Bailey returns to Tassie after playing for the Stars last year, its not really a surprising move, think more people would have been surprised if he hadn’t returned. The signing of Bollinger on the other hand was surprising, and losing a senior player was just what the Thunder didn’t want.
On Monday Cricket Australia announced both the ODI and T20 squads that will head to the UAE in a little over a month for three ODIs and three T20s against Pakistan, but before those games the tour will kick off with an ODI against Afghanistan.
South Africa, New Zealand, India and England all have international commitments that will stretch across BBL02, but there are still plenty of top quality international cricketers available. Here’s a quick look at six who weren’t involve last year, that could be options this time around.
Last year the Decision Review System (DRS) was mandatory… for all of about four months. The ICC then, in their infinite wisdom, reverted back to their previous stance where the use of DRS had to be agreed upon by both competing sides. Complete and utter madness.
After threats of a potential strike – which I honestly don’t think would have ever eventuated – CA and the ACA sorted out a new MOU agreement and the National Selection Panel revealed their 17 man contract list, down from the 25 of previous years. On the whole there aren’t a lot of surprises, but lets take a closer look.
Kat calls it quits, while the man who took his spot looks to rebuild. Cricket Victoria and the AFL are fighting over the MCG. Forrest replaces Mike Hussey on the plane to the UK. Domestic T20 gets soggy in the UK, and the return of Chris Gayle is put on hold.
Usain Bolt might play in the BBL, Gayle is back in the West Indies squad, Aussie bowling coach auditions, Pietersen calls it quits, international cricket comes to Canberra and Vodafone hangs up on Cricket Australia.
Ellyse Perry is a freak, and I mean that in the absolute nicest way possible. She has been representing Australia on the international stage in both cricket and football for more than 5 years, and she’s still only 21.
Ok, so there isn’t actually any medal, but that doesn’t matter. Since tonight is the annual Allan Border Medal night, I decided that I’d run through the stats from the first edition of the Big Bash League and crunch the numbers to see who were the top batsmen, bowlers, fielders and all-rounders based on my ‘bash factor’ formula. Unlike the ratings that appear on the rest of the site that are based on a career’s worth of stats, these rankings are purely based on the performance in this year’s BBL.
If you were watching the international T20 last night you no doubt witnessed Dave Warner’s spectacular switch hit disposal of the Indian bowling into the depths of ANZ stadium. You probably also then heard the debate amongst the commentators over whether or not it is “fair”. The discussion on the matter has continued today, not sure why though…
The inaugural Big Bash League has been pretty successful thus far, especially when you consider the reasonably harsh criticism that was thrown its way in the lead up to the first game last year. Crowds have been good, ratings have been good and most importantly the cricket has been good. It’s all been going so well that the rumours and talk of possible expansion have started already. But, is there a need for expansion?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with innovation in Cricket, without innovation we would not even have one day cricket, nor would we have Twenty20 cricket – in fact we would be without many of the things that make the game what it is today. But there is a difference between innovation and unnecessary change.
Was going to try and summarise this into a tweet, but was never going to fit my reasoning into 140 characters.
Only a couple of days until the first test in Sri Lanka, and while most of the talk is around who will/won’t make the batting lineup, the bowling lineup too is far from set in stone. Very far.
The Australian selectors have a predicament (just for change), the batting line-up for the first test in Sri Lanka will have a new flavour to it, but just how ‘new’ will it be? This comes as a result of the crazy sacking of Simon Katich, and Steve Smith’s unlucky omission from the squad. The beneficiaries of these decisions are Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh.