Category Archives: Shumpty Speaks

Canberra Raiders: The search for a new coach and the Ricky Stuart conundrum

September 3, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , 4 Comments

I have read with dismay a growing wave of rumour and innuendo that Ricky Stuart will leave the Parramatta Eels at the end of the season and sign a contract with the Canberra Raiders for season 2014. As a long time Canberra Raiders fan I can not think of a worse decision those in power at Canberra could make. Here are Stuart’s statistics as an NRL coach:

Sydney Roosters:

Games: 130
Wins: 79
Losses: 50

Cronulla Sharks:

Games: 74
Wins: 33
Losses: 41

Parramatta Eels:

Games: 23
Wins: 5
Losses: 18

In both the case of Stuart’s tenure at the Roosters and his tenure at the Sharks, the teams he was coaching got worse over time given that the Roosters went from winning the competition in Stuart’s first year to not making the finals in 2005 and 2006 and the Sharks went from making the preliminary final in 2008 to again being out of the finals in 2009.

Since Stuart has been at the Eels he has, simply put, not been successful and the player moves he has made have not been successful. The Eels will win the wooden spoon this season.

There is a bigger problem for me though: what kind of message does it send to a player group reeling from player behaviour issues and players breaking contracts early to engage a coach who has been in trouble for behavioural breaches (2008 World Cup for example) and who, assuming he makes himself available to coach the Raiders, has broken his last two contracts before they were up.

The Raiders’ players need a coach that they can look up to and aspire to be like and the fans of the club need a coach they can trust after season that has been in 2013. Forget that Stuart is a legend of the club for a moment: the numbers and his conduct just do not stack up to being the coach needed to take the club forward.

The Ashes 2013/14 Countdown: Day 79 … Still waiting for a First Class fixture list

September 3, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

I wrote recently about what I consider to be Australia’s short preparation time for the upcoming Ashes series. As we sit here now, 79 days before the first ball will be bowled at the Gabba, we still have not seen from Cricket Australia the schedule for first class matches for the 2013/14 season.

How is this so? Surely the focus for Cricket Australia must be on preparation for the Ashes and surely the way to prepare for any test match series, let alone an Ashes series, is to have the players projected to play in said series playing first class cricket? You would not know it though given what we have been provided with so far from Cricket Australia. Between launching the Big Bash League, press releases about 5 day and day night first class games and spruiking the selection of Fawad Ahmed those in charge at Cricket Australia Towers have been silent on the season to come.

It has been postulated since the BBL launch that Cricket Australia will be looking to push through the Ryobi Cup fixtures before the BBL starts which would mean, one presupposes, that those fixtures will need to take place in October and November which precisely when the players in the test team should be tuning up for the Ashes series. There is a real risk that, not only will some of Australia’s key players be in India playing in a seven game series of one day internationals that means nothing, the remaining key players could be stuck playing Ryobi Cup cricket rather than first class cricket. Those propositions could hardly be considered to be good for preparing for a test match series.

Am I missing something here? Or is this just another example of the money lining the pockets of those at Cricket Australia Towers blinding them from their principal role which is to procure positive results? The fact that I can still buy tickets for the first test at the Gabba speaks volumes doesn’t it? In 2006 and 2009 the scramble to purchase tickets saw many a professional ignore his or her clients and staff on the day the tickets were released just to make sure they got tickets before they sold out and sell out the tickets did. The current blip in Australia’s form, born out of, in my view in large part, terrible preparation will continue to reduce crowd numbers. The question is though, will the crowd numbers reduce enough for Cricket Australia to take their eyes off the pot of gold at the end of the BBL rainbow and off gimmicks like day night first class games and back onto Cricket Australia’s core job of acting in the best interests of Australian cricket and, simply, winning?

One suspects that it will not, because if the pasting in India and then the 3-0 loss in England did not bring the importance of winning test matches and preparing to win said test matches to the forefront of the minds of those running the game in this country then nothing will.

With the projected preparation Australia is expected to have, can anyone see them challenging England? Just based on the preparation, which is where Australia should be gaining an advantage in a home series but don’t seem to be taking the opportunity to, I cannot see Australia’s challenge being anything more than a whimper.

If this is the ultimate outcome then blame must rest squarely at the feet of those in charge of the game. Will it then be time for the Sutherland era at the top to come to an end? One can only hope so!

The Warner Files: finally Cricket Australia sees sense

September 1, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , Leave a comment

I have been calling for David Warner to be dropped from the Australian cricket team for some time on form. In case you missed my writing on this here is a selection of my thoughts explaining why Warner should be dropped and returned to first class cricket:

David Warner: time to consider a “mature age” apprenticeship? |
https://shumpty77.com/2012/11/12/david-warner-time-to-consider-a-mature-age-apprenticeship/

The Warner Controversy: where to from here? |
https://shumpty77.com/2013/05/22/the-warner-controversy-where-to-from-here/

Australia A in South Africa: 193 reasons David Warner should stay in Africa! |
https://shumpty77.com/2013/07/25/australia-a-in-south-africa-193-reasons-david-warner-should-stay-in-africa/

Whilst it has happened in the One Day International format it is still an important development for Warner.

