Tag Archives: Ashes

Ashes 2013/14 Countdown day 75: Why am I worried about Australia’s preparation?

September 7, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Today marks 75 days till the first test of the 2013/14 Ashes series in Brisbane. To say I am worried about Australia's preparation for this series, already, would be an understatement. Here are five reasons why:

1. Cricket Australia still has not announced the First Class Schedule

It is 7 September and no one knows what will be the schedule of first class fixtures to be played in Australia in advance of the first test. One would have thought that Cricket Australia would have been focused on getting as many first class fixtures in before the first test match to allow for the players playing in said test matches to prepare however that does not present at the moment as being the case.

2. Short form impositions before the series

In the next 75 days the Australian team will play in 13 one day internationals and 2 T20 games. Also during this span the Champions League T20 tournament will be played in India. The imposition of this short form cricket before the first test means there are some players who are in the frame for the first test who may have no opportunity to play first class cricket before that test.

3. England seems to be getting its preparation right

Is it any surprise that the ECB is setting things up well for this coming series? Converse to the Australian preparation, England's key players are not playing in the current ODI series against Australia under the aegis of getting some rest and then will have two county games to play in, if they wish to, and then three first class games in Australia before the first test. That is strikingly a much better preparation schedule than that some of Australia's likely first test players will have.

4. The Captain's Back

Michael Clarke is a key player for Australia: scratch that … he is the key player for Australia in the coming Ashes tour. He has a chronic back problem that has needed to me managed in recent years. Whilst I love the sentiment of Darren Lehmann in stating that Clarke will play when he is fit but I worry that every time he plays a short form fixture he is at risk of his back ailment flaring up and, by extension, at risk of missing the first test.

5. Fringe players finding “form” in the short form fixtures

Aaron Finch scoring runs and Fawad Ahmed taking wickets worries me given the propensity of John Inverarity and his merry band of selectors to pick “fads” (players in form in the short form but with no semblance of form in first class cricket) to represent Australia in the baggy green. If the form of said fads continues there is a real risk that they will end up wearing a baggy green come 21 November.

There is a lot that could go wrong between now and 21 November. I worry though that Australia is not putting itself in the best position possible to win back the Ashes through, in four out of five cases above, decisions of its own making. I hope I am wrong but will continue to worry I am right until the first ball is bowled in 75 days time.

The Ashes 2013/14 Countdown Day 78 – Forget the Indian ODI’s, the Champions League T20 comes first!

September 4, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

I have written previously about my worries about Australia’s poor preparation for the upcoming Ashes tour in Australia. Wedged between the current short form series in England, ending on 16 September 2013, and the first ball of the first Ashes test at the Gabba in 78 days time are both the Champions League T20 in India and then an Australia ODI series against India in India. Those two tournaments will have Australian players involved and, if said players are involved in both tournaments, those players will only 19 days (not including travelling time) to prepare for the first test.

For those wondering, the following players who are projected to be involved in the Indian ODI tour have also been included in various squads for the Champions Trophy T20:

James Faulkner
Shane Watson
Shaun Marsh
Adam Voges
Nathan Coulter-Nile
Mitchell Johnson
Glenn Maxwell

Two of those players, Faulkner and Watson, played in the last test match of the Ashes tour in England and project to be a part of the squad for the first test match at the Gabba. Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh must be in the frame for the current vacant number 6 spot in the Australia test batting order. The other three players must also, particularly Nathan Coulter-Nile, must also form part of calculations for any broader test match squad. Yet there is a distinct possibility that they will have, at most, one game of first class cricket in Australia before the first test.

Add to this the aegis of Ashton Agar representing the Perth Scorchers in the Champions Trophy T20 and Australia’s principal test spinner only some 3 test matches ago could also find himself without first class cricket before the first test match.

I know I am becoming a broken record on this but surely the focus of Cricket Australia has to be a winning the Ashes where it patently is not. As matters presently stand though that preparation is looking like it will border on the farcical rather than the complete.

A final point: before you start on me that it is the same for all teams you should bear in mind that whilst Australia’s players are playing in the CLT20 and an ODI tournament it ought be noted that:

1. There is no English team partaking of the CLT20
2. There is no English player similarly partaking of the CLT20
3. The last round of the English country season takes between 24 September 2013 and 27 September 2013 and England’s test players are likely to play in that round of fixtures
4. England play in 3 first class games against Australian opposition before the first test at the Gabba

This is all starting look a little like England are going to be the better prepared unit for the coming Ashes series in Australia despite it being held in Australia’s back yard. Cricket Australia’s chase for cash wins again!

Ashes Tour 2013: Scotland v Australia Preview

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

The next part of Australia’s tour of the British Isles, the One Day International Fixtures, kicks off in Edinburgh this evening (Australian time). A game of international standing, this fixture has been couched by many as merely a warm up game however it is game that both sides will be desperate to win.

Outside of Scotland and unless you are an ardent student of the game you will know little about Scottish cricket. Their team for this game has been weakened by the loss of Scotland’s captain, Kyle Coezter. Replacing Coezter is an Australian born opener in Hamish Gardiner who uses his mother’s Scottish heritage to make his international debut against the land of his birth here. Natal born off spinning all-rounder, Preston Mommsen, will lead the Scottish in this game.

A player to watch for Scotland will be off break bowler Majid Haq. Currently the most experienced bowler in the Scottish line up, Haq is a home grown talent hailing from Paisley in Renfrewshire. He bowls a tight line and is generally quite miserly when it comes to runs scored off his bowling. That tight bowling will be needed if the Scots are to restrain Australia to a responsible total.

