Sam Perry
The pitches in India were great. Won't you agree, Australia?
Australians' tendency to reject turning and seaming pitches as good ones says a lot about their own culture
Sam Perry
30-Mar-2017
When it comes to pitches, ideology, not fact, is often king.
The recent battle royale between India and Australia provided some of the most absorbing cricket we've seen for some time. As with any great drama, beneath the epic clash of tactics, skill and technique sat a circus of sub-plots, circumstance and intrigue which, as unpalatable as some of it seemed, is a naturally occurring phenomenon within the modern sporting theatre.
Central to it all was conjecture over the state of pitches. You could barely draw breath before another hot take bellowed about either the preparation or performance of each pitch, especially early in the series. Whether the product of previous perceived injustice, lazy stereotyping or basic fear, much of it came from Australia. And yet as we commence reflection on the series just gone, the only accurate conclusion we can draw from the relentless brouhaha is that as usual very few of us are adept at predicting the behaviour of wickets.
Full postWhere's the hair?
Tours to Asia used to afford us the sight of exotic foliage on Australian players' faces and heads. Not anymore
Sam Perry
04-Mar-2017
It's undeniably one of the great joys of watching your country in action overseas. As your heroes stride onto the playing arena for the respective national anthems at the start of a new series, you drink in the novel differences between home conditions and what now greets the eye.
However, as Australian fans recently did just this in Pune, something felt amiss. Initially everything about the fresh Indian setting felt in order. The sun looked harsher, the hue brighter, the pitch darker. There were new opposition faces to contemplate, and of course, Australia modelled a new shirt sponsor.
The visitors eventually marched to a historic victory, but days earlier a silent cultural casualty had been confirmed. For the first time in almost 30 years of touring each of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, not a single example of facial hair cultivated for the purpose could be found among the Australians.
Full postThe case for sledging
Whether it's acceptable or not is another matter, but there's no denying that sledging works
Sam Perry
10-Feb-2017
Around a decade ago a 20-year-old man walked to a suburban wicket with his team in a precarious position. The previous week they had conceded a glut of runs to a rampaging opposition that included a recently discarded international player. In a message to selectors and anyone else who wanted to listen, the deposed veteran made a score that dropped jaws.
And so the 20-year-old strode to the crease, his team 40 for 4 in reply. Two overs remained before lunch. Slightly shaking but presenting the bravest face possible, he asked for centre. In an attempt at familiarity, he addressed the umpire by name. It was a disastrous overcompensation, seized upon gleefully.
"Do you know him, mate?" offered the point fieldsman. Chuckles ensued from those in earshot. The batsman glanced behind him to see four slips waiting. Each stared, stony-faced, directly back. Two had arms folded, two had hands behind their backs, like policemen strolling their beat. Robocop wraparound sunglasses were the day's fashion, as was the gnashing of chewing gum. The batsman probably shouldn't have addressed the umpire by name. It played on his mind.
Full postHow about having specialists at short leg?
The importance of the position is at odds with the fact that it is seen as a punishment to be posted there
Sam Perry
19-Jan-2017
"You right to jump under the lid?"
The captain's phrasing may vary from region to region, but any youngster or newcomer to a cricket team knows the question. For the sake of accuracy, it's less a question than a veiled instruction, polished with hollow concern. It rarely matters if you're "not right" to field in close. Very few are. And that's the point: a fielding position of great value and a high degree of difficulty is often bestowed upon the team's lowliest member. With some exceptions, being stationed at short leg is usually an indicator of a player's hypothetical ranking rather than of their reflexes.
Of course, it is too simplistic to equate short leg with the lowliest team member. When a fast bowler is operating, the team's best three catchers will invariably hold positions one, two and three in the slips. If not third slip, then gully. There is a wicketkeeper, and of course a bowler. If one of the quicks is already bowling, then typically two will remain, one normally stationed at fine leg and the other somewhere relatively tranquil too. That takes the tally to seven players, with the remaining four vying to avoid discomfort. One might be a specialist spinner, and thus exempted from short leg's mental tightrope of simultaneously intimidating the opposition and managing the fear of getting hit. That leaves three. Whether by process of elimination or not, if you're short and young, you better get that lid ready.
Full postNice, Garry!
You've heard the chant. What has gone into the making of the accidental cult of Nathan Lyon?
Sam Perry
21-Dec-2016
We've all heard the refrain. It's so simple it borders on the inane. But Matthew Wade's repetitive chorus of "Nice, Garry!" echoed so much as to awaken something in Australia's national cricketing conscience. His banal encouragement, it turns out, triggered a legitimate phenomenon: the birth of a cult hero, Nathan Lyon.
There is an unmistakable, unique purity to cult heroes. They are more often than not born of public acclaim rather than marketing contrivance. Their creation is an inexact science, though elements remain common across sport and culture. Once public acclaim takes flight, it cannot be stopped.
So it is with Lyon. Last week at the Gabba, "Queensland's favourite son" elicited roars otherwise almost exclusively reserved for the state's own. Every delivery bowled, shot played or ball fielded triggered howls of joy. He's not a star player, so why were they cheering for him so much? Was it ironic?
