Roar Rookie
Joined October 2019
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Cricket and Manchester United
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The game is ours and we don’t own it. I have just finished reading an article by Jonathan Liew on the pecuniary costs of…
I don’t know a life without Shane Warne. For as long as I have been alive cricket has revolved, and evolved, around him. He…
Australian cricket has matured and cast off the old, amber-tinted glasses of mid-2000s nostalgia. A new generation has taken the reins. Those players of…
The debut of Scott Boland, just the fourth Indigenous Australian to play Test cricket, was disappointing only in its brevity. There is scarcely a…
In the early hours of Friday morning Australian time, Australia wrapped up a convincing win against an underrated Sri Lankan side. Australia is now…
In the long shadow cast by the legacy of South Africa’s system of racial apartheid the fetid stench of racism permeates the body politic.…
The somewhat irritating Greg James has put together a very entertaining, often insightful, but not entirely revelatory podcast for the BBC about Allen Stanford…
Despite what you may have heard and fervently wish to be true, Australian cricket is not stuck in an early 2000s vacuum. There no…
I click over to another tab on my browser and there is a sense of inevitably when I see Marnus Labuschange raising his bat…
From the first time I watched cricket I wanted to be a fast bowler. Before T20, when I was growing up, fast bowling was…
The victorious side in a game of cricket is usually the one that executes its plans best. Occasionally something weird happens, these days that…
Steven Smith is on the ground. He fell while flashing his bat quickly, very wide outside off. He connected of course. The ball pierced…
“Quotas kill quality,” began one comment on an article about South Africa’s dismal performance in India – a three-nil series loss, including two innings…
Recently, India completed their eleventh straight home Test series win, a streak going all the way back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2013. No other…
The cricket writer and Marxist historian C.L.R. James saw, in the history of West Indies cricket, the social and political history of the West…
Thank you, Isaac. That’s all this article is, the current events are so exceptional that they disturbed a connection I held and had supposed was immune from disturbance. No judgements on any others, not announcing a boycott, not saying those who watched every ball are bastards. I even explicitly state I didn’t make a conscious to not watch, it just ended up happening because there was something more important. It’s just a method of documenting our nation’s history through the lens of our nation’s sport.
Why I'm not watching the cricket today
All good, Jeff, the title makes it seem a bit pious
Why I'm not watching the cricket today
As I said in my earlier comment, the title (not mine) has had a distorting effect. The final paragraphs make clear I made no conscious decision, particularly as a form of protest or the like, to not the watch the cricket today. I just didn’t have the same urge as I have always had.
“I didn’t choose to not watch the cricket, and I’m not saying I’m great or special for not doing so. It’s just that for the first time I didn’t feel that urge, and I’m certain there were many others.”
As for why I wrote it, I think it’s consistent with the way I have written many of my articles. Watching cricket through a social lens as well as a sporting one, that our sport and games are not just isolated events but an important part of our social history. And again, it was not my intention to say I have chosen to not watch the cricket as a protest or anything like that. It’s about that urge and desire falling away in light of events
Why I'm not watching the cricket today
I think the title (not mine) has changed the intention behind the article. “I didn’t choose to not watch the cricket, and I’m not saying I’m great or special for not doing so. It’s just that for the first time I didn’t feel that urge, and I’m certain there were many others.”
I wasn’t trying to say no one should watch or that it was bad to watch, neither did I make a conscious decision to not watch. It’s more about that urge that has always been with me leaving because of these horrible events
Why I'm not watching the cricket today
Was born 93 for reference. Doesn’t excuse taking money from a bookie or taking performance enhancers
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
Obviously the YouTube reference was from when I was when I was teenager, not in 2000. Warne never did it for me, he was brilliant, but he was also arrogant and dishonest
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
I spent many hours replicating that forward defensive 😂
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
Yeah, longer. Was having a bit of fun ragging on the spinners, but I do think quicks get a bad rap. McGrath, Gillespie, Holding, Anderson, Pollock; all show how well they understand and read the game very intelligently. As I said, Tait doesn’t get the respect he deserves for his intelligence.
