Monthly Archives: December 2015

The Convert

T20

20151219_182232

Hallelujah! Last night I took my two young daughters to our first T20 match.

Wow.

I haven’t been living in a cave – I know T20 cricket has become extremely popular in recent years – but I confess I had underestimated the extent to which the promoters of the Big Bash League have successfully packaged the format as family entertainment. I know I’m late in reaching this conclusion and that there are plenty of families out there who realized this ages ago (perhaps it was the 26,000 people at the stadium who gave it away), but that doesn’t lessen the impact of the revelation.

I finally understood that when we think of T20 we need to let go of the idea that it is all about the cricket. That’s only part of it. The spectacle, noise, fun and the involvement of children as fans is at least as important as the game itself. Most of us are familiar with the trademarks of T20 cricket – fireworks at the beginning of the innings, flame jets that erupt when boundaries are scored, electric bails that flash when the stumps are broken, rock music blaring between deliveries, gyrating cheerleaders and costume-clad mascots doing backflips on the sidelines, and Rocket Man, who flies across the stadium at half-time wearing a jet pack – but you really have to attend a game with your kids to understand how much fun the whole package actually is. I don’t follow any football code but might have twigged earlier if I did, because what’s happening in the BBL obviously resembles the franchise-based club system that has worked so well in other sports.

Having said all that, it’s also important to note the standard of the cricket is improving with the BBL now in its fifth year. Four or five years ago, T20 appeared (in my humble opinion) a slap-dash business, with batsmen swatting at everything and hoping for the best, and bowlers banging the ball in and crossing their fingers. At the time, there just didn’t seem to be that much skill involved, and that turned me off. It seemed mostly random.

But things have changed. Even the staunchest Test cricket adherent would – or at least should – acknowledge that T20 requires a skill set that overlaps with but is not identical to that required in the longer forms. Pacing a run chase between the 10th and 20th overs, bowling at the death, even catching a high ball under lights – you don’t walk out of Test or even 50-over cricket and automatically possess these talents. The best T20 players have taken some time to develop these skills and one can’t deny that some of them are darn good at what they do.

As Geoff Lawson correctly notes, it is possible that the strong start to this BBL season is related in part to the low standard of the touring West Indies Test team (and to that I would add the dreadful quality of the flat pitches for the Brisbane and Perth Tests against New Zealand). It has been one of the poorest summers of Test cricket in years, and some Test cricket fans desperate for something to watch are being driven into the arms of the T20 promoters. I’m one of them.

And while Lawson is not the first to suggest a tiered Test cricket competition in which only the best teams are invited to play against Australia, I also think he has a point when he suggests the success of the domestic T20 tournament may actually play a part in making this happen, when he writes,

‘If a domestic tournament can out-rate and out-draw the international team, then CA may look at only inviting the big three Test countries – South Africa, England and India – in the future and expand the BBL franchises. If money alone rather than investment in the diverse nature of the game is the deciding factor, then the face of cricket in Australia may be in for a rapid slap.’

But back to my family’s experience.

My two girls had an absolute blast. Okay, shucks, so did I.

Even before the end of the game (which our home team lost), the eldest was asking when we could come again to see another match. Yes, they will want home team merchandise (baseball caps, T-shirts, banners) and yes, I will buy at least some of that stuff for them. Score another for the promoters. When I told my eldest daughter of the Women’s BBL she was wide-eyed: ‘You mean, I can play cricket, too?’

Yikes.

 

Discounting Shaun Marsh’s New Suit

2015-16 W Indies in Aus, , ,

In the old Hans Christian Andersen tale ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, only a child is prepared to state the obvious and declare the emperor naked. Let me be that child.

The West Indies have had a brand new suit designed and stitched for Shaun Marsh. Once dressed in his finery, Shaun Marsh can continue his masquerade as the ‘talented’ Test cricketer the selectors and certain over-enthusiastic commentators have always claimed he is. The selectors appear to have heaved a big sigh of relief, assuring themselves they weren’t wrong after all, that at long last Marsh has delivered on his promise. So much so, in fact, that it is suggested Joe Burns may be jettisoned for the 2nd Test so that Marsh may be retained when Usman Khajawa returns after injury.

This would be an awful travesty.

