[paulg]

There was an issue at lunch time yesterday when Plunkett and Harmy warmed up on the edge of the square, the Laws saying this is not permitted.

What the commentators missed was the fact that although they ran up on the edge of the square, all the balls actually pitched close to the boundary rope. In fact few balls have landed on the square from them during the entire match.

Paul

[GeeGee]

Great news, and about time, considering the charity work he's done.

Congrats to Sir Beefy

[jikl]

So how long do people think Geoff Lawson will last as Pakistan coach?

Sean

[the saint]

Until he suggests they crack open a few tinnies?

[the saint]

What colour Jellybabies do you people like?

[jikl]

*shakes his head* England, what is there to say?

Sean

[EricK]

It doesn't matter who's playing whom or where or what the series position is; but test matches where the side batting first is almost guaranteed to make a big score are never much fun. What's the point of a supposedly competitive endeavour whereby one of two evenly matched teams can get a near decisive advantage simply by guessing a coin toss correctly?

[jikl]

Blame curators and cricket boards for that. Even worse is the fact that those that make pitches so blatantly deficient in variety also make their own country very poor when playing away from home.

The sub-continent pitches are notorious for this, and the away record of these teams is about the same. Then you have countries transforming all of their pitches into the same thing without retaining any of the original character of the traditional pitch for that venue. Sydney and Melbourne have turned into strange pitches since they are now a drop-in pitch, the WACA has lost some of its venom, GABBA is different because of when the test is played there. The only one that has really remained the same in Australia is Adelaide.

In some ways I think one-day cricket is to blame for this as they now need to have so many pitches available that it is easier to bring it in by truck instead of growing it on-site. Also, when producing a one-day wicket, all you are trying to make it do is perhaps be a two-three day pitch that has lots of runs in it. The old-style curators capable of building a 5 day pitch (or 6 when there was a rest day) aren't really around any more. The type of pitch I describe is one with some green on the first day making it difficult to bat, the 2nd and 3rd innings produce most of the runs before the treacherous 4th innings decides the match.

Enough rambling.

Sean

[mr1303]

Well, the 1 day series was much more exciting. I had the priviledge to be at Bristol for the 300+ a side contest, and England deserved their series win.

Who will take the World Twenty20?

[FrancesHinden]

mr1303, on Sep 8 2007, 09:26 PM, said:

Who will take the World Twenty20?

[bored tone of voice on]
Australia
[bored off]

We can hope for someone - anyone - else.

[jikl]

We did just lose to Zimbabwe though in our first pool match.

Sean

[jikl]

Now that it is summer in Australia again it has been too long since we talked about cricket

We just smacked Sri Lanka in 2 tests in the post Warne-McGrath era; now we have India for 4 tests starting on Boxing Day.

The question is...

How long realistically until Australia will not still be the number 1 test team?

Personally I can't see anyone coming up in the next 2 years so it will remain the same.

Sean

[irdoz]

Hmmm... given headlines in todays newspapers other events may conspire to take Australia from the No 1 position in test cricket.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/indian-...s_cid=rss_sport

[nickf]

Only 10 more days until I make my New Years resolution to stop pommy cricket bashing but I couldnt resist a dig in light of the scores from the third test against Sri Lanka.

All out for 81 indeed.

nickf
sydney

PS I am notorious for breaking New Years resolutions.

[Walddk]

Quote from the BBC website, just in:

India spin bowler Harbhajan Singh has been banned for three Tests for making a racist remark during their defeat by Australia in Sydney. Match referee Mike Procter found him guilty of breaching the players' Code of Conduct after a four-hour hearing.

It was alleged that Harbhajan called Australia's Andrew Symonds a "monkey".

Procter said he was satisfied Harbhajan had used the word and that "he meant it to offend on the basis of Symonds' race or ethnic origin".

I don't know what he said or did not say, but I read that Harbhajan denies and that the umpires did not hear anything untoward. No matter what: it's a sad incident for the game some of us love so much.

Roland

[jikl]

It is getting much uglier than that now and it will basically come down to lawyers, the BCCI and the ICC. At the moment the tour is suspended until the appeal is heard. I am guessing the ICC will cave in despite the agreement before the tour.

There is far more to this than what went on during the match. One of those probably being the stranglehold the sub-continental teams have on the ICC with billion dollar TV rights.

Theoretically, this coud be another World Series Cricket moment. If the ICC don't back down on what they consider to be correct process... who knows, there is already a rebel Indian cricket 20/20 league as well as an official one.

