Thought of the Day: This Week in Cricket

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English Success

It has been a welcome week in Cricket after the lull that followed the World Cup that forced me to get my fix from Cricket Monopoly.

England unexpectedly defeated New Zealand in a Test that went for the full 5 days and proved entertainment right until the end.  Here’s hoping that advocates of 4-Day Tests pour themselves a nice cup of tea and have a seat for a while.

The game itself was a triumph, with the most runs ever scored in a Test at Lords and 125,000 spectators turning up.

From Twitter

Englands victory looked far from certain on Day 1, when they were 4/30 before Lunch and New Zealand looked like they had somewhere else to be on Day 5.  Should Australian opener Chris Rogers have been watching the game, he must have thought it a good time to work on his Dance moves, rather than practice ahead of his last Ashes series.

 

Needs a lot of practice

Englands' resurgence was led largely by its younger players; Stokes, Ali, Root and Buttler who are all getting a chance to learn and develop now that the old Management team is gone.  There is certainly a lot of upside around this squad.

Most impressive of all was Stokes, who has always displayed the very un-English trait of playing like he really, really cares.  Not very dignified, but his presence means there is more fight in the English side. 

Sceptics should remember he was the first English batsman to score a Century in the last Ashes series when he wasn’t even picked in the original squad.

This could be a unique opportunity for Australia to learn from England with the Ashes underway and pick an aggressive bowling all-rounder of their own in James Faulkner to see who can better wrest the initiative in games. Not the worst result for fans.

The greatest disappointment of the match itself would have to be the batting of New Zealands tail, which failed badly when the game was there to be saved. 

The importance of tail order batting has been well documented of late and New Zealand will need to heed these lessons and play with the same sort of all-round effort that they do in ODI cricket if they are to gain the same success in Tests.

There will always be an Administrator….

Despite success on the field, the ECB continues to battle with reality, with Deputy Chairman Giles Clarke publicly talking about the threat of a rebel cricket league.

Clarke is no stranger to stupid moments, publicly haranguing guests at a dinner who dared criticise his mistakes, but this latest claim is pretty rich for a man who picked a couple of exhibition matches against a team organised by Allen Stanford over the IPL.

"That chap in Prison Orange?  Yes, he's the man for us" - Giles Clarke (maybe)

It really is a testament to the volunteers, clubs and cricket lovers of England that they are able to keep producing and unearthing new talent under this mob. 

I suppose importing players does help.

Cricket is Bakistan

While England has been able to keep producing players & have the advantage of keeping punters interested in the game through matches being played in their own country, this has been denied to Pakistan since the attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009.

One of the happier Cricket stories of the week was the return of International Cricket to Pakistan and the scenes of the happy crowd cheering on the game and their country.

Commentator and prior New Zealand Iain O’Brien this week tweeted about the lack of relevance around foreign players representing a country and this game went a long way to show why it is important. 

The Cricket fans, and populace in general, of Pakistan have had little to cheer on in recent times and this game not only helps welcome them back into the international fold but gives them something to be proud about. 

West Indies Tests to test depth

Australia starts their Tour of the West Indies this week, starting with a match against the West Indies Cricket Board Presidents XI.  Australia is expected to win this game comfortably and the series overall, though perhaps less easily.

Given that England have been able to blood several new players of late with success, this would be an ideal opportunity for Australia to do the same. 

It is doubtful that Australian of the Century Ryan Harris will be playing for too much longer, so a new attacking bowler will need to be found.  Thankfully, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Pat Cummins are all available.

Artists impression of the Australian Selectors surrounded by young fast bowlers

Of a greater concern, or more accurately a continued concern, will be around batting depth.  Chris Rogers has announced he will be retiring this year, while Michael Clarkes back probably doesn’t have too much left in it.  The impending retirement of Brad Haddin is also a concern given the number of rescue acts he has performed in recent times.

With this in mind, it is particularly confusing that Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges are the “spare” batsmen on the tour.  Voges hardly represents the future while the only thing Marsh represents is job security for medical staff.

A drunk artists impression of Australian Selectors surrounded by Batting prospects

On the West Indies side of the ledger, it will be interesting to see if Lionel Simmons can bring the same success he had with the Irish team to a side that has made the ECB look sane of late.  Being able to bring Gayle, Simmons, Narine and Bravo back to the fold would be a great start for WI cricket and the game in general.