Test Frank Worrell Trophy Third Test (D/N) West Indies v Australia July 12-16 0400hrs 13/7 @ Sabina Park, Jamaica

[BGman]

Is here where we are posting on the T20 Windies series. If so, Mitchell Owen will make his debut. Been following this master blaster for past two years, home and in England where he played pro cricket in the Lancashire League.

 

[Soggy2112]

*wickets IN Sri Lanka add to his record.


His wickets against Sri Lanka here don’t add a lot to it. They’ve never so much as drawn a test in Australia without help from rain; they’re 0-2-13 and even one of the two draws was 8-down on the last day during a top end series 20 years ago.

3 five wicket hauls in 4 matches and an average of 22. Ironically his one pink ball home test against them ‘ruins’ his record.

If you went through and forensically analysed every players career you would find their record is better when the opposition is weaker and the conditions suited them. That’s the nature of sport.

It something that we only seem to do with Starc. Not to speak ill of the dead, but if Warney hadn’t gone so hard on him I doubt a lot of this narrative would exist.

 

[PhatBoy]

If you went through and forensically analysed every players career you would find their record is better when the opposition is weaker and the conditions suited them. That’s the nature of sport.

It something that we only seem to do with Starc. Not to speak ill of the dead, but if Warney hadn’t gone so hard on him I doubt a lot of this narrative would exist.

No of course that’s true and as I said I am someone who routinely defends Starc and rates him highly

 

[Soggy2112]

No of course that’s true and as I said I am someone who routinely defends Starc and rates him highly

It’s also interesting how it’s only a narrative that exists here really. I’ve heard many journos/former players from other countries say that they’re confused at why Starc is not thought of more highly in Australia.

 

[Gough]

If you went through and forensically analysed every players career you would find their record is better when the opposition is weaker and the conditions suited them. That’s the nature of sport.

It something that we only seem to do with Starc. Not to speak ill of the dead, but if Warney hadn’t gone so hard on him I doubt a lot of this narrative would exist.

If you breath the air that players like Warne and Starc do failures against certain teams are footnotes in their careers rather than defining features. One of the narratives running through this summer will be can Joe Root score a century here but it won't make him any less of a player if he can't.

 

[PhatBoy]

Just watching a Windies-centric Podcast on YouTube called PowettPlay, it’s an English fellow who I don’t recognise along with former West Indies opener Kieran Powell, who actually still plays domestic cricket so he plays against these guys that were in action.

He made some really interesting and good points.

- the current bowling attack pending its fourth member - Warrican is capable but needs to be a good holding bowler when conditions don’t suit - has a legitimate chance to become the best in the world over the coming years. Australia’s is going to lose 4 of its core 5 in the next few years. England’s attack is not a set-in-stone attack and varies between really capable and really ordinary. NZ have a big job to replace Southee, Boult and Wagner. Henry is bowling really well but is old. Jameson is a gun but they need a lot more.
Pakistan don’t have a lot at the moment. Neither do Sri Lanka.
India have Bumrah who is obviously a superstar but behind him they just have ‘capable’ bowlers. South Africa are obviously the main one as Jansen is still a kid, Rabada is not long turned 30, Burger and Coetzee are young, Mphaka has already had a taste of test cricket.
Pending Shamar Joseph’s….. future. Which could be in jail, and Alzarri continuing the trend of the second half of his career to date which has seen him average under 30, there is a real opportunity there to build something.

- Setting the batsmen up to fail. He pointed to obviously the pitch quality and how the justification was used to drop Hodge and Athanaze that they ‘don’t want batsmen averaging in the 20s’ but brought this new group in to bat in conditions that were not going to allow them to do any better. And these grounds in some cases don’t have a heavy roller that is an actual heavy roller in comparison to other nations. He went further too by pointing to Mikyle Louis and Kevlon Anderson and how they especially were set up to fail by being brought in for one match to play against a pink ball under lights. That is not going to help any young player. It was a stupid selection. He mentioned that Brathwaite - who was his own opening partner for basically all his career - had been given a long time to regain his form, probably too long, but really why would you pick that last test to drop him. Of all the options wouldn’t you think HE would be the guy that might be capable of blunting the pink ball?

- the conditions and equipment are not good enough and that for a lot of the franchise (domestic franchise, not T20 franchise) players, they don’t even see a cricket pitch during a lot of their training, they just get stuck in a gym. They don’t have access to grounds a lot of the time.

- he cited Enoch Lewis from the Leewards board who he called an ‘idiot’ who is also on the WICB and said ‘for 30 years we’ve been going downhill and he’s been there - is that a coincidence? And he’s been an acting CEO for Leeward Islands for five years. Are you telling me he can’t find a CEO in FIVE years?’

He had a pretty straightforward albeit logistically hard solution if players aren’t keen to do it. Take your best 5-6 players from the under 17s [remembering that the WI have no problem being competitive in these age groups btw] and you get them a facility where they can board, you find the best credentialed coach, you work with them EVERY day, we have sunshine 330 days a year. You take them on tour to England, to SA, to SL where they can work against spin, and you home school them, you work on their fitness, you work on their mental game. That’s how much it is going to take but you do it.’

