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Joined April 2019
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Having conducted two successful raiding parties and again retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy at home, there can be no doubt that India has a slight…
Have to agree – headline of this article is really misleading.
'Specialist position': Bancroft calls for full-time opener to get Warner replacement nod
They replayed the 89-91 Grand Finals at the pub recently and sat with a friend reminiscing on a great era. Alexander stood out for his youth and talent. One moment I remember clearly, although not sure which game it was – Mal Meninga storming down the sideline, looking set for a try and Alexander comes through and cleans him up single-handed in a textbook round the legs tackle. I said to my mate at the time, “I remembered him as a playmaker and kicker, but his defence is incredible – he was just good at everything”.
Who is the greatest Penrith Panther of all time?
Kinda think that leaving Bancroft and Nesser out does them a favour. If they keep playing County and do well, they can put more pressure on for a call up when initial picks fail to perform.
Again poor planning with no Australia-A squad touring alongside. I guess the selectors will just pick the guys who “look good in the nets” as there’ll be no other data to go on.
Marsh is a weird selection in my view. Makes sense if you think he can reproduce his bowling form in last ashes tour. But he’s only just started bowling again, then he was at peak fitness, which he has often struggled with.
Ashes squad announced: Marsh gets surprise recall, Warner avoids axe but two openers picked as cover, Morris out
Nice read PSha – good to learn a bit more about our next gen of bowlers.
I was really impressed by Sutherland in the Shield Final. Didn’t keep it as tight as Boland (naturally), a few loose ones but created chances, made things happen. Good energy. Too bad his back injury will now stop him from playing county.
Generation next: Australia 'A' squad gives insight into the next generation of Test pacers
Hey PeteB,
I deliberately ignored the financial side as its a whole other article by itself. Obviously in practice it can’t be ignored. I have to say I disagree with the statement “Winning doesn’t matter”, from a commercial perspective. Successful teams get way more casual fans than failing teams.
Worldwide all the most profitable sporting franchises are those with a long track record of success.
Maybe only winning at home matters to CA but I think that is short-sighted even from a purely financial perspective.
Furthermore, we know the BCCI’s power and influence is only growing. If CA wants to not get pushed around, they need to have leverage. They can get that from having a ‘product’ that is in demand in India. A competitive Australian Test cricket team is a much better product than one that gets thrashed every visit.
Restructure Sheffield Shield and more emphasis on Australia A: How to build a team to conquer India
Thanks Nlas, I had a section on selections but article was already too long. Will post as a comment at some point.
Main point I was trying to make in the article is often selectors have not much to go on beyond Shield form, and that is often not a good indicator. So they’re left with a bunch of ‘educated guess’ choices or trying to judge how guys are going in the nets (such as they seem to have done with Agar and Head).
If you pick the guy who’s dominating the Shield for a home Summer series, generally works out well. If you do it for overseas tours, sometimes it translates, often not.
Allowing players to get experience in these conditions prior to entering the cauldron of Test cricket is going to give a better chance of them succeeding, but also better chance of selectors getting it right.
Restructure Sheffield Shield and more emphasis on Australia A: How to build a team to conquer India
Thanks AdRad – Totally agree regarding overlaps. I also agree BBL has to be date where switch over happens. Rather than just chopping Shield in half arbitrarily, I like the idea of starting it early and finishing by BBL time. The dry season up north runs April-Oct, so your schedule fits well with that. Then after BBL running another window where something well defined happens and has a clear goal and outcome. List A + A series fit this bill. I like the idea of promoting Grade better.
Restructure Sheffield Shield and more emphasis on Australia A: How to build a team to conquer India
Sorry for my ignorance here, but why is this a racist gesture? Clearly there is some symbolism to this weird ‘gift’, I just don’t get what it is.
Rugby News: Test star's racist Secret Santa gift, Premiership 'heading for disaster', RFU set to lower tackle height
Not sure adding another team is necessary but totally agree we should be allowing English (and other) foreign players to participate in the shield. Maybe cap at 2 per team. The benefits run in both directions. This will improve the quality of the shield comp, allowing more Aussie players to be exposed to international competitors before being blooded in the national team. Making the home leg of the Ashes more competitive is in Australian cricket’s long term interest. The ashes is still the marquee event but how long will it stay that way if every series is a one-sided thrashing?
