Tag Archives: Cricket Australia

Great win for Queensland: but will the selectors notice?

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

In case you missed it the Queensland Bulls defended their Ryobi Cup 50 over title today at the North Sydney Oval. This win represents the 5th trophy won by Queensland teams in domestic cricket in Australia from the last 6 available.

Unfortunately, and you don’t need to be Nostradamus to be able to declare this, Ryan Harris aside the excellent and sustained performances of those in the Queensland team are unlikely to be rewarded at the selection table by Cricket Australia.

One only needs to consider the story of Chris Hartley to know this statement to be true. Long regarded the best wicket keeper in the country and a consistent batsman he will never play for Australia it seems. He is behind players, it would seem, that are more marketable and have more flair with the bat with significantly less talent with the wicket keeping gloves.

There are other players who must, on form and consistency, also be in the frame for Australian selection from Queensland including but not limited to Chris Lynn who will not be seen in international colours because the selectors see others ahead of them regardless of form.

I am all for picking the best team available from the players and teams that are in the best form. The Queensland Bulls have been the form team of the last 3 years and yet do not seem to get a look in at the selection table OR, when they are selected, do not get a fair run in the team (P Forrest and B Cutting key examples).

Readers I will make a wager with you: Queensland will be on the top of the Sheffield Shield table by the time it is time to select the team for the first test and only Ryan Harris from Queensland will be selected in that team or any test team throughout the season. Does anyone want to take me on?

Cricket Australia: you have lost the plot!!!!

October 25, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , Leave a comment

It was the AGM of Cricket Australia yesterday. The Chairman of Cricket Australia has defended its CEO James Sutherland and said the following:

“If we lost the series 5-0, James Sutherland will still be the CEO of Australian cricket, and James is contracted through to June 2015 after the World Cup, and there will not be any changes in that situation, regardless of the way we perform on the field this summer.”

So if we ever needed convincing that Cricket Australia has lost the plot it is all there in that quote. Forgive me but isn’t the performance of the chief of the game supposed to be measured first by the performance of the principal team under his charge on the field?

I concede that James Sutherland has done a wonderful job in improving the finances of Cricket Australia and in developing the product of the Big Bash League and his performance in those areas seems to be more important that the performance of the cricket team playing under the banner of Cricket Australia?

Those advocating for change at the top of Cricket Australia, like me, are going to be waiting for a while. I hope that the continued rotting of the metaphorical fish that is cricket in this country does not continue with the haste of the rotting at its head.

James Sutherland: Ricky Ponting’s damning assessment

October 23, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Ricky Ponting has been quoted (in an excellent article by Dan Brettig on the Cricinfo site) thusly when discussing Cricket Australia and the work of James Sutherland in a recent interview discussing his upcoming autobiography:

“Business-wise and the last couple years in particular you’d say CA has done a really good job with making the BBL the success they have and other things they’ve done,” Ponting said. “But it’s been at the detriment of something else. State cricket’s funding and coaches that work with them.”

AND

“But there was no foresight at all into where we were going. Buck was always ridiculed for asking for things. He saw where the game was going to go, and all the stuff that came out with the Argus review was the stuff Buck was talking about 10 years ago, and he was shut down and almost pushed out of his job because of where he thought the game was going to go.”

AND

“My view on selection is you only ever make a change if it’s going to make the team better,” he said. “A lot of the changes we made didn’t make the team better, and I don’t care what anybody says. The coach (Tim Nielsen) going when he did didn’t make the team better. I think a lot of the stuff that happened with the Argus review was premeditated stuff that was already in the pipeline and they put this panel together to justify it.”

Ponting has also quoted Sutherland as telling him in 2011 that:

“no one ever spends money when they are going well”

These sentiments, from Australia’s most recent great of the game and probably a batsman second only to Tendulkar in his standing in the game in this generation, are a stinging indictment on the administrators of the game in this country and, principally, the man at the top. I, and many others on social media and the blogsphere, have been calling for change in the administrative side of the game in this country and, particularly, for James Sutherland to be held account for the failings of the Australian Cricket team performance wise.

A CEO must be held accountable for the performance of his (or her) business. Anyone in the business world will tell you that financial results are important but are only one metric to be considered when judging a CEO’s performance. Whilst Sutherland has succeeded on the profitability metric can anyone tell me another metric he has succeeded on of late? The Australian Cricket team is NOT performing. The second tier of cricket in this country is a shambles and is not producing players who are capable of performing at the top level. Both of which must come back to the lack of forsight complained of by Ponting and as indicated in Sutherland’s own views.

A change MUST be made!

The Aaron Finch Coronation: can we give him a chance in the Shield first?

October 15, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

The push to elevate Aaron Finch into the Australian test team for the first test at the Gabba is in full swing. The media’s new darling now that David Warner is out of favour is quoted thusly in a profile about him on the Cricinfo website:

“To play Test cricket is my ultimate goal still, I definitely haven’t lost that ambition. I feel as though I’m now in a really good space to do that."

This push has arisen from a streak of good form in Australian colours in the 20 and 50 over forms of the game. He is a dynamo in the shortest form of the game with an average of 52.28 and a strike rate of 178.53 at international level. In the 50 form his record is somewhat less imposing, particularly when the 148 he scored against Scotland is excised. The proponents of Finch’s elevation to the test team have ignored Finch’s poor form in the Ryobi Cup before he left for India where he could only manage scores of 2 and 5.

Overarching all of this is the unmistakable truth that comes from Finch’s first class record: he does not have the record of a test player at first class level. An average of 29.56 is just not good enough to warrant selection in the test team for a top order batsman; particularly when you consider that last year Finch was not selected for all games he could have been for his state. Differently put, he wasn’t in Victoria’s top squad at the first class level last season.

