| 
Posts and words
Loading ...
bad light
Onions heralds the new era. Or does he?
By Will last year, at the start of May, 8 Comments »
Wonderful spell by Graham Onions today. He left West Indies’ batsmen looking clueless and cold: they hate May in England, as most touring sides do, in spite of our unseasonally good weather. Onions aside, there were two baffling pieces of idiocy by England today.
The first was the decision by Bopara and Swann to take the “bad light”. This is an evil disease of cricket, and although it’s easy to blame the players, the real fault lies with the ICC and umpires for removing all common sense from the equation. The light was fine to play cricket. Nobody would have died. These are trained sportsmen who are used to facing bowling of all types, in all conditions. The umpires will have taken a reading when the sun was out and, consequently when it became gloomy (and the sun was in), the difference in the two readings seemed to prompt an automatic offer of the light to the batsmen. This is absurd. How can umpires become so rigidly tied to laws and regulations yet forsake common sense? These batsmen have enough protection to go on the front line in Helmand Province, and yet the pair took the silly risk of possibly throwing away the momentum (England had raced along until this point). It was a stupid mistake which, fortunately, didn’t cost them. But it so easily could have, and cricket as a whole – especially Test cricket, in these changing times – desperately needs a dose of common sense.
The second incident was Andrew Strauss’s decision (or was it Andy Flower’s?) to open with Graeme Swann. Yes, Swann had a day to remember, but he is no Shane Warne. Why would you leave out your best bowler, James Anderson, and toss the new ball to a spinner? This too didn’t cost England, who later savaged West Indies’ lineup with a fine allround performance, but it again smacked of fuddled thinking – trying to be too clever.
England ought to wrap this up tomorrow, bar a miracle from Chanderpaul and someone else, and the performances of Onions, Swann and Bopara will swell the pride of selectors and fans. Let’s not get carried away, though, and remember that West Indians aren’t crash hot on a Lord’s greentop in May. But let’s also remember that perhaps for the first time in decades, England have a more dangerous spinner (and possibly spin attack) than Australia.
He bats and catches, too. Our new Gilo has been found.
8 Comments »Dyson’s blunder
By Will last year, mid-March, 4 Comments »
So John Dyson has handed England their first win, even before becoming their coach. Honk, honk, etc etc. I don’t think England will be rushing to place his name at the top of the pile. Or will they? God only knows.
Dyson – or “Die Soon” as some in the Caribbean are calling him – enlivened a match which, for once in ODIs, didn’t actually need enlivening. It was going down right to the wire, as my spluttering colleague can attest to as he attempted (and failed) to prepare his end-of-match report. “Which way is this fucking game going?” he screamed. “I hate cricket.” Well, only John really knew where it was going.
The look on the faces of the West Indies players in the dressing room was initially hilarious, but it soon dawned on them and us just how ridiculous cricket can be at times. We had a match that could’ve gone one way or t’other. It was perfectly set-up. The crowd had swelled, the atmosphere vibrant. And yet the gloom of the Guyana clouds set in and light was offered to the batsmen. Was it really so dark and dangerous to prevent a match from going ahead? Why, for example, wasn’t the interval cut short by five minutes (as had been suggested before the match, owing to the reliably forecast of rubbish weather approaching)? Why aren’t floodlights used more often? Why is cricket becoming so protected of itself these days, and yet in the same breath is shooting itself in the foot?
I couldn’t even begin to explain yesterday’s match to a non-cricket person. Where would you start? Dyson’s blunder aside, it was both a wonderful advertisement for the sport and shockingly awful advertisement.
“Yes, that’s right. The match only had about 20 minutes left, but it was getting a little bit dark.”
“Not that dark though. And where’re the floodlights?”
“Well, no. Not that dark, you’re right. Not sure why they can’t use floodlights more often; expensive I suppose. Waste not, want not, eh?”
“Err. So the match was nearly over, yeah? But bad light, and the coach’s dodgy calculations, stopped it in its tracks, yep? Yet England still won?”
“Bad light…Dyson’s calculations. Duckworth Lewis. Erm – yeah. That’s about the gist of it. It had been a great match though. Chanderpaul! Yeah – funny little crabby batsman, the bloke who went mental off Harmison.”
It continues to amaze me that for all the apparent professionalism in cricket; for all the new money, the innovations and the development of lesser nations, staging one simple cricket match is still fraught with difficulty. And danger. Bad light – oooh, it’s a bit murky. Drizzle affecting players’ expensive hair. Just get out there and play. If it’s pitch black, fine – but until they apply some common sense, no amount of innovation or IPL is going to spread this game to the golden markets of America and China.
4 Comments »