Sean

[jikl]

Oh, and Roland and others, if you are interested in seeing what is being said in the Australian papers, this one is a fairly good one with links to most capital city newspapers here:

http://www.theage.com.au

Sean

[Walddk]

What strikes me as odd is that the match referee was satisfied that Harbhajan had used the word "monkey", though neither of the two umpires heard the remark. So it's Ponting's word against Harbhajan's, and yet the Indian player is banned.

In other words, there seems to be doubt. Isn't it normal procedure to give the accused the benefit of the doubt if there is nothing conclusive? Unless there is something we don't know. Unlikely given the fact that India have suspended their tour of Australia pending the outcome of an appeal.

This appeal is probably going to be as big an issue as the Inzamam-ul-Haq affair at The Oval in 2006, if not bigger.

Roland

[zasanya]

The umpires did not hear anything.The microphone in the stumps did not record it.Sachin Tendulkar did not hear it. Yet Match Referee finds it fit to ban a player for 3 test matches!
Being accused of calling somebody a monkey (an epithet used by schoolgirls in India for eve teasers because they-the girls not eve teasers- are taught not to use more offensive words) is worse than calling somebody a bxxxxrd!!
An umpire when in doubt does not refer to third umpire .He asks the fielding side's captain who is known to have appealed for a catch when he himself had grounded the ball!!!
The third umpire despite slow motion replays from various angles rules not out when every other cricket lover can see that the batsman is out!!!!
8 blatantly wrong decisions in 1 test match.7 against a particular team!!!
Crowning Glory :ICC proclaims " ICC selects the best umpires and the fairest Match Refrees for Test Matches" !!!!!

The proper reaction is perhaps Rahul Dravid's enigmatic smile when he was given out caught when his bat was quite a few inches away from the ball.

[pdmunro]

could look up some sources, but too lazy .... so instead i'll just try and recall some things i have read ... i might have some bits wrong:

1) the indians have all the money: 70% of the money in world cricket, many $millions in TV rights; these money men will have the final say; all controversy is good for TV ratings; they would, of course, prefer the series was not already decided; so a bit of controversy is the next best thing

2) the indians see harby singh as ponting's nemisis: so they are thinking conspiracy theory; this is apparently all the talk in india

3) clarke made some controversial catch that the umpires didn't properly sight, and took ponting's word that it carried; should this have happened?

4) symonds got involved in something that didn't initally involve him: harby patted lee on the backside with his bat, symonds says he had to stand up for his mate and so he said something to harby, harby responded; i ask you if lee isn't big enough to look after himself? + let the umpires sort out things out; + didn't some cricketer wave a bat at dennis lilley or vise versa? and while it created a reprimand it didn't lead to suspensions or a tour cancellation.

5) tendulkar said the monkey comment wasn't made; ponting said it was; who is to be believed?

6) i feel the players would be better off leaving the controversy to whatever is picked up by the cameras and the stump microphone; then there would be a record of events; and the officals could step in without the players dobbing each other in; this would require officials having access to all stump-mike recordings, which might be unworkable, or might create endless controversy over what is acceptable sledging;

7) hogg is alleged to have called someone a bastard, which brings up the whole question of cultural differences: isn't bastard equally offensive? is calling someone a lucky bastard offensive? how exactly is the term monkey regarded in a country which worships a monkey god? is calling someone a monkey more akin to teasing than villification?

8) i was watching the abc program about the madras tied test recently: there were a number of altercations there including (a) teammates having a go at each other (b) players, particularly greg matthews stirring up the crowd with some bizzare gestures ( c) opposing players having a go at each other, including an indian batsman telling tim zoehrer (?) where he was going to stick his bat and tim bending over and telling him to try it; and (d) both captains having a go at the umpires. and i think it was ravi shastri who stormed into the umpires' room after the game and gave them a piece of his mind. these things happen in the heat of the battle. a lot of this has been cleaned out of the game. people like allen border and kapil dev, the two captains in the tied test, are aware of all this and should be a calming influence in the present situation.

9) i think a couple of cricketers have had multi-match suspensions* and have had to cop it on the chin: if you don't respect the judicary then the system falls apart; but the pakis got darrell haire's decision of ball-tampering reversed; so, who knows, maybe things won't fall apart if the suspension is reversed on appeal.

10) there are a couple of twenty20 tours coming up in india which may become as big a draw as test matches: when i was in st louis a visiting team such as chicago would come to play night matches: there would be crowds of 26 000 for 4 nights a week, every second week for 9 months of the year; with all the money this generated the players were on multi-million dollar salaries; if you have a 3 hour product with lots of rivalry and lots of action you can make big bucks. if the indian money men decide this is where the future of crickert lies, then maybe they will give the word to abandon this test tour.

* I think it was Gibbs (Sth Africa) and Lehman (Australia) for racial taunts.