been served, that is the end of it.  Whether that punishment was appropriate is another matter, and I am as unlikely to cheer him as I would have been to cheer Dwayne Chambers, but that isn’t the same thing as actively expressing displeasure at his presence.  Either way, and assuming nothing untoward happens, it will dissipate both across the day and the series.  The history does not require constant reminders to always be there.

Pakistan cricket has recovered its reputation in the intervening years in large part, and much of the credit for that must go to the captain, Misbah ul Haq a man who receives very little of the credit due to him in his own country, and rather more outside it.  Misbah’s career as a batsman has been impressive enough given his late blooming as a cricketer – one which gives entirely unmerited hope to all forty somethings everywhere – but his leadership of his nation has been a thing of wonder.  Above all else, he has given Pakistan cricket its dignity back, no small achievement considering their continued exile from home internationals.

Misbah himself hasn’t played Tests in England before, something of an irony given a batting line up that is anything but youthful, and despite strong Test records there has to be a question over how it will perform in English conditions.  It is perhaps to the advantage of Pakistan that the first Test is at Lords, where chairman’s pitches have been more frequent than not over recent years.  In any event, while there may be question marks over the batting, the visitors do possess a potent pace attack, and one that will cause England far more difficulty than that of the of the Sri Lankans.

England’s batting is anything but settled, the departure of Nick Compton, the promotion of a Joe Root who hasn’t had the best of summers to date, return of Gary Ballance who hasn’t looked fully at home against pace in his Test career to date, Vince is just starting out and with that Pakistani attack, it is a Test that for the first time this year has a degree of uncertainty about the outcome.  Pakistan are a dangerous side with the ball, and despite potential fallibility in English conditions do at least have a top and middle order of known competence.

This is an intriguing match up, neither side have all options covered, both have significant and obvious weaknesses, both have equally obvious strengths.  As with many sports, the period before it begins is in some ways the best time, with all possibilities open.  May the cricket be the focus, and may it be a proper tussle.  And after tomorrow, I may even know what’s going on.

 

A is for Animosity, M is for Malign, I is for Indignant, R is for Retribution

LordCanisLupus21 Comments

There are some occasions when it really pains me to be a blogger. I don’t have to write this blog; I don’t really need to do this, and by blogging’s very nature, the whole thing is self-indulgent. But sometimes you have to write about something you really don’t want to because it is almost expected of you. The subject is so overwhelming, so front and centre, that to ignore it would be a dereliction of my duty to you. It’s almost required to say something when so much of what is out there is so annoying. That subject, if you cannot guess, is Mohammad Amir.

I’m fed up with people getting on high horses. Taking the moral high ground is surrounded by slippery slopes. It’s about trusting the people who made grievous errors to right the wrongs. Yet when it comes to British sport, it’s easier to forgive and forget our mis-steps than it is those of a team we have had an interesting relationship with over the years. It’s easier to be righteously indignant over the crimes of a young kid, than it is a major legend. I have to say, Mohammad Amir is walking into a storm, and I don’t know how he will cope.

Let me give you an example. Don’t misquote me by saying I’m comparing two incidents as moral equivalents. I’m not. It’s about how we reacted to them.

In 2006 Christine Ohuruogo was banned for one year for missing three out of competition drug tests. These tests were introduced in an attempt to catch those who were doping outside of the main events where tests were routine, but where anyone with any sense would not get caught. Anyone who has read any of the Lance Armstrong books will know how doping went on, and these tests hardly stopped him, but they were part of the anti-doping regime. It is part of an athlete’s job to give location notification, it is a part of a campaign to stop cheating, and anyone falling foul of it would and should be punished.

Ohuruogo took her punishment (on the face of it, quite lenient at one year), came back and won world and Olympic medals. She was magnificent in her return to the sport. You heard barely a murmur about her offence, except when a number of the British commentariat were making excuses for her. Whether unwittingly or not, and we’ll never truly know, Christine had not abided by the rules, and she had to be punished. It was a clear, plain transgression of the laws. For to believe her excuses, to allow her to miss three tests without punishment, would be to undermine the fight against doping in sport. But she was forgiven, and she moved on, as did we as we cheered when she won gold in Beijing.

Now, I hear you say, that this isn’t remotely comparable to an 18 year old, possibly under duress, from spot fixing and profiting out of a sport by fixing a specific, if small, outcome. What do you think dopers do? Why do you think that there are rules in place? Those people who win medals and the prize money and sponsorship gains that they achieve on the back of doping are every bit as much cheating the sport as the spot fixers and match fixers in cricket. So if you can forgive people for doping offences, for skipping tests, then why does Amir warrant such abuse for two no balls, in among a spell when he was otherwise lethal and dismissing England batsmen?

