Roar Rookie
Joined September 2017
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Try to picture a town of only 46,832 people. According to Wikipedia, the closest real town to this in Australia is Gladstone (45,000), although…
The Australian summer is over (not counting the Sheffield Shield, but sadly nobody seems to). So what better time to slip in another light-hearted…
Welcome to another fun, frivolous hypothetical cricketing XI. The concept this time is quite simple: come up with the best possible alphabetical XI in…
A talking point that often comes up regarding the state of cricket is the balance between bat and ball. Many people say that in…
This article is another contribution to the annual state-of-the-game hand-wringing festival, so if you’re over that already, I totally understand and you’re free to…
With all this imposed indoors time, I’ve been conjuring up any number of imaginary XIs, and here’s my latest idle idea: beautiful versus ugly.…
Despite the complete lack of cricket to watch, I’ve found this period of time to be quite conducive to random pondering and what ifs.…
Every time the Olympics come around, or perhaps at any moment for our sport-mad brains, we wonder which country is the best at sport.…
What’s the best place to watch highlights and live stuff? Struggling to find a reliable website
'F--- yeah!' McKeown's live TV f-bomb after thrilling, emotional gold medal win
Bit of a late reply, missed this article.
I agree that the modern, contemporary Olympics are a rort and a commercial fiesta, but I don’t think it’ll be so easy to do away with it as you suggest. Obviously all those fatcats are a major barrier, but another one are the athletes themselves.
For lots of athletes the Olympics is still the pinnacle, an almost sacred event which they’ll never let go. I know it depends on the sport, but at least for sports like athletics they’ll fight tooth and nail for it. I remember just a few years ago the elite athletics community were outraged when a state-level athlete dared to get an aspirational tattoo of the Olympic rings, which should supposedly be reserved only for those who have actually competed there. You’d be fighting against a community like that
‘World is rejecting them’: Have the Olympics run their race?
Nice to see more articles about running! Thanks for writing this
Ellie Pashley's marathon effort for her first Olympic Games
Ok fair enough, I’d forgotten the exact numbers. Am I right in thinking that the current limit for pace bowlers is 10 and for spinners it’s 15?
Cricket’s debatable statistics: The team strength effect
But the laws weren’t changed to accommodate him. They tested Murali, found a certain degree of flexion, but then tested heaps of other ‘normal’ bowlers and found that practically everyone had a roughly similar amount. So their choice was to either ban most international bowlers, or change the rules. They took the sensible option and changed the rules.
Cricket’s debatable statistics: The team strength effect
If he helps take them to the final or even win it, do you think he’d be forgiven by all the SA followers for the way he left the national team?
The numbers that prove AB de Villiers is a genius
I think instead playing at a variety of locations would develop greater flexibility and adaptability in our players, which we need our current players to be far more than we need them to be specialists at one or two grounds.
I really like all the author’s ideas, and think the ambitions are realistic
Five ideas to revive crowd numbers in the Marsh Cup and Sheffield Shield
I consider myself a cricket nuffy but not so much with the TV stuff, so let me know if this left-field idea is too silly…but what about ABC or SBS? They’re obviously both FTA and I assume without all the bad blood of the other guys. I still remember fondly SBS covering the 2005 Ashes, that was well done. Is there any chance of something like that happening?
Cricket Australia’s win over Seven and what it means for the game
I agree with some other comments i’ve seen that Green at 5 and Head at 6 would be better, for two reasons: Green’s defence is better, and Head seems better at starting innings quickly
Marnus resorts to bowling seam-up to try and stop rampaging Cameron Green
Haha jamb away, whatever that is! I don’t entirely subscribe to the rugby countries => better fielders theory, I just mentioned it as something I’ve heard not infrequently. I think it’d be a factor, just as AFL would be a factor, but one among many
The ultimate fielding XI
You’re very true, good fielding is definitely more than just the highlights. Point taken
And you’re right about Steve Smith, he’s good for speccies but he can also drop some gimmes
The ultimate fielding XI
A fair few of the golden oldies here have mentioned Gus Logie, I should jump on Youtube to check him out. Cheers for your comment!
The ultimate fielding XI
Yeah it was hard giving a Pom a mention, but he deserved it! I still vividly remember that ODI catch he took off Hayden at backward point, he seemed to jump off an invisible step-ladder to pluck it
The ultimate fielding XI
You’re right, I should have said “…yet”. I haven’t seen all that baseball stuff but I’ve read opinions about its applicability for cricket, and it sounds like it’s still a few years away at least. Could be an awesome game-changer though when it does come in, I’ll be hanging onto those stats
The ultimate fielding XI
Hi Rellum, Maxwell was very close. For me he was next in line for a position on the ring, but I grew up watching Clarke and Symonds rule that area, so I had to give it to them.
Guptill’s there for his work in the outfield, which I haven’t seen Kane do as much of. If they’re competing for a position in the cordon then yep, Kane would get it over Guptill.
The other guys you mentioned I haven’t seen, so can’t comment. I agree Brett Lee was sharp, but I feel Mitch J was more athletic in his jumping and whatnot
McCullum’s an interesting one. He’s more of a personal favourite, and almost just because of that one feature I mentioned (hurling himself after balls at the boundary rope).
The ultimate fielding XI
Nice call on Bichel, I haven’t seen much of his fielding. Was he at his best as an outfielder, infielder or in the slips?
The ultimate fielding XI
Warner is very good, you’re right, and Hayden was my next choice for a cordon position (although Graeme Smith would be aheadh of him if I needed a pure slipper).
I agree Pat Cummins is very athletic and pulls of some sensational run-outs, but I haven’t seen him taken as many speccies as Boult or Southee
The ultimate fielding XI
I was a bit sneaky and combined a few places from both ODI and Test. You’re right if it were a real playing XI I’d need a few more slippers, but I’ve never found their work as visually spectacular as outfielding so I think that’s why they didn’t make it to this XI
The ultimate fielding XI
Hi Rowdy, no I’ve never seen Mallett, too young for him.
And maybe 10+ years ago I’d agree that we were the pre-eminent catching team, but recent years I’m not so sure. We’ve still got the occasional freakish fielder (Maxwell, maybe?), but I feel like I’m seeing more regulation drops than before. Probably all these current players got pulled into pathway cricket too early, without all that AFL and rugby to help
The ultimate fielding XI
Pool cricket is great, wild training for short ball prep and reaction times when the ball skims up off a mini wave. Awesome for classic catches too
Our backyard pitch was in the road category (driveway), but you can bring balance back when leaves sticks and gumnuts fall onto it. They’re definitely enough for the bowler
Five of the best: Celebrating the most fabled backyard cricket pitches
Unbelievable! I’ve been working on an article and system for measuring fielding as well! Yours is nice, using the average value of a wicket is something I didn’t think about. I’ll keep going with my article and publish it eventually, just want to make sure you know it’s not a copycat!
Cricket needs a fielding score. How about this one?
how about Hazle-mins? sounds like hazel-mints
The Liebke Ratings: Australia vs India, first Test
I think he said that the boards would be compelled to pull the money directly from the players’ contract funds, in which case they would very much care!
Who should wear the penalties for slow play?
You’re right of course, the Olympics do disproportionately favour individual sports, and especially those with several events. But that’s an issue with the Olympics themselves, not any attempt to measure them.
More broadly though, some might argue that’s how the Olympics should be – for a lot of those team sports the Olympics isn’t the pinnacle of their sport, and that originally the Olympics was really meant to be just for individual athletes.
'Punching above our weight': Who really won the Olympics?