Roar Guru
Joined February 2016
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Essendon fan, cricket fan. Not necessarily in that order.
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Every year, at the end of the home-and-away season, the AFL’s All-Australian squad of 40 is announced. And every year, fans and media pundits…
This was just meant to be a two-week gig, but AD only got home late yesterday and I've managed to wrangle a third round…
For the most part, the footy was highly entertaining this week, with several tight, frenetic encounters. The logjam of teams competing for spots in…
AdelaideDocker is away for a couple of weeks so I’ve been asked to fill in. It’s a brave call, handing this responsibility to a…
England's World Cup campaign is wobbling, with the No.1 ranked ODI side a chance to miss the semi-finals following their heavy loss to arch-rivals…
Just over four months remain before the first ball of the 2019 World Cup and it is difficult to recall the Australian One Day…
Warmup matches for touring Test sides in Australia have become nothing more than glorified centre-wicket practice. If that somehow wasn't apparent before this cricket…
Widely tipped to be cellar-dwellers in season 2017-18, the Bulls and the Tigers flipped the domestic cricket pecking order on its head to book…
BBL07 has come to a close, with the Adelaide Strikers defeating the Hobart Hurricanes in the final. That must mean it's time for someone…
After a disappointing 12 months of One Day cricket, culminating in an awful home series loss to England, Australia is in need of a…
Most of the Aussie men didn’t play enough T20 Internationals to be considered. Behrendorff was probably our best player with 8 wickets from 5 matches at 16.5, and an economy of 6.6.
Aussie women's quartet named in ICC T20 team of the year but men snubbed
You could go back to 11 December 1931 and the Statute of Westminster, which was Australia’s original legislative independence from Brtain.
Cricket can’t solve Australia Day conundrum - it’s not up to sports to make tough decisions for governments
Hell, make that Australia Day. What better event to celebrate as our national holiday than when we first BBQ’d the Poms?
Cricket can’t solve Australia Day conundrum - it’s not up to sports to make tough decisions for governments
Stop conflating anti-zionism with antisemetism.
COMMENT: What's the point in playing the Windies? Only the future of Test cricket itself
Nope. The ICC schedule from 2018-2023 didn’t include any Aus vs WI tests other than last summer’s home matches.
https://icc-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/ICC/document/2018/06/20/6dc2c8d4-e1a5-4dec-94b4-7121fab3cd7f/ICC_Tours.pdf
COMMENT: What's the point in playing the Windies? Only the future of Test cricket itself
Yes, but what we *really* need to do is play test matches in the Caribbean. Not only would it be a more competitive series but it would help engage young WI cricketers in the pinnacle of the game.
India went there last year, England went there in 2022, but we haven’t had a test tour there since 2015. By the time we return in 2025 it will have been a 10 year gap, which is pretty disgrceful.
COMMENT: What's the point in playing the Windies? Only the future of Test cricket itself
Is he? For all his bogan aggro and the stupidity of Cape Town, he seems to be a devoted family man who puts his kids and friends first. Early in his career he bought his working class parents a home, got them out of debt and set them up so his old man could retire. Most people who have played with him as a teammate in the last 5 years or so speak highly of him. (MJ seems to be the outlier but given the way he tore into Cummins a few years ago, I’m not sure he’s the best judge of character.)
Yet Shane Warne, who repeatedly cheated on his wife and made lifelong enemies out of teammates and opponents alike, is hailed as a top bloke. Go figure. Sometimes the public persona doesn’t necessarily match the private individual.
Main character energy with villainous synergy: Deciphering David Warner and his pitch for greatness despite the headlines
Absolutely. He’s still good for a quick 40-odd at the top of the order
Australian cricket calendar overhaul on the way - shaking up summer to strike right balance between Tests and BBL
You’ve overestimated the relevance of that to this particular discussion. The profile of the BBL is not going to be raised by hitting a few more sixes, as much as Channel 7 would try to have us believe it. I suspect that the number of sixes per game has generally risen over the last few years but the tournament has stagnated. It needs names people know. It needs the prestige that comes with international-calibre players taking it seriously.
Australian cricket calendar overhaul on the way - shaking up summer to strike right balance between Tests and BBL
Evans is one of the best players in the tournament though. He’ll be there regardless of whether or not the national players front up, so that’s a false equivalence. The problem is how sides often have to fill their last couple of spots with lesser-known players. Guys like Nick Hobson, Matt Gilkes and Mac Harvey might be tidy T20 crickets who can play a role for their side, but replacing them with guys in the national setup is a no-brainer. Particularly so for the younger fans who care more about seeing their heroes than they do about how many boundaries they hit.
We’re also talking about a bit of an outlier in Marnus. Most of the test players are at least good – if not excellent – T20 players. Having Smith, Uzzie, Head, Marsh, Green, Carey, Cummins, Hoff, Lyon and Starc playing in the BBL is a huge boost.
Australian cricket calendar overhaul on the way - shaking up summer to strike right balance between Tests and BBL
I’d love to see Australia invite other countries to send say, u23 sides over to play a few games. It might help as something of a stepping stone for the former u19 national players to get into first class cricket.
Australian cricket calendar overhaul on the way - shaking up summer to strike right balance between Tests and BBL
They’re not going to attract the big T20 stars until the tournament itself gets a bigger profile, and the clear way to do that is to get household domestic names into the mix. More names means bigger crowds, bigger crowds means more money/prestige, more money/prestige means international players might actually start to pick the BBL over leagues in SA, Bangladesh and the UAE. Competition between leagues is fierce and we need to give international players more reason to be here.