There are a number of pieces on whether Amir should be playing in this test series. The fact is that he got caught, went to prison and then served a five year ban. His freakish talent should not be an issue AT ALL in this. The case should have been judged on the facts, the mitigations and reasons should be taken into account, and then the verdict be respected and honoured. You may be of the view that such offence should be punishable by a total ban – that is your opinion and you are entitled to it – but you aren’t the judge and jury on this. Neither am I. We can hold opinions. If you do not like the verdict of the decision making panel, you have a number of options – one of which is to withhold your ticket money and your Sky subscription for matches you may have attended, or may want to watch. After all, money is all in sport these days. However, what is perturbing me is the option being espoused pretty openly by ex and current players. You should show your contempt in the flesh, by booing him. (on re-checking the main individual’s quote, I might have over-reached on the booing him bit. He said he would get abuse….but I got spun that he was advocating. That said, there are plenty thinking abuse would come, and not a lot telling us we shouldn’t).

You see, when people like me pointed out that Ohuruogo may have got off a bit lightly and that if she were a Russia athlete you’d probably be spitting tacks if she’d denied one of ours a gold medal, I was told that there were mitigating factors, and that she had served her ban and been punished. You certainly wouldn’t have advocated me switching off the TV, booing her on any UK appearance, or going into the papers saying her gold medal was tainted. But because Amir has done something so heinous (a couple of no-balls in a match where he took five wickets and undressed some of our top batsmen’s technique, don’t forget), so much a betrayal of the cricketing firmament that he is beyond the pale, and paid heavily for it, I’m supposed to get outraged. Abuse him. I’ve seen it said that Pakistan should never have picked him again – if that was said about a certain individual I’ll come to later, I might have missed it. Because I don’t recall it.

You can have the right to not approve. Of course you can. But you don’t make the rules. I’m perfectly comfortable with Amir playing. He knows another transgression and he’s gone. He has paid the debt determined by a panel of his peers, and served the time of the courts of this land and the international suspension, and, importantly, cleared to return. Anything else over and above that, seems to me, slightly vindictive. Which brings me to KP’s contention that all match fixers and drug takers should be banned for life.

Such clickbait should be ignored because its clearly not been thought through. Sport is not special. Sport is a business like any other. People who mess up, break the law etc get punished but come back to work in their areas of specialism because as a people we should be forgiving and accepting of those that have paid their debt to society, and also, it benefits us if they come back productively and aren’t a burden to society.

Under KP’s edict, it is doubtful at which point he would have wished Shane Warne’s international career ended – after the weather reports to John, or whoever it was, in India, or after his capture for taking a banned diuretic which just happened to be one of the prominent masking agents for steroids out there. Long-term readers of mine know precisely what I think of Australia’s hilarious hypocrisy over Warne (a one year ban? Really?) but KP thinks he should have been done? Or does he believe in mitigating circumstances? I’m not sure. I’ve never heard him get angry about Shane’s drug mistakes.

Those hardliners, the pious ones, who think nothing of not walking when they nick it, appealing for something when they know it isn’t out, who would take every advantage they could in an effort to win a game, even if it was fuzzy in its legality, are pontificating and telling me I should boo Amir on Saturday, when I go to Lord’s? Really? Is this the same pious crowd who bemoan the terrible abuse Alastair Cook gets? That dutiful men who served England well get? No, I’m not comparing apples with oranges. As far as the cricket establishment goes, Amir has every right to play cricket. You might not agree, but you shouldn’t be cajoled into fighting someone else’s battles.

Cricket has a gambling problem, and it is from a gambling sting that Amir got caught. So do many sports have a difficult relationship with betting. They welcome the money that the sponsorship of betting companies might bring, with the synergies between Sky Sports and Sky Bet particularly interesting to me, while not thinking of the somewhat mixed messages that might entail. You can bet on almost anything. Part of me thought the Super Series was only introduced to give another thing you could bet on. You had Graeme Swann a couple of years ago appearing in an ad which was for a betting company that said it was “by players, for players”, which was about as dense as it could get for tone deafness. The ODI and T20 circuses exist for betting, context meaning naff all, betting revenue and TV participation being the be all and end all. Yet that linkage is never explored, instead someone who bowled a couple of no balls in a test match is the lightning conductor for the rage. I’m a little mystified. We have a sport that openly admits that it rigs international draws so that England play Australia and India play Pakistan. We have a sport that doctors pitches.

I watch sports around the world, and they are adjusted to suit the TV and entertainment needs more than the need for a sporting contest. Take the recent NBA Finals. The TV networks, the NBA, hell, everyone wanted a Cavaliers v Warriors final. In the semi-finals, the Warriors were trailing to the Thunder, and one of their key players committed a foul that should have had him banned for the next game. They didn’t. Although not a factor, that player was part of the Warriors team that came from 3-1 down in the best of 7 series to win. In the Finals, with the series at 3-1, a much more minor indiscretion by the same player got him banned for the 5th game, and the other team got it back to 3-2, won at home to make it 3-3 and the NBA had 7 Finals games to show to the USA and the world. One could make a pretty good case that it was a very convenient outcome. You don’t think it possible, just read about NBA Western Conference Final, Game 6, 2002. Hell there’s a book about the way the sport was “manipulated”. So a couple of no balls and we are getting all prissy here?

On a cricket level I would love to see Amir bowl on my day at the test. On a moral level, I’m a little queasy, but not all that, because I’ve seen a punishment. I think going to jail and being banned for 30% of his career is quite a tough punishment. Sport is full of questionable characters, governing bodies rigging, so spare me the moral piety of sanctity of the game, when players cheat to gain any advantage they can. And I’ve managed to spin over a thousand words out on a subject I never wanted to talk about.

