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hashim-amla
Poor technology hampers cricket
By Will 2 years ago, mid-July, 9 Comments »
Michael Vaughan dives to catch Hashim Amla. Or did he? (© Getty Images)
I really want technology to work in cricket, for it to help umpires, and avoid those unnecessary delays. But today highlighted just why no current technology can really be trusted to confirm or correct an umpire’s decision.
There were two incidents, one from each team. Andrew Strauss edged to AB de Villiers at third slip, who dived across and claimed a catch low to his right. Very low. One glance at the slow-mo replay – that is all it took – confirmed the ball had bounced well before de Villiers, and even when the ball made it into his hands, he was not in control of it. It was simply not out, despite his and all the other South Africans’ insistence. Strauss stood his ground and the replay clearly confirmed he was right to do so. I’ve no problem with de Villiers claiming the catch. It’s his duty, and if he felt he caught it, fine.
The second incident is trickier. Hashim Amla fended off a brute of a bouncer from Andrew Flintoff, the ball ballooning tantalisingly in front of Michael Vaughan. Amazingly, for someone with only half a knee, he made a terrific effort to reach the ball, diving in front of him and apparently scooping it up with his fingertips before it hit the ground. He immediately celebrated, whooping with delight, and it looked a clear winner.
Amla headed off, but his coach and captain gesticulated for him to stay, prompting the use of a replay which couldn’t confirm whether Vaughan’s catch was clean or not. From one angle, it looked like he had got his fingers underneath it and it never touched the grass. From another, you couldn’t see the ends of his fingers, so the ball appeared to be grounded. In short, it was inconclusive and Amla was allowed to stay. It could be a decision that defines the series should Amla go on to score a hundred.
Technology ought to be helping cricket, but at the moment we’re stuck in this awful halfway house. The players aren’t sure. The umpires are frightened that their errors will be exposed, and understandably refer it to the television official. But when that last line of defence is so utterly indecisive, the biggest losers are the players and the public for having to wait several minutes for a non-decision. It’s utterly crap.
I have no solution to this. We will have to wait another decade or more for technology to improve, but I’m sure it will. Eventually, I can see the day where all players are wired up, their fingers acting as remote sensors for a television official. When players’ hands touch the ball, it’ll send a signal; perhaps the ball’s own shape could be monitored, signalling to the umpire when it’s touched the ground. Maybe it’ll turn automatically turn green if it’s not-out, or explode for a player who continually abuses the referral system.
Who bloody knows. Maybe we’re asking too much of technology. It works almost flawlessly in tennis, but cricket is far more complex. Many more players on a much larger outfield (of varying sizes and shapes) makes it so hard for science and technology to monitor things…tennis is reliant on the lines on the court and sensors on the nets, and hawkeye has made that process brilliantly slick.
There’s no chance we’ll ever revert to players walking, accepting fielders’ puppy-eyed nodding that they took the catch. So what exactly is the solution until technology catches up?
9 Comments »A poor advert for the game?
By Will 2 years ago, mid-July, 21 Comments »
Help me out here. I’m struggling to decide whether the past five days has done Test cricket a good deal or not.
My instinct says no. England racked up nearly 600, bowled South Africa out once, then the South Africans realised how placid the pitch was and applied application to their obvious ability. It subsided calmly to a draw, as though carefully lowering a heavy box full of antique china. It might have made you want to gauge out both your eyeballs, but McKenzie and Amla’s resistance was pretty remarkable, even on a pitch more akin to Lahore than Lord’s. In fact, it’s got to be one of the world’s most benign surfaces.
But we’re not used to such gentle, lackadaisical play these days are we? So did you enjoy this meticulous cricket, or do you feel it was a poor advert for the game?
21 Comments »England dominate; South Africa fold; Prince reigns
By Will 2 years ago, mid-July, 1 Comment »
It’s late and I’m beery. Briefly, England were disconcertingly excellent today. And even more briefly:
- James Anderson’s catch at mid-on to dismiss AB de Villiers was a bit special, proving (were any proof needed) that fast bowlers these days are as vital assets in the field as any other member of the side. They have to be.
- Hashim Amla’s beard continues to amaze and enthrall. Fortunate not to be bowled when his helmet fell off, evading a bouncer.
- Neil McKenzie has buckets of class and similar quantities of oddities. His obsessive compulsive habits were fascinating to watch, and metronomically repetitive. A scrape of the crease with his bat is followed by a scrub with his foot (right). He glances behind to fine leg, then to square leg, and then composes himself in his stance. Right before the bowler reaches his delivery stride, he mouths “watch the ball”. And when he does finally connect, it’s often pleasingly elegant. A nice sideshow to the series, watching McKenzie.
- Stuart Broad is enjoying his best Test match by a distance. Runs in the first innings, and today bowled his heart out, rarely straying from an immaculate line. Knows when to dig it in short or fire in a yorker. He will be a world force in 12 months.
- Monty Panesar is so hard to play in England. Favourite moment of the day came when he did Morkel like a kipper, eventually bowling him through the gate (with the final ball of the over, I think). Looks like he’s beginning to really know his game now.
- Billy Bowden’s mum died a couple of weeks ago, poor sod.
- Ashwell Prince showed the benefits of patience. Good, old-fashioned Test innings by a very underrated player rediscovering his touch. His celebration bordered on angry; a kiss of the badge was followed by him pointing at it to the dressing room, evidence that for all South Africa’s aggressive wordplay, they continue to be haunted by political turbulance.
