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Roar Rookie
Joined March 2018
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Have been following all things cricket for the last 27 years love the discussions on selections performances and all the many nuances that make up the great game.
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Game still very much on. And Bancroft has been doing his job last test and thus eating up balls faced even if not mountain runs. Runs for Bancroft and Khawaja now would make it hard to open up any spots other than if they wanted to replace Handscomb or maybe holland if considered surplus requirements. And that would be admitting original squad a mistake. A certain g maxwell should also be considered if changes needed . As a qld fan I’d rather they leave Renshaw where he is, as an aus fan though if aus do lose this test (and I still feel we can win it) id love to see him get another go. I’m going to enjoy this test right now though rather than debate changes what a cracker of a game!
South Africa vs Australia: International cricket second Test – Day 3, live scores, blog, highlights
He’s playing for his career here as Ronan and others have said that’s got to affect him mentally. He needs to focus and forget bad shots and just concentrate on the next ball. It won’t get any harder in his career than this (other than India and they won’t pick him there anyway). Willing him to succeed despite the odds – runs here against Rabada and co mean more than our roads at home. Let’s see how good he really is.
South Africa vs Australia: International cricket second Test – Day 3, live scores, blog, highlights
I was going to say something similar now that Warner give we desperately need someone in the top three to make big runs or too much pressure on middle and lower order. I know Khawaja has been awful away from home but he has played some superb innings in aus where others have struggled. And if Mitch marsh can have a career renaissance ussie can too!
South Africa vs Australia: International cricket second Test – Day 3, live scores, blog, highlights
I loved abc grandstands description as ab was batting that he was batting from another planet. There are many batsman in test history who batted at different levels than the rest of their teammates (including these days smith and Kohli) This reminded me though of Lara when he got several of his hundreds against Australia. You kept wishing he’d get out so we could win but part of you wanted him to stay in so you could watch him bat!
AB de Villiers looms over second Test
Oops this was meant to go in the Rabada discussion – apologies from a rookie!
Rabada tears through Aussie line-up to give South Africa the edge
Absolutely agree Ronan (love your articles btw and the nuances of your analysis – fine detail on technique ie Mitch marsh changed defensive technique). Roads are killing test cricket. I know ca look at economics getting a test to five days vs four. I’d rather a four day finish from pitches like these on Sa than a five day battathon like the mcg. How many more do they get on a fifth day anyway and is it really worth it to kill off your product?
Rabada tears through Aussie line-up to give South Africa the edge
Can’t really complain if you know the rules (and you should if you play at highest level) in a non contact sport. Let’s hope though that there is consistency of this rule unlike ball tampering. Easy to be aggressive in other ways in cricket that don’t involve physical contact. Still reckon curtly Ambrose staring down at a batsman scarier than someone bumping you anyway. All this talk of head butting the line though probably doesn’t help.
Rabada tears through Aussie line-up to give South Africa the edge
Regardless of if he’s guilty it will be a shame for the series to lose Rabada he is arguably the best bowler in the world (I’d rate him more highly than the number one who is James Anderson atm according cricinfo although Hazlewood and Starc as fast bowlers would be same level). As someone else pointed out Dale Steyn would be a pretty handy replacement if he’s fit. The SA backups in him Morkel etc are a level up from ours atm.
South Africa vs Australia: International cricket Second Test – Day 2, live scores, blog
I was listening to this live as it unfolded last night, ironically for the few hours before that I’d been writing my company’s culture guide on what is and is not acceptable. I’d been to a seminar where they actually showed that there is a fiscal cost that can be calculated to a lack of integrity (or trust) with decreased productivity, reputation etc. Integrity was defined as “wholeness and maintaining structural integrity”. Like trying to ride a bike with a broken wheel, trying to move with a lack of integrity doesn’t work. And it can happen on an individual, corporate or in this case sporting sense when you tolerate a lack of integrity, or if you lose integrity, not stopping and trying to restore it rather than just cycling on. Lack of integrity can happen even with the best of intentions ie you want to get that report done but your kids get sick etc. The difference though between someone with good intentions getting something not done, and someone with bad intentions not getting something done is NIL. It still doesn’t work. So intentions don’t matter, the loss of integrity is all that matters.
Integrity can be restored there is a system for that too. The first step is acknowledging who came to who (in this case the media did the umpires didn’t notice and the players wouldn’t have come forward). Then acknowledging that the loss of integrity has occurred (SS did this but not with any conviction was still couched in a lot of excuses). Then make a plan to make amends and work TOGETHER to restore this lack of integrity (simply punishing doesn’t work, because then people won’t ever want to come forward in the future). This step won’t happen if SS doesn’t really acknowledge what has happened, and regardless of loss of captaincy etc work with CA to get curious about why this happened in the first place. Where was the system fault that led them to think this was OK? SS, and the leadership group have all the background that led to this, and we’d be silly to not listen to what it is, even if we still make it clear we don’t tolerate the behaviour. And the last step is a firm plan, a change of system to ensure the loss of integrity never happens again with a firm date for implementation.
Like (just about everyone) I was gutted as I heard this story develop, and all of today. My wife (not a cricket lover) couldn’t understand why I was so upset. I mean, match fixing has happened before, ball tampering, verbal sledging, underarm etc etc but I think we all know this felt different.
As I read everyones comments on here, I started to gain perspective though on all of this. There are always positives even amongst this.
1/ All those who care about our great game have made it clear this is not OK. What would have been really sad would have been if there was no outrage at all or defenses/excuses (which some made but not many) of “everyone does it”. An employee who comes to you with a problem is better than an employee doesn’t who has switched off and doesn’t care anymore, or doesn’t think you’ll do anything about it. We as fans obviously care (and esp about test cricket despite all the “it will die” comments), and by saying something think there is a way to do something about this. We now just have to work out what that is.
2/ Our game will go on (even if it seems at the moment almost inevitable cheating will also). It has endured many changes and sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. No-one bowls underarm anymore. Match fixing hasn’t been wiped out, however its much harder to do and there are much more robust systems in place. How robust do any of us feel the current ball tampering laws are? So rather than defend SS or compare him to Faf/Vernon, we have to say clearly the ball tampering laws in their current form are not being practiced the way they are written. A good opportunity (although painful) to start again.
3/ People point to the loss of faith we have had in our Australian cricket captain and this is certainly what I felt too. However for me it just clearly shows he (and the “leadership group”) at this stage do not have the answers on how to change the causes that have led to this awful outcome because they can’t quite come to admit the loss of trust that has occurred yet. There is a process for restoring this integrity. New leadership and talent coming through is more important than how many games we win from here. I’m excited by the chance to see Glen Maxwell, Matt Renshaw etc come back in with a chance for a fresh start. Being clearer on what they can and can’t do, if they want to stay in the game they’ll have to rely more on their ability than anything like ball tampering to aid their performance.
4/ Maybe “win at all costs” will end up being a thing of the past if we can clearly define and practice a different reality.
Sport is fun to watch, but we teach our kids (or should) its how you play the game. Sports not life and death (and neither is work), or at least it shouldn’t be. Amongst all this understandable reaction to SS, I have compassion for him. I wouldn’t tolerate his behaviour if I was CA but I’d still make sure he’s looked after while this unfolds. I genuinely hope he and his family get through this. None of us want him or anyone else to suffer mental health episodes or worse from this.
So for all those feeling gutted, those saying they’ll never follow Australia again etc this feeling will pass. At some point we’ll watch cricket again with our feeling of integrity in our team restored. We need to do some work though to acknowledge what has occurred and learn from it.
Australia name new skipper after Smith, Warner step down temporarily