Jarrod Kimber
Denying Cummins his 'Shane Warne moment'
"Pat Cummings is coming on to bowl," said the Essex ground announcer.
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
"Pat Cummings is coming on to bowl," said the Essex ground announcer.
And that isn't a typo by me, the added g was used for pretty much the entire match. Taking a five-for and hitting the winning runs in your first Test as a teenager should be enough for people to know your name. But Cummins is still fairly unknown to English audiences. Him, Starc and Pattinson are often grouped together as Australia's young pace bowlers.
Starc looks a nightmare to face on his day, Pattinson is a beast of a young man but it's Cummins who is the mythical cricket creature. The teenage pace sensation.
Full postIs it a crime to love the game?
In an Edinburgh hotel room I watched Mohammad Amir make 73 batting at No
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
In an Edinburgh hotel room I watched Mohammad Amir make 73 batting at No. 10 to almost defeat New Zealand in an ODI.
I watched the match on an illegal stream; Giles Clarke’s archenemy. According to Clarke, cricket fans who watch illegal streams are defrauding their own sport by putting existing huge money TV deals into jeopardy. The very money that funds cricket and its administration.
If you choose to watch cricket on an illegal stream instead of subscribing, then in your own way that is what you are doing. Now maybe you have a vaild reason, like having no money. Or you find subscription TV is little more than a stream of reality TV shows where Americans abuse each other while buying things from storage lockers. Having watched a fair bit of cricket on illegal internet streams, I’d doubt there are many people out there who can afford paying a subscription and still watch illegally. Watching illegally is really annoying.
Full postNarine's inauspicious entry
Mysteries get solved in an hour on TV
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
Mysteries get solved in an hour on TV. Law and Order, CSI and Midsomer Murders have all confirmed this for us. But for Sunil Narine, one day with 15 overs, no wickets and 69 runs is not the conclusion to the story.
Narine has had a charmed existence for many reasons since he entered top-level cricket. He wasn’t thrust in as a teenager. The pitches he has played on have been exceptionally sympathetic to spinners. He’s played when people are trying to slog him. And no one can pick him. Today was different.
The pitch was good enough for a No. 11 to make a record score. Graeme Swann didn’t take a wicket. And the England players could wait for the bad balls, rather than attacking him. Also, Narine bowled poorly.
Full postCan Narine outlast the mystery?
West Indies cricket has been playing a nauseating film noir movie on loop for over a decade now
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
West Indies cricket has been playing a nauseating film noir movie on loop for over a decade now. The one thing they’ve been missing is the exciting, quirky, deformed character that steals the focus. In cricket, no one does that better than a mystery spinner. Just the term mystery spinner gets people ferociously excited.
One tweet was it all it took for me to get my twitter followers fired up. The press box also got engaged. All I’d done was try to remember the name of the Australian part-time spinner who bowled a doosra as a party trick without ever trying to make a career out of it. I received blank stares from many in the press box, and from twitter names were flung at me. Some odd, like Clarrie Grimmett and Bishan Bedi. Even Colin McCool was mentioned. Probably, just because someone wanted to say Colin McCool.
Eventually it was Mike Atherton in the press box, and former Notts finger spinner Paul McMahon on twitter, who correctly named Jack Potter, the Victoria batsman-cum-spinner from the 1960s. I say spinner on purpose, as ESPNcricinfo and Cricket archive both have him down as a legspinner, but the stories are that he bowled off spin.
Full postShillingford's handy, Narine's magic
Shane Shillingford is bowling for the West Indies in this Test .
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
Shane Shillingford is bowling for the West Indies in this Test.
Shillingford has that same pushing-back-at-an-imaginary-person-trying-to-hug-him that Harbhajan Singh does. He gets good bounce. Has a first-class bowling average of 25. Experience over many years of cricket. Has a ten-wicket haul in Test Cricket. Will one day have a stand named after him.
He’s not Sunil Narine.
Full postBetter win than be second favourites
I once mindlessly suggested to my father that it was a shame to see the Windies struggling
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
I once mindlessly suggested to my father that it was a shame to see the Windies struggling. That was followed by him abusing me for a long time about how you shouldn’t feel sorry for them, as they happily beat up on everyone when they had that chance. His scars were still raw.
But that attitude seems to be disappearing in recent times. The Windies are fast becoming the second favourite team of cricket fans, especially to those who never saw them pummel their country’s batsmen inside their heads.
They’ve been a perfect second side of late. They have exciting young cricketers, mystery bowlers, mini Lara, a talented young quick, and they’re not likely to beat your team in a Test match.
Full postCricket's new head warden
America gets to vote on whether they want to be run by a Mormon with a cricketer’s name or a guy some of their country is convinced is a socialist traitor in waiting
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
America gets to vote on whether they want to be run by a Mormon with a cricketer’s name or a guy some of their country is convinced is a socialist traitor in waiting. But if they get off work on stupid Tuesday they can waddle down to their local booth and vote based on how much they care about gay marriage. It’s democratic, when they count all the votes.
People even get to vote on Eurovision, even if occasionally they get beaten for voting against national interests.
Cricket is getting a new ICC chief executive soon as well. Haroon Lorgat is leaving; he’s tired of doing a job where everyone hates him and he can’t do much to change it. He left with a dainty air punch called Woolf.
So who decides who should be the new face of the ICC?
Full postWright and Buchanan: an imperfect pairing
A café near my place is shutting down
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
A café near my place is shutting down. It’s called the Looney Tunes Café and it has decent food and nice staff. But the owner of the building has decided that he wants a bigger glossier café in its place and the current homely style of café is not going to match his new building.
Now watch me say that John Wright (the soon to be former coach of New Zealand) is the Looney Tunes Café and John Buchanan (current New Zealand director of cricket) is the forward thinking building owner trying to get the most out of his investment.
It’s easy to make John Buchanan out to be the bad guy. A non-Test playing bookish nerd who looks like Ned Flanders, who is overly fond of lawn bowls and ancient Chinese text. It doesn’t help that Shane Warne never misses a chance to abuse John Buchanan, or that several of Buchanan’s theories don’t really make much sense.
Full postThe coolest, scariest IPL experience
I worked for a cult once.
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
Mumbai fans wave flags like they are worried there is some IMG sniper on the roof who will take them down if they don’t show as much enthusiasm as possible
© AFP/span>I worked for a cult once.
It wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped.
It wasn’t some grey-alien-cloning-giant-clam style cult. It was a boring incestuous Christian fundamentalist cult.
Full postWade's coming of age
The first time I saw Matthew Wade keep he was horrible
Jarrod Kimber
25-Feb-2013
The first time I saw Matthew Wade keep he was horrible. Truly disgustingly bad. It was like his gloves were ceramic tiles that had been attached just for the day. At the time I couldn’t work out why Victoria had been talking this kid up.
And kid was the right word, he looked seven.
Victoria’s wicketkeepers usually look like angry men who you’d see at the back of dodgy pubs playing cards. Men like Darren Berry or ‘Slug’ Jordon who could dismiss you with their gloves, chunky thighs or behind-the-wicket abuse.
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