- he said that these guys who made the 27 will go back to their domestic franchises to practice and they will struggle to get a pitch to practice on so no wonder they got 27.

Was a very interesting listen

 

[toml]

JFM wondering in this T20 squad despite not been named initially and getting put straight to the top of the order. Absolute hack. I remember his 50's on list A and shield debut years ago and genuinely been excited, looked great. Cross bat, arrogant hack now

 

[PhatBoy]

So just watched another episode of that same podcast I referenced earlier hosted by Keiran Powell.

This one interviewed, was specifically centred around, Joshua Da Silva and Jason Mohammad missing selection for the Australia series.

Everyone will be familiar with Josh Da Silva. Mohammad is a player who has been around for a long long time for the unfamiliar: for a long time he was a player who excelled in List A cricket (he averages 40 over 120 games or so) and played a handful of one dayers for the West Indies. But his first class record was fairly mediocre, he averaged less than 30 for a long time. In recent years he has really excelled and now has 17 first class hundreds and has at least bumped that average up to 32.

I said before the series that they might have the option of looking at him just as a stop gap for this series.

What has retrospectively pissed me off a bit looking at this interview, as Kieran Powell has asked outright: did the selectors reach out to you after you topped the run scoring for the last four day competition?

He said no one called him, but he did reach out to Darren Sammy. Sammy said that runs were no issue but age was, and that they were going in a different direction age wise.

If that’s the case, why did they bring back Campbell who is in his 30s, Chase who is 33, and Hope who will be 32 in a few months?

Sure a 38 year old isn’t an investment in the future but he would have made more runs than Chase and potentially been a good, in form short term solution.

I cannot imagine either he or Da Silva would have been worse options than some of the players in the side that played. I do understand why Da Silva was dropped initially - he had been on a very dry spell - but he’s capable and he’s made big runs since.

He’s made no secret of the fact that he’s desperate to get back in and to ultimately lead the team.

 

[western royboy]

Sat up every night watching the tests and watched most days (nights) till stumps.

Then bought the highlights tape on VHS and basically wore it out watching it over and over again

Traded the Symonds Super Tusker in for a GM Maestro as a result

 

[Rabish Binney]

Traded the Symonds Super Tusker in for a GM Maestro as a result

I had a Maestro for 12 seasons. Best bat I ever used

 

[sherb]

Wasim Akram says hi.....

That's nice of him, considering he doesn't even know me.

 

[Rabish Binney]

I read in last weeks Weekend Australian that WI Cricket president has put out a call to arms to Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Brian Lara to join a committee to address the slide in WI test cricket (sorry cant find it online to post here).

Interestingly, on this, Michael Holding is quoted as saying " to be honest, I have moved on from cricket. The authorities are doing whatever they feel like, irrespective of what anyone says. So I see no need to continue to beat my head against a stone wall. I don't even watch the games anymore so I'm sorry but I cant help you'

Judging from that, I assume that he has tried to help before and been ignored. And to that end, he's had a gutful.

@Phat. Do you know anymore about this?

 

[western royboy]

I had a Maestro for 12 seasons. Best bat I ever used

I had GM’s for the next 20, Maestro, Autograph Original, Purist, Purist II. Great bats

 

[Rabish Binney]

I had GM’s for the next 20, Maestro, Autograph Original, Purist, Purist II. Great bats

Yep no doubt the best bats made

 

[Gough]

Take your dirty talk here.

Cricket bat pr0n

Ok stupid pointless subject. But is it just me or are the current generation of bat makers churning out shlt stickers? The new balance and spartan bats look garbage, so do the Sunridges ones that ever second batsman seems to use these days. Bring back a bit of style a la the classic Gray...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[PhatBoy]

I read in last weeks Weekend Australian that WI Cricket president has put out a call to arms to Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Brian Lara to join a committee to address the slide in WI test cricket (sorry cant find it online to post here).

Interestingly, on this, Michael Holding is quoted as saying " to be honest, I have moved on from cricket. The authorities are doing whatever they feel like, irrespective of what anyone says. So I see no need to continue to beat my head against a stone wall. I don't even watch the games anymore so I'm sorry but I cant help you'

Judging from that, I assume that he has tried to help before and been ignored. And to that end, he's had a gutful.

@Phat. Do you know anymore about this?

Yeah I read the same.

What I would assume is that basically all recommendations essentially just get overlooked.

There are so many false dawns that get overlooked or moved on from because they don’t deliver the results in a time frame quick enough, or because they didn’t deliver results from the right people - ie. an idea that actually worked was suggested by someone that doesn’t get on with the president or a board member so they don’t stick with it, or a person like Holding criticises the wrong person so Holding’s suggestions from that point on get ignored etc.

I’d say more than likely that’s specifically what he’s referring to