Different Strokes
The beauty of watching Pakistan play
There are not too many other sides in world cricket that make me that nervous, even when Australia are seemingly cruising towards victory
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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| "You never quite know what to expect with Pakistan but you expect to be entertained, frustrated or bewitched at every twist and turn of the game" © Associated Press |
Cricket has this wonderful way of throwing up extraordinary events that sometimes teaches us to simply accept the beautiful unpredictability of sport without reading any sinister intentions into it. Struggling to stay awake at about 5 am this morning (Australia time), I was enthralled by a five-wicket maiden over at the end of Australia’s innings in the Twenty20 World Cup match in St Lucia. That an amazing finish to an innings that was rocketing along at breakneck speed just a few overs earlier when David Hussey collared Mohammad Sami.
When was the last time a team that lost 5 wickets for no runs in an over comfortably won a cricket match? That says a lot about how good this Australian team is. It also served as a sobering reminder that when such extraordinary events happen, we should sometimes dispense with our cynicism and appreciate the theatre and drama of sport for what it is. Watching that last over, there was no doubt in my mind that this was a bizarre but brilliant passage of play by Pakistan and an equally poor performance by Australia. Nothing more, nothing less. Just one of those things that can happen sometimes.
Very little else about Australia’s play was poor and Pakistan had little else to celebrate but for this single over. If the situation had been reversed, I wonder if there would have been the usual murmurings and suspicions about how Pakistan could possibly have lost five wickets for no runs in six balls. And that would have been most terribly unfair on Pakistan because as we’ve just seen, amazing things can happen sometimes without having to question the integrity of such events.
Full postWhere cheaters can prosper
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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As Gideon Haigh so eloquently put it in his most recent Cricinfo piece, the Australian sporting public are apparently betrayed and shocked by recent revelations about their champion rugby league team's salary cap rort. Well, perhaps only those who actually care about rugby league are actually shocked. But amongst that demographic, there is almost a universal sense of betrayal and shock, a universality that has been noticeably lacking in recent years when women were allegedly sexually assaulted or treated as group sex playthings by half a rugby league team. It's a measure of the morality of a sport when it feels more betrayed by salary cap cheating than the sense of shame that comes with numerous examples of poor behaviour where real people actually get hurt sometimes.
But for some reason, the issue of systemic 'cheating' carries with it a sense of deep outrage. As I discussed in my most recent post, the issue of double standards is a troublesome beast that simply won't go away and die quietly in peace. The ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies is about to showcase another curious aspect of cricket's inconsistency that would surely confuse anyone trying to make sense of the rules. I refer to the 'Mankad' law.
Fairly recently, the laws of cricket were amended to ensure that the non-striker could virtually cheat at will. He can steal a metre or two and be almost immune from being run-out by the bowler. If the bowler had the temerity to actually effect a 'Mankad dismissal', it would generally be seen as a churlish and mean-spirited thing to do. The fielding captain would almost be obliged to call the poor batsman back.
Full postBack to live cricket
The only comfort to be taken from the youngsters' failures is that Robson was playing for Australia's U-19 team a couple of years ago and if he's representative of the cream of new Australian cricketers, England will be regaining and then holding the
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
It has been good to get back to watching cricket live, even if it was perishingly cold for the first two days. It would be pleasant to record that it was also a fine match, but one cannot have everything, so a few random reflections will have to suffice.
I arrived for the summer's second day at Lord's just as a Middlesex wicket fell. As is the modern way, out trotted the Glamorgan twelfth man with the drinks for the fielders. Usually the drinks waiter is a lowly young hopeful but on this occasion it was the former Test player and captain of the county, Robert Croft. It was a poignant reminder of the passage of time, of how the end of a lengthy career can often resemble its beginning.
After sixteen years of being picked whenever fit and available, Croft is no longer Glamorgan's number one spinner, a title which has now devolved on this year's beneficiary Dean Cosker. Croft is back to where he started, hoping that conditions will favour him getting picked – which may well depend on who is injured and who isn't, or who has been called up for England duty.
This is part of the attraction of watching domestic cricket: you get to see the whole story of a career, the rise through the ranks, a peak possibly involving international recognition, and then the gradual decline and fade before more or less voluntary retirement.
