Boom! Boom! Bangalore!

Well, the IPL continues to storm through its first week, and it appears that it is going to be the success that the money men (err... cricket fans, surely?) hoped. The arch-luddites, as opposed to someone such as myself who is a big fan of Twenty20 cricket, but doesn’t necessarily want to watch it every day of the week, have been in full flow. Esteemed cricket journalist Gideon Haigh was fairly damming in an article for cricinfo .
I agree with his sentiments about the game being worth much more than mere money, but had cricket’s development over the centuries been left to the likes of Haigh, cricket would now be played once a year in some picturesque village in Surrey, probably in 18th century period costume, in the same way idiots chase cheese down hills in Gloucestershire on May bank holiday, all filmed of course for the local news, so some piss-poor reporter, making up for the lack of actual news, can spout his or her fatuous views on ‘tradition’ or if we are really unlucky, ‘community’.

Writers shouldn’t be railing against Twenty20, if anything, it is 50-over cricket, Twenty20’s, older, flabbier sibling, that needs to be shown the door.
50-over cricket has two fundamental flaws, 1) it is a game that can’t be drawn, certainly a tie is possible, but how often does that happen? Which means that, 2) as it is a long game, it is often over, in that one side is blatantly going to win, with what seems like three weeks to spare, long before the game is actually over.
For example, England score 300 batting first (humour me here), Australia, in reply, slump to 50-4 or 100-6 or something similar, it is, 99.9 times out of 100, game over. In reverse, imagine a side only scores, 150 batting first, the team batting second, unless disaster strikes, (strikes in the sense of Satan and his hellish armies rising up and joining in with the bowling and fielding) will chase the score down easily.
I’m not suggesting that all 50-over cricket is like this, but so much of it is so one-sided. In Twenty20, due to the short time span, even if one side puts the other brutally to the sword, at least it’s over quickly. But because you’ve only got 120 deliveries to play with and a par score is somewhere between 160-170, I would reckon 8 out of 10 games are close.
The international and, particularly in England, domestic calendars are so crammed, it would make sense to play only test cricket and Twenty20. I’m convinced more people would be drawn to test cricket from seeing the 20-over stuff than from 50-overs, even if the side you support are on the wrong end of a tonking.

I should warn you, every time I slag off 50-over cricket an amazing game or series happens. I remember talking to a friend, expressing much along the same lines as you have just read, a day later South Africa chased down 434 in a One Day International against Australia, in one of the greatest games of cricket ever played, but there you go...

In the world of Warwickshire County Cricket Club things are not looking good. I appreciate we are only one game and one day into the County Championship, but the Bears are, well, toothless. There is simply no venom in the bowling or batting. Two weeks ago I was brimming with confidence that they would march back into the first division without any problem, but now, having watched them in the flesh and read the reports, I fear they will fail to dominate even the most mediocre opposition. The arrival of Monde Zondeki may add a little spunk to the attack, but I’m not holding my breath.

Finally, this week, England have unveiled all their new kit. Made by Adidas, the new test and ODI shirts look really quite swanky, but unfortunately the Twenty20 shirt does rather remind me of Liverpool Football Club’s strip, but hey, never mind!
The so called traditionalists, are up in arms about the new kit, not because buying any of it will leave a hole the size of Greater Manchester in your finances, but because the new sweater is now a sort of fleece rather than a ‘proper’ three-ton knitted jumper affair. According to some, it is the end of civilisation. Give me strength...

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Rubicon

Two competitions begin this week, one ancient and one so modern it’s hardly out of its wrapper. I am of course writing about the County Championship and the much talked about Indian Premier League.

A lot of people write and talk a substantial amount of bollocks about the County Championship, (I’m thinking of Bob Willis in particular). There are those who see it as nothing more than a training academy for England players and indeed all efforts are to the national side’s benefit or detriment. This not only untrue, it is a competition in its own right, but such an attitude is an insult to the vast majority of county pros who never get to wear the three lions. The domestic game, with the exception of the Twenty20 Cup, may not be the most glamorous event(s) in the sporting calendar, but it is followed, passionately, by a large number of people, who either go to watch in person or more likely, keep up with things online, (i.e. those of us who have to work for a living). Personally, I go to watch county cricket to see Warwickshire win (no laughing at the back), not to see so and so from such and such a county who might play for England one day. The likes of Willis bemoan the Cork’s and the Hick’s of the game for carrying on for too long, as they won’t ever play for England again and are therefore holding back the next generation. But the likes of Hick have a wealth of experience (and 134 first class hundreds) to pass on to younger players, that if they were all kicked out of the dressing room at 35, would be lost.The domestic set-up is far from perfect, there are many obvious changes that could be made to improve it, but to treat it as nothing more than the play pen of the England team is disgraceful. Duncan Fletcher had no time for the county game. I seem to remember him trying to get Jimmy Anderson a game for Glamorgan, in order for him to get some match fitness! Peter Moores seems to be more aware of the county scene. His selection of Ryan Sidebottom, was inspired, and his willingness to allow his England players to play more for their counties is also very welcome.Whatever the naysayers may say, I’ll be at Edgbaston on Wednesday, hoping to see Warwickshire give Worcestershire a good shoeing! (It’s now Friday, this hasn’t happened, Worcestershire are 261 – 4, 295 ahead, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger...)

