[bazzap]

Originally Posted by kuranda_bagman

Cummins out of the test due to covid - Bazza it looks like your worst nightmare with the VC to take on the captains role!!!

I can't watch Smith & Warner wearing a Baggy Green. I won't watch Australia playing Test cricket again until neither of them is in the Test side. I just keep up to date with the scores via my phone or computer. About a half-hour past the close of play, I watch BT Sports 1 where a few people in England sit around and talk about the day's play for about 45 mins. At the start, they play about 10 mins highlights of the day play which is enough for me. After that, there is a 90 mins highlight package of the day's play which I sometimes watch.


I also listen to the BBC's Test Match Special with Jonathon Agnew & co who do a daily podcast summing up each day's play. I have been listening to these for as long as they have been published over the internet. More than 20 years, maybe? I wish the Australian ABC would do something similar. Maybe they do on their Grandstand network.


Australia at tea on the second day was 7/390 odd. I have never known them to bat so slowly. Why, as it goes against the grain of the way Australia normally plays. Day/night Test? Taking up time so England cannot win? Protecting their two new fast bowlers somehow? Very strange.


Anyway, play on the 3rd day starts soon. England has it all to do. If they lose this Test, the Ashes (and my money ) are gone


BTW, my man Mitch scored a 60 ball 100 in the BBL the other night. He is ready and waiting for his Test team recall

[Frankie]

Well England are staring down the barrel again. Ever since I was a kid I always thought that the only way to go in Australia was with a battery of fast bowlers and a good spinner. Seam bowlers are practically redundant. However that's all England ever seem to take Down Under. Granted there has been a lack of fast bowlers in the past but that was mainly down to the demands of County Cricket resulting in quick bowlers being burnt out and resorting to seam up. However since the introduction of Central Contracts there should be none of this happening. But it seem the ECB are incapable of managing this. Or anything else for that matter.

[ferocious]

I think Australia’s slow scoring was partly down to our short length bowling
A bit negative should have been pitching it up looking for the edge of the bat we didn’t bowl badly but letting Australia get a good total is not a good idea when we can’t really bat

[monkeyspanker]

Originally Posted by ferocious

letting Australia get a good total is not a good idea when we can’t really bat

Or Bowl/Field/Catch....
Still i think they do a half decent job on the drinks breaks

[Frankie]

Is it my eyesight? When Robinson first broke into Test cricket he looked pretty quick. Not as fast as Wood but up around the 85mph mark. Now he just seems to be bowling line and length and plodding away around 75mph. Am I missing something? Haven't been to Specsavers for a good few years so that may be the problem.

[bazzap]

ICC Rankings







The latest rankings are HERE





Maybe someone can explain this to me.

Labs is the new #1 ranked Test bat in the world according to the ICC. He has played about 3 Tests in 2021.

Joe Root has played plenty of Tests this year. His form has been stellar. He is getting close to the highest ever number of runs scored in Tests in a calendar year.

Why isn't Joe still number one?


Travis Head at #10 is fucking laughable. If that is true then Test cricket is in a very bad way.




Four of the top ten bats are Australian yet they have hardly played.



The same with the bowlers. Cummins, Hazelwood & Starc are all in the top ten in Test cricket. Again after hardly playing all year


India and NZ are deservedly ranked #1 & #2 Test teams yet between them they have only three bats in the top ten (Williamson, Sharma & Kohli) and four bowlers (Ashwin, Southee, Wagner & Jamieson). Ashwin has hardly played a Test yet is rated the #2 Test bowler


Don't forget that Australia lost its previous Test series against India in Australia last year.



All very puzzling to me

[Frankie]

Its explained here Baz. Complete load of bollocks and that often used word algorithm crops up. Far better based on an average calculated by total runs scored divided by dismissals. Minimum of 25 Test Innings would exclude the flash in the pans.

http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/about.php

[kuranda_bagman]

What a sad day for English Cricket!
Sorry guys couldn't resist.

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by kuranda_bagman

What a sad day for English Cricket!
Sorry guys couldn't resist.

Fuckin abysmal performance and thats being kind. Bowlers drag the team out the shit just for the batsmen to drop them back in even deeper. IMO the current Aussie Test team aren't even that good, however when your only playing dross it does make you look a lot better.

Stayed up Boxing Day night to watch the Test, for the second and last time this series. Wont be wasting anymore time on these wankers. Silverwood and around 6 players from the last team need to be given the bullet.

[bazzap]

Bit of a shit storm over Langer's resignation

Sporting websites and Facebook alive with opinions & comments. Public opinion seems to be with Langer. As am I.


