Tag Archives: Cricket Australia

Ashes Countdown Day 49: Now the Captain is hurt!

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

Michael Clarke has been quoted today, when asked about his prospects of playing in the first test at the Gabba on 21 November 2013:

"There is certainly no guarantee at this stage," Clarke said. "It’s hard for me to say that because I’m trying my best not to look at it like that. I’m always positive. If you ask me I’ll say "Oh, I’ll be fit in a week’s time’. But if you ask [Australian physio] Alex [Kountouris], who knows me very well, I’d imagine he’d certainly say that there’s doubt that I won’t be right.

"Where I sit right now is I don’t know when I’ll be back playing cricket. We have no idea how long it’s going to take."

Well isn’t this magnificent?!?

Off the back of Australia’s drubbing in England this year we face the prospect of losing our premier batsman and captain for the first test. Actually, read the quote from Clarke again for moment: this problem could last longer than just until the first test. Simply: he does not know when the injury is going to be good enough to play again.

Therein lies another problem: Clarke’s preparation, even if he is fit, is going to be horribly underdone. This, obviously, is not a good thing for Clarke or the Australian team particularly given the already truncated preparation many of Australia’s players are going to have because of the ridiculous scheduling decisions made by Cricket Australia for this summer of domestic cricket.

I hope Clarke is fit and I hope he is fit in time to play in at least one of the first class games scheduled before the Ashes start. If he is not than Australia will be further on the back foot than it already is because of poor scheduling.

Domestic Cricket in Australia: time to look to England as the model?

September 22, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , 2 Comments

I tweeted last night how impressed I was with the ECB after watching the draw for its 50 over competition in 2014. It got me thinking about the Australian domestic cricket set up and confirmed for me that a very real reason that cricket in this country is lagging behind the “old enemy” is the treatment presently being meted out to the domestic game by Cricket Australia.

We are all aware of the travesty that is the new Ryobi Cup competition for 2013. It has been made to be a 3 week carnival held all in the Sydney suburbs on non-first class grounds. We are all aware that Cricket Australia is chasing the dollars that comes from the Big Bash League. If you like hit and giggle cricket then you will love December and January in Australia. Finally, we are all aware that the Sheffield Shield competition is no longer a nursery for the next cricketers coming into the Australian set up. How could it be when the players in the test team do not deign to play in the competition? Or are not allowed to?

Something has to give with all of this: the reality is that Australia has become, in recent years, a second tier player in the international game across all forms. A thrashing in the Ashes, a thrashing in the Champions Trophy and being completely ineffectual in T20 are all the indications one needs to know that. I have already called for the head of James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia CEO, but it would seem that so long as the profits are rolling in no one at Cricket Australia Towers wants a bar of that. So what else then can be done?

Rather than filleting the domestic game in this country in favour of overseas tours that mean nothing and the BBL irrelevance, my proposal would see more domestic cricket being played rather than less. The ECB has set the benchmark for using its domestic competition to procure players ready for the top flight because they play more domestic cricket over there. That was Sam Robson’s reason for moving over there and, thinking about it in reverse, when was the last time an English domiciled cricketer played in Sheffield Shield? Graeme Hick for Queensland is the name that comes to mind.

The County Competition is played between the middle of April and the end of September and they manage to fit in 16 first class games within that span. All whilst (in 2013) fitting in 12 40 over games (to be 50 overs in 2014) and 10 T20 games. Conversely in 2014, Australia’s domestic cricketers will play a maximum (if not making the finals) of 10 first class games, 5 50 over games and 7 T20 games in a span that runs from October through March.

It is simple to say but it is striking just how little cricket is available to Australia’s domestic cricketers when compared to those plying their trade in England over a not dissimilar period of time. I know that historically cricket in this country has tried to wedge itself between the start and the end of the AFL and NRL seasons however, if that is the reason for Australia’s truncated number of domestic games, surely the English experience shows just what a fallacy that approach is. In England little care is given for the fact that Premier League Soccer has already started and still the domestic cricket season chugs away.

