Michael Jeh
Does the media think fans are fools?
Why does television seem to think that cricket followers only want to know about their team when it is winning?
Michael Jeh
27-Feb-2014
"Integrity has no need of rules"
- Albert Camus
Brisbane faces the curious prospect later this year of hosting a Test match where the local tabloid will not be able to name most of the players involved. They will be referred to only by their batting or bowling styles, and intelligent readers, all 17 of them, will have to guess who scored runs and took wickets. This wonderful game of guess who was initiated last year by an innovative journalist, who in the noble interests of vilifying players who are alleged to have been dishonest, took this honourable stance against Stuart Broad for infamously not walking at Trent Bridge in 2013.
The thing about honour is that it is a matter of consistency rather than convenience. Honour is honour - it should play no favourites. This tabloid now faces a moral conundrum after both Nathan Lyon and Chris Rogers in the series against South Africa edged balls and didn't tuck their bats under their arms and trudge off like the honourable chaps - of whom Broad clearly wasn't one. Virat Kohli, one of the most exciting players likely to be on show at the Gabba, will have to be content with being "the right-hand batsman from India" after he edged one and didn't walk when there was a Test that needed to be saved in Wellington last week. With eight months still to go before the next Gabba Test, there are bound to be more such cases of batsmen from India and Australia not walking when they nick it to the keeper, so if this honour code is indeed more than the mere jingoistic rubbish that it initially looked like when Broad was targeted for abuse, expect this Brisbane tabloid to cover the Test without mention of any names. The umpires too should be included in this admirable stance against dishonesty. Just call them penguins!
Full postWhen the selectors knew something we didn't
John Inverarity and Co weathered unfair criticism for picking Shaun Marsh, but now they need to be lauded for their bold decision
Michael Jeh
19-Feb-2014
It's hard to eat your own words when you're already choking on humble pie. Having been force-fed a steady diet of both over these last few days, I'm now ready to dispense with any more predictions related to cricket. Credit where credit's due - the Australian cricket selectors deserve to bask in the glory whilst sideline commentators like yours truly wear the ignominy of shame with nowhere to hide.
I refer, of course, to my recent comments regarding the selection of Shaun Marsh. Hands up - I'll admit that I was one of those critics (fools even) who openly bagged the selectors for even considering him for the South African tour. My rationale was based on his poor first-class form this season, a poor injury history, and a long disciplinary history. His pedigree and class are undoubted but I was adamant that his selection was evidence of a system in disarray.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. His faultless century in Centurion must have been sweet ambrosia to John Inverarity and colleagues, who weathered much (unfair) criticism for picking a bloke because he was "in a good space". To those of us not as knowledgeable as Invers, that decision appeared ridiculous. It appeared to make a mockery of the recommendations of the Argus Review, which called for players to be picked on domestic form. It appeared to be an insult to the Sheffield Shield batsmen who scored runs and were then ignored because Marsh was suddenly in a good space.
Full postModern injury-prevention techniques are not working
It might be time to go back to more traditional methods of preparation: long periods of batting and bowling in place of hours spent in the gym, in ice baths, and on the massage table
Michael Jeh
11-Feb-2014
My two most recent pieces questioning the value of support staff within the professional cricket framework elicited much interest offline. One of the points made by an eloquent and informed sports-medicine professional was that forced rest periods could sometimes be counter-productive if the athlete in question had the sort of physical profile that benefited from constant motion. Glenn McGrath for example was a fast bowler who seemingly thrived on a steady workload that kept him chugging along, with occasional long breaks for an engine overhaul. He is the taxi where Shane Watson is the Formula 1 race car that looks good at high speed but costs a fortune in maintenance.
Watson's latest injury is indeed a mystery that must be equally frustrating to all involved: player, medical staff and management alike. After a none-too-rigorous Ashes campaign that saw England fold meekly on days three or four in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, Watson's workload was carefully managed to ensure his fragile body got enough rest to be firing on all cylinders to take on South Africa. Since January 5, when the Sydney Test resulted in an indecently hasty finish on day three, Watson has been virtually wrapped in bubble plastic, presumably as a precaution against soft-tissue injuries. His two ODI appearances were hardly taxing for a full-time professional athlete who has no other occupation except playing cricket (or getting fit enough to play). Two innings, six balls faced for 0 runs and a total of 11.4 overs with the ball, plus a bit of fielding for a maximum of seven hours. That was the sum total of his month's work at the office between January 5 and February 12.
It is hard to comprehend how an injury can flare up if he has been under such expert care in a supposedly scientifically proven medical environment. What more can the dedicated and hard-working staff do (that they are currently not doing) to keep players like Watson and Shaun Marsh from succumbing to soft-tissue injuries? I would like to be a fly on the wall when the latest injury is explained to senior management and selectors, given that the entire point of the enforced rest period was to prevent this very thing from happening. One can only presume that Watson's injury-prevention programme has been mapped out by highly qualified and intelligent people with the backing of all the latest sports-medicine data and yet he once again pulls up with an injury after almost five weeks of doing virtually nothing. It is inconceivable that this can keep happening without someone in Jolimont Street twigging that there must be a better way.