Ex-players really dishing it out to current players and also to Cricket Australia especially to the CEO Nick Hockley who, BTW, is a Pom


Mitchell Johnson

“Pat Cummins has been lauded as some type of cricketing saint since his elevation to the top job this summer. Cummins might have delivered with the ball during the Ashes series, but he has failed his first big test as captain pretty miserably,” Johnson wrote in his column for The West Australian.

“He had plenty of public opportunities to endorse an extension for Langer. So when he let it through to the keeper every time, it became pretty obvious he didn’t want it to happen.

“Cummins holds a lot of power and must have been central to what’s happened. He’s clearly had an agenda to get in a coach he wants. His recent interviews have been gutless by not respecting his coach when he could have been upfront from the start.

“The baggy green is hyped as the most revered symbol in Australian sport. But what does it stand for now? In the wake of the disgraceful white-anting of Langer as coach, which led to his resignation on Saturday, it stands for selfishness.”

Interesting article from Geoff Lawson in the Sydney Morning Herald

Langer’s rise and fall highlight how broken coaching is in Australia

The appointment of Justin Langer to the head coaching position of the Australian men’s team after the sandpaper scandal was not universally accepted in domestic cricket circles.

It was seen by many as a knee-jerk reaction that had more to do with virtue signalling by Cricket Australia than a well-considered, deeply researched call etched in due diligence. No one at CA put their hand up to say they were the prime mover in his appointment. No advertisements were posted for candidates; no alternatives sought or interviewed. For some inexplicable reason, Langer was seen to have an unquestioned imprimatur to “fix” the amorality of the nation’s most visible sporting team.

He was presented as having different experiences than his predecessor, Darren Lehmann, yet they were the same age and played in the same Australian teams that were excoriated for their abusive style. He had also been an assistant coach inside the Australian dressing room for three years.

There is no evidence that Langer resisted the methods of those teams, so why was he the anointed one to repair the moral fissures? He was installed to bring control and purpose to a group that was spectacularly unsuccessful and seen as wildly ill-disciplined. There was only one direction for that squad to go.

Now he has quit the top job, it is important to dissect his reign, in particular how he got there.

Langer’s coaching successes before taking on the national role were limited to white-ball cricket. He won the BBL twice with the Scorchers, and Western Australia won the state 50-over trophy once. WA did not win the Sheffield Shield during Langer’s tenure, and haven’t won it since 1999.

These are barely notable qualifications to coach the longest form of the game at the highest level.

The full article is HERE




And this one from Langer himself. Pretty classy IMHO

Exclusive from Peter Lalor, Justin Langer's resignation letter to Cricket Australia has been revealed:



“Having been away from home since the first week of October, yesterday was a tumultuous day, and with quarantine restrictions now that I am back I am unable to do anything publicly at the moment, but I want people to know I am happy with my decision and proud of what I have achieved,” Langer wrote in the email.


“There has been a great deal of media speculation on my future as the Australian men’s cricket coach over the last 12 months and this has taken an enormous toll on my family. I hope through this time, and throughout my tenure, I have held myself with integrity and dignity.


“Last night I was offered a short-term contract until the end of the T20 World Cup in Australia, with the sentiment of ‘going out on a high’. After careful consideration I have decided not to accept this contract renewal, and as a result I believe it is in everyone’s best interests for the Australian cricket team to begin the next chapter immediately.


“If media reports are correct, several senior players and a couple of support staff don’t support me moving forward, and it is now apparent the CA board, and you Nick (Hockley, CA chief executive), are also keen to see the team move in another direction. I respect that decision.


“My life has been built on values of honesty, respect, trust, truth, and performance and if that comes across as ‘too intense’ at times, I apologise.


“It is said that in any venture, if you leave things in a better place than when you started then you have done your job.


“Whilst it is not up to me to judge, I hope Australians respect what has been achieved over the last four years in Australian cricket. From day one I believed it was possible to both win and play the game in the spirit that is now expected from our supporters.


“For the last four years it has been proven this can be achieved and I am very proud of the team for their efforts on and off the cricket field. I hope we have made Australians proud and earned respect from countries around the world.

“In terms of ‘going out on a high’, I am blessed to have been a part of a T20 World Cup-winning squad, an Ashes winning squad, watched the Test team rise to #1 ranked team in the world today, been selected as the Wisden Coach of the Year and been elevated to the Australian cricket Hall of Fame; all this in the last five months.
“I am grateful that today, I am going out on a high.


“Australian cricket means the world to me. It has since I was a kid, and I am grateful for the opportunity to play for, and coach our national team. I am thankful to the board for the opportunity, and I will take with me many cherished memories and friendships from the last four years.

“Hopefully a good job has been done and I wish the team every success for the future.”

Whoever the new coach is, he better get results or it will all go wonky quickly. Players, new coach, and Cricket Australia are really in the spotlight now