Different Strokes
Massages, ice baths, and you still get injured after a first-ball duck?
A month away from the start of the World Cup, with no clear favourite emerging and all squads announced, I'm throwing out the form book and looking at the list of 'support staff'
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
A month away from the start of the World Cup, with no clear favourite emerging and all squads announced, I'm throwing out the form book and looking at the list of 'support staff'. I'm starting to favour the Contrarian Theory that the squad with the least medical staff, specialised fitness regimes and massage therapists will end up victorious. They might be the only team left standing!
The recent spate of injuries in the Australia and England sides is utterly baffling for two teams whose cricketers are totally full-time professionals. They have no other jobs, their every movement is monitored by a coterie of medical experts, their diets are specified by nutritionists and a team of masseurs work on their tender muscles all day long. They wear the latest in compression clothing, they wallow in ice baths, sports drinks are consumed by the gallon and yet … they keep finding new ways to miss games and new injuries. Has there ever been a more precious generation of cricketers who do nothing else with their lives except look after their bodies and yet are arguably the least 'fit' players of all time?
I'm not referring to 'fitness' in terms of their ability to run marathons or break records in an exercise physiology sense. I'm sure their fitness levels, as measured by machines and PhD students, would put the rest of us to shame. Yet, even humble club cricketers like myself manage to get through many seasons of cricket without so much as a single massage or gym session, without missing a game with an injury to a muscle that we didn't even know we possessed.
Full postThe importance of coaches
The more I think about what went on in the Ashes, the more I appreciate what a brilliant job the England back-room crew did
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
The more I think about what went on in the Ashes, the more I appreciate what a brilliant job the England back-room crew did. It is no surprise at all that the players have gone out of their way to praise them and their contribution. Andy Flower. modestly, though quite rightly, says that the credit should go to the players because they are the ones who have to make the right decisions at the right time on the field, but the guys who prepared them for the fight clearly gave them everything they needed to do so.
Perhaps the best illustration is the way the England bowlers dealt with Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Phil Hughes. Time and again, Ponting and Clarke were out to balls bowled to reach them about waist-height a foot or so outside off stump, and they received almost none of the balls directed at their bodies which both of them love to send to the on-side boundaries. Hughes, on the other hand, received almost none of the balls waist-high outside off because he would have clattered them to the fence, and was instead served a diet of body balls which tangled his non-existent defence up completely. The analysts who study the videos of the opposition clearly found the weak spots.
That encapsulates England's attention to detail in preparing for each batsman. What it further shows is the trust the bowlers have in their leadership, because none of them ever seemed tempted to stray from the plan currently in operation, whether it was plan A, B or C. They were exemplary in bowling to their fields, even when a couple of Australians had got themselves set and the temptation to try and find a magic ball to disrupt them must have been overwhelming.
Full postThe burden of expectation
The failures of Harmison and Johnson are not entirely their fault: we the public are partly to blame too, because we invest our hopes in them and expect too high a rate of return, and they go broke trying to meet the payments we demand.
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Reading a lot of the English coverage following the Melbourne Test, you'd have thought that England had achieved an overwhelming victory, but all they have managed so far is to guarantee that they will not lose the series. Granted, it's a major advance on getting thrashed every time they visit Australia, but the euphoria in the media on retaining the Ashes has been way over the top. Even the Australian press, from what I can gather, has been of the total gloom and doom variety even though Australia have not yet lost.
So far, England have outclassed Australia sufficiently to make it more than likely that they will at least not lose at Sydney and thereby win the whole series, when they will deserve all the encomiums currently being showered, but it's all a bit premature right now.
As is the hailing of Tim Bresnan as the new match-winning hero. He did indeed bowl well, but the real match-winning bowling came from Anderson and Tremlett on the first day: Bresnan simply hastened the inevitable.
Full postPonting fails his responsibility
Watching Ponting bat is one of the great pleasures in life
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
A few years ago, one of Australia's richest businessmen, Richard Pratt, was fined $36 million in the Federal Court for price fixing. Another Pratt, Gary, substitute fielder for England in 2005 ran out Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston. Yesterday at the MCG, Ponting was fined about $5000 for behaving (again) like a complete pratt.
Like Pratt, Captain of Industry, Ponting, Captain of Australia must view the regulators (in this case the ICC) with disdain and contempt. Thirty six million dollars to a billionaire must just seem like the cost of doing business, minor embarrassment aside. Five thousand dollars to a millionaire, who holds the highest sporting office in the country, and whose behaviour is watched by millions of young kids throughout the Christmas holiday period, is nothing short of a joke. All Ponting needs to do is to ask his sponsors to run a few extra advertisements for the wholesome and pure vitamins that he endorses and he can pay the fine with petty cash from the till. And the ICC really think that this will stop him from being a naughty boy again? There you go Ricky - 40% of your match payment for a serial offender and that'll learn you!
