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Ashes Tour 2013/14 Countdown Day 65: Finally the Northern Tour Ends

September 17, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , Leave a comment

This morning saw the end of Australia’s long sojourn in England, Scotland and Wales that began on 1 June 2013 at Sophia Gardens against the West Indies. Some 50 days of cricket were in the schedule for the Australians on this tour and, but for a late flourish culminating with a stirring victory in the final game of the series, it has been a series to forget.

With 65 days to go until the first test of the Ashes commences at the Gabba is it now time to jettison the tour that finished today to the memory bank and to focus forward to Australia’s next challenge to rest the urn from the English.

Before I do so however it is an apposite time to consider the performances on the Australians on tour, across all forms, and consider who were the winners and losers for Australia coming out of the last 50 days of cricket.

Winners:

Chris Rogers: For mine the ascendancy of Chris Rogers to the top of Australia’s batting order and his locking up (in my opinion) of the opening position of the return test series is the story of the tour for Australia. Rogers is the epitome of a professional cricket and at 36 years old has a short shelf in the Australian team but I can not think of a player in Australia more deserving of his chance in the baggy green. His 110 in the 4th test match of the Ashes was met with rapturous acclaim by fans on both side because we know what he has had to do for the opportunity.

Ryan Harris: If the ascendancy of Chris Rogers was the story of the tour then the return of Ryan Harris was a very close run second. A chronic knee injury coupled with serious shoulder surgery and the ominous statistic of having never played 3 test matches in row seemed to conspire to keep Harris out of the test team for the first test. Once he got his chance in the 2nd test he was easily the best bowler for Australia and close to the bowler of the tournament. 24 wickets at 19.58 are compelling numbers but only tell half of the story. Every time Harris ran in he looked like getting a wicket and the England players looked relieved when he left the bowling crease.

Darren Lehmann: Handed the poisoned chalice of coaching an underdog team with underlying player behaviour issues, from the outside at least, Darren Lehmann’s reputation as a manager of men has only been enhanced by this trip. The results did not go the team’s way and he did have a couple of faux pas with the press along the way however the man they call “Boof” will return to Australia happily at the helm of the team in advance of the Australian leg of the Ashes tour.

Aaron Finch: Scoring the highest score by an Australian player in an international T20 with 156 in the first T20 game of the tour was no mean feat and showed the class that Finch’s form has hinted was around the corner at some point. He is a winner from the tour because of Australia’s propensity of selecting for test duty players who excel at the short form of the game despite the frailties in their respective games at the long form of the game.

George Bailey: Was Australia’s most consistent batsman in the Natwest ODI series and never really looked troubled whilst at the crease. Became the fastest Australian batsman to reach 1000 runs in ODI cricket (shared with Greg Chappell) during the course of the series. He is also a winner because an outcome of the Ashes series is that there is a vacancy at the number 6 position of the order which Bailey may well now be in the frame to fill.

Mitchell Johnson: Australia’s best bowler form wise in the Natwest Series (McKay’s hayrick has elevated his figures) with a return of the control and pace not seen for many years. Became the 6th Australian bowler to pass 200 wickets in ODI cricket. The injuries to Australia’s fast bowlers arising out of the test section of the tour see him now in the frame for selection in the 1st test at the Gabba.

Losers:

Ed Cowan: Went to England the incumbent opening batter for Australia and has returned, seemingly, to play out his days as a Sheffield Shield cricketer for Tasmania. Clearly does not fit in with Darren Lehmann’s plan for the team and, despite being an excellent team man, will now have been passed by some of the other younger contenders for the next opening or upper order spot to become available.

Messrs Pattinson, Bird and Starc: All have returned from England with one injury or another and now look to be in significant doubt for the 1st Ashes test (assuming each was in the frame). The management of Australia’s bowlers is an ongoing issue, given that Patrick Cummins is also injured again, and the poor management of, in particular, Starc must be looked at to ensure these injuries are mitigated against.

Mickey Arthur: Sacked as Australian coach before the first significant game of the series (the Champions Trophy is an insignificance to me) and then made a fool of himself by suing Cricket Australia. An obvious loser from the tour.

David Warner: Originally I thought that Warner would end up a winner for the tour having been brought back from South Africa to play in the last two test matches for Australia. Frankly though it was a tour to forget for Warner the bookends of which were his punch to Joe Root at the start of the tour and his sacking from the ODI team at the end. Previously the face of the ODI team, Warner will need to work hard to come back into favour with the coach.