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
Adams was a very good bat, though didn’t have the best series I think. Could be wrong. The 04 India tour was dizzy at his best, but for a single display that 7 for is tops
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
As a fast bowler, and having spoken to spinners, this is one of the most pervasive and innacurate myths going rounf
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
Definitely, holder is a brilliant cricketer and talismanic leader
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
Bit hard on the spinners I know. I have a greater appreciation for them now, but as a kid I could never get it
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
Two knee reconstructions later and there is a definite creak
An ode to Jason Gillespie, the bowler’s bowler
I don’t think it’s unconscious at all, just blatant favouritism. Walks back in to the Test side in England, in what was basically an elaborate PR move, after having not spent any time working on his cricket. The technical issues that existed in his game before the ban are still there, yet he seemingly he refuses to work on them and still gets in. You could be forgiven for thinking Bancroft was a cousin of the Marshes
Is Justin Langer holding Cameron Bancroft’s spot open? Part 2
The NSW bowling coach Andre Adams works brilliantly with Starc and the other quicks, hopefully he’ll find a spot in the national set up soon
Australia's Test attack looks ominous
I know Marsh’s returns this summer are strong so far but he has been consistently disappointing at test level. Though I will admit to an instinctive aversion to the Marsh family (quite justified at this point, I believe).
Five-way battle for two Test batting spots
They’ve certainly shut me up. I love Pakistan for exactly this reason.
Five-way battle for two Test batting spots
Very good points, Jeff, I can’t really counter anything there. Who do you think is a good pick?
Five-way battle for two Test batting spots
Starc has a brilliant test record, over 200 wickets at a sub-30 with a strike rate of 50. He also recently took ten wickets in a first class match. He should, and most likely will, play the first test against pakistan
Why Starc should stick to white-ball cricket
my nickname was once “number 16”
The gorgeous, wonderful madness of Steven Peter Devereux Smith
It’s still a good attack Pakistan have, and the atmosphere and pressure would something else entirely. Pucovski has the skills and talent to succeed at test level, a FC average of 40+, four hundreds and good start to international cricket would do his confidence a world of good. He hasn’t knocked down the door this season yet, but is averaging 40 and has scored a hundred and was brilliant last season
Five-way battle for two Test batting spots
Picovski’s talent is obvious and his youth exciting. Getting him at number 6 against a side with poor form and low morale is a good opportunity rather than waiting until we have India next season. He would struggle against NZ though
Five-way battle for two Test batting spots
Burns, Head and Pucovski in for at 1, 5 and 6 respectively, is my pick for the test. It’s great these players feel comfortable enough to be honest about their mental health, there’s very little that’s worse than being in that dark space
Five-way battle for two Test batting spots
They were implemented in 2016, you don’t get to decide they were unofficially in place because you have disagreed with some selections seven to ten years ago. Ngidi has played five Tests and 22 ODIs and has done very well, he is a certain starter now in almost all conditions and is as good as anyone else right now. He will be a star. I agree that Bavuma is not up to it, I just don’t believe that his continued selection is a result of quotas. Around the world people with FC averages in the mid-thirties are often selected to play test cricket, and his being dropped would not have an effect on whether or not the quota target was hit for the season. Your argument about Bavuma being a symbol also means he would be selected regardless of whether the quotas were in place
Why quotas help, not hinder, South African cricket
I also wrote, “There’s nothing wrong with escaping from the bad into a pleasurable pastime. In times of tragedy and crisis, people gather for small moments and sometimes find themselves forgetting before reality brutishly sets in.”
And, “I didn’t choose to not watch the cricket, and I’m not saying I’m great or special for not doing so. It’s just that for the first time I didn’t feel that urge, and I’m certain there were many others.”
That’s what this article is about, really, just that these are truly exceptional circumstances and i just didn’t feel like watching cricket. For me that is a very strange feeling and made me very uncomfortable when i did switch over. Not saying I’m better, not saying I’m more empathetic. Just saying I feel strange, my philosophy is that sport does not exist outside of society, and those who write about it should do so in a way that documents both sporting achievement and social history. That is what I endeavoured to do. Cheers.
Why I'm not watching the cricket today