Drama to farce for the sake of ten minutes
There was a certain justice to the finish at The Oval, after England had consumed precious time with their approach on days two and three
ESPNcricinfo staff
26-Aug-2013
There was a certain justice to the finish at The Oval, after England had consumed precious time with their approach on days two and three. But it was not just England that was robbed in the end, but the thousands of fans and watchers too. The rules and regulations needed to be respected, but the ECB in particular could look at some flexibility, such as starting play 30 minutes early to make up for lost time, writes Andy Bull in the Guardian.
The point is that Test cricket cannot afford to be this precious. The simplest, most sensible, solution would be to set a consistent standard which is more lenient than the one that currently applies. The light should not just be bad. It should be awful. No wonder the ICC has not been able to organise a single day-night Test despite MCC's World Cricket Committee calling for them. Right now it cannot even keep a game going under lights on an overcast afternoon. Test cricket is said to be on its knees. Which is unsurprising, given that it keeps shooting itself in the foot.
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Malcolm Knox too writes that the result was fair in the end. England wasted time in the middle of the Test, and so did Australia, in the dying stages on the final day, when Michael Clarke nudged the umpires to check the light meter.
And so cricket found itself again at a crossroads between entertainment and something (literally) darker, between an audience-chasing spectacle and a proxy clash of civilisations. And not for the first time, it was resolved, as a draw, by officials bound by the pettifogging precedents they themselves had set. Something like the European Commission without the shooting.
England have gone about maintaining their superiority over Australia like a team of efficient engineers but something's missing. There is a curious disconnect between this team and their public which they would do well to correct on the winter's tour to Australia, writes Paul Hayward in the Telegraph.
To the outside eye they are a closed society, as poor Simon Kerrigan probably discovered. They move about in hedgehog formation. They have their own codes and are suspicious of outsiders. The public can count their runs and wickets but know little of their characters. Press conferences tend to yield only platitudes and interviews often come with heavy sponsor messages attached.
In the Independent, John Townsend writes that Australia have several positives to reflect on, but collectively, they failed to grasp the critical moments.
The 2013 Australian team is learning on the job, which is a difficult task when the employees don't know whether they are required from week to week. There have been plenty of bright spots throughout the series. Chris Rogers has a tight technique and a feel for the game honed during thousands of hours of front-line experience.
Writing for the same paper, Kevin Garside says that even though the series scoreline reflects nothing positive for Australia, they made a few strides towards a settled side and that Andy Flower will have to do much more when the two sides meet again in Australia.
Flower's team is in transition. The opening partnership is new and unstable. Joe Root will be targeted on the quicker Australian tracks. The experiment with Jonny Bairstow at No6 has failed for now. Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior have had poor summers. Trott will be peppered with short stuff. Flower will have this in mind as he picks the squads.