I, for one, see no reason why, noting the weather in Australia in September, the Australian domestic season could not start in September and hinge upon a Sheffield Shield program that runs for 15 games rather than 10. Now before I hear the mantra “that is too much cricket” consider this: even allowing for a 42 day carnival of irrelevance (BBL) a 24 week season window would still have 18 weeks in which to play proper (non carnival) cricket. In 18 weeks why shouldn’t professional cricketers be tested with playing 15 games of FC class cricket with an extra day of play tagged on for 50 over cricket?

We have the climate and the wickets to play more domestic cricket in this country. We also have the time to do so. An obvious flow on from playing more domestic cricket is the greater opportunities playing so much would present to those already in the Australian team to return to the Sheffield Shield and play for form or to nurture the next lot of talent coming through. All of this raises the question: why not play more domestic cricket? To that the only answer I have is that it costs money.

Historically cricketers in this country have made light of the County system and yet some of our best players continue to spend Australia’s winters in England playing the game and developing into test standard players. It was good enough for Messrs Chappell, Border, Waugh, Hayden, Langer and Hussey afterall. Now is the time to look at what is going well in English cricket and a big part of that seems to be the amount of cricket they play domesitcally.

Unfortunately, I am talking about a “perfect world” scenario here where the river of money flowing into Cricket Australia’s pockets is no impediment to the structure of the domestic game in this country. We all know that Cricket Australia will not do anything to effect its bottom line so this strategy will never see the light of day. How long though must Australia stay in the doldrums before the dollar is not the principal KPI to success? One can only hope it is not too long. Otherwise the current malaise over the game is going to last for a while longer me thinks.

Cricket: The 2014/15 Schedule … Biggest winner = BCCI

September 12, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Cricket Australia yesterday announced the schedule for the test matches to be played between Australia and India in the 2014/15 season.

This announcement had been much anticipated given that there are only to be four test matches played in Australia in summer 2014/15 in the lead up to the World Cup which takes place in February / March 2015. That meant that one of the traditional venues (if you don’t count Bellerive Oval) would be missing out and it was announced yesterday that that venue is Perth.

This is a somewhat unexpected result given the obvious preference of Channel 9 to have a test match held in prime time to allow for maximum viewing coverage in the Eastern states. At least, I had thought it was unexpected till I thought about how this sets up the series now for the combatants. Simply: after playing the first test at the Gabba, widely regarded as the best wicket in the land, the final three tests will take place on our most benign of surfaces in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. That scheduling plays right into the hands of the Indians doesn’t it?

Of course it does: with their phalanx of flat track bully batters combined with the best spin bowlers in the world (outside of G Swann) they will now play Australia in three of four test matches at venues that will suit their style of play rather than the hosts.

This is yet another example of Cricket Australia not scheduling to give Australia the best chance to win and, rather, chase the dollars that comes from the BCCI touring and being happy. If India are losing then the TVs in India will be turned off which will leave the BCCI unhappy which is not a situation, seemingly, that Cricket Australia could countenance.

It is utterly ridiculous for Cricket Australia to have not scheduled a test match in Perth where, aside from fixtures where South Africa’s pacemen have dominated, Australia has been largely undefeatable. I, for one, would have looked at ditching the Sydney Test match from the schedule and retaining the test match in Perth. Now before Sydney fans eviscerate me consider this: the SCG plays host to a Quarter and a Semi final of the World Cup and thus, arguably, will have enough “big” cricket to replace the test match.

Of course, the removal of the Adelaide test match was also an option however that option was always going to be unlikely given that the Adelaide Oval seems to be the metaphorical darling of Cricket Australia at present with it having received a World Cup Quarter final over competing claims from Perth and Brisbane.

I know this is sacrilege to suggest but if winning was the goal Cricket Australia needed to bite the bullet and schedule a test match in Perth and ditch either of the Adelaide or Sydney tests. Actually, come to think of it, if winning was the goal then a test match on the minefield that is the Bellerive Oval pitch would also have been preferable that playing on the benign wickets that will be thrown at the Indians when they tour.

