The Matador BBQs (son of Ryobi, son of Ford Ranger, son of ING, son of Mercantile Mutual, son of FAI, son of McDonalds, son of Gillette) Cup is over for another year. How did your team fare?
Played in Sydney to give the New South Wales team as many advantages as possible, the tournament featured everything that is good about domestic one-day cricket. Sparse crowds. Barbecues as man of the match awards. North Sydney Oval. Half-hearted television coverage. Free sausages for sixes that hit randomly placed targets.
What more can you ask for?
NSW ‘RTA Speed Blitz’ Australians
Slogan: ‘What’s Your Plan B?’
With the tour to Bangladesh postponed, the World Cup-winning Australian team decided to instead enter this competition. As is traditional, they donned the sky-blue of New South Wales and proceeded to stomp like a herd of unruly cricketing mastodons through the tournament.
After early games in which they gorged themselves silly on bonus points, the Australian team began to lose interest in the competition, resting players, forgetting to win a game against Victoria, making Moises Henriques captain, and so on.
Still managed to comfortably win the final, though.
Best player: Mitchell Starc, who took 26 wickets for the tournament at the unfair average of 8.11. Sadly, saved his worst performance for the final, where he took only three wickets. Major choke from the tall quick, who’ll have to go home to the little fort he’s built in his backyard out of man of the match barbecues and reflect on his big-match temperament.
South Australia Southern Redbacks
Slogan: ‘Don’t turn a night out, drinking with spiders, into a nightmare.’
The surprise packet of the tournament, in that you often assume they were kicked out around the same time that the Canberra Comets were, South Australia chased down 350 in their first game. They stumbled a little thereafter, dropping games against NSW and Tasmania, before winning three in a row to make the final.
Best player: Alex Ross, who led the run chase against Queensland and provided the backbone of the Redbacks innings in the elimination final. Not to mention that he’s also one of the world’s most sought-after superhero comic book artists. Where does he find the time?
Victoria Bushrangers
Slogan: ‘We’re sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank, who, like the other sponsors, also disapprove of excessive drinking. Nevertheless, we are raising interest rates (see our website for more details).’
Following the Australian lead in the Ashes, Victoria chose to not select Peter Siddle in this tournament. They also suspended Glenn Maxwell for a game for not showing up to a recovery session, before dropping Cameron White for the elimination final. The Bushrangers clearly embracing the philosophy of jazz legend and big-hitting lower order batsman Miles Davis: “It’s not the cricketers you play, it’s the cricketers you don’t play.”
Best player: Matthew Wade, who continued his excellent batting form from the ODI series against England, and keeps alive the dream that Australia will select an all-wicketkeeper squad for the first Test against New Zealand.
Tasmania ‘Thylacine’ Tigers
Slogan: ‘James Faulkner is in our team.’
Tasmania were a team in this tournament, that’s for sure.
Best player: George Bailey. Well, he wasn’t the best, but he smiled the most. And that’s still got to count for something.
Western Australia Warriors
Slogan: ‘Alcohol. Think Again’
The Warriors scored 350 in their very first innings of the tournament, with Cameron Bancroft scoring 176 and Shaun Marsh 109 as they combined for a 216-run opening partnership.
Things went rapidly downhill from that point, as they failed to defend that total, before going on to win only the gimme game against the Cricket Australia XI and a dead rubber against Queensland.
Still, helluva start.
Best player: Joel Paris, always an eyeful, towers above his teammates here, taking 10 wickets in the tournament at an average of 22.4, an economy rate of 4.86, and a pun factor of 81.4per cent.
Queensland ‘My FootDr’ Bulls
Slogan: ‘If you drink and diagnose feet, you’re a bloody idiot.’
The Queensland Bulls showed up to this tournament with all the enthusiasm you’d expect from bovines entering a competition centred around matadors and the open cooking of beef.
They won two games, lost four, and then headed back home to reminisce about the NRL grand final, and share tall tales of how those high-falutin’ southern folk call their foot doctors ‘podiatrists’. Think they’re so fancy.
Best player: Johnathan Thurston, who despite having his match-winning conversion attempt hit the post, kept his composure to kick the winning field goal two minutes into extra time.
Cricket Australia ‘CAXI’ XI
Slogan: ‘Had a big night out? Take a CAXI Maxi Taxi home.’
The Cricket Australia XI was a team of up-and-coming youngsters, plucked from obscurity to compete in this tournament. This ragtag team of misfits and underdogs won our hearts by being bowled out for 59 and 79 in their first two games, before bouncing back to defeat Tasmania by three runs in their third.
An inspirational tale of triumph over adversity, soon to be a major Hollywood motion picture, starring Michael Cera as Marcus Harris and Elizabeth Hurley as ‘Swepson’s Mom’.
Best player: Hilton Cartwright, who was run out for 99 off 96 balls in CAXI’s unsuccessful run chase against Queensland. He will be played by Shia LaBeouf.
