Summer of cricket Australia

[RohitSharma]

Sorry I haven't been active fans, as you know fielding and texting is a hard task. Having biryani and chicken tikka masala and 50+ overs fielding the next day and another day to follow, you the know the work that needs to be put by test cricketers. Impressed by Will Pucuvski, that's why I was pushing for him. Youngster has a bright future but lbw candidate. Expect me to score a double ton when it's my time to bat. Brb tired

 

[mcfazza28]

Australian pitches have always maintained there own characteristics.

Even Perth's stadium mirrors the WACA

The only pitch that has change is Adelaide which was a real featherbed back in the day.

The roads aren't an instruction from CA - more a fiscal imperative for the host state to ensure the game goes 5 days to maximise the hospitality receipts

Totally agree with the link between 5 day tests and revenue. Lords and Oval usually flat and last 5 days.

Headingley, Trent Bridge and Old Trafford are the more exciting grounds but don’t usually last 5 days.

Oz pitches have changed in some respects but stayed the same in others;
- Brisbane always been good balance
- Adelaide always a road (except this year)
- Perth WACA fast, bouncy and heat cracked (never seen test at Optus)
- Melbourne slow tennis ball road (except this year)
-Sydney road that used to spin

I was pleasantly surprised by the Adelaide and Melbourne pitches. This one is a return to type. Cricket in Oz is awesome on pitches like Adelaide and Melbourne this season.

 

[Voice of the G]

Every country tries to maximise advantage in a home series using pitch type, test venue choice, order of tests in series and tour game venue choice:
- India produce turners when the opposition have poor spinners and flat pitches when the opposition have good spinners (e.g. when England came with Swann and Panesar)
- England produce seamers to suit Anderson and Broad and produced dry and dusty in 2013 Ashes to suit Swann. Oz have a good record at Lords and Oval as flattest pitches. England give Oz tour games at non test grounds.
- Australia generally produce flat roads to allow their batsmen to trust the pitch and bat and bowl aggressively (especially against England because seamers play to England’s strengths e.g. 2010/11 Ashes), order the tests to have Brisbane and Perth early in the series and give tour games at non test grounds

Today’s batting performance shows how important roads are as most Oz batsmen play hard at the ball, walk across and flick off the stumps and charge spinners as little turn. They also grew up playing a power game so bowlers use pace and bounce to get wickets on roads.

The first 2 tests show how much better cricket is on a sporting pitch. Lived in Oz and England over my life and watched and played a lot of cricket. England conditions produce a more entertaining balance between bat and ball with Oz a slow grind like India.

South African wickets are a often good too.

England conditions produce a more entertaining balance between bat and ball is not a truer comment.Always remember Massie as a swing bowler in what was it mid 70,s 16 wickets in 2 innings

 

[holybishop]

Pathetic overreaction. What happened to trusting contact tracing? Qld don't deserve the 4th test.

 

[ptrg]

Logical, calm, science based reaction. Short and sharp.
With a highly transmissible strain, stamp it out quickly before it can root itself in.
35% of all British cases to date have occurred in the past 30 days. They are a week away from being beyond ICU capacity.
All states should be thanking QLD for doing this (as should those of Brisbane, and also the northern cities of QLD)

 

[cats_09]

Pathetic overreaction. What happened to trusting contact tracing? Qld don't deserve the 4th test.

Think this is actually a smart decision by QLD and similar to the one that SA made - go quick with these measures, where there may be short term pain for a couple of a days with restricted movements, rather than a wait & see approach which can lead to a longer period of restrictions

With QLD doing this now, if they get on top of this over the next couple of days and show no community transmission then gotta think that it's all good for the 4th test to go ahead in a week - if India gets on a plane...

Without this quick action where they sit on their hands & wait to see what happens over the weekend and there's any spread of the new UK strain in the community - the 4th test definitely wouldn't be going ahead at the GABBA and any restrictions would be in place for a lot longer than 3 days

 

[saj_21]

strange move not to have a hotel for all players and staff from both sides, similar to what the AFL did. If that was the case then their would be no issues about playing at the GABBA

 

[magic_johnson!]

Quite a lucky bounce though that they didn't move the third test to Brisbane, or they'd currently be in a bit of strife.

 

[cats_09]

strange move not to have a hotel for all players and staff from both sides, similar to what the AFL did. If that was the case then their would be no issues about playing at the GABBA

Gotta agree - is that on CA or BCCI for not ensuring that was organised though because it seems like it would be the most obvious option to have done

 

[saj_21]

Gotta agree - is that on CA or BCCI for not ensuring that was organised though because it seems like it would be the most obvious option to have done

seems like my amateur hour from the CA, whose horror administration in 2020 continues in 2021.

 

[saj_21]

Just when you thought 12 months ago Australia had a settled reliable top 7. Now its as fragile, unreliable and unsettled as ever.

 

[Kuuz]

Pathetic overreaction. What happened to trusting contact tracing? Qld don't deserve the 4th test.