Watching Ponting bat is one of the great pleasures in life. Watching him disrespecting the privilege of being Australia's cricket captain is one of the great sadnesses. During the tea break yesterday, we were treated to archival footage from the Richie Benaud-Bill Lawry era when the honour of being the Australian captain was clearly much more than just winning cricket matches at any cost. It provided a stark reminder of just how much has changed in the modern game. One cannot even begin to imagine Benaud arguing and pointing his finger at an umpire. Even great statesmen are allowed the odd aberration but I'm afraid Ponting's general demeanour is totally unbecoming for someone who needs to understand that as a captain, as a role model, as an ambassador, as someone who kids idolise, it is "unacceptable" (according to Ranjan Madugalle, fearless dispenser of justice with a wet lettuce leaf).
Full postDear Santa
Dear Santa,
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Dear Santa,
I hope I've been good rather than bad and nice rather than naughty this year, and that you will therefore look kindly on my Christmas wish.
What I want is a series of five-day cricket matches between my team and yours. Obviously there will be some difficulty fitting it into the international calendar, so what I suggest is that you simply give the World Cup to India and then we can have the matches when that bloated waste of time was scheduled. In South Asia if you like, but only if you can find a couple of pitches there that will assist the pace bowlers: there needs to be a decent variety of conditions for the five-match rubber.
Full postDifferent strokes for different folks
When the Different Strokes blog was initially launched a few years ago, the brief was simple: provide perspectives from your corner of the globe; not propaganda or jingoism but opinions and views on cricket
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
When the Different Strokes blog was initially launched a few years ago, the brief was simple: provide perspectives from your corner of the globe; not propaganda or jingoism but opinions and views on cricket. From Yorkshire to New York to Pakistan to Brisbane, that's been our mission, raising eyebrows, drawing ire, copping flak but always trying to do justice to the original mission statement of representing issues from differing perspectives. Different strokes for different folks indeed - it's amazing how a single issue can be dissected and digested in entirely different ways, depending on perspective.
The current Ashes series, riveting in its roller-coaster ride, is grist for the mill in terms of opinions and generalisations. Over the last few days, knowing that I write for ESPNcricinfo and knowing that I have played cricket in England and India, many of my Australian friends have posed some very interesting questions that were devoid of any malice but suggested that global stereotyping is still alive and well in cricket conversations. Here are a few of those questions and my opinion on them (remembering that the entire point of the blog is to represent a different perspective rather than resolve any factual argument).
Question: In relation to the latest rumours about the MCG pitch being switched to suit the Aussie pace attack, are the Poms a bunch of whiners?
Full postThe best win in years
Whatever else happens during these Ashes, Adelaide will provide a cherished reminiscence for years, even decades to come
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
Adelaide was a wonderful victory. It is very rare for England to dominate a match so totally from beginning to end, playing so well as a team, and making so few mistakes.
The last occasion I can remember was against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston in 2002. However, in that game England had major help from the weather. Batting conditions were horrible when Nasser Hussain put Sri Lanka in, and Andy Caddick put in one of his rare, top-quality first-innings spells to skittle the visitors for 162. The weather improved greatly thereafter, and England posted over 500 with the sun on their backs, facing a Murali who bowled 64 overs despite having been unwilling to play because of a very sore left shoulder. This was before he had perfected his doosra and was easy meat for left-handers such as Marcus Trescothick and Graham Thorpe, who both scored superb hundreds; Thorpe getting there with the aid of Matthew Hoggard, who scored 17 out of a last wicket partnership of 91 before going on to take a five-for in the second innings as the Lankans subsided.
But to find anything similar, I think you have to go back 25 years to two matches in 1985.
Full postThe use and abuse of UDRS
It's clear from the first two Ashes Tests that the UDRS is still a long way from being perfect
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
It's clear from the first two Ashes Tests that the UDRS is still a long way from being perfect. Common sense will tell you that it was probably first conceived with the intention of eliminating the absolute 'howlers' but as the concept has been refined and debated, mindful of time-wasting issues, it has now morphed into something that is being used as a strategic weapon. Meanwhile, the really poor decisions still go under the radar, as we saw with Rohit Sharma last night, because it's not even compulsory around the world. It is indeed a curious workplace environment where some cricketers may lose (or save) their careers depending on whether they're involved in a game that includes the use of the UDRS whilse their colleagues in another country play to a different set of rules. It seems ridiculous that for a universal game administered by a global body, there is such inconsistency over such an important facet.