Full postSurviving the good net: revenge of the bowler
Annoying a fast bowler during net practice is never a good idea. Neither is slogging the spinner
Sam Perry
27-Nov-2016
As a batsman, there are few things more bittersweet than accidentally middling one from the bowling of an express quick. My ungainly swipe at our opening bowler's offering had now triggered this precise predicament. It must be like the feeling of purchasing a house: at once a triumphant achievement and frightening prospect. The bank, an indifferent friend beforehand, is now your foe.
Making matters worse, my limp underarm return to the paceman had arrived on the half-volley, causing him to offer a disgusted, token right hand that had no intention of stopping the ball. It thus rolled into the path of the second net, nearly causing the incoming bowler a rolled ankle. This short but eventful transaction caused an immediate cacophony of sighs, grunts and swear words from at least five people, maybe ten. I had rattled the hornet nest of net bowlers. My middled cover drive, glorious as it was, had now compromised my safety. I was now truly in cricketing debt.
Fear began to take hold externally and internally. I had angered a bowler who, previous to this exchange, had never registered my existence in his life. "Why am I even in this net anyway?" I thought to myself.
Full postHow to survive the good net
Our ageing correspondent deals with the challenge of facing his team's young, muscular quick
Sam Perry
11-Nov-2016
It's the preserve of cricketers of any age, location and ability: a Thursday evening, a setting sun, and a practice wicket underdone.
So here I am, a nominal batsman on the wrong side of youth, three overs into a spell of ungainly part-time net bowling, awaiting a bat.
To the relief of just about everyone, a call finally comes for me to "put 'em on". I've done this dance a thousand times before, but the gruff command still elicits that short, electric bolt of adrenaline inside. Or is it nerves? I've never quite worked it out. That I've survived until this point should instil me with confidence that I will once more, but I've no time for rationality at this point.
Full postHow important is hostility?
Australian cricket jealously protects the right to intimidate. It's who we are, we've always been this way, and we're proud of it
Sam Perry
17-Oct-2016
Can anybody truly say they thrive as the target of social and physical hostility? In any of life's myriad endeavours, competitive or otherwise, success is usually achieved in spite of hostility, not because of it.
So the logic goes in much of Australian cricket. While the battle is officially between bat and ball, there is an unofficial social dimension to combat too. And while we only whispered it softly last week, our time-honoured tradition of creating cold, hostile atmospheres for batsmen is otherwise a matter of chest-thumping pride. A welcome batsman is a sleeping batsman, because that scenario is the stuff of dreams.
In a week where public introspection threatened but never quite manifested, it wasn't just at home that our cricketing philosophy was under the microscope. Earlier in the week, Kepler Wessels, the former South Africa captain who also played for Australia, derided the "embarrassing" and "totally ineffective" sledging of the Australian players as they eventually slumped to a 5-0 whitewash against South Africa.
Full postDon't ask the batsman to judge if he's lbw
Cricketers of all ages are wired into thinking that they are not out, no matter how plumb
Sam Perry
06-Sep-2016
"Review it! Review it!" screamed the Australians, goading Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne as they hurtled past him to backslap, high-five and bum-pat each other. Fifth over, day one, first Test: Mitchell Starc had struck the pad and elicited the raised finger to provisionally dismiss the opener, who now stood prone, mulling whether or not, as a professional batsman, he agreed. He had 15 seconds to decide, computing angles and circumstance amidst a cacophony of side-mouthed badgering from the opposition. "That's out mate! Go on, review it!"
It must be the most unnatural calculation known to anyone who has ever held a cricket bat: I've been hit on the pad. The umpire thinks I'm out. Do I agree?
Cats eat mice; lizards lie on rocks; batsmen are not out. Compelling them to think rationally about whether they are lbw or not is surely the most perverse aspect of on-field cricket in the modern age. To watch a batsman's agony as he attempts to transcend his survival reflex is either excruciating or darkly entertaining, depending on how you like your schadenfreude served.
Full postAustralia's spin struggles: it's a cultural thing
Spin bowling simply isn't rated in the country, from grade cricket to the national level
Sam Perry
12-Aug-2016
Day three in Galle: a Dilruwan Perera delivery stays quite low; Mitch Marsh, new to the crease, digs it out and offers a wry smile. It's a smile that masks bemusement. You can forgive him, because for the Australian No. 6, everything happening is truly foreign. Even so, the reaction reveals more about his team's attitude to these conditions than it does about Asian wickets.
Has any Test match batting line-up looked as inept as Australia's in Sri Lanka? Despite well-meaning programmes, interventions, manifestos, reports and investigations into the problem of "Australia in the subcontinent", these measures, by definition of their performances, have not worked, and don't look like working. Australia are actually getting worse over there.
If we're discussing solutions (which, it seems, we are), then Australia's cultural, grass-roots attitudes to spin bowling may be worth exploring. At all levels of serious amateur cricket in Australia - from school cricket through to first grade - spinners barely bowl. A crass generalisation, possibly, but broadly true.
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