One can only hope that now he will go back and get some form in the Sheffield Shield and work on his game. It has been said by many that I have been calling for this move simply because I am not a fan but all I have been calling for is exactly this opportunity to be given to him. I sincerely hope he takes the opportunity now given.

The Ashes Tour: Australian ODI Squad named

September 1, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , Leave a comment

Cricket Australia has tweaked its ODI squad for the upcoming series against Scotland and England. The squad is:

Michael Clarke (ODI capt), George Bailey, Fawad Ahmed, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade (wk), Shane Watson.

David Warner has been dropped and Mitchell Starc is returning home injured.

The dropping of Warner has arisen because of his poor form in the ODI form of the game. Frankly, this is not before time given that he has been averaging 20 in this form. Hopefully he will return to the domestic form of the game and actually play some first class cricket.

Ashes 13/14 Countdown: Day 85 – How can you prepare for an Ashes series in India?

August 28, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

There are now 85 days until the first test of the 2013-14 Ashes Series in Australia starts at the ‘Gabba. Off the back of a 3-0 drubbing in England Australia will be looking win back the urn on home soil for the first time since the epic 2006-07 series. Obviously then the preparation for this series will be vital.

For those wondering, here is the schedule of games the Australia team has committed to in the next 85 days:

Date Match Type Opponent
29/08/13 T20 England
31/08/13 T20 England
03/09/13 ODI Scotland
06/09/13 ODI England
08/09/13 ODI England
11/09/13 ODI England
14/09/13 ODI England
16/09/13 ODI England
10/10/13 T20 India
13/10/13 ODI India
16/10/13 ODI India
19/10/13 ODI India
23/10/13 ODI India
26/10/13 ODI India
30/10/13 ODI India
02/11/13 ODI India

If the ODI / T20 squad stays the same for the tour of India as it is now in England the following players from the 5th Ashes test at the Oval (or on the fringe of selection for that team) will be involved in that tour:

· Clarke

· Faulkner

· Hughes

· Smith

· Starc

· Wade

· Warner

· Watson

Assuming those players are all selected for the tour of the India, I have been left to ponder what first class cricket they might get to play before the first test match. Herein lies a problem: the first class schedule for the 2013/14 season has not been published yet. Of course we know when the BBL circus will occur but less than a month away from the historical start of a Sheffield Shield season and a schedule of games is not to be found.

The one game that has been locked in is an Australia A fixture against England starting in Hobart on 6 November. That being the case, the only guide for what might be happening in first class cricket in Australia is that which happened last year. Broadly speaking, there were four Sheffield Shield fixtures played before the first test last year by each team on the following rough dates (these dates are skewed by NSW having to start their season early to play in a T20 competition):

· 1st week in October

· 4th week in October

· 1st week in November

· 2nd week in November

Given those rough timings and assuming Cricket Australia sticks with that methodology when setting the fixtures, anyone taking part in the short form tour to India is only likely to get one first class game of cricket before the first test match at best. That is, of course, predicated on players being released by Cricket Australia to play said cricket which has not happened much in the past.

Does this not all smack of a team that is going to be behind the 8 ball preparation wise for the 1st test? This is a tour in our own backyard and yet we do not seem enamoured to set things up so that our team is well prepared and ready to play long form cricket? Surely the best way to prepare for long form cricket is to play long form cricket but if things go they were they are projected the obvious prospect is that at least four of our starters at the ‘Gabba will NOT have played a long form game before that test starts.

If preparation for the Ashes series and striving to rest the Urn back from England is Cricket Australia’s principal goal for this summer of cricket there is an easy two phased answer to all of this:

1. Send an Australian “A” team to India and keep anyone projected to be in the first test team at home in Australia; and

2. Schedule the Sheffield Shield games so that:

a. There are four of them before first test starts; and

b. There is a gap between the first test and the last Shield game of no more than seven days; and

c. Actually make the players projected to be in the test team play in all of those Shield games before the first test match.

That strategy works only though in a world where the governing body seeks to prepare test cricketers by playing long form cricket. Here is how I expect Australia’s preparation to actually occur:

1. Australia will send a full squad to India for the seven one day fixtures.

2. Cricket Australia will only schedule 2 Sheffield Shield games before the first test because they have to fit in the abridged 50 over competition before Christmas so that the BBL can run for 2 months.

3. Players will not be released to play for the States because Cricket Australia holds “preparation” camps for squad members not in India on the dates of the Sheffield Shield games BUT will be released to play in the Ryobi Cup.

In that scenario none of the combatants striding onto the Gabba on 21 November will have played long form cricket before that test starts. You scoff: but it has happened before!

One can only hope that sanity will prevail but one worries that this Australian team is going to go into this series bizarrely under prepared. If that is the case then Cricket Australia will have no one to blame but itself.