Cricket Discussion - Part 3

[Grave Danger]

genuinely annoyed at that knobhead groundsman. perfect day for watching cricket on the couch

As long as he got some 'learnings' from it...

 

[raptalia]

Switched my TV on and FOXTEL program guide lists - Test Day: The Ashes 4th Test 3rd day.

Tuned in and wtf happened no cricket. #@@!!!*@

 

[tribey]

genuinely annoyed at that knobhead groundsman. perfect day for watching cricket on the couch

I don’t understand why such a ‘hallowed ground’ is subject to such bipolar extremes.

“I can either serve you up a road that’s flatter and smoother than the autobahn, or a limbphobic minefield Princess Di would’ve campaigned against.”

— “Okay, but… why don’t we meet in the middle and aim for something in-between?…”

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Somebody in the media at end of the Adelaide test, said that Oz has dominated the battle with England ever since the early days. That didn't sound correct to me, unless you had a simple dividing line of pre and post Bradman.

I decided to break that down as I knew a shit load of draws happened in the 1950's and 60's when Richie Benaud wasn't captaining Oz and that in the 70's and 80's England won a lot of tests partly due to Packer's WSC affect, ie Oz lost 0-3 in 1977 when players had signed up and news broke after first test and caused issues and then during WSC 1-5 in 1978-79 when the C grade side played the poms, and we couldn't win in England in 1981 and 1985.

So I've broken it down to first 1877-1929 where Bradman only played 4 tests in 1928-29, scored heavily in only 1 test and England won the series 4-1. That first 50 years was pretty even, with England regularly winning series in Oz and vice versa.

Second, the Bradman era where Bradman dominated and apart from Bodyline series Oz won every series.

Third the 1950's and 1960's lots of draws due to weather in UK, covers were introduced which meant no more sticky wickets and probably post WWII where the British Bulldog mentality meant England would fight for a draw as much as a win. 46% of tests were draws in this era

Fourth 1970-1988, despite Lillee and Thompson, the Chappells, Marsh, Walters, Border etc England won 6 series, Oz 3 and 1 drawn series in 1972 when Ian Chappell's side fought back to win 5th test and square the series.

Fifth then from 1989 series when Oz cricket restructured, Border toughened up and got sick of losing, introduced the cricket academy, the whole coaching structure at the elite level changed, and had a massive amount of talent come thru in that period from 1985, starting with Steve Waugh thru to 2000, more money came into the game, central contracts etc, whilst English cricket stagnated.

Take out 2005, 2009, 2010-11 and 2013 when England won 4 out of 5 series and Oz has absolutely dominated England this 35 year period, winning 12 of the other series and England 1, in 2015 (3-2) and Drawn the last 2 in England, in 2019 and 2023.

YEARS	ERA	PLAY	AUS	ENG	DRAW	W/L RATIO
1877-1929	Early days	119	48	46	25	1.04
1930-1948	Bradman	34	16	9	9	1.78
1949-1969	Boring draws	50	16	11	23	1.45
1970-1988	Pre/Post WSC	60	17	22	21	0.77
1989-2025	1989 +	102	58	25	19	2.32
1877-2025	TOTAL	365	155	113	97	1.37

 

[raptalia]

Let us not forget that when World Series Cricket burst on the scene in the late seventies Australia applied a blanket ban on all cricketers playing in Packer's circus As a result Australia lost the services of Ian and Greg Chappell, Walters, Marsh, Lillie to name a few while England fielded a full strength side including Boycott, Gower, Randall, Willis and Botham. England won the 78/79 Ashes series 5-1 in a six Test series.

 

[Duck Farmer]

Let us not forget that when World Series Cricket burst on the scene in the late seventies Australia applied a blanket ban on all cricketers playing in Packer's circus As a result Australia lost the services of Ian and Greg Chappell, Walters, Marsh, Lillie and Thompson to name a few while England fielded a full strength side including Boycott, Gower, Randall, Willis and Botham. England won the 78/79 Ashes series 5-1 in a six Test series.

Yeah, but we wheeled out the corpse of Bob Simpson so no excuses.

 

[raptalia]

Yeah, but we wheeled out the corpse of Bob Simpson so no excuses.

