Monthly Archives: November 2013

Ashes Countdown 2013/14: Radio rights still an issue … wake up Cricket Australia!!!!

November 19, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

I have been shocked to read today that the rights to cover the Ashes test matches on the radio have not yet been decided between the incumbent broadcaster, ABC Grandstand, and Cricket Australia ostensibly because Cricket Australia has demanded it alone will host the link to the streaming of the radio commentary through its website. This, of course, would leave the ABC without the ability to display the link on its own website.

That’s right folks: Cricket Australia is seeking to restrain ABC Grandstand from, in effect, publicising and playing the ABC’s own content on its own website.

I have said it before and I will say it again: James Sutherland and Cricket Australia have lost the plot with this strategy. The traditions of the game in this country include the ability of people to listen to the game on the national broadcaster. It has been so for some 83 years. Surely Mr Sutherland and his merry band can see that sometimes tradition is more important than commercial imperative? Indeed, is not this stance actually also likely to have a negative effect on Cricket Australia’s brand with its most ardent of followers (who listen to the game on the ABC) thereby effecting it commercially?

James Sutherland and Cricket Australia need to wake up and listen to the fans of the game, like me, rather than sound of CA’s ever increasing bank balance and retain one of the longest standing traditions in our game. If not because it is right thing to do then because they are, in my opinion, going to lose more fans than they gain by maintaining their position.

Ashes 2013/14 Countdown: Five Fearless Predictions

November 19, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , 1 Comment

We are now only 2 sleeps away from day 1 of the first test of the 2013/14 Ashes series at the Gabba. The press is replete with hypothesis and supposition as to how this series between England and Australia is going to be played out. My lack of excitement (as reported yesterday) notwithstanding, I have spent much time thinking about this series. So much so I have looked in my metaphorical crystal ball and come up with five fearless predictions for this series as follows:

Stuart Broad v Australian crowds: there will only be one winner

Stuart Broad has installed himself, with some assistance from Boof Lehmann, as public enemy number one for Australian fans this summer. The barmy army did a good job getting under the fragile skin of Mitchell Johnson and it played a big part in Australia’s loss in previous series. The Australian crowds will need to do a similar job on Broad here. Anderson gets a lot of kudos from the press as the leader of the English attack but one senses that when Broad is on his game England are a much better bowling line up. For Broad, a victory in this battle will be simply measured in wickets and runs. For the Australian crowds a victory could well lead to Michael Clarke lifting the Urn.

Michael Clarke: will average less than 35

The captain comes into this series with an unsettled mind and unsound body it would seem. His publicly run “feud” with Ricky Ponting has dominated the cricket press in this country and regardless of which camp you are in (I confess to being strongly in the Ponting camp) you have to concede that having to deal with this sideline drama can not be good for his mental make up going into the series. His back is obviously restricting him and he has had limited time at the crease in the lead up to iron out any flaws in his form. Add to that an English team which will see him as the key wicket in all 10 innings and I expect this to be a series of struggle for Clarke.

The Australian XI for the Sydney test will be very different to the one for the first test

Cricket in Australia is in a state of flux. That is abundantly and heartwrenchingly obvious. This current position of the game here has begat a selection panel that is quick with the trigger finger when it comes to the removal of players who are not performing. I expect the bowling ranks, in particular, to be a revolving door of changes either brought about by injuries or the return of other players to net form. The names Pattinson, Starc and Bird will be appearing at some point on an Australian team sheet. Also likely is the name Hazlewood. If any of the batters don’t fire then Doolan, Khawaja and Hughes will all figure.

Kevin Pietersen will score a hundred and will offend everyone

It is undeniable that Pietersen is an outrageously talented batsman. He will score a hundred at some point in this series and it will be both aesthetically pleasing and important in the context of the game. As an Australian fan that bothers me but as a fan of cricket I look forward to watching Pietersen in his pomp. Given his start to the tour on social media he also seems to be going out of his way to antagonise the public. Bating Brisbanites about the qualities of our proud city has set the tone for how Pietersen will deal with Australian fans and journalists. I expect he will not stop there with his banter which could see him irritate everyone.