Why Sheffield Shield should add a team to include English cricketers
Can’t say I agree everything but interesting read Trent. However, I must say this article could have used a bit more editing. Some very awkward sentence construction and random commas strewn throughout.
Deep Point: Radical shifts in technique, intent and selection England need to counter Aussies
Let’s have Marnus as a concussion sub for T20 WC.
Labuschagne making a run at T20 World Cup
I don’t think the Australian selectors have ever shown an interest in a slow bowling all rounder. They’ve mostly looked for an all rounder to relieve the quicks when the pitch was looking like a road. That has meant a med pace or fast bowler. That’s why we’ve had Watto, Mitch Marsh, Hilton Cartwright et al.
They’ve had the Maxwell option sitting there for ages. Someone who could hold up an end and offer much more than Agar with the bat. I guess Maxwell’s bowling didn’t give him any advantage, too similar to Lyon and Lyon has wicket tacking ability and doesn’t need relief in most cases. So maybe Agar could be seen as offering variety as he’s a lefty. Though if they want a bit of variety from a slow bowling all rounder, Marnus is more than handy.
Four takeaways from Round 1 of the Sheffield Shield
A nice read. Thanks Lewis
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The ballad of Quincy Titterton: A day at Sydney grade cricket
I always remember Watto as a bit of a golden arm. Michael Clarke would often turn to him to break a stubborn partnership, and more often than not he’d come up with something. He was a pretty canny bowler. Maybe it was just trying to turn him into a proper fifth bowler that was the problem, his body just couldn’t hold up, maybe his attention couldn’t hold up either.
Australian Test cricket needs more golden arms
This performance shows how good Marsh’s bowling can be when he is at peak fitness. To me it just reinforces my belief that his recall during the home Ashes series was premature and hampered his long term development. Its an indictment of Boof’s coaching that Marsh was developing his batting skills more successfully while outside of the national team due to a shoulder injury. He was working with Langer and more importantly with Scott Mueleman. They had a long term development plan involving a full Shield season followed by skipping the IPL and instead having a season in County. Then despite hardly having bowled, he was vaulted back into the national side and had his ‘break out’ Ashes summer. But his bowling was nowhere near back to full strength and his batting ultimately still showed the familiar weaknesses. The selection panel then again did him a favor dropping him and allowing him to continue his development with Mueleman and also to work hard on his fitness. Let’s see how he bats, but my suspicion is he still needs at least a season in County. Meanwhile he can be a more than useful fifth bowling option on flatter tracks, which also happens to be the situation where his batting will be strongest.
Humble pie all 'round as Mitch Marsh rips through England
Great article Daniel, your honesty really lifts this story.
I’m still optimistic about the future of test cricket. Consider some other cases where doomsdayers have predicted the future ‘death of X’.
When the internet made free video content on youtube and pirated network tv shows widely available, people were predicting the death of quality tv shows. With less advertising support for tv networks, they would produce cheaper and cheaper content. We’d all be stuck watching reality tv and other similar rubbish. Well that did happen, but – we also got Netflix, Amazon, HBO etc. We got an explosion of long form, high quality content. The narrative on these shows unfolds over a whole season or many seasons, rather than being limited to a single 30-60 minute story arc. Turns out there is a big market for this and we’re not all as stupid as was predicted.
Similar story for investigative journalism. The old ‘Spotlight’ type units in broadsheet newspapers is gone. However people are tuning in to podcasts like ‘the Teacher’s Pet’. The quality of investigative journalism has gone up for those who are still interested – many are!
The trick for Test cricket will be to figure out how to adapt to this new landscape, but I believe the demand for Cricket in its most complex and rewarding format will always be there.
Are kids really bored by Test cricket?
Absolutely lion-hearted bowler. After that 2019/20 series, many teams tried to emulate what he did to Smith, but none could. Unique in world cricket. Its a shame we didn’t see more of him over here in Aus.
Wagner's last opera: NZ veteran to call it quits after Australia series