Full postDo support staff really make a difference?
If it ultimately comes down to the athlete's skill, then maybe it's time to dispense with the big crews that accompany teams these days
Michael Jeh
02-Feb-2014
Following up on my most recent piece, questioning whether there is a correlation between central contracts, large support staff and less durable cricketers, I am prepared to go one step further and allege that professional cricket teams (and many male professional team sports) are caught in a trap of their own making with regards to the size, cost, and lack of performance dividends, of their support crew.
Watching the Australian Open tennis, played with cool tempers amid scorching heat, I now lean towards the belief that cricketers are nowhere near as fit or robust as tennis athletes. Or perhaps it would be truer to say they are not allowed to showcase their robustness. That is the curse of the professional team environment, dogged by an army of support staff who need to justify their own existence, as opposed to an individual athlete answering only to himself and therefore less inclined to cotton-wool himself.
These enforced periods of rest may not necessarily be at the bowler's request. It may well be at the behest of all those support staff and a top-heavy bureaucracy that needs to justify its existence. And what is the return on investment on this staff?
Full postAre central contracts too soft a cushion for elite cricketers?
If they had to play to be paid, would they allow their handlers to rest them so often?
Michael Jeh
23-Jan-2014
Would international fast bowlers be fitter and more durable if they were not centrally contracted and were on a strict "play for pay" salary? In other words, are they less likely to be rested, either at their own request or at the behest of management, if they were individual athletes (a bit like some of the IPL hired guns) as opposed to being part of a team environment with a coterie of physios, coaches, nutritionists and conditioners, who sometimes have to justify their roles by "managing" the workload of a fast bowler and in so doing, lean towards resting them when they should really be fit enough to bowl? In the case of Stuart Broad, here is England's best bowler, resting on the sidelines when his struggling team desperately needs him, supposedly because he is out on his feet after a gruelling Ashes campaign.
As a follow-on question, are fast bowlers (and cricketers) less fit than other elite athletes who play a no-contact sport? It's not quite the perfect apples v apples comparison but let's look at men's tennis and see if they, playing for individual prize money rather than being paid by a board, are either fitter or more robust than their cricketing equivalents. My contention is that fast bowlers are significantly less fit, or the system mollycoddles them far too much, forcing them to rest when they really could be doing more of what they are handsomely paid to do - bowl fast.
If we compare Broad, who is currently ranked tenth on the ICC Test rankings, to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, ranked tenth on the ATP World Tour, and look at their workloads, it may provide us with an imperfect but nonetheless interesting picture. In the Ashes series, Broad bowled a total of 161.5 overs spread out over 46 days and despite this being his sole full-time career, he is now deemed unfit to play in the first few ODIs for his country at a time when they sorely need their best bowler. Yes, he might have bowled a few more overs if he hadn't been struck on the foot in Perth but he also enjoyed breaks of ten, three, eight and four days respectively between Tests, not counting the downtime during matches when England were batting and when the matches finished on days three or four. He has since had about 13 days "rest" and has only just returned to the fray. Judging by his bowling figures in his comeback match, 8-0-61-0 at 7.62 runs per over, you'd have to wonder if the break did him any good at all. Perhaps he'll be given another type of rest soon - being dropped from the team!
Full postBrett Lee v Piers Morgan? Not cricket
Is there any thrill in watching one of the world's fastest bowlers bowl illegal deliveries aimed at the body of an annoying talk-show host with zero batting skills?
Michael Jeh
15-Jan-2014
Being a wildlife guide in Africa, one never gets weary of the thrill of being on foot in the bushveld amongst a breeding herd of elephants, magnificent, humbling, awe-inspiring beasts that they are. We carry high-powered rifles in case of dire emergency, but to be perfectly honest, if these creatures decided that they really wanted to hurt you, they could. Their power and magnificence are a latent threat and you are acutely aware of your own mortality when you're in their presence. But unless provoked or caught unawares, they rarely feel the need to maliciously hurt a lesser being.
It's like when someone of my limited cricketing talent comes across a genuine fast bowler in a serious game of cricket. I've had the privilege of facing Shoaib Akhtar, Malcolm Marshall and Allan Donald at various points in my journeyman career, and whilst they bowled fast and straight, there was no intent to humiliate or hurt. It would have been all too easy for fast bowlers of this calibre, but where is the fun in a battle where one of the combatants is clearly ill-equipped to fight on equal terms? These great fast bowlers had nothing to prove by intentionally injuring a batsman who clearly wasn't good enough to do up their bootlaces.