Full postNot a natural neutral
To put it crudely, if my side is batting I want a boundary (or simple survival in the latter stages of a Test which needs saving), and if we're bowling, I want a wicket
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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This is the first year that the IPL has been available on a channel in my satellite package, and it has been fun to watch it. It has also been enlightening: I have learned that for me, watching cricket is essentially partisan.
If England, Yorkshire or Middlesex are playing, then I am already hooked and know which side I want to win (Yorks to beat Middx when they meet). If Surrey or Australia are playing, then I know which side I want to lose. If anyone else is playing I generally want the result which will be of most benefit to one of the sides I actually support - although if it's international cricket, I'm usually in favour of West Indies or Pakistan with the proviso that I don't want the result which will put England out of the tournament.
But none of those considerations apply when I watch an IPL game. It makes no difference to any of my teams whether Delhi beat Chennai or Bangalore lose to Kolkata - except perhaps in some roundabout way involving the availability of players when the Champions League is on.
Full postA modest triumph
Bangladesh are no longer a hopeless joke team who should not be playing Test cricket, but a weak team who still need to do a lot of work, much like New Zealand in the 1930s.
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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| "Bangladesh - catching up with the big boys in Test cricket" © Associated Press |
Bangladesh v England was a very boring Test series, which represents a triumph, if perhaps a modest one, for Bangladesh.
Five years ago, a Bangladesh Test involved far more action than it should have. There would be a day and a half of their opponents gaily bashing their way to 500-6 or so, surrounded or followed by a day and a half of Bangladeshi batsmen throwing their twenty wickets away like confetti, and the whole ritual would be over in three days.
Now it takes five days to beat Bangladesh. They have enough batsmen with enough gumption to bat extremely boringly in the name of crease occupation and enough bowlers who may not be threatening but can at least bowl a line and length which keeps the runs down for them to have chances of drawing a game. Another fifteen overs batting at Mirpur and England would have needed 250 off 40 overs, which ought to have been possible to defend, which means Bangladesh came quite close to achieving a draw, which is by no means bad. If they had been luckier with the umpiring, England could well have had to bat for more than a day to get 350, which would have been an even more interesting prospect.
Full postPakistan's moment of glory
The final images are a blur
Saad Shafqat
25-Feb-2013
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| "As far as Pakistanis were concerned, all was well with the world" © Getty Images |
Eighteen years ago today Pakistan scaled one of cricket's grand peaks when it lifted the World Cup trophy in Melbourne. It was the tournament's fifth edition and the first to be held in Australia and New Zealand. Pakistan's previous best showing had been the semi-finals, which they had reached in each of the previous three World Cups.
In 1992, the United States was a cricket wilderness and there were no easy opportunities for a cricket nut like me to follow the international game. Internet, satellite television, and even Cricinfo were in their infancy. I was a graduate student at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and quickly formed a support group with fellow fanatics. At a crisis meeting, it was concluded that our only real hope was a shortwave radio. We tested a few models but the background static left us unimpressed.
The tournament was fast approaching and emergency measures were required. I took the plunge and ran up my credit card debt purchasing a plane ticket to Karachi. School was in full session and my PhD advisor was aghast that I would be taking two weeks off in the middle of the spring semester. I made my excuses. He was a midwestern workaholic and didn't know cricket at all, but understood the pull of passion.
Full postDifferent standards, double standards
Why and how are some actions just totally unacceptable in terms of fair play and yet, some other dubious practices are given immunity from the ‘cheating’ tag with the responsibility for the decision ultimately being ceded to the referee/umpire
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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| "Why does a nick to the wicketkeeper or a close-in fielder have a different moral obligation than the fielder who caught a bump ball?" © Getty Images |
There’s nothing like a bit of controversy to spark a debate about what different sports regard as acceptable within that particular sport’s culture. Recently, in an A League football (soccer) semi-final between Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix, a striker attempted to head the ball into the goal, missed with his melon but managed a tidy little handball into the back of the net and duly celebrated the goal in typical football style. The defenders indignantly protested but the match officials did not see it and the goal was allowed, even though replays showed a blatant foul.
Following on from the infamous Thierry Henry incident from last year in the World Cup qualifying game against Ireland, it was interesting to note that the Sydney player was relatively unfazed by the controversy surrounding his actions, yet the Wellington coach was furious, even likening it to that famous underarm bowling episode, adding to New Zealand’s list of injustices committed by Australian sportsmen.
