They don’t make a right, and so on. If you were on twitter this morning and happened to be following David Warner and journalist Malcolm Conn then you were in for a show. Warner, upon waking to a Robert Craddock penned article that apparently touched a nerve, fired a tweet in Craddock’s direction — Craddock didn’t reply, but Malcolm Conn did. And then it was on.
Chris Rogers is the shock selection that pretty much everyone expected. He’s the guy who most probably aren’t aware isn’t actually a test debutant in waiting having already played a solitary test 5 or so years ago against the Indians when Matthew Hayden was injured. He’s also the guy who has scored more first-class runs on Pommy soil than English captain, and resident gun batsman, Alistair Cook.
A tweet from Adam Spencer yesterday evening, referencing a comment made by former Aussie captain Mark Taylor, caught my attention. Taylor was being interviewed, I don’t know what sort of question preceded the comment, but Taylor suggested that 4 day tests should be ‘investigated’. Interesting.
Ponder this for a moment. What if players in the IPL were only paid for the games that they actually played in? For example, Glenn Maxwell, the only million dollar man out of the most recent IPL auction, hasn’t played in either of Mumbai’s opening two games, but he’s still pocketed around $60,000 per game. Great if you’re Glenn Maxwell, slightly ridiculous if you’re the Mumbai Indians.
Cricket very rarely makes me angry. Horrible losses, shocking umpiring, bad sportsmanship, sure it might get me momentarily fired up, but it doesn’t make me truly angry. Australia’s defeat in the first test didn’t make me angry. The dropping of first-choice spinner Lyon for the second test didn’t make me angry, it just left me very confused. But this evening cricket has me angry.
He’s only just played his maiden first-class game in this country, yet people have already been talking him up as the next great Australian spin hope for months now. His recently concluded Shield debut ended with him collecting 7 wickets for the match including a 5-fa in the second innings — across both innings he bowled a hefty 58.3 overs, especially when compared to fellow debutant spinner Clive Rose’s 23.1 overs (which included just 6 over for the second innings — after picking up 3 wickets in the first — compared to Ahmed’s 32.3 overs).
The curious case of selection and resting strikes again. With absolutely no disrespect to the guys that have been picked — because it’s still a good side, and I’m genuinely excited to see guys like Aaron Finch and Phil Hughes getting a run in the coloured clothing — Australia will be fielding what resembles an A-team in the first two One Day Internationals against Sri Lanka. It’s simply because of the names that are missing, and there are a few.
This time next year we’ll be approaching the end of the second Ashes series inside 6 months, and we will have been required to do it without Ricky Ponting or Mike Hussey. While many had their doubts that Punter was ever going to make it to England for one last Ashes tour, on the back of his recent form Mr Cricket was considered a certainty … right up until he suddenly announced his retirement following the Boxing Day test.
In part one of this piece I’ve already looked at why expansion of the current tournament is off the table for the time being. Now I’m going to propose a way that the Big Bash League could be expanded in a way that would require little or no change to the current format. I’m suggesting that the Women’s National T20 competition be transformed into the Women’s Big Bash League and played along side the current Men’s comp — in a way that could benefit both.
Ever since the 8-team Big Bash League was announced a couple of years ago the prospect of further expansion of the competition has never been too far away from the headlines. Despite the reality that the Big Bash wouldn’t expand after its inaugural year, towards the back half of last year’s installment — following better than expected crowds and ratings — expansion talk inevitably started to build. Year 2 has seen more expansion talk, although most of it seemed to take place before a ball had been bowled in BBL:02.