Plus ca change.

The Silence Of The Damned

LordCanisLupus19 Comments
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England v Pakistan – 2006

We are three days away from the resumption of #propercricket. The test match series against Pakistan gets the Second Super Series underway, and like many first tests of a series, and in particular the late summer one, there is intrigue piled upon intrigue. There will be more previews as the week unfolds, and we’ll even have boots on the ground as Chris (remember him?) will be there on Thursday and I will be there on Saturday. The weather had better hold!

While we might write some stuff, others have had their say.  As previews go, The Cricket Paper needs to take a hard look at itself (Hayter’s article is headed “Cheating Amir will be judged in House of Lord’s”) – Stocks mentions Amir in the first article, a total focus on Amir. Hayter follows it up with another load of self-righteous guff on Amir, Pringle’s article starts with the headline “Pakistan cheats? Maybe…., Stocks mentions Amir’s sins again on page 24 and Martin Johnson has another tribute piece, taking us back to 1987 and Hasib Ahsan. There’s precious little mention of a recent series, more raking over the coals of the past.

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But it’s to more mundane matters I wish to turn in this piece. I know many of you will remember my piece “Schism” in which I bemoaned the state of our support and the way there were now two factions which seemed worlds apart and would remain so in perpetuity? Or at least for the long term? The reasons for that split, and why I was so angry at those that failed to see the other side’s point of view.

The blogging world, for me, was always going to calm down once the Kevin Pietersen business was finally put to bed. By not playing in the 2016 World T20, that was it. It was probably “it” before, but now there is utterly no logic in selecting KP, and given he’s turned into a golf club and safari Instagram junkie since then, that fight is over. There is no sense in raging at his non-selection any more to get him back into the team. Indeed, there is now no sense in raging at much. This is, very much, what defeat feels like. We were taking on some pretty resilient forces, but they had the membership with them, and the levers of power. I’m drawing no further parallels 🙂

The fact is, that defeated foes are rarely the most amenable, and are prone to different kinds of reaction – flight or fight being the two main ones. The other fact is that the winners are rarely magnanimous, because in their eyes, they were right all along, and it’s time to put the mouthy lot in place. What was actually “right” is just a passing fancy – almost cricket’s equivalent of “post-truth” politics. I look on those that sided with the authorities, for that was, in large type, what you did when you approved summary dismissal without the evidence laid out, with barely concealed contempt. When they next want someone to fight a cause they’re interested in when it comes to cricket, don’t come looking to me for support. We’ll do it our own way. Well. I’ll do it my own way because unlike many others, I don’t claim to speak for anyone other than myself. Like one of our BTL Guardian stooges saying today on a politics thread that

Quite why the Graun gives editorial space to Matty is something I’ve never understood. He’s a Tory apologist and ex Torygraph writer etc. I presume someone, somewhere thinks it’s worthwhile to give us the viewpoint from the otherside of the spectrum, something we are capable of getting by simply going to the Torygraph website. At any rate his views do not represent those of the Guardian.

I don’t want to touch the political angle of the debate here, but that “his views do not represent those of the Guardian” is typical of the genre. It’s almost “no platforming” dissent. “There is a worldview, and if you have the opposite, I want nothing to do with them. I just need my own views reaffirmed by comfy fellow travellers.” He’s not alone in acting like that, and while the likes of him and others lord it over any dissenters because they were on the side of those that held the power as if they were some geniuses for being such, we have no chance of bridging the gap. I highlighted Tweets by those dissenting to poke fun at them, to attack the logical inadequacies in them, and yet, if I feel I’m wrong, I’m never short to say so. If you can’t admit error, then  you are a fool.

There are many for which cricket is just a sport, and they say we should be happy just to watch a successful England team and enjoy them (George Dobell has become the patron saint of that argument) because the issues aren’t their fault. I have an appreciation for that position. England can be decent to watch. A number find solace in ODI and T20 for one massive reason, which we’ll go into later. But it’s not that easy for me. I don’t like not being 100% behind them, but I can’t find it in myself to be so.

But if you are made of different stuff, fine. As long as you don’t demean those that seek to get to the bottom of some pretty sordid old nonsense that was going on at the time. Sordid? Try some of the press and their all so cosy relations with the ECB suits. Try appointing a man to Managing Director that was so out of his depth, we were setting up RNLI fund-raisers to get him out. Try the omerta where nothing could be said, except ECB leaks. Try Giles Clarke stitching himself up an international job. Try the new ECB chief making a Horlicks as soon as he started over whether KP could play or not. Try the appointment of Peter Moores as coach, and the post-dismissal justifications so that the decision isn’t cast as an ignorant disaster. Try appointing someone who called the polarising figure of his generation a “c—“ on air and then try to give off his end decision as something even-handed. Try the dodgy dossier. If those of my “enemies”, and they know who they are, think we were in the wrong on that, then let me know how you think that conduct was acceptable. Don’t wash your hands of it. Don’t say there’s no point. That’s a cop out.

