General Sport Discussion (non-AFL)

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James North said:
The funniest thing is how the Australian media continue to report that a team is on top after only one team has batted.

They were all smiles yesterday.
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Flick on Fox 500 & the headline story India cut through the inexperienced Australian batting line-up.
Smith, Handscomb & Head were not the issue........ sporting media.
 

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Was pretty disenfranchised with cricket after the ball tampering saga. Paine has really set a great cricket and his series has turned out to be super entertaining. Enjoying our new look team
 
Billy Puller said:
Was pretty disenfranchised with cricket after the ball tampering saga. Paine has really set a great cricket and his series has turned out to be super entertaining. Enjoying our new look team
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Wondering if the new Perth Stadium wickets coming to life after the lunch interval has something to do with the turn of tides on the Swan from low to high?

If it is...11.15 am tomorrow is the next change

https://tides.willyweather.com.au/wa/perth/swan-river--causeway.html
 
I've found Austalian cricket very boring for quite a while. Hard to support the Aussies or any other team. Big Bash is good though.
 
SizeMatters said:
I've given cricket a miss for almost 12 years now. Moved onto better sports such as basketball.
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Sorry sizey but basketball is the biggest waste of athleticism sport has ever seen. I’d rather cut out my testicles with a rust spoon then watch some of the greatest athletes in the world be wasted on a sport that is about as tough and interesting as the s**t that is currently emanating out of my arsehole as I write this post.
 

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So what happened in that first innings :think:
 
It's a sad state of affairs for Australian cricket when Marnus Labuschagne who has a 1st class average of 33 is the best we can come up with. What Joe Burns has to do to get a decent run at it is beyond me, has a test average of 37 with 3 centuries and 4 fifties (better average than both Finch and S.Marsh). Chris Lynn (1st class average 44) who has been pigeon holed as a 20/20 player deserves a go as well IMO.
 
KissKiss said:
There's a twitter post going around showing the 1st class averages of certain Australian players highlighting the current test batting lineup. Its pretty telling even just using a simple measure like career averages.

View attachment 600912
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Thanks for that, doesn't even include Chris Lynn who has a 1st class batting average of 43.53. I think just selecting a batting side purely on averages (as long as the sample size was large enough) would be a better idea than the current flavor of the month player system they seem to have going now.

How the hell Aaron Finch ever got in the side with such a low average over a large sample size is a mystery to me. Mitch Marsh hasn't got a good enough average with bat or ball to be in the side. Shaun Marsh is lucky that the overall standard of Australian batsmen at the moment is so low.

My top 6 for the Ashes. David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Travis Head/Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell.
 
The issue I have with that table is that, Khawaja aside, no-one has a first class record that demands Test selection. I mean, as a comparative exercise, you could say Maxwell deserves to be in the side instead of a few others but even he doesn't average 45+, let alone the 50+ average that many past players had before they got a run at Test level.

I had a look at the Sheffield Shield batting averages from 1994/95 (which happened to be the year Qld won its first Shield). 13 players averaged over 50 for the summer. Another 6 averaged between 45 and 50. Nearly 20 blokes averaged better that year than Maxwell's 44.15.

Taking at a look at the leading runscorers that year, guys like Dean Jones, Darren Lehmann, Martin Love, Mathew Elliott, Tom Moody, Jamie Siddons, Matt Hayden, Stuart Law were scoring big runs that year and had career averages of 45+. And the list doesn't include the likes of Damien Martyn, Michael Bevan and Brad Hodge who had relatively poor years but unbelievably strong careers at first class or international level. At a guess, in 1995, I reckon there were a good 25 blokes with better season or career averages than Maxwell who, as the above table shows, is statistically the second best performed batsman currently eligible to play for Australia.

Team selection is a comparative exercise and so it is obvious to have the debate about who to select. But, to me, a lot of those decisions are marginal when very few players actually deserve selection, at least against the benchmark of history. Maxwell wouldn't have got a run in the country's second XI in the Waugh and Ponting eras. I'd be surprised if half the blokes in the national selection conversation would get a run for their State team. Something has gone badly wrong in how we have produced longer form cricketers. The occasional diamond like Smith or Warner has masked the fact that the system has failed to reproduce the batting depth of 10-20 years ago.

Just on Maxwell, I would have selected him for the Pakistan series. That he wasn't selected there is pretty damning for his future at Test level, i think. I've pretty much stopped thinking he's a viable option at Test level because, quite clearly, successive coaches, captains and selection panels aren't big fans of his. Maybe there is a piece of info that we're not privvy to but, quite clearly, he's not going to get a game any time soon.
 
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