That didn't make any difference to the 5-1 scoreline as Bob Simpson did not play in that 78/79 Ashes series but he did Captain Australia against the full might of the West Indies in the Carribean the previous year.

England were never going to win a series 5-1 in Australia if the Chappells, Lillie, Marsh etc. were available which is the point I was making.

 

[philreich]

Yeah, but we wheeled out the corpse of Bob Simpson so no excuses.

Maybe that's the answer - bring back 64 year old David Boon as opener .

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Yeah, but we wheeled out the corpse of Bob Simpson so no excuses.

Nope he only played against India and the West Indies (only first 2 tests they used WSC players) then retired again.

The ashes series he let the ACB work out what the hell to do whilst the A and B side were playing for Packer.

 

[philreich]

Exactly 31 years since Shane Warne's hat trick at the MCG. Pity there's no cricket there today!!!!!

 

[Papa G]

Exactly 31 years since Shane Warne's hat trick at the MCG. Pity there's no cricket there today!!!!!

The upside is we dont have to witness that cringey hat gesture again.

 

[Duck Farmer]

The upside is we dont have to witness that cringey hat gesture again.

Having a shag followed by a dart would be a more authentic tribute.

 

[afl2004]

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This is Australia's test, ODI and T20I schedule for the next 23 months up to end of 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in October and November 2027.

Cricket Australia and ICC haven't announced who will be touring Oz for test matches in summer of 2027-28 or 2028-29 but India will tour Oz one of those 2 summers, and the poms will be back here in 2029-30.

There is a T20 WC in India and Sri-Lanka in February and March and you know that Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc will be pushing hard to make that squad as they also will be for the 2027 World Cup if they haven't retired by then. I expect 2021 T20 WC and 2023 ODI WC to repeat and Oz selectors pick 7 or 8 test regulars along with white ball specialist for the rest of the squad.

2023 WC team for the final had then test regulars Head, Warner, Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Smith, Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood.

There will be more ODI's and T20I's added before the 2027 WC to the schedule.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

In late November on SBS' channel 35 international news channel, I saw this German DW English News story on cricket in Afghanistan. Its a bit bizarre that it takes a German news agency to go to Afghanistan and do a deep dive on cricket and not a news agency from UK or Oz or India.

They follow one hopeful 22 year old man trying to make it to the national team, and talk to one of the pioneers who took the game from Pakistani refugee camps back to Afghanistan. They look at the position of women's team, the ban and the group of Afghani women players who are now based in Oz. The pioneer they interview along with many others, toe the Taliban line and don't want the women playing cricket.

The Taliban, who banned most sports before the yanks kicked them out in 2001, have now backed the men's team since the yanks and other western forces left in 2021 and they got back into power. They have learnt that the national men's cricket team is so popular that it would be foolish not to back them and try and get some of their glory attached to them.

And some of the fields and pitches the locals play on, shows how crazy and passionate they are about the game.

Its one of the best long form sports news story I have ever seen.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The McGrath/Gillespie/Lee/Warne quartet or McGrath/Lee/Warne/McGill quartet ended in January 2007 but had been around for a decade.

It took until 2017 before the Starc/Hazlewood/Cummins/Lyon quartet got together, they probably have 2 more years together and have been so successful.

When they go it will probably take another decade to find a similarly successful quartet.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Rick Finlay has produced his 2025 Calendar Year stats.


Only 3 draws in 42 tests - Windies have capitulated to bottom of the ladder




Head ends up 2nd highest run scorer despite a poor stat of the year - ends strongly in Ashes tests and whilst only averaging 37 in Windies series it was the highest average of all players and made the most number of runs - 224 runs in 6 innings. Gill made 5 centuries, at least 4 of them in England.







Starc's dominate Ashes series puts him top of wicket takers







Carey has had a great year with the gloves as well as the bat where he finished 6th on most runs



Brook had a big year at slips and Smith as always is up there.

 

[jb04]

Been a little while since the Strikers have got up on NYE, I forgot what this felt like.

 

[philreich]

Been a little while since the Strikers have got up on NYE, I forgot what this felt like.

My son is a Big Bash stats guru - says that the Strikers' last win on new year's eve was in 2019.