It’s not as if we are working hard to find these issues. They were presented to us, and more besides. The game in this country is in a parlous state IF international cricket dies on its arse. The workload on the top players has to increase to be able to pay for the luxurious county championship structure, and the down years when India and Australia don’t come here. They want to shorten test cricket to fit more games in, not manage workloads. They want more T20 because it is context-less fluff that you enjoy at the time, and forget in the morning. And it fills grounds, despite you hardly remembering what happened. Especially at Oval T20 matches.

Cricket, as a sport to blog about, provides me with many things to comment upon, but I find myself in the same position, without, perhaps, the same mental anguish as the last two years. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m still angry. But I don’t care as much. Fellow fans went their way, and I’ve gone mine. They can bury themselves in their county cricket snobbery, putting their noses up in the air at us “philistines”, but get remarkably prissy when we dare disagree with them over the international scene. Some may believe, by my relative silence, that peace is in the air. That the fans are becoming united behind one England team in all its formats. That there is no need to argue any more. Because what’s the point?

Sorry. Not built that way. The beatification, both by media and many fans, of Alastair Cook wasn’t a celebration of his achievements to make us happy, it was also a justification of his modus operandi. Thus it was used to beat the KPistas, the ECB rebels, the anti-establishment hooligans. The anti-KP, not flashy, not gauche has got his 10k runs by being the model establishment player – nice (in media terms), hard-working, stubborn, and a leader of men who brought his new charges with him. Your boy is playing T20, hanging out with celebs and causing trouble. “Learn your bloody place”. I spoke to someone who used to be a commenter on here, but is off on other causes at the moment and she said to me “Just cannot bear to watch it with Captain Fantastic in charge”. They are not the only ones. Are cricket fans not in the least concerned by such collateral damage?

The tactic by Strauss and Harrison last spring was easy to see. Hold on for as long as they could, and the anger would subside. Some good wins would help, and they got them. England’s cricket is in decent shape, but in all our hearts we must sense that this is down to the regression of others over the advance of our own. Or do we? Many is the call to end the division and get behind the lads. Some will say they are really nice guys, that they have engaged more with the public, tried to get rid of the arrogance. It’s about the head, I’m afraid, people. Because this is Cook’s team. I don’t think the schism has a chance to end until he’s not here. Much of this is not down to him – it’s his media, it is what he represents in the eyes of a number of us. And some of it is. He’s not 20 years old now, he’s in his 30s. He is one really truly awful run away from having his eyesight or desire questioned. He has an awful penchant of rubbing people up the wrong way who ain’t all in on the cult the media seems to be in thrall to.

So, for now, things are quiet. There is a relative calm. England’s cricketers wouldn’t, and shouldn’t, give a stuff about matters. The ECB hold our sort in contempt at the best of times. Our fellow fans felt no shame in questioning our motives, our desires, our love of the sport, polarising it behind “KP fanboys”. Our media tried, in part, to understand, but really didn’t give a toss, thinking we all want to be journalists and take their jobs, when what we wanted was for our views, held by quite a few, to be fairly represented and the authorities held to account. Summers like these don’t lend themselves to cricket fandom pyrotechnics. There’s enough outside cricket, ha ha, to get on about. But make no mistake, the schism has by no means healed, the malcontents are just not bothered about shouting as much any more, and the cosy little consensus will be maintained for as long as disaster doesn’t befall the England cricket team.

It’s the Silence of the Damned.

Unconsciously Decoupling

LordCanisLupus45 Comments

Title inspired by Gwyneth and Chris…..

So that was the first leg of the “summer”. England pretty much wiped the floor with an over-matched Sri Lanka side, bereft of established star talent, incapable of mastering early “summer” English conditions. England did what they had to do. They took advantage of their home superiority in two comfortable wins in the Northern heartlands, while being on top in the London match-up only for the opportunity of a whitewash to be denied by rain. England won the ODI series 3-0 with one tie and one no result, and comfortably won last night’s T20 international. The Super Series, in its inaugural incarnation ended, let me work it out now, 10-2, plus 8-2, plus 2-0 – so 20-4 – and that was that.

And I’ve never been less interested.

Take last night. I went supermarket shopping after work, and forgot to take my phone with me. I completely forgot the game was on, so never kept up with what was happening. At 11pm I noticed the highlights were on Sky, so sat down to watch them, not knowing the score. When it became evident that Sri Lanka were not going to post 200, and the wicket was as flat as anything, I decided going to sleep was a better option and looked up the score. I’ll commit the highlights to disc, stick them on my laptop hard-drive and likely never watch it. Another T20 with context, another international fixture, eroding away the special nature of the international (i.e. top level) game in an orgy of money accumulation and TV schedule filling. Pile ‘em high.

There are many on these pages that decry the fact that we play Australia and India too much, and not enough attention is given to the so-called “smaller nations”. And you’d be right. But series like these arm the holsters of the powers that be and the TV masters, rather than us. Sri Lanka were, for vast swathes of this series, outclassed. England won the test series without major contributions from their three and their five, and with Joe Root, Alex Hales (although he had a good series) and the Captain failing to make a hundred. Jonny Bairstow had a terrific series with the bat, and so my commenters tell me, a less than terrific series with the gloves. Moeen Ali made a hundred, but will always be a source of contention as to his place in the team. The bowling was sound, brilliant at times, but we know that in home conditions. England don’t look, by any means, the complete article in the way their 2011 team, or even, Bell’s travails aside, the 2005 one. We still get to 50 for 3 too often. We still need the lower middle order to save our bacon too often.