Disclaimer: OK, I admit it: I’m a Shaun Marsh skeptic. Always have been. I think he’s the ‘new Shane Watson’; i.e. he has the appearance of a Test cricketer but lacks the temperament and skill to hold a long-term place in Australia’s batting line-up. I also think he tends to achieve Test selection despite lacking the track record to justify it. He’s just. Not. Good. Enough.

I don’t wish to beat up on the woeful West Indies team – too may in the media have already done that and I have nothing to add – so let’s save time and be blunt. They are rubbish, and runs scored against them simply shouldn’t be valued as highly as runs scored against any of the other six decent Test-playing nations. Any rational observer should apply a huge discount to the value of Marsh’s innings of 182 against the West Indies in Hobart. The West Indies’ bowling attack would hardly threaten the local Under-11s, and the pitch – while not as mind-numbingly flat as Perth – contained few gremlins. The West Indies’ only decent fast bowler, Shannon Gabriel, departed injured after over only ten overs. Kemar Roach was appalling. I like Jason Holder a lot but the guy bowls only at medium pace (calling him ‘fast-medium’ is being kind). Jomel Warrican did his best and credit to him for nabbing Steve Smith’s wicket, but he wasn’t threatening thereafter.

Prior to the 1st Test, Marsh’s Test average after 16 matches was 32.57. This number is not some sort of aberration or statistical distortion that somehow masks his true worth – it represents Marsh’s achievements across the not inconsiderable number of 29 Test innings. And it isn’t good enough. After Hobart, Marsh’s average stands at 37.72, still not exceptional but it flatters him nonetheless.

It is no surprise to see Shane Watson today expressing his hope that Marsh’s big innings against West Indies will silence the latter’s critics. Himself a chronic underperformer, Watson just doesn’t get it, and never did. A good Test batsman makes runs under pressure against GOOD opposition teams and does so with some regularity. Watson could not manage it, and Marsh has not, either.

Meanwhile, Joe Burns does not deserve to be axed. He has played only 6 Tests, having been anointed as Chris Rogers’ successor, and while his performances to date have been a little inconsistent, his Test average of 40.36 is perfectly acceptable and the left-right hand combination is worth preserving. The selectors are often criticized for not sticking with the players they choose. If Burns was the right batsman to open with David Warner a week ago, then he still should be, regardless of Shaun Marsh’s performance. He is still only 26 (Marsh is 32), and if the selectors truly wish to nurture younger players for the longer term, Burns is clearly the more sensible bet of the two.

Let’s be clear. Shaun Marsh was only called up when Khawaja succumbed to injury. All other things being equal, no amount of runs against this hopeless West Indies team is enough reason to retain him over either Burns or Khawaja if the latter two are fit. Tough bikkies, to be sure, but any other move would consign the selection policy to the realm of the utterly illogical (where it is already teetering after the Coulter-Nile inclusion).

 

‘Gut Feeling’ Makes Me Queasy

2015-16 W Indies in Aus, , , , , , , , , , , ,

So Nathan Coulter-Nile has been included in the Test squad for the 1st Test against West Indies in Hobart on a ‘gut feeling’ by selectors.

Oh dear. And the selectors had been doing so well. Despite the loss of the Ashes in 2015, I think the selectors did a pretty good job on that tour (see our earlier post ‘Lay Off the Selectors’). Time to give them a kicking.

Although we’re talking about the selection of 12th and 13th men who may not play in the First Test in Hobart, this selection is potentially more important than it seems. Mitchell Johnson is gone. Mitchell Starc is out injured for a while. Peter Siddle has a sore back. Josh Hazlewood has shouldered a heavy workload recently. James Pattinson is returning from injury and is hardly reliable when it comes to fitness. It is far from inconceivable that Coulter-Nile and even Scott Boland, the standby bowler or ’13th man’, could be playing in the Test XI before the end of the West Indies series.

The selectors have admitted they picked Coulter-Nile due to his ability to bowl fast. In other words, he fitted into their ‘velocity philosophy’. Hmm.

Yes, Coulter-Nile is relatively quick. But he also bowls far too short most of the time and does not (at least in my impression) move the ball appreciably off the seam. His first-class record is okay but hardly earth-shattering (see table below).

Victorian coach and former England bowling coach David Saker has labelled Coulter-Nile’s selection ‘ridiculous’ and accuses the selectors of looking only for pace at the expense of bowlers who can ‘put the ball in the right areas’. Saker is not a member of the Australian establishment and can afford to lob a few grenades, and it’s not unusual for state coaches to complain when their own players are overlooked for higher honours. But I think Saker is largely correct.