No matter what happens, the Three Stooges will survive

This prediction is the one that galls me the most: James Sutherland, John Inverarity and Pat Howard will still be in a job regardless of whether Australia loses the series. The security of Sutherland’s job has already been locked in by the board of Cricket Australia. Simply put: Cricket Australia is making too much money and is too focused on cash over results to sack him. If Sutherland is secure then I posit then that both of Howard and Inverarity are too: they are clearly Sutherland’s men and if the results of the team so far have not been enough to see them sacked then they will survive this series as well.

I know I said that there were five fearless predictions. It would not be a prediction blog though without giving a prediction for the result of the series. I have to give two such predictions because my heart says something decidedly different to my head. My heart says Australia will win 2-1 but my head says England will win 2-1. I think Brisbane and Adelaide will be draws, one because of the weather discontent and the other because I expect the pitch to be a road. Perth will go to the Australians whilst England will win in Sydney. That just leaves Melbourne: Australia’s biggest test match stage. Unfortunately my head says that England’s class will come through against an Australian team over-confident after a win in Perth.

Bring on the cricket!

Shumpty’s Punt: Tuesday Tempter

November 19, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks, Shumpty's Punt Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

I was going to have a day off on the punt today but then I saw the odds that have been posted for the New England Patriots in their fixture against the Carolina Panthers and had to wade in. $2.28 constitutes massive overs for them today so I will be have a wager there.

Have also put together a 4 leg multi around the Patriots as follows:

Leg 1: Brooklyn Nets to defeat the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA.

Leg 2: Pittsburgh Penguins to cover the line (-1.5 goals) against the Anaheim Ducks in the NHL.

Leg 3: New England Patriots to defeat the Carolina Panthers in the NFL.

Leg 4: Memphis Grizzlies to covverthe line (+ 8 points) against the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA.

This multi should fetch you around the $22 mark for every dollar spent. As always: please gamble responibility.

Ashes 2013/14 Countdown: Why am I not excited? Blame the Three Stooges!

November 18, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

I am a cricket fanatic. I do not deny it indeed a rejoice in it. I have been to the first day of the first test of the summer at the Gabba every year since 20 November 1998 when the Australian’s led by Mark Taylor and Alec Stewart’s England faced off. This year will be my 15th year anniversary of attending the first day of the first test of the summer. I have seen some great things on day 1:

* G McGrath’s 6/17 against the West Indies on 23 November 2000
* N Hussain’s brain melt and bowling on 7 November 2002
* R Ponting’s 149 against the West Indies on 3 November 2005
* The “Harmison Ball” and another Ponting hundred on 23 November 2006
* P Jacques’ breakthrough hundred against Sri Lanka on 8 November 2007
* P Siddle’s hatrick and 6/54 against England on 25 November 2010
* The partnership between Amla and Kallis on 9 November 2012

It is an Ashes year this year and, by rights, I should be more excited than normal for day 1 given the contest that is about to take place. Strangely though I am, frankly, just a bit nonplussed about it all. I have been away for a week and have had plenty of times to ponder the upcoming test and my lack of current excitement for it and suspect that a combination of my ongoing disgust with the administration of the game in Australia, the lack of first class cricket that has been played in Australia to date and concerns about the Australian team selected has led to this.

A couple of people have suggested to me that I am just a “fair weather” fan and am not excited about the cricket because Australia is losing but that could not be farther from the truth. I concede I hate that Australia is losing but this is the Ashes for goodness sake: I should be just itching for the action to start. My worries though about the state of the game in Australia under the watch of the “Three Stooges” (Sutherland, Howard and Inverarity) are getting in way of that. I wonder if I am alone in feeling this way because, I concede from a limited sample, the bulk of cricket people I have been talking with about the series seem similarly nonplussed. This has left me to further wonder whether some of the passion Australia cricket fans have for the game is being sucked of the fans by the state of the game.

Hopefully I will get over my disdain for the work of the Three Stooges in the next couple of days as I am immersed in the lead up to the game because, in my respectful opinion, there are few better days of cricket to attend than the first day of the first test of the summer. I have been to cricket at every test ground in Australia, save for Bellerive, and day one of the first test of the summer is right up there, for me, with Boxing Day at the MCG.

One final ponderance: there has been special cricket played on the first day of the first test at the Gabba over the last 15 years which I have been privileged to watch. I am left to wonder though, given that there are still tickets available, how long Brisbane fans of the game will be afforded such a privilege? This day is one of the show piece days of cricket for the year but support for it, and the Brisbane test, continues to wane. This can not go on much longer before the Gabba loses this game.