With the problems with Compton, the stuttering starts, the bedding in of the unconvincing Vince, we still gave the Sri Lankans a hell of a beating. This points to a worrying lack of strength in the opposition and not necessarily our over-riding power. The gold standard for a world class, all-time great team in the modern era is Australia of the late 90s, early 2000s. It carried no passengers. It had people queuing up to replace them. It won with authority and power – huge batting totals, scored quickly, and aggressive bowling with brilliant spin. Go back to the 1980s and the West Indies. Their bowling had depth, with great fast bowlers playing very few tests. Depth in the batting was much more of an issue.

England 2016 has some really solid pieces, but it lacks key cornerstones of success which intimate that it isn’t up there yet. What may be more concerning is that in the 2005-2011 eras there were players constantly coming in to test cricket and being ready for it. Nick Compton is probably a really good indicator of where we are. He wouldn’t have sniffed test cricket in 2005. Nor, probably, in 2011. But in 2012 onwards, after the retirement of Strauss, he was the next opener on the rank. We’ve followed with a number of players that exuded promise, but weren’t consistent enough. Alex Hales has had seven tests and while he is promising a lot, he isn’t cemented in there. If the Pakistani opening bowlers are on the form they were in 2010 then he’s in for a really tough time. Remember how Strauss started his test career? KP? Ian Bell (a very good 70 on his debut)? Matt Prior? Alastair Cook? They came in as if they were ready. James Vince has come in, against gentle opposition, and not produced. Sure, we must give him a run, but those that start badly have a high correlation with those that finish like it.

From my own personal perspective, and by extension the blog, this has been a trying summer. Blogs run on enthusiasm and energy. Producing piece after piece takes effort, will and a desire to opine. I try to not repeat myself over and over again, but know that I fail! It is also true that the blog runs when there is an engine being driven, and to do that you need fuel. The ECB, England and the media have done much to deprive us of fuel. It’s true to say that I really don’t have the energy or will to write more at the moment. Non-competitive cricket, where it’s obvious that nations like Sri Lanka are in serious trouble, do that to me. This isn’t the Murali Sri Lanka we are beating. This isn’t the 2014 Sri Lanka we are beating (we couldn’t do that), it is a weak side, regularly turned over on the road. They may have some talent to build upon, but it is a way away. Coming to our shores next is Pakistan, another set of notoriously poor travellers (away from UAE), and we hope that there is more of a contest. Mohammed Amir on 2010 form, minus the obvious, will be a treat to watch. Lost in that spot-fixing horror was the fact he bowled an amazing spell at Lord’s, undressing fine players’ techniques, and it will be interesting to see if he still has it.

 

(Note here – I can’t stop you discussing the merits of whether he should be playing or not, but I find the debate tedious. He’s served the designated time, paid off his debt to cricket as opined at an international level, and the rest is conjecture. It won’t stop people, of course. It never does.)

The title of this piece is directed towards my feelings about cricket. I feel less engaged, less connected than ever before. A dull series, uncompetitive, unsurprisingly so, played out to a context of self-congratulation and wonderment by our media, while all around the distress signals are being let off has that effect. I’ve been the Jeremiah too long. I can’t care until the problems the international game has now are really, truly resolved. Top players are burned out in no time, and for that the test game is weaker. Lip service can be paid when only T20 can bring the massive bucks, and even that isn’t guaranteed. The issues surrounding my anger for the last two years have not gone away, and nor are they likely to. Potentially England will play 27 international matches next year. Potentially 55 days of international cricket. It’s madness. You don’t make top quality cricket better by playing more and more of it. But that’s what we are doing. Day night ODIs in late September, a test series starting in late August, giving players little rest but lots of match fees. It’s mad. They complain of lack of context, then pile on added games. The one thing this series proved is that dead rubbers remain dead rubbers despite the Super Series.

I used to go to every Millwall game. You could not have found many more diehard fans. I even went to dead Anglo-Italian matches (we never qualified for the Italy bit). Then I started missing the odd away game in midweek or a long distance away. Then it would be nearer and nearer.  Then I missed West Ham away because I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle. Then I stopped altogether. I then started missing the odd home game. Then more than the odd one. I finally decided to stop going altogether. Two years after that we got to the FA Cup Semi-Final. You couldn’t have paid me to be there. I still love the team. They’re still my club. I love what, ironically Neil Harris (our manager) has done this season, and yet I still feel no compulsion to return. I unconsciously decoupled from attending football matches. Maybe that’s what happening with cricket. Because if you don’t care, you stop having a reason to persevere. It means I don’t read FICJAM, don’t get irate with Newman, can’t be bothered with TCP and the Get Out A Compton band, and don’t feel the need to watch the games. Which isn’t a recipe for longevity.

Pakistan. We need you. Big time. Let’s show the world test cricket has a future. Be great opponents.