George Utley
Guest
To be fair, I don't think Australia forgot to win that game against Victoria, so much as the umpires forgetting that Shane Watson had already been dismissed, and raising the finger every time the ball got near the pads.
George Utley
Guest
They advertised on TV even in the last years of the home-and-away comp. And held day-night matches mid-season at the SCG, with spectators getting to sit in parts of the members enclosure. And printed free colourful professional-quality programs unique for each match. They made a genuine effort. It didn't help. I think the decline (which began 10 not 15 years ago) stems mostly from the move from free TV to pay TV, for which some CA executive no doubt got a huge bonus. Even the state-based T20 comp suffered from this to a degree. Now that domestic cricket has reaped the results, and CA must pay Ch 9 to show the now-worthless ODD comp, CA has clearly given up on drawing crowds and are focused on cost containment. They tried holding some matches interstate last year, and if the crowds were deemed worth the cost and trouble they would probably have tried again. Until popularity revives (and it has done to a limited extent), what we have now is as good as we can hope for if we want decent TV coverage. But yes 50 overs is too long, both for domestics and internationals.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Who's comparing? I am just pointing out that there used to be crowds so it is inaccurate to say no one used to turn up to domestic one day games.
Aaron mcgougan
Guest
Surely the team who won the previous year should have the right to host the matador cup in their state and play on club cricket grounds, it seems unfair for one state to host it over and over again and it would give the supporters a chance to see their team in action instead of watching highlights on tv Disappointing CA -change the format now
josh
Roar Rookie
Not sure you can compare 1994 to 2015.
13th Man
Guest
Hahahahaha Love it especially Starc and his BBQ fort and Joel Paris eyeful towers. Classic! The Queensland bit is also hilarious!
Sideline Comm.
Guest
40 overs is not a good idea, by the way. It's not a recognised format for one thing, and 20 overs off doesn't solve anything..
MatthewSkellett
Guest
As a proud New South Welshman ; I was relieved we finally won the final because in recent times we have choked at the final hurdle lol Anyways looking forward to sitting in the lounge room of my Mother's house in Perth with Mum and watching the Sydney Sixers (both the women and the men ) go 'round this Summer -bring it on gentlemen :-)
BurgyGreen
Guest
One of your best, Dan. Brilliant. Especially, as others have said, Starc's barbecue fort, and Queensland's best player. Poor forgotten Tasmania though. Every time.
Hully
Guest
Great read Dan! Paris....eyeful, towers.... All players should have a pun factor rating...perhaps an article on the two XI's for the GABBA?
Riordan Lee
Editor
"...the Australian team began to lose interest in the competition, resting players, forgetting to win a game against Victoria, making Moises Henriques captain, and so on." Brilliant again Dan.
John
Guest
If you live in Sydney it works but not for the other cities. I do agree with you though that previously crowds haven't been great and this is why I suggested forty overs per side and starting the games at 4pm. One hundred overs in a day is a long day, its longer than a full day of test cricket. Reducing it by twenty overs you don't lose too much but it does cut down the amount of time the game takes which I think would encourage more people to attend. Marketed correctly it could definitely work.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Do you mean the one day comp because it is only in the last 15 years the crowds dropped off mainly due to T20 I would think. The crowds were never amazing but people did show up. Here is an old TV ad(Yes they even used to advertise State cricket one time in the past) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ME_3IxHP1Q Pretty sure there are crowds in those shots.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
They used to have games played around the country at different venues, and you know what, I'm not sure that the term "home crowd" is a suitable description for a dozen or so people. The compressed tournament works. There are schools holidays for half of it, and they played a number of the weekday matches as day night games. It is significantly better than the spread out version they used to play.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
It certainly was. Certainly much bigger crowds than previous installments. I can't help think that the cancellation of the Bangladesh tour had a lot to do with this. Getting to see guys like Steve Smith and Mitchel Starc and all the others across the competition at bargain basement prices I'm sure would have dragged a lot more people along than would have gone otherwise.
John
Guest
If Cricket Australia can afford to send teams around the country to play shield (which no one watches) and put them up in hotels for four to five nights then they should be able to afford this. I really believe 40 overs per an innings would be worth a try. It would speed the game up but also allow enough time for players to score centuries.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Thanks Dan. It's such a shame that rampant commercialisation has taken over and we're even talking about something called the Matador Cup. I yearn for the good old traditional days of the FAI cup.
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Not realistic champ. Where will they get the money to send the teams around Australia for ten weeks. Matador doesn't make aeroplanes.
John
Guest
This format is tired and not fan friendly. It's a joke that not all the teams get to play in front of their home crowds. I propose a 10 week tournament where everyone plays every other team once home and once away. Games should only be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday as well. (No one can go to mid week games) I would also reduce the number of overs to 40 overs per team so games could start at 4pm and still be completed by 10pm.
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Very funny as usual, but a bit harsh on the tournament. I thought it was a big step up from the previous years, both in coverage and enthusiasm. Bit rough on Henriques too.