Many will consider that there are other winners and losers to come out of Australia’s Northern tour. These are the ones that stick out for me though.

The Sheffield Shield season can not commence quickly enough to progress Australia’s preparation for the coming Australian leg of the Ashes tour.

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?

Ashes Tour 2013: England v Australia 2nd ODI Preview

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

The second One Day International fixture between England and Australia kicks off tonight at Old Trafford. This portion of the tour seems entirely inconsequential and, frankly, a bit of a waste of time and thus it is difficult to get excited about it. That said, it is an important game for some players on the fringe of selection for the main focus of English and Australian cricket fans coming up in 74 days’ time so it is worth looking at least to see how those players perform.

Neither team has named its final line-up. That said it is a big game for:

· Fawad Ahmed: I have not been a fan of Ahmed’s selection and his fast tracked citizenship. Equally I am intrigued to see how he reacts to the public pressure that has come from his request (granted by Cricket Australia) to not be forced to wear the sponsors logo on his shirt. John Inverarity clearly has him the heart of his plans for the Ashes so another solid performance for him here will be another building bloke in building his case for promotion ahead of Nathan Lyon.

· Michael Clarke: Darren Lehmann has been overt about his view that so long as Clarke is fit he will play. I have to say that every time I see Clarke in the line-up for games that mean nothing I fear he is one game closer to hurting his back and being out of the Ashes series. It is a big game for Clarke to ensure that he does not get hurt: he is that important to the return Ashes series.

· George Bailey: Is only 112 runs away from reaching 1000 runs in one day cricket. There is a gap in Australia’s test match batting line-up at number 6 (or number 5 if Steve Smith moves down the order) so a hundred in this fixture would not only push him over an important milestone but could push him to the forefront of the selectors minds for that vacant slot.

· Steven Finn: Had a test series to forget and was promptly dropped after the first test at Nottingham. He gets his chance to push for a tour to Australia for the return series where one would expect his bowling to more suited to the conditions than they were in England. It has to be said though that Finn often leaks runs and it was obvious that when he bowled at Nottingham any pressure on Australia’s batters was released. He will need to do better in this ODI series to convince those who doubt him in the English set up that he is up to the task in Australia.

· Eoin Morgan: Captaining England in the absence of Alistair Cook, among others, Morgan secured an easy victory an easy victory against Ireland with a quality hundred. Morgan has had a truncated career for England in test matches having not played for England since its series against Pakistan in Dubai. The added pressure of captaincy could play a role in his form in this form of the game, however if he does perform under that pressure he may find himself back in the frame for a test birth.

The last time England and Australia faced each other:

· In this form of the game, England thrashed Australia in the Champions Trophy by 48 runs (exactly 3 months ago) off the back of an inspired bowling performance from Messrs Anderson and Broad (neither of whom are playing in this series).

· At this ground, the rain conspired against Australia as it pressed for what would have been a victory that kept the Ashes series alive for it but only lead to a draw that saw the English retain the Ashes.

Given the changes that have been made to the England line up for this series, the bookmakers have installed Australia as favourites to take the series and this game. I, for one, am less confident. Only time will tell.

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: First Class Schedule announced

September 7, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , 2 Comments

I have been calling for some time for Cricket Australia announce its first class schedule for the 2013/14 season principally because I am more than a bit concerned about Australia’s preparation for the first test at the Gabba kicking off on 21 November.

I wrote earlier today on my current worries about the Australian teams preparation. Now that Cricket Australia has announced the schedule, I have to say my worries have not been sated.

Based on the schedule released, there will be 3 rounds of Sheffield Shield cricket before the first test. Those rounds will take place on:

30 October – 2 November
6 November – 9 November
13 November – 16 November

I have two problems with this schedule:

1. There are not enough first class games. The domestic season starts on 29 September in Australia with the Ryobi Cup 4 week tournament during which there will be no first class cricket. I can not understand why Cricket Australia would not make more games available for players who might be involved in the test match to gain form in the long form of the game.

2. The players participating in the India ODI tour will only get one first class game before the first test. If you are in the ODI squad going to India and you are a test player or you are on the fringe of the test team then you will only, realistically be able to play in the final round of the Sheffield Shield before the first test given that the last game of the India tour is on 2 November and they will need to travel back to Australia and get over jet lag.

I remain of the view that Cricket Australia should be doing everything possible to prepare the Australian team for the home ashes series. This first class schedule coupled with the Indian ODI tour is a long way from doing that!

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.