Super Series Conclusion – T20

LordCanisLupus10 Comments

I’m getting this one in early. The T20 international at the Ageas Bowl of Roses is being played on Tuesday and really, I don’t give a monkeys. If this is a desperate search for context with a Super Series ended at more or less the earliest possible time given the weather, and an international calendar so crowded we are already talking about giving our Australian Head Coach a month off, then you’ve lost me. A T20 match added to the programme in a way a blind kid pins a tail on a donkey at an old birthday party. This is cricket for money’s sake. A match that speaks “no context”.

I saw someone on Twitter say “I usually say to anyone who complains about the schedule, design a better one”. He has a point. Of course he does. England’s running costs are so high, subsidising a loss-making county structure that puts the early 80s nationalised industries to shame, and the wages of international players so rewarding to prevent further temptations, the assets have to be soaked to pay for the largesse. The TV companies want their pound of flesh, devalued as markedly against the $ as it is (didn’t I go the States at the right time), so we get this insanity. We want four tests, at least, against South Africa, but one can’t help but think that this was the sort of series we needed in 2012, not now. Then to lob three tests in late August/early September against the West Indies is insulting and mad in equal measures. September can be a nice month for cricket. It can also be bleedin’ horrible, the later it gets. That’s why the ODIs, being day-nighters, coming in the last week of September is amazing. How long before we are playing home games in October? Also, aren’t the IPL thinking of filling in that little spell in September for some mini-IPL (what, runnings four weeks instead of two months?)? I know we have the Champions Trophy over here, but really? Do the assets need to be so soaked?

I really haven’t read a lot about cricket recently. I’ve just not been bothered. I watched much of England’s batting performance yesterday, but then the Tour de France started and I love a bit of that. The European Championships are on, of course, and there’d be less time still if I were a fan of Wimbledon tennis. Cricket is competing with this at the moment and it is taking a back seat, even with someone who blogs as regularly as I do. This series has shown how Sri Lanka have regressed, how England are putting together a more than decent ODI team, and the test top order for England is still a bloody mess. I missed two test matches on my holidays, where I couldn’t watch them even if I wanted to (I’m not dealing with illegal streams), and I’ve not really got into it since. It’s come that far that I’ve been offered a ticket for the first test v Pakistan and I’m not sure if I can be arsed. Be really careful what you wish for, ECB. I’m not the only one thinking like this.

I have Jason Roy’s 162 on highlights to watch (catching up, watching 1st day at Lord’s at the moment) and it just left me puzzled. That 162 could capture the imagination. It could inspire kids to go, wow, I want to bat like that. Isn’t it fun? It could have been a marketing dream, a have-a-go hero, battering a massive score. I really don’t need to draw you a picture. No-one talked about it to me. No-one. It’s disappearing without trace.

Sky. CWOTV. What the hell have you done? 25 minutes tops?

Simon has been keeping his eye on the ICC stuff, and for that, many thanks. But one can’t help but feel this is a bit too late. The core punters anywhere other than India are drifting away, aren’t they? I wasn’t fearful for test cricket until recently. Now I’m convinced it doesn’t has a lot left other than “big countries”. But many won’t care as long as England win.

It did amuse me that England’s loss in the football to Iceland was greeted with the sort of anger that only our football team draws. The manager didn’t wait an hour before resigning. There were no journalists I know, saying we needed to keep him because he’d managed a 100% qualifying campaign. No prominent voices pointing out how he’d brought younger players through. No begging for the captain to stay because he is our record goalscorer. You draw your own conclusions. 🙂

Comments for the T20 money earner here. It’s all yours.

Can We Go Home Yet – ODI 5, SS8

LordCanisLupus22 Comments

And the beat goes on. On a day when it is announced that we’ll be playing at least 23 international fixtures next Summer (and let’s hope Summer 2017 is a darn sight better than this one), including an ODI series in late, late September including three day nighters, we are getting set for part 8 of the Super Series against Sri Lanka. The ODI series is in the bag, courtesy of Jason Roy’s pyrotechnics on Wednesday, so there’s not a lot riding on this one in Cardiff. Yes, it’s Saturday, it must be Cardiff.

Obviously you will have noted a curtailment in my output. My thanks for the hardy souls keeping the comments going. Fact is, life with England is quite serene at the moment, there’s a pretty major football competition on, there’s a bit going on in the real world, and well, cricket blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat. I’m sure my many anti-fans are delighted.

I was mildly amused to find that Jade Dernbach has blocked me on Twitter. I was scratching my head wondering why. I’ve never followed him. I wasn’t particularly mean to him over his England travails. And then I remembered…. It was an ancient post on HDWLIA! Lordy. He got the hump with me before it was fashionable to do so!

Comments on the game, weather permitting in this excuse for a Summer, below. I have the Cricket Paper to read this weekend, and wondering if any of their delightful Essex mafia have stuck the boot into Compton this week.

Have a great weekend folks.

Searching for Sunshine and Context – Super Series 7

LordCanisLupus26 Comments

If you feel like commenting, fire away.