It was with some revulsion, then, that I read about the macabre, cheap stunt on Channel 9's The Cricket Show in Melbourne recently, involving Brett Lee and the British talk-show host Piers Morgan. On the face of it, the skit might have had something going for it. A bit of banter, Lee running in at full throttle and yorking Morgan with a few thunderbolts, giving the viewers an idea of just how fast these guys bowl and how much skill it takes to combat their speed. Morgan, for his part, would have looked ruefully back on his skittled stumps, made some fatuous comment about the courage of the England players (which he did, anyway) and conceded that facing extreme pace is not a whole lot of fun. If Lee or the producers had any sense of what is good for cricket, this is how it might have been scripted.
Full postWhat's a good pitch anyway?
It often seems that only pitches that assist fast bowlers through the game are considered up to standard
Michael Jeh
06-Jan-2014
Cricket is one of those games where a question does not necessarily require a definitive answer. Merely exploring the parameters of the question provokes enough meaty debate to justify the question being asked in the first place. So on that basis, in the wake of the Ashes Test in Sydney, I pose this question: what defines a "good" Test pitch?
As this is a truly global forum, I expect a varied and sometimes passionate response from the four corners of the world. Assuming we can put aside the obvious patriotic bias, what are some of the qualities of a pitch that define it as good, bad or indifferent? Is it ultimately a question that can only be answered retrospectively, at the end of the game when the result is known, or is it possible to make a judgement call on it on the very first day (or relatively early in the match)?
Not long ago, a talkback caller on my weekly radio programme on the ABC was scathing in his criticism of all the pitches in India on Australia's most recent Test tour there, and similarly disdainful of most pitches in England on the last Ashes tour. When I pointed out some facts, he reluctantly conceded that his bias had been fed by lazy cricket writers who were looking for a populist audience, and we then enjoyed a more useful debate about how easy it was to succumb to an argument based on jingoism rather than cricketing knowledge.
Full postIs this good for cricket?
World records are being broken but it points to a deficit in skills at the international level
Michael Jeh
01-Jan-2014
For those who may have had a few too many drinks last night and switched on the TV to ease into a New Year's Day hangover, they may be mistaken for thinking that someone spiked their drink or that they're watching a highlights package. This cannot possibly be live cricket. In fact, it is almost not cricket, full stop. Perhaps this is an exhibition baseball game - some of the West Indian bowlers may have more of a career in that sport than in cricket, judging by the number of deliveries that didn't bounce, and by the bowlers' inability to use the cut surface, despite its true nature.
Corey Anderson's world-record innings looks like it will stand forever, but the way cricket is going, it probably won't last that long. Boundaries that have been brought in, heavy bats, and bowling attacks that clearly do not have the skills to bowl yorkers regularly will see Anderson's record beaten again sometime soon.
There was a time when world records were so rare that they were special, but the speed at which they are being eclipsed now cheapens them somewhat. It's hard to know whether to be in awe of Anderson and Jesse Ryder's power hitting or whether this was like shooting fish in a barrel. Fastest ODI hundred, most sixes by a team in an innings (despite this innings being just 21 overs long), 150-run partnership in 58 balls, the highest run-rate target in an ODI, possibly an unofficial record for the most full tosses bowled (including junior cricket!)… the list goes on.
Full postA year of goodbyes
Plenty of players bid farewell to the game in 2013 - an unusual number of great ones among them
Michael Jeh
26-Dec-2013
Has there ever been another year like this one? So many all-time greats hanging up their boots, in one form or another.
Rahul Dravid began the exodus 18 months ago. His stamp on the game should never be underestimated, as much for his grace and dignity as for his stylishly crafted runs and brilliant slip-catching. In commentary too, his authentic personal brand is proof that he is a gentleman in word and deed.
Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne were two Australian giants of the game who exited the stage incrementally during the last 12 months. Ponting was still scoring hundreds in first-class cricket to remind us that he had something left in the tank, whilst Warne perhaps lingered on for a season or two too many, his clash with Marlon Samuels being the perfect endorsement for the aptly named Big Bash. As unseemly as that was, it would be churlish to let that memory tarnish his undoubted genius, enhanced by his insightful and uncomplicated commentary delivery, much like his bowling - just walk up and let 'em rip.
Full postCricket's finest bloke?
Quiet, unassuming, polite and humble, Hashim Amla remains a terrific role model
Michael Jeh
15-Dec-2013
In between all the bad-tempered shenanigans in the Ashes, the humblest and most self-effacing cricketer on Planet Earth crept up on one of the gods of cricket and broke his record, almost apologetically, as if he had no right to be in heaven.
I refer to Hashim Amla becoming the fastest player to reach 4000 ODI runs, eclipsing the mighty Viv Richards. In so many different senses, you couldn't get players who were any more different in style and power. Amla has none of the swagger and brutality that Viv displayed in his pomp, and yet he is entitled to share in some of that reflected glory, much to the embarrassment of Amla himself.
To be fair to Sir Viv, if he had batted in these times, on flat tracks, facing bowlers who serve up a regular dose of full tosses and with only four men allowed out in the deep, to say nothing of the improved cricket bats, one shudders to think what carnage he may have caused. The general improvement in the standard of fielding might have been a limiting factor but Viv rarely got to plunder poor bowling attacks either. There were hardly any minnows around in his time.
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