Whilst the County Championship begins its long, winding journey through another summer, in India, a six-week festival of money-making and cricket kicks off, in the form of the Indian Premier League. It’s all the talk in the cricket world. Lured by, in some cases, silly amounts of money, international players of the highest order have been recruited to play. Now I’m no bluff old traditionalist, whose idea of exciting cricket is 40-1 at lunch on the first day. I enjoy 20-over cricket a dam sight more than the 50-over stuff. It’s fast and furious, a lot of the games are close, kids love it, you can watch a whole game in 2 ½ hours after a day at work etc... but cricket is so much more than 120 balls of merciless slogging. All the things that make cricket the greatest sport are in the long version of the game; periods of attack, consolidation, defence, the mental toughness and physical bravery of the players, I could go on (and on and on...), I won’t but you get my point. Put it this way, however good the film is, the book is always better.

I bear no ill will towards the IPL, its’ players or funders, (or though it is slightly distasteful in my opinion that in a country where, for all the talk of an emerging superpower, there is still so much grinding poverty, that the rich and powerful should pour quite so much money into a sporting tournament, but there you go...) my worry is that Twenty20 cricket will simply beat test cricket out of existence and, to use the ICC’s turn of phrase, the iconic form of cricket will be lost. We’ll see...

Remember: Safety First.

Falling Down...

One of the ‘joys’ of being an England cricket fan is the frankly, breathtaking unpredictability of the side. Brilliant some days, bloody awful on others. (Think of Jimmy Anderson as a microcosm). I always convince myself that we England supporters are the only ones who are put through this particular mill on such an alarmingly regular basis – why do we have to suffer so many collapses and dropped catches, Steve Harmison’s, entertaining and creative interpretation of line and length, batsmen-wicketkeepers (or is that wicketkeeper-batsman?) who don’t quite understand the job description and so on and so forth. Whilst this is true about the England boys, it is also true of every other team as well.
This was brought home to me in a thunderously entertaining 109 mins, courtesy of the Indian test side. Opting to bat on a green, but not exactly overly threatening wicket, the Indians wilted like a daffodil at the mercy of a blowtorch. Apart from the absolute ripper of a ball that got Dravid, the Indians simply handed their wickets to the South Africans, gift wrapped. MS Dhoni’s dismissal was probably the most stupid of all. With your side at 55-5, might it be a good idea to rein in one’s attacking instincts, a bit? Or, shall we go merrily-a-thrashing? Well, he opted for the latter, wafting at a nothing ball from Morkel and got what he thoroughly deserved.
India’s 76 all out isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, I’m sure England will show us, in probably not the too distant future, who the real masters of the batting collapse are.
In reply, South Africa kicked ass and chewed bubble gum with much aplomb. India’s bowlers were generally poor, with the exception of Harbhajan and Sreesanth (who, wasn’t that good, but I’m ‘looking for some positives’). RP Singh, who I used to rate highly and Pathan were, if you’ll excuse my French, fucking appalling, you’d see more commitment, willing and guile from the dead. No offense to the man, but if AB de Villiers is plundering double centuries against you, you really are in trouble.
India’s problem seems to be, that they are always ‘the next’ cricketing power-house, they’ve always got the talent, but then you would or at least struggle not to, in a cricket-mad country of 1 billion people, but never quite have the delivery. Certainly they win things on occasion, like the Twenty20 World Cup, but never with any consistency. Just as much as you can imagine them handing out a beating to Australia, you can always see them losing to Bangladesh. It is a bit unfair to pick on India, but a side that has boasted the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Kumble and Dravid, really should have done better in the last 10 or so years.
Anyway back to the match...
The Saffers put on 494-7d, the Indian’s had a slightly better attempt at playing test cricket, with 328, but still lost by and innings and 90 runs, inside 3 days. Back to the drawing board chaps.

Two other quick items on the agenda. It was good to see the Windies win another test match, (2 this year and counting!) and with it square the series against Sri Lanka. This was jolly good news for two reasons, 1) it’s been depressing watching a rubbish West Indies side over the last few years, I know I’m an England fan, but I’m also a fan of the game as a whole, test cricket needs a strong West Indies. I hope they’re starting to turn the corner. 2) Sri Lanka now slip below England in the ICC rankings, which will have every Sri Lankan worth his salt choking on his tea!

Second, and most importantly of all, Warwickshire have just chased down 217 against Worcestershire in just 22 overs, in a pre-season friendly – let’s hope it continues when the season gets underway next week!

Over and out.