Me? Well, I think you can tell how interested I am in cricket right now. Not when football and the ludicrous state of this country is like a constant soap opera. A stable, balanced England ODI team, playing well against a team we usually struggle against is a little vanilla. But if you have the time, and the inclination, enjoy the action. The forecast for London is wretched, so we’ll probably have another no result.

Night all.

A Half-Hearted Intro Into Super Series Game 6

LordCanisLupus25 Comments

An ODI takes place in Bristol today and you can comment on it here. The Super Series is finished now, as we have an unassailable 13-3 lead, so obviously this game lacks context, and will therefore be something we really shouldn’t be interested in.

Terrific performances by Hales and Roy on Friday – regretfully, shopping trips to the supermarket and overwhelming tiredness from staying awake on Thursday night meant I’ve seen next to nothing of it. Let’s hope for more, because these are two players I can really get behind. They’ll have days like these, and then they’ll have days like those. But that’s what they can do.

I have seen a number of comments with some views on Brexit. Look, I can’t stop you either way, and I know they are of the lukewarm kind. I’m not admonishing anyone because we don’t live in a vacuum. But I’d advise against it. I’ve got some good mates, blokes who saw me through some difficult times, and I’m royally effed off with them at present. And I shouldn’t be. But there was something different about Thursday’s events that supersedes politics. There’s something about the way people of all beliefs (not one side or the other) were manipulated by half-truths and lies, by innuendo and supposition, that hits at me.

You know, through the stuff that happened with cricket in England, in 2014, and it is not on the scale of the decisions made this week I know (before anyone wants to get snippy on comparisons), we saw media manipulation, where truth and spin were at the forefront, and no-one seemed to care to look for facts, or make alternative cases based on them in the mainstream media or on TV. You know, some people can’t even say his name (Gower) while others use his name to collect hateful hits on their news site. It’s a tiny, some would say obsessive, example of what I’m trying to say. Actually, I’m not even sure what I’m trying to say, except I’m ashamed of what we’ve become as a consumer of news. News and journalism isn’t a profession, it is now a commodity and it is sold to you, the consumer, in the way you want it and the way you want to hear it. There will always be some who rail against it, but if you can brand them as loopy conspiracy theorists, that’s great. The Mail tonight doesn’t care to acknowledge that 48% of the country are not on their side. The 52% won, and the rest should shut up and eat it. Just like they did when someone they did not want to win ended up triumphant. Debate doesn’t happen when neither side is prepared to listen.

So with that, and I’m not entirely sure what it is, but it meant I could have a go at the press, and by extension, the ECB, enjoy the game at Bristol if you care, and I’ll leave it to you to comment as you see fit, but please, no fighting on the decision itself. There’s other places to do that.

All the best people. I don’t want you to leave, I’d prefer if you remain.

Not A Preview Of The 2nd ODI

LordCanisLupus22 Comments

One more point and we can’t lose the Super Series. Pray for rain.

After the tumultuous finish to the first ODI at Trent Bridge, courtesy of celebrating too early, a first List A 50 by Woakes and the Honey Monster mullering a maximum off the last ball to tie, we move to Birmingham for the first post-Referendum ODI. Will it be Isolated England or EU England suiting up? If the London Mayoral count is anything to go by, the result will be in by the time they’d switch the floodlights off. If we’re lucky. But enough of that.

So while the selectors discharge themselves from hospital for patting themselves on the backs too hard and causing multiple bruising (for the faith in Woakes – Lizzy and Dobbs still remain under observation) the top order travails can be put aside for another day (Root is in need of some confidence, because getting it back against Pakistan can be tough). The stage is clear for this game as the Euros are on a two day break, Wimbledon hasn’t started yet and Jamie Vardy spoils all the fun and signs a new contract.

I’m glad some of you are enjoying it. I quite enjoyed Buttler and Woakes and the finale, and I’d be lying if I said otherwise, but it’s fluff. It’s good fluff, but fluff nonetheless. I’m much more thrilled that Surrey won a Division One game before Noah parked his vessel at the OCS Stand End.

So comment away on the second match. I have heard from Chris, who, in homage to Alan Whicker, will be jetting away somewhere else next week. With this bloody weather, who can blame him? The Cricket Paper is out tomorrow as well. Let’s have it.

Fire away.

 

Not A Super Series Update / Preview

LordCanisLupus45 Comments

Absence Makes The Vision Wander

If a sport loses traction in the public eye, it is devilishly hard to get it back. This was always going to be a tough summer to keep the game relevant in the mass media. The European Championships, with three host nations and Ireland involved, were always going to grab the media spotlight, at least for June. Once they are done with there is the pre-season signing merry-go-round to fill the back pages, and with the top gossip clubs having new managers – Guardiola, Mourinho, Conte – the fictions and facts will block out much other sport. Then, when the test series against Pakistan is reaching its conclusion, we have the Olympics. Given we have two less “glamorous” opponents visiting these shores, the ECB have pretty much no chance of garnering media attention, even if they were the most enlightened, sharp, media-savvy organisation in sport (which they are not). Hell, even I can’t be arsed to write about the game that much. And I’m supposed to be a diehard supporter of it.