The UK strain is 70% more contagious. One only has to look at the dire state the London health department is to understand you cannot take risks with this new strain.

You would be a fool to throw caution to the wind with this.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Totally agree with the link between 5 day tests and revenue. Lords and Oval usually flat and last 5 days.

Headingley, Trent Bridge and Old Trafford are the more exciting grounds but don’t usually last 5 days.

Oz pitches have changed in some respects but stayed the same in others;
- Brisbane always been good balance
- Adelaide always a road (except this year)
- Perth WACA fast, bouncy and heat cracked (never seen test at Optus)
- Melbourne slow tennis ball road (except this year)
-Sydney road that used to spin

I was pleasantly surprised by the Adelaide and Melbourne pitches. This one is a return to type. Cricket in Oz is awesome on pitches like Adelaide and Melbourne this season.

Adelaide hasn't been a road since the day-night Tests started. The pink ball still needs protecting, not as much as did early on when it didn't last 30 overs on abrasive decks. A side effect has been pitches with some grass and life. But by and large Australian venues have moved towards a single blandness. There is still some semblance of the old differences in some cases (even if the Sydney "spinner's paradise" was always over-stated) but its mostly muted.

 

[eddiesmith]

Adelaide hasn't been a road since the day-night Tests started. The pink ball still needs protecting, not as much as did early on when it didn't last 30 overs on abrasive decks. A side effect has been pitches with some grass and life. But by and large Australian venues have moved towards a single blandness. There is still some semblance of the old differences in some cases (even if the Sydney "spinner's paradise" was always over-stated) but its mostly muted.

You really think a pitch where Australia made 2/600 wasn’t a road?

 

[The Prosecutor]

Surprise, surprise. BCCI has requested the fourth test be moved from the Gabba.

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

The Indian Cricket Board has written to Cricket Australia and said it does not want to play the fourth Test in Brisbane because of fears the mutant virus could jeopardise their forthcoming series against England at home.
BCCI officials has also expressed concerns about travelling to a city that is currently in a hard lockdown, but sources said India were still keen to play the fourth Test, but would not risk travelling to Brisbane.

Cricket Australia had just eased India’s concerns over quarantine arrangements in Brisbane before the BCCI changed tact

Interim Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley held an ad-hoc after-stumps meeting with Indian team officials over the fence at the SCG last night, with a final decision on the fate of the Gabba Test looming large.

 

[kenneje]

I dunno, if I take the message from the BCCI at face value, I actually understand where they’re coming from.

 

[eddiesmith]

It’s one thing to play in Sydney with a few cases, but now Victoria has exported the extra contagious British variant to QLD, I don’t see how it would be sensible to go to QLD.

 

[Chaisa]

You really think a pitch where Australia made 2/600 wasn’t a road?

2019 was kind of the exception to the norm, and even then I reckon a bit of it had to do with Pakistan bowling so poorly.

Otherwise since the D/N Test became a thing it's given quite a lot to bowlers.

 

[barrackers]

Good to hear Ponting not hold back and calling it how it is on 7. His view: India seems to be wanting an excuse to avoid playing at the gabba. First hotels, now a fear covid and being sick of bubbles. They signed up for the series, time to get on with it.

 

[magpiemaniac44]

Good to hear Ponting not hold back and calling it how it is on 7. His view: India seems to be wanting an excuse to avoid playing at the gabba. First hotels, now a fear covid and being sick of bubbles. They signed up for the series, time to get on with it.

The fact they said they are scared of getting the virus is insane considering they broke the bubble. Hypocrites.

 

[Badesumofu]

Believe it or not, Cameron Green is now our third highest run scorer for this series.

 

[Redline]

Believe it or not, Cameron Green is now our third highest run scorer for this series.

He did well today but not that hard to beleive. He is one of only four batsman to play every test.

 

[1990crow]

Believe it or not, Cameron Green is now our third highest run scorer for this series.

Shows you how s**t Wade is

 

[ROOTA#6]

The fact they said they are scared of getting the virus is insane considering they broke the bubble. Hypocrites.

they are safer in Brisbane than they are at home in India....they just like to dictate terms on everything these days and unfortunately they tend to get what they want

 

[mcfazza28]

The UK strain is 70% more contagious. One only has to look at the dire state the London health department is to understand you cannot take risks with this new strain.

You would be a fool to throw caution to the wind with this.

The new UK strain started in Kent during their outbreak. I live in South East London (bordering Kent) and know people who have COVID.

Since March 2020 I have hardly left the house, with 14 weeks where I didn’t leave the house at all. We went to dinner for my wife’s birthday in October and sat in a plastic box and felt petrified. Grabbed a couple of takeaway coffees but that’s all in 9 months!

It’s a tough life here at the mo. We are all at home as I was made redundant in October and school is online for my kids.

Had a doctor I know on the edge of tears describing how two of his colleagues have died and how young people are dying and NHS staff are in tears after every shift.

DO NOT TAKE ANY RISKS- THIS STRAIN IS HIGHLY TRANSMISSIBLE AND KILLS!