 

[raptalia]

My son is a Big Bash stats guru - says that the Strikers' last win on new year's eve was in 2019.

I would not know as I am not an avid BBL watcher.

It wouldn't be a Test in Sydney if it didn't rain at some stage. Rain is forecast for the 4th and 5th in Sydney. The BOM is predicting a possible storm on Jan 4th.

 

[philreich]

I would not know as I am not an avid BBL watcher.

It wouldn't be a Test in Sydney if it didn't rain at some stage. Rain is forecast for the 4th and 5th in Sydney. The BOM is predicting a possible storm on Jan 4th.

At least the rain should ensure that the match goes beyond day 2.

 

[tribey]

Yeah, but we wheeled out the corpse of Bob Simpson so no excuses.

I recently saw a thing about England sending an SOS to 41 year old Colin Cowdrey to come out of international retirement and bat against Lillee and Thomson in their pomp at the WACA of all places.

I expected to see some superfit looking guy still capable of pulling up trees, and instead he strolled out resembling Mark Rylance driving the boat in Dunkirk.

 

[1954]

I recently saw a thing about England sending an SOS to 41 year old Colin Cowdrey to come out of international retirement and bat against Lillee and Thomson in their pomp at the WACA of all places.

I expected to see some superfit looking guy still capable of pulling up trees, and instead he strolled out resembling Mark Rylance driving the boat in Dunkirk.

There was a Paul Rigby cartoon that was printed in the Advertiser during the 1974-75 Ashes series in response to the poms bringing out Cowdrey to face Lillee and Thompson, it showed a large wooden crate being delivered to their dressing room.

When it was opened it contained a mummified WG Grace.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Yesterday I listened to SEN's know your history segment on podcast about the Centenary Test in 1977 with Shannon Gill on the drive program by Adam Collins and Bharat Sundaresan on what would have been the 4th day's play on Monday.

You can listen to what happened, how it took 18 months to plan and that it was suggested and the ball set rolling by Hans Ebling who played 1 ashes test in 1934, was a RAAF pilot in WWII, was on the board of the MCC and after the Centenary Test became its president, at the link below. They also had some interesting suggestions about what to do for the 150th test anniversary given its going to be a day night pink test and had put them CA's CEO Tony Greenberg.

My first suggestion is that the curator cuts the bloody grass on both the pitch and outfield and bad luck if the pink ball gets scuffed up and goes soft and looses its shine. Make sure the test goes deep into day 5 like in 1977.





There were about 244 living ashes players and umpires from both countries still alive in 1977 and 218 attended. The 2 notable exceptions who didn't travel because of health issues were Frank Woolley who was 89 and made his test debut in 1909 and Herbert Sutcliffe who was 82. Both passed away in 1978.

They tried to work out how many players might still be alive and I think they said about 300.

Last night I did a quick 20 minute calculation by setting the Cricinfo Statsguru Query at 1 Jan 1956 as the start date for players who played an Ashes test since then. Oz has 211 players and England 234.

I have it that Oz has 162 players still alive and England 173 players, but I could have missed 2 or 3 players who have passed away. If they invite umpires then maybe another 12-15 might get an invite given neutral umpires have been around for about 2 decades.

Unfortunately probably 6 to 10 players will pass away before March next year, maybe more.

Also its sad that at the moment, both sides from 1977 Centenary Test will each be missing 4 players. Oz - David Hookes, Rod Marsh, Max Walker and Gus Gilmour and England - Bob Woolmer., Tong Greg, Bob Willis and Derek Underwood. Hopefully all other 14 players will remain in good health and get to the MCG in March 2027.

The twelfth men for the two teams were Ray Bright ( 25 tests) and Mike Selvey (3 tests) are still alive, but neither played in an ashes test match. I wonder if they will get an invite?

 

[Ford Fairlane]

I recently saw a thing about England sending an SOS to 41 year old Colin Cowdrey to come out of international retirement and bat against Lillee and Thomson in their pomp at the WACA of all places.

I expected to see some superfit looking guy still capable of pulling up trees, and instead he strolled out resembling Mark Rylance driving the boat in Dunkirk.

Looks like we lost this in the upgrade