I was discussing this incident with some of my university students in a sports philosophy context and we got on to the topic of the curious nature of morality in sport. Why and how are some actions just totally unacceptable in terms of fair play and yet, some other dubious practices are given immunity from the ‘cheating’ tag with the responsibility for the decision ultimately being ceded to the referee/umpire? There exists a duality of morality not just between sports but also within sports. And in some cases, the boundaries of morality actually change according to broad regional differences in the perception of what is acceptable or not.
Full postThe Clarke and Bingle saga
Michael Clarke's press conference today was sensible, understated and realistic
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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| The best thing about Clarke's press conference was that he was prepared to accept that life in the spotlight is part of the social contract that an international sportsman has to deal with © Getty Images |
Fair play to Michael Clarke; despite enduring a trying week, he has, thus far, maintained a dignity that has so far escaped just about everybody else involved in the B Grade soap opera that has been his life in the last few days.
His press conference today was sensible, understated and realistic. The best thing about it was that he was prepared to accept that life in the spotlight is part of the social contract that an international sportsman has to deal with. For that admission alone, he may yet escape the worst of the media attention that might otherwise have been directed at him – it’s almost like he’s disarmed the media by giving them the gun and removing his bulletproof vest. It takes a cad and a bounder to shoot an unarmed man!
I’m not one of those who feels particularly sorry for him, nor do I get any real satisfaction from seeing his personal life in mild turmoil. To be honest, it doesn’t particularly interest me one way or the other. When he first started dating Lara Bingle, I was one of those who doubted it would last because I doubted the whole “true love” thing that the cheap magazines promoted. Nonetheless, it has nothing whatsoever to do with my life, so if sports stars want to date pretty girls who set their stall out to catch high-profile husbands, that’s their business. Good or bad. Just don’t complain too much when it goes pear-shaped. Not that Clarke can be accused of that. Good on him.
Full postWhere is the justice?
We keep talking of consistency from umpires when it comes to lbw decisions or wide calls or anything else on the field
Michael Jeh
25-Feb-2013
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| Mitchell Johnson and Scott Styris during their mid-pitch clash in Napier © Getty Images |
"Many remark justice is blind; pity those in her sway, shocked to discover she is also deaf." - David Mamet – Faustus
A few months ago, when Suleiman Benn clashed with Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson, I wrote a piece critical of the seeming double standards that the ICC applies when dealing with such unsavoury incidents.
Full postWould you do it 'for your country'?
Questioning someone's selection simply because he doesn't wear Union Jack pyjamas to bed shows remarkably little understanding of professional sportsmen.
Mike Holmans
25-Feb-2013
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| Craig Kieswetter ought to feel offended to have to confess to English loyalties after being picked to play for England © Getty Images |
Craig Kieswetter is no doubt going to get thoroughly sick of being asked whether he feels English, even though it's the wrong question. Like me, he has one British parent and one foreign, which makes him as British by descent as I, though since his mother is a Scot and my father was English, I'm English and he isn't. He can hardly sit there at a press conference unveiling him as an England player and say he doesn't feel "English", but he ought to feel offended to have to confess to Sassenach loyalties. Robert Croft, the former England Test player, used to make a big point of not being English but Welsh – but then he had been born and raised in Wales, so nobody expected him to pretend to be English.
When someone has a choice of which nationality to adopt, in cricketing terms it makes sense to opt for British nationality: unless you can get on to the international circuit or get offered an IPL contract, county cricket is the most lucrative source of employment available. They decide to go through a qualification period not because they believe they will be selected for England more easily than for the country where they did most of their growing-up, but because it is the passport to fifteen years of being able to make a comfortable living playing cricket rather than stacking supermarket shelves.
Once they are qualified, though, it makes little sense for the England selectors to ignore them just because they were born abroad. And if it seems that too many immigrants are turning up in the England side, it's hardly the immigrants' fault that they're so good: the question, if any, is why people growing up in England don't seem to develop into top-level players, especially batsmen. It's a pretty complex question, but that most people in Britain now live in densely-populated cities with very limited space given over to playing fields, parks and so on, particularly in comparison to people-poor, land-rich Australia or South Africa, must be a major contributing factor – and there is little the ECB can do about that.
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