- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It’s not unusual in Test cricket for teams to declare their innings. Usually it’s to ensure there’s enough time to make a play at an outright result. But sometimes it’s for other reasons.
Recovering from injury, Australian captain Michael Clarke announced on Saturday that he would make a rare appearance for his grade team Western Suburbs next Saturday to test his fitness.
It was an announcement that would prompt bizarre scenes at Old Kings Oval.
Grade cricket games are played over two days, and next Saturday is the second day of Wests’ clash against Parramatta. There’s provision in the rules to allow Michael Clarke to be substituted into the Wests team next week. That’s no problem.
But by the time the news had filtered through that Michael Clarke was going to play, the game had already started, and Wests were batting.
Under normal circumstances, Wests would have batted through the first day and had the second day in the field. Outright results are rare in two-day games, and most games are first-innings contests, with teams only having a second innings for as long as there’s a reasonable prospect of an outright result.
But to increase the chances of Clarke having a bat next week, the Wests’ captain declared the first innings closed in the 10th over. Barely half an hour had passed, the score 0/18, and the innings was over. First innings points were conceded, with Parramatta passing the Wests score within a few overs.
Was it in the interests of one player being placed above the game? Absolutely. But when that one player is the Test captain, that’s totally understandable.
The pitch at Old Kings Oval, in Parramatta Park to the west of the NRL stadium, must have been a road. Parramatta raced along at nearly six per over before declaring at 2/140 shortly after lunch and then sending Wests back in.
Maybe the Parramatta captain wasn’t quite singing to the Michael Clarke songbook. Had Wests collapsed in their second dig, Clarke could have been left to bat with the tail next week or even wrapped up the outright result on the first day.
But instead, Wests dominated with the bat to race to 1/230 at stumps. Clarke will slot into the team next week and have a good batting pitch to prove his claims to selection for the first Test.
It wasn’t the first contrived declaration, and probably won’t be the last.
An interesting one came in Centurion, South Africa in 2000. After four rain-affected days, South Africa declared their first innings at 8/248. Sensationally, England captain Nasser Hussain declared their first innings closed at 0/0 and South Africa’s Hansie Cronje did the same for the Proteas’ second innings.
A Test that had looked condemned to a dull draw suddenly came to life.
England chased down the target for a remarkable win. A contrived result, and it later emerged that Cronje had leaked the plan to a bookmaker. But it produced a far more interesting final day than would otherwise have been possible.
Competing captains have made deals with each other to set up declarations, particularly in the last round of league contests where outright points are needed to ensure progression to the finals.
In Sydney grade cricket, so widespread had it become, that for several years now the last round of the regular season has been a 50 over one-day game to prevent it.
It’s a lost art in the era of covered pitches. But in the days of uncovered pitches and sticky wickets, some bizarre declarations were made to avoid batting in the treacherous conditions.
After Don Bradman hung up his bat for the last time, England toured Australia in 1950/51. The first Test was at the Gabba, with Lindsay Hassett as the new Australian skipper.
Australia was dismissed for 228 on the first day and then the rain came. No play on the second day, with the water falling on the pitch. By the time play started on the third day, the muddy pitch was a nightmare to bat on.
England were sinking, and at 7/68 decided enough was enough and threw in the towel. The Australian batsmen didn’t enjoy the conditions either, slumping to 7/32 before they also decided they’d rather throw the opposition back in.
England’s second innings was no better, crashing out again on an unplayable deck to be 6/30 at stumps. The pitch had dried out a bit by the next day, but the damage was done.
Conditions virtually unplayable for batting, but where the captains knew it would dry out and decided not to waste those conditions on having their tail-enders eking out whatever runs they could and instead hastening those tail-enders’ opportunity to bowl to the opposition.
Such declarations are rare. Normally the declaration is to allow time to bowl the opposition out.
Timing is critical. Declare too early, and the opposition chases down the total. Declare too late, and time runs out before the game can be won.
To paraphrase, for everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven. A time to bat and a time to bowl.
And when it’s time to bowl, you don’t want to still be batting. Such is the art of the declaration.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.