Also, kids don’t necessarily care if Marnus is a T20 gun, they care that they get to go and watch their hero live and maybe nab a photo or an autograph. You can tell them as much as you want that Josh Brown is statistically a better BBL player, but I know who they’re coming through the gate to see.
Australian cricket calendar overhaul on the way - shaking up summer to strike right balance between Tests and BBL
How about I start you off with Michael Klinger and Dan Hughes at the top of the ODI order?
Best Never Ever XI: The greatest Australian cricketers who didn’t play each of the three formats
I was going to say this. Bancroft is more in the Khawaja mould than that of Warner. But the reality is we don’t really have another Warner waiting in the wings. I was hoping Caleb Jewell might pile on some runs in the first half of the Shield but he’s had an underwhelming couple of months.
I guess that’s why people have spoken about Head moving up to open. I’m not entirely opposed to that, but I think Bancroft or Renshaw deserves first crack.
Fan Rant: Who replaces Warner is the wrong question
An interesting thought exercise, Paul, but I was hoping you’d only consider players in the ODI and T20I sides who were actually around at the time those formats were being played. Just listing some guns who retired before they ever got the chance kind of feels like you’re dodging your own question!
Best Never Ever XI: The greatest Australian cricketers who didn’t play each of the three formats
Talk to an older footy fan in WA or SA, and they’ll tell you about the great state league players they witnessed who allegedly could have run rings around their V/AFL contemporaries
Best Never Ever XI: The greatest Australian cricketers who didn’t play each of the three formats
He wasn’t sacked because he’s not a CA employee. He has had a couple of paid speaking gigs cancelled.
If I was engaged to speak at a corporate function and then started taking public, overly personal pot-shots at one of their most high-profile employees, I’d expect to be tapped on the shoulder too.
Warner is a CA employee. Team selections aside, they absolutely should be looking after him and not giving a platform to someone who has publicly escalated a personal fued with him. People seem shocked about this for some reason.
'Everyone's best interests': Mitch Johnson loses CA gig after personal attack on Warner
A combination of Warne missing 2003, Mcgrath being out for about 12 months in 2003/4, Lee being dropped for about 18 months in 2004/5 and Gillespie’s injuries earlier in his career
Australia’s quartet of quality will soon be most prolific in Test history - but never the greatest
Are you suggesting his technique yesterday was significantly different to the technique he has used previously in Perth? That seems a stretch.
COMMENT: David Warner defied his critics - but he didn't prove them wrong
Warner averages 74 from 9 tests across both Perth venues. At some point I think we probably need to accept that his technique actually works pretty well there.
COMMENT: David Warner defied his critics - but he didn't prove them wrong
You didn’t explain anything. As usual – and as you’ve just done again – you’ve made a few sweeping statements with absolutely nothing to back it up, then told us all how a Western Australian would have been a better option.
Starc was pivotal in the win at Lords and then almost single-handedly bowled us to victory in the second innings at Headingley, when no one else looked remotely threatening. With a bit of support he could have taken us to a 3-0 lead with 2 tests to play.
This is such an absurd argument.
It's a scary thought ... but what if Australian selectors are right to play long game with Test team succession plan?
Ah, here we go with the arbitrary and factually incorrect claims.
I’ve already had this argument a while ago with someone on the Roar, where I went back through 12-24 months of Starc’s then-recent stats to demonstrate that he actually took a higher percentage of top 7 wickets than Cummins and Hazlewood in that period.
But let’s go again, specific to his most recent test series: in his four Ashes tests, this is how often he dismissed English batters in each position:
1 – 0
2 – 3
3 – 3
4 – 1
5 – 4
6 – 3
7 – 2
8 – 3
9 – 0
10 – 2
11 – 0
All in all, it’s an even spread. Only 5 of his 21 wickets were tailenders (and just 2 of those weren’t Woakes at 8), while only 7 of them were top 4. The numbers actually say he was most likely to dismiss batters in the 5-8 range.
Funnily enough, that’s a pretty strong indication that he took wickets in the middle overs, where for some strange reason you seem to think he went missing.
It's a scary thought ... but what if Australian selectors are right to play long game with Test team succession plan?
It could be worse, it could be Sri Lanka and West Indies. At least Pakistan have a handful of world class players. It’s just a pity Naseem Shah is out.
Is Pakistan-West Indies worst summer schedule of all time? How this season stacks up against the stinkers of the past
Woah woah woah, Starc?!? He was the leading wicket taker in the Ashes despite playing 4 tests. If you’re picking purely on red ball form then he’s in the side.
Morris will get a game at some point this summer but Starc doesn’t deserve to be dropped.
It's a scary thought ... but what if Australian selectors are right to play long game with Test team succession plan?
I don’t disagree with your general point about rewarding form, but Green did play a Shield match prior to the tests and scored 96 at a SR of 64, rescuing WA from 3/29 with Cartwright (Bancroft scored 7). He followed that up with 46 for the PM’s XI vs Pakistan (Bancroft scored 53).
Green also performed marginally better in the Ashes than Bancroft did at the same time in the County comp, after coming off a test ton in India (albeit on a featherbed). He was lacking a bit of match practice but I don’t think he was necessarily out of form.
It seems to me that the selectors just don’t see Shield alone as a good indicator of how likely a player is to succeed (and Green’s average batting at 4 in the Shield for WA is some absurd number north of 60 anyway). They look at County cricket performances, they look at Australia A performances, and they presumably also factor in perceived technical weaknesses. At the end of the day they clearly think Green is a better prospect at 4 than Bancroft is as an opener. If I’m honest I agree, even though he still has a way to go to find consistency.
Test Mortem: Green’s golden status fading as batting unit becomes fragile, Windies need help to kick on from Gabba glory