The Australian team come into this game off the back of its first victory in any form of the game since February. Darren Lehmann has been overt in the press in recent days that Australia is not treating this game as a warm up fixture and will select its best line up in Edinburgh including Michael Clarke is he is fit. All eyes will be on Aaron Finch to see if he can replicate his dominant display last time out against England in the T20 format whilst it seems likely that mature age leg spinner, Fawad Ahmed, will make his debut in the ODI form of the game in this fixture.

Scotland has beaten Australia before in cricket contests: one just has to look back to 1882 for the only time that occurred. A better form line is presented by the last two fixtures between the two teams, at the 2007 World Cup and the same game in 2009, which ended in 203 run and 189 run victories to Australia respectively. For the Australian players, at stake is reputation risk: a bad performance here, particularly by those striving for higher honours in the baggy green come 21 November, could see one’s card marked “not to be selected” by the NSP.

It is difficult to see anything other than an Australian victory in this game against a line up principally made up of 2nd XI players from the English County Competition. The length of the game may be largely determined by whomever wins the toss of the coin.

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!

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.

The Ashes Wash Up: Winners and Losers

August 27, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

The first instalment of Ashes 2013/14 is now over and the obvious winner was England given that they won the series 3-0. That said, as with any series of sports contests there are winners and losers, either actual or metaphorical, from both sides. Here are my winners and losers from Ashes series part 1:

Winners:

Ian Bell: The numbers make for excellent reading don’t they: 562 runs at an average of 62.44 and three hundreds. The numbers alone would be impressive but it also must be remembered that often Bell strode to the wicket with his team in trouble and, more often than not, got them out of said trouble. I never thought I would say this about Ian Bell but I don’t think there is a better cover / square driver in the game today save for Hashim Amla at his best. A great series from a batter who has gone from being good to be the precipice of being great.

Ryan Harris: The Australian selectors didn’t think he was up to the rigours of a full test series and thus held him back him from the first test. He played the last 4 tests and was the man of the series for Australia by, it must be said, a fairly long way. Again the numbers make for excellent reading: 24 wickets at an average of 19.58 in a losing team is nothing short of spectacular. More to the point though, every time he had the ball in his hand it looked like things would happen for Australia. One can only hope that Harris will be fit for all 5 tests of the Australian summer because this would have been a very different series for Australia without him.

Stuart Broad: Public enemy number one in cricket in Australia and I reckon he would be pretty happy about that to be honest. He is the blue print for what a bowling all-rounder should look like. An imposing bowler on his day and valuable with the bat. His failure to walk in the first test was lamentable but it should not the main memory of Broad from this series: do not forget his bowling at Chester-le-Street which was some of the best fast bowling I have seen for some time. 22 wickets at 27 and 180 runs at 25 are great returns for a bowling all-rounder.

Steve Smith: I confess that until his century in the last test I still had a bit of a question mark in my mind about Steve Smith and his place batting at number 5 in the Australian batting order. I believed that he had done enough to warrant retaining his place in the batting order but was concerned that batting at number 5 may have been just a little too high for him. His 138 not out at the Oval killed off any lingering thoughts in my brain of that. Probably the only player “on the fringe” to take his opportunity for Australia in this series and he will now go into the Australian summer solid in the knowledge that he will have a clear run at the selection table for some time to come.

Losers:

Ed Cowan: Selected at number 3 in the first test was out to two ordinary shots in both innings and then jettisoned. He does not appear to be in Darren Lehmann’s plans for Australia moving forward so it would appear that that one test match this series was his one chance to impress the new boss. With Chris Rogers getting the job done with the opportunity he received it look likes Cowan will not be travelling the Sheffield Shield circuit this summer.

Jonathan Trott: At the start of this series was clearly England’s key man with the willow with a record to boot. Australia seemingly have worked out his technical deficiencies and have, successfully, strangled his scoring opportunities so as to render his role in the series minimal. Given his difficulty with the short ball on these, it must be conceded, slow wickets, one can expect that Australia will run a similar game plan on the hard and fast wickets at home. He will have much work to do to regain the aura of the past for this coming home series.

Simon Kerrigan: Brought into the team for the Oval test match as an obvious replacements for the now out of favour Monty Panesar and seemingly on trial for the Australian summer to say that he choked under the spot light would be an understatement. Only given 8 overs by his captain on a spinners wicket is indicative of how well he went in his chance to shine. If not selected for the summer tour, he risks becoming the punch line that Tahir and McGain have already become.

ICC: From umpiring to DRS to bad light issues it has not been the best of tours for the ICC and particularly the elite umpires panel. It is apposite to say that umpires suffer from bad form as much as players do and the umpires in this series have been woefully out of the form at best which, for a series that is one of the jewels in the test cricket crown, has caused a massive black eye for the rulers of the game. This series has also thrown up an obvious problem that the game has: educating the fans on what the rules actually say. The vitriol pointed at the 3rd umpire / DRS official, wrongly as it turns out, is alone indicative of that.

All in all it was an exciting series that was book ended but question behaviour off the field by some of the combatants. It was no 2005 series or even a 1989 series in its excitement or importance for the fans. There are only 86 days to go from today before the first test starts at the Gabba which is a series that promises just as much excitement and, if anything, a more hard-fought series than we have seen this time out.