One can't blame captains for using the system, as it currently stands, as a strategic entitlement. It's no longer something you only use to overturn a blatantly wrong decision, but it has now become a calculated 'Powerplay' that should be used with great caution, perhaps to break up a valuable partnership or to stem the rot of a collapse or to try and get rid of the gun batsman if there's a s50/50 chance that the decision might just go your way. Clearly, umpires are getting a few of them wrong, mainly the tight calls, so unless it's going to be used for all decisions, we still risk having a system that is fundamentally flawed just because a team has already used up it's quota on those marginal calls.
The players themselves can take some of the blame for this. Michael Clarke, perhaps through abject disappointment or the act of a drowning man clutching at a serpent, saw a glimmer of hope when the umpire missed a blatant inside edge and forced England to refer a short-leg catch that was obvious for everybody to see. Well, obvious to everybody except the man in the best position - the umpire! Now, let me state upfront that I have no issue whatsoever with Clarke (or any other cricketer from any country) standing their ground and waiting for the umpire's decision if they are also prepared to abrogate ALL decision-making responsibilities to the umpire. It's when we have this "duality of morality" (as I call it) that major problems emerge and tensions can flare.
Full postWhen will I wake up?
Since the third morning at the Gabba, what one has woken up to, has been so surprising that it's hard to believe one is not still dreaming
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
For the dedicated fan back home in England, an Ashes series Down Under is always somewhat disorienting. Those of us with conventional day-jobs tend to have to choose whether to miss the beginning or the end of the day's play, so one always wakes up wondering what happened while one was in the land of Nod.
And since the third morning at the Gabba, what one has woken up to, has been so surprising that it's hard to believe one is not still dreaming. After all, we know what to expect for a series in Australia: the Aussies will bat forever and take wickets for fun; whenever England look as though they might be getting their act together and competing, something disastrous happens and it's back to the depressing old routine. What we are seeing conforms to the correct pattern – except that the hapless team with the wheels coming off are wearing baggy green caps, which is surely the stuff of either fantasy or the ravings of the mentally imbalanced.
More fantastic about this illusion is the list of England heroes. Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook spent the English summer making sure we knew they were horribly out of form and are really only in the side because the selectors can't think of anyone better, and it's a well-known fact that Jimmy Anderson is hopelessly ineffective unless he has a Duke ball in his hand and low clouds overhead to make it hoop around. Yet Cook and KP have notched double-hundreds and Jimmy's been the most consistently dangerous bowler on either team.
Full postTaxpayers' money must not fund academies
For a proud and successful sporting country, there's a national debate going on in Australia right now that almost resembles a post-mortem of sorts
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
For a proud and successful sporting country, there's a national debate going on in Australia right now that almost resembles a post-mortem of sorts. Football fans are crying foul over FIFA's decision to apparently "snub" Australia's bid to host the World Cup in 2022 and sadly, though not entirely surprisingly, there's the usual talk of corruption, broken promises, lack of transparency etc. Jingoism even pushes some to claim that Australia should have been awarded the World Cup because we are "the greatest country in the world", one of the most pointless and meaningless clichés ever invented. All nations resort to these ridiculous statements in times of national crisis (or triumph) which only goes to prove that they are indeed...ridiculous!
Like the football, our cricket fortunes too are increasingly attracting comment from every man and his dog, most of the commentary focusing on the disappointments currently being experienced in The Ashes. I must confess that I'm not one of those people who feel any great sense of shame, disappointment or surprise. It's sport. Simple as that. The very nature of sport is that there must be a winner and a loser and there's no shame in occasionally being at the wrong end of that equation. If you only want to win, then play with yourself! Australians have a word that describes this singular activity perfectly but I'm not sure why they keep referring to "bankers"!!! Must be something to do with the GFC I suppose.
Speaking of money, if Australia's football bosses can't accept FIFA's decision with good grace, knowing full well that it was a competitive bid process, then don't waste $45 million dollars of taxpayers’ money on a process that does not have a guaranteed outcome. Talk of corruption, transparency, broken promises etc just smacks of sour grapes. No one can pretend that none of this was known before yesterday's decision, yet if we had won the bid, we would presumably have been delighted to host a World Cup that was administered by these same folk. Likewise with the cricket - we've enjoyed more than a decade at the top of world and when the inevitable change happens, as has always been the case, we're now in a state of national mourning, trying to find scapegoats where none exist. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Where is the shame in that?
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