There’s the rub. I’ve been back from the States for the best part of a week, and I’ve written nothing on cricket. There are no international fixtures going on in England, a joke series in Zimbabwe, a tri-series of ODIs in the Caribbean, and a hotch potch of formats played here when not dodging the lamentable weather. I do a lot of this blog based upon the media output, and there’s been nothing to rail against. Sure, I could go on about Chris Stocks having another pop at Compton in The Cricket Paper, or I could comment on the new-look Cricketer (I actually quite like the look, it’s the writers I have a problem with) but it would be going through the motions. I think I’ve read just TCP and TC since I’ve been back, and not even in great detail. It just seems that in the middle of June, when we should be doing something to capture the public imagination during a football competition, there’s nothing. So Switzerland v Albania it is!

Writing this blog is not a job. I earn no money from it. I get more grief than I should have to put up with from it. I do it, as I’ve said many times, because I love the game, and I love writing. Throughout all your relationships, if that is the right word, with a sport, there are going to be times when you blow hot and cold, and the blast is straight out of the arctic right now. I have a team I can’t give my all to because of how it originated and who leads it. I have a sports body I still hold in complete contempt, feeling a self-congratulatory Trump-esque feeling of having grave suspicions about the current ECB chairman, while having nothing but fears about Super Series Strauss and Tom Harrison. The international game looks in poor shape, with Sri Lanka’s abject displays in the first half of the series laying bare the lie that the test game can go on as it is. Then there’s the attempts to influence us all in making us love a team some of us don’t feel we ever can until certain people have gone. The Essex Media Mafia have been in full effect over the ascension to 10000, and the tedious debate over “greatness”. This has been augmented by the victorious, smug “KExit” campaigners making no attempt to disguise their contempt for us, by taking over the Guardian BTL with their witless offerings.

I have no idea, nor do I care, how the T20 Blast is going. I’ve tried to follow Surrey’s wins and losses, but that isn’t because I can watch each game on a live stream, as I might if it were available, but laughably we don’t think we can do that due to our TV contract. As for the One Day cup? Well, if you want to finish a competition off, just do this. Split it in half, and see what happens. Make it be played in April to ensure its final complete annihilation.

It’s just Dmitri, once again being negative Nigel, always complaining, never offering anything. Well, I’ll tell you this. I listened to Colin Graves’s wonderful interview prior to the Sri Lankan series. I might be going too far to say it made me pine for Giles Clarke, but it certainly didn’t have me thinking he’s on our side. The problem with test cricket isn’t whether the damn thing is four or five days, or whether it has context or not. It’s the effing quality of it, there’s too much of it, and players are either knackered, injured or so fed up with it, that they don’t produce of their best. There’s little ebb and flow in our matches – we either run over a team on a pitch helping us, or we struggle – while India in their last series against South Africa might as well have rubbed each wicket with industrial strength sandpaper and they’ve have been more subtle than what actually happened. Australia remain dominant at home, and good on batting wickets. Pakistan are anyone’s guess, the rest are also rans. Anyone with the temerity to compare this nonsense with the 1990s oppositions we faced, where even Zimbabwe could run out a Flower or two, with Streak et al to back them up, is in need of some awakening. But Graves wants four day tests. Given some of the wickets we produce, this is aspirational all the wrong way round, but if he thinks making it four days will mean 100+ overs in a day, then I seriously suggest he reconsiders. The current lot don’t give a crap about getting 90 in most days.

When is the ODI series? Is it soon? Oh, it’s tomorrow! How did I miss it?

How is cricket going to survive in the long run? The issue remains pretty simple to me. No matter what I hear or see, the fact is our top players are being paid well enough, but county pros are paid too much to justify the revenue they bring in (otherwise why are these clubs in crisis). Whether this is because the revenue isn’t there (maybe not enough conferences for your conference centre adjunct), or is being held back by a TV/media contract that stops clubs from exploring possible additional media revenue is for those that know to tell us. The top players won’t be giving up yet more money to keep their brethren in clover, otherwise it’s off to the T20 leagues and all that, so you have an impasse where a sport that needs to attract players with money, isn’t going to make enough money to pay them, and certainly won’t get it through money at the gate. When the interest sustaining the current level of international expenditure dries up, as it surely will on this path, I can bet very good money it won’t be the international players, or the administrators at the ECB, cutting back their wages. Only then might we have a county game that is sustainable on its own accord, but I highly doubt it. This is why you’d rather keep with the devil you know – paying the bills, limiting the access – than break free and see what you can do. In a number of ways, it mimics another decision being made this week.

I know. It’s downbeat. It’s me being me. I keep singing the same old tune. But those who criticise need think of this. I still care. But not as much. And not as much equates to not as much revenue through the gate, or on merchandise, or over-priced food and drink than before. And that equates to not watching on TV, or perhaps, giving up my subscription. Of not making the effort to go to a T20 game. And I started from a high base. Lord knows what those who dip in and dip out make of it.

Glad to be back? Maybe. ODI #1 tomorrow. A chance to clinch the Super Series. And they’ll be rejoicing in the streets.

One tiny piece of cross-promotion. In case you missed it I’m doing a blog on US sports. This may, or may not, be of interest but the link is www.dmitriamericana.wordpress.com – if you like it, let me know. If you don’t, don’t!