Chairman of selectors Rod Marsh said of Coulter-Nile “we’ve been very pleased with the way he’s gone when he has played” and “we think he is ready to compete at Test level if required.”

Really, Rod? What makes you think that? Coulter-Nile’s first-class career has been adequate for a Sheffield Shield player, but he has not been among the leading wicket-takers in the domestic competition in recent years. He’s taken 22 wickets in 13 ODIs at an average of 26.50, which is okay but not exactly stellar. He’s never taken a 5-wicket haul in his ODI career, for example. And, as Marsh readily concedes, he has not even played a red ball game since last season due to injury. Coulter-Nile was picked for Australia A’s tour of India in July-August 2015 but did not even play in either of the team’s two first-class games against India A! If he was on the cusp on Test selection, why was he selected only for the triangular one-day series against India A and South Africa A?

First-class careers
AgeMatWktsAveEconSR
Behrendorff, J25228625.223.1548
Bird, J294117024.443.0647.9
Boland, S26267130.142.8563.3
Bollinger, D3410736727.193.1651.6
Coulter-Nile, N283511928.973.1155.7
Faulkner, J255517923.972.9249.2
Fekete, A30217428.953.1754.6
Mennie, J273210929.892.9361.1

The usual refrain we hear at this point is ‘well, who else could they have picked?’ Well, there’s a bit of a list, actually, starting most conspicuously with Jackson Bird.

Only a few days ago,  Cricket Australia’s own website tipped Bird as a likely member of the Test squad to face the West Indies. It’s harsh that he has been left out. Is it his age? Doubtful. He’ll turn 29 next week so he’s hardly over the hill. Bird struggled with injury after taking 11 wickets against Sri Lanka in his first two Tests in 2012-13. However, he has since bounced back with 18 wickets in seven matches in the 2014-15 Sheffield Shield and an additional 18 wickets already in four games in the 2015-16 competition, including 5/69 last week against South Australia. I think Bird is entitled to feel a little hard done by. Perhaps the selectors feel Bird is a little too similar in style to Hazlewood; i.e. not the fastest bowler but one who hits the deck and tries to extract sideways movement. But, as Saker says, it’s not all about raw pace. At least it shouldn’t be, especially now that traditionally hard and fast pitches like the Gabba and the WACA have been unrecognizable this season for their dullness.

Scott Boland, on the other hand, is a good choice for backup bowler. He took a total of 43 wickets in the last two Sheffield Shield season and has already bagged 12 in three matches so far in the 2015-16 season including an eye-catching 7/31 against Western Australia last week. And he’s in that ‘sweet spot’ in terms of age;  old enough for his body to have matured enough to tolerate the stresses of fast bowling but young enough to play for a few years yet.

Sheffield Shield wickets
2013-142014-152015-16*SUM
Behrendorff, J3114954
Bird, J-181836
Boland, S18251255
Bollinger, D25241261
Coulter-Nile, N1417-31
Faulkner, J45918
Fekete, A20371269
Mennie, J19171753
No. of Shield games
Behrendorff, J64212
Bird, J-7411
Boland, S88319
Bollinger, D78318
Coulter-Nile, N46-10
Faulkner, J2338
Fekete, A610319
Mennie, J79420

Surely WA’s Jason Behrendorff was on the cusp of selection as well, but has succumbed to injury and will be out for at least a month. Shame. Doug Bollinger is in good form but will probably be a last choice selection due to his age. Joe Mennie? He’s going to have to up the ante. Billy Stanlake? Too soon.

I’ve always believed James Faulkner should be a permanent member of the Test team but presumably the selectors feel he is too similar to Mitchell Marsh (the two have identical first-class batting averages). This is especially true now that they may promote Peter Nevill to No. 6 and drop Mitchell Marsh down the batting order to No. 7, where he will slot into the sort of position that Faulkner would otherwise occupy.

So for my money, Bird should have been picked first, with Boland as back-up bowler. State players are told to produce results if they want to be picked for the Test team. It’s not supposed to be about ‘gut feeling’. Bird traversed a long road to return from injury, and has been taking wickets. Instead, he is overlooked for a guy who hasn’t played for months, doesn’t move the ball and wasn’t even deemed good enough to play for Australia A in their recent red ball games in India.

Bird is entitled to be peeved.