Unfortunately, based on current evidence, the goal of winning remains secondary to that of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for those at Cricket Australia Towers. When will they learn?

Cricket: The Ryobi Cup Travesty

September 8, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

The domestic cricket schedule in Australia was announced yesterday by Cricket Australia. I have written previously that I hoped for a focus on first class cricket via the Sheffield Shield competition to be the centre point of the 2013/14 schedule as I believe that Cricket Australia should be focused only on preparing our players for the coming Ashes series. Now with the schedule announced it goes without saying that I think the three first class games Cricket Australia has scheduled before the Ashes to be a massive missed opportunity. That said, I cannot let this moment pass without also commenting on the new format for the Ryobi Cup competition.

The new format runs something like this:

· This tournament will be used as a season-launching competition;

· It will run from September 29 to October 27.

· Teams will play six matches each before the final.

· Every game will be held in Sydney, with Bankstown Oval, North Sydney Oval, Hurstville, Drummoyne and Blacktown to be the venues rather than the SCG.

To be clear, I have no cavil at all with:

· The domestic schedule being clearly differentiated so that players can, in the words of CEO Sutherland, “give players the best chance to maximise their performance in each form of the game without the chopping and changing of previous years”; and

· The Ryobi Cup competition being played in tournament style and I again agree with the statement of CEO Sutherland that “replicating a tournament style competition for one-day cricket is the best way of preparing our one-day cricketers for one-day internationals and the World Cup in early 2015”.

What I am unable to countenance is the move by Cricket Australia to play the Ryobi Cup at a cluster of venues in the Sydney suburbs. I am troubled by this because:

· It completely ignores the fans of the game in the other states. If we do not have access to the GEM Channel (on which a “majority” of the games will be telecast) fans in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia will not get to see their respective team play in this competition.

· Bankstown Oval and North Sydney Oval have, on rare occasions, been used for the purposes of first class cricket and domestic 50 over cricket but they are, along with the other grounds, hardly more than club cricket grounds.

This move is hardly the conduct one would expect of the governing body of the next Cricket World Cup is it? Surely said governing body should be seeking to, on the one hand, promote the game to all of the its constituent fans and, on the other hand, prepare each of the host grounds for the tournament to come. The only way to do that would be, of course, to play the tournament in each of the states (whilst still in a block format). It is that simple isn’t it?

Therein though lies two problems for Cricket Australia as I see it:

1. They have make a mistake in leading off the summer with the Ryobi Cup because:

a. The spot that they have slotted in the Ryobi Cup competition is in the heart of the football finals season in Australia with at least the Melbourne and Sydney grounds likely to be out of action for the whole month; and

b. The Adelaide Oval redevelopment is still ongoing and they are relaying the turf at the Gabba.

2. They are so bound to Channel 9 as host broadcaster that sending the Ryobi Cup around the country is, seemingly, not an available option. I make this assumption because the only reason that I can see for the games being so Sydneycentric (aside from the foregoing) is to reduce the costs borne by Channel 9 in broadcasting the games on their secondary channel.

The former problem would be easily resolved by slotting in the Ryobi Cup competition immediately after the Big Bash League finishes. That way the Sheffield Shield competition could have been front ended with five available fixtures before the Ashes and the Ryobi Cup could have picked up a flow on of the crowds brought in by the BBL both on the TV and in the stands. The later problem is one less easily fixed given the power that Channel 9 obviously exerts in the game having been the host broadcaster for so long. To that problem there is no easy solution.

These problems though get us back to something that I have been harping on about for some time about Cricket Australia and its stewardship of the game: Cricket Australia seems to be caught in an ongoing battle between filling its coffers and acting in the best interests of the game. The announced schedule again shows, as has much of Cricket Australia’s conduct in its stewardship of the game, that that battle is being won by the filling of the coffers rather than what is best for the game. For a start, if I was sitting in the halls of power in the ICC, I would be looking at this announcement by Cricket Australia and wondering how committed Cricket Australia really is to the 50 over a side form of the game and, by extension, the World Cup and that cannot be a good thing!

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!