Finch himself recognises (in the same article I have quoted above) that he has had a mental issue with the long form of the game which has contributed to his lack of form.

Surely then it is not in Finch’s interest that he is rushed into the test team without an extended period of form in first class cricket. How could it be when the man himself suggests that he has issues with the long form of the game which, given the lack of long form cricket he has played over the last 12 months, could not have been rectified yet.

Australian players will have the opportunity to play in two Sheffield Shield games and an Australian A game (assuming he is in the frame for selection) to present their respective cases for selection for the first test at the Gabba. Finch must play in all of those games AND must score average 50 in those games to be selected in my view. I still believe it would be a mistake to rush him into the team even with that record as I am an advocate of a long period of long form form before a player is selected in the test team.

All of this leads though to the conclusion that the coronation of Finch as the new saviour of the test team is premature without him first being given the chance to prove himself at first class level. To select him without allowing him to so does not only him but the whole Australian set up a disservice.

Here’s hoping that John Inverarity finally takes a long term view of what is best for a player and the team at the selection table this time rather than pushing a player forward who is not ready. That would make a nice change!

Cricket: Everything wrong with Australian cricket in one quote …

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

George Bailey has been quoted in today’s press thusly:

“They made it really clear that doing well on this Indian tour, scoring runs over there will be looked upon in the same regard as the guys that are staying back and playing the first couple of rounds of Shield cricket,” Bailey said.

“I don’t think there’s any excuses for guys to be worried about what’s ahead.”

The “they” referenced in that quote are John Inverarity and Darren Lehmann. I seem to be saying this a lot at the moment when speaking about Cricket Australia and its administration of the game: are you kidding me?

Can anyone explain to me how playing 7 ODI games in India versus India could possibly be considered the equal of playing first class cricket in Australian conditions over more than 50 overs when it comes to preparation for the Ashes?

I just don’t understand the mind set or the thought process that elevates playing in conditions the reverse of a test match to first class preparation on local wickets. Then again I have not understood much of what Cricket Australia has done of late.

Cricket Australia and Radio Rights: the quest to destroy domestic cricket continues

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

It is rare that a piece of news makes me so angry that I can not bring myself to write about it. That happened yesterday though when I read about Cricket Australia’s changes to its media rights deal for radio. Having reflected on it overnight, my anger remains but I am also left with an empty feeling. That feeling has its genesis in the realization that what I thought might be true is coming to reality: Cricket Australia is killing the domestic game in this country.

For those who missed it amongst the all of the focus on Michael Clarke’s back and Buddy Franklin’s contract, here is a potted summary of the new arrangements that will be in place henceforth for the broadcast of cricket by radio in Australia:

1. A commercial radio group will have joint rights with the ABC to broadcast Test Matches.
2. All internet streaming of cricket in Australia will be controlled by Cricket Australia.
3. The BBL will be broadcast on an FM network.
4. The Sheffield Shield and Ryobi Cup will NOT be broadcast by anyone.

Taking the first three points first: I still have the option to listen to the ABC for the test matches so I am not all that bothered by these changes. I will never listen to a BBL broadcast on the radio because frankly I have better things to do and why would I stream the cricket when I have a perfectly good radio?

It is the fourth point above that both angers and saddens me. Gone, it would seem, are the days of the ABC broadcasting Sheffield Shield cricket. Are you kidding me Cricket Australia? Actually that is a hyperbolic question because we all know that you are not. After all, broadcasting the Sheffield Shield on the ABC, indeed any cricket on the ABC for that matter, makes you no money because the ABC is banned from advertising on its broadcasts. Once again the dollars lining the pockets of Cricket Australia has trumped what is good for the game.

Why though is the broadcast on the radio of the Sheffield Shield so important you ask? It is simple: short of going to the ground (or watching the live stream without commentary on the Cricket Australia website) there is no other way of engaging with the domestic game in this country. I, for one, was introduced to the game at the top level as a child by listening to Grandstand while working in the yard with my Dad or by listening to the coverage whilst nervously waiting to bat myself at the grounds around Ipswich.

This year, all of those kids that love cricket out there will get from their governing body at a domestic level is hit and giggle nonsense. More to the point if you were a playing of first class cricket in this country at the moment would you not be feeling more than a bit like the metaphorical ugly bloke with bad acne and body odour standing alone in the corner at a school dance? First the Ryobi Cup competition is made into a regional cricket carnival that no one can attend and now the pinnacle of the domestic game, the Sheffield Shield, has essentially been made inaccessible to the fans.

I am all for a business operating profitably. I am all for making money: hell I work in insolvency so I am more than aware of the importance of cash flow. However, is it not the case that Cricket Australia is the steward of the game in this country first and a profit centre second??? This decision is just another example of how that position has flipped.

A final point: it strikes me that it is now time for the fans of cricket in this country to rise up and regain control of the game that we love from those in control at Cricket Australia Towers. The only way to do that is to vote with our wallets and feet and turn the wave of profitability into a mill pond. So I pledge here and now that I will not spend another cent (I have already paid for my Ashes tickets) on anything Cricket Australia related until we see institutional change at the top of Cricket Australia. Now you may scoff at that gesture but having spent close to $2,500 on my obsession with cricket in this country in the last calendar year (I added it up and you should too: tickets, travel, merchandise, food etc adds up) if I could get 10,000 fans to sign up to this campaign that would leave a $25 Million hole in the pot of gold at the end of the Cricket Australia rainbow. That is something that might make them think don’t you think?