- Andrew Strauss’s fine catch at first slip to dismiss Jacques Kallis (off the top of my head) confirmed how important slippers are to England. Alastair Cook has done well, but we could do with another safe pair of hands. Flintoff would do.
- The moment of the day? Kevin Pietersen taking the new ball to bowl at Graeme Smith owing to the poor light. The pair of them murmuring to eachother, staring one another down, was a fitting end to a near-perfect day’s Test cricket by England.
You’ll have had your tea, Hamish
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, No Comments; be the first!
We just got an email alerting us to a rather embarrassing typo that we’d missed, misspelling Amla as Hamish. I much prefer it.
No Comments »The greatest beard since WG
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of March, 7 Comments »
Hashim Amla has scored a hundred against India. But just take a moment and gasp in awe at the greatest beard currently in cricket:
Yeah, but what was he doing in the broadcast box in the first place?
By Scott 4 years ago, mid-August, 20 Comments »
I was only mildly surprised to hear that Dean Jones had shot himself in the foot and shot his commentating career to Hell by making an outrageous remark about Hashim Amla.
Cricket watchers know Deano is not above making stupid remarks. His commentating career has demonstrated that he is an inexhaustable fund of imbecilic remarks. He covered Australia’s 2004 tour of India and drove me to distraction with his inanities. He mostly talks in cliches. In fact, he can talk in cliches till the cows come home.
In truth, he’s always been a self-centred and rather thoughtless individual who has a poor record of putting his mouth into action before engaging his brain. As a player, he alienated his team-mates with Australia, Victoria and even with Derbyshire. His file as a player, for all his brilliance as a batsman, was undoubtedly scarred with his ‘poor team player’ reputation.
I only needed one day of hearing Dean Jones as a commentator to understand that he was patently unsuitable for the position. He is constantly inflicted on Asian audiences, I guess because of his supposed credibility gained by playing 52 Tests for Australia. However, in those 52 Test matches, he learned nothing about what is required to be a broadcaster.
Quite rightly a lot of the focus of this controversy will fall onto Jones, for his disgraceful remarks. However, his employer, Ten Sports, also deserve a full measure of disapproval, for hiring someone who had a demonstrated inability to perform the fairly important job of cricket commentator with an appropriate degree of professionalism.
No doubt it is helpful to have played the game at at least first class level. However, playing ability is not broadcasting ability. The doyenne of television broadcasters, Richie Benaud, made a point of staying in England after Australia’s 1956 tour of England, to undertake a sports broadcasting course conducted by the BBC. He was also a trained newspaper journalist, in an era when Australian cricketers had to have a separate career. No million dollar salaries back then. So Benaud, who became the model of the player broadcaster, came to the microphone with a thorough and thoughtful understanding of the television industry. Few of his successors as player-broadcasters have had such a background, and it shows.
The appropriate model is perhaps the old fashioned radio model, where a professional journalist does the ball-by-ball comments, and the old player provides the expert commentary. On radio, the old pro has time to gather his thoughts, and thus (hopefully) sparing himself the embarrassment that Jones has put himself though. In one way, I suppose it is sad that Jones has self destructed in this way. But I ask you, what was he doing in that broadcast box in the first place?
20 Comments »The Dean Jones ‘terrorist’ remark
By Will 4 years ago, at the start of August, 33 Comments »
This struck me as the most stupid, irresponsible comment I have heard from a TV analyst on the game since, well…since for ever.
Dean Jones – an aggressive batsman turned chirpy, excitable commentator – said the following (which I put on CI…too tired to rewrite it, sorry)
Dean Jones, the former Australia Test batsman turned TV commentator, has been sacked by his employers, Ten Sports, after being heard calling Hashim Amla a ‘terrorist’ on live television during the fourth day’s play between Sri Lanka and South Africa at Colombo.
When Amla, who is a devout Muslim, took the catch to dismiss Kumar Sangakkara, Jones was heard to say “the terrorist has got another wicket”.
Even if this was said in jest, and there is no indication that it was, you can’t offer such flippant, racist remarks on live TV. Those that know Jones, and I’m not one of them, will no doubt argue that he is not a racist – and, to be honest, such a statement does not make him one either. It’s just bloody stupid, upsetting for Hashim Amla’s family and not something you would expect anyone in the public eye to get away with.
And he hasn’t. He’s been flown back to Australia immediately and has lost his job. Can’t see him ever coaching India, if indeed he wanted to, or working in cricket again.
Scott is going to follow this up in a separate piece some time in the morning. Your thoughts in the meantime are very welcome…I imagine this could go on for some time.
33 Comments »Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn both dropped
By Will 5 years ago, mid-January, 3 Comments »
South Africa axe Amla and Steyn
Perhaps an indication of desperation from South Africa? Dale Steyn, who I really rate as a young quick, has been dropped/axed along with the hapless Hashim Amla. I can’t quite follow the logic here, but I suppose SA just want a bit more control from their bowlers.
3 Comments »South Africa’s Hashim Amla
By Will 6 years ago, mid-December, 1 Comment »
I couldn’t beleive this when I heard it. Hashim Amla, young 21 year old Saffer and a devout muslim, won’t and doesn’t wear the SA shirt sponsored by Castle Lager because it’s against his religious beliefs. (the tee-total bit I suppose). I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything like this before, certainly not in cricket. Presumabely if Castle are the team’s main sponsors, they’ll pay for lots of perks and give the players odds and sods (like Vodafone do for England, and 3 do for Australia). I presume any perks offered to Amla will be politely refused, even if it’s non-beer-related….
Weird world we live in
1 Comment »