It's official - England cheated in 2005
It turns out Matt Hayden was wrong - we didn't lose the 2005 Ashes because of divine intervention. No, we were defeated by breath mints. Specifically, breath mints illegally applied to the surface of the ball to induce reverse swing. And no, this accusation doesn't come from Nathan Bracken with sour grapes. This comes from the fresh breathed confession of "the man in charge of looking after the ball", Marcos Trescothick.
"I was firmly established as the man in charge of looking after the ball when we were fielding. It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish. And through trial and error I finally settled on type of spit for the task at hand.
It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing.''
Should Australians be outraged that England cheated in 2005 to win the Ashes? Personally, I'm not fussed. Australia still should've won the series. When Matt Hayden after 4 Tests of failures finally ate humble pie and changed his batting technique, he scored a century and England barely staved off defeat due to poor light. England with illegally tampered cricket balls were still no match for Australia playing at their best. One can only assume the lollies didn't get past customs in 2006 when we defeated them 5-nil in a damp squib of a Test series. I say bring on the breath mints in 2009.
| Posted by JC on Tue 26 Aug |  4 comments |
Matthew Hayden's biggest fan: Usain Bolt
Well, the Olympics are over and I'm already going into sports withdrawal - falling from 24/7 sports coverage to one Broncos game each weekend is one helluva come down. And while the chances of cricket becoming an Olympic sport look as likely as a Shane Warne comeback, there was one cricket mention during the Olympics when Usain Bolt mentioned he would love to meet Matthew Hayden.
Colour me surprised. Maybe being an Australian cricket fan and a Queenslander, familiarity breeds contempt. Usain Bolt probably hasn't been exposed to Hayden's psychobabble like blaming the Ashes 2005 loss on God or expressing disappointment at getting bitten by a dog. And Hayden's reaction to Bolt's surprise confession doesn't disappoint:
"It's pretty humbling isn't it for an old fisherman and surfer in Queensland who now and then plays a bit of cricket,"
"Who now and then plays a bit of cricket"?! Classic Hayden pretension. It's like hearing him boast "if smashing 380 Test runs off a minnow side on a flat pitch makes me a hero, well, call me a hero". Well, he hasn't said that yet but keep your ears peeled.
| Posted by JC on Mon 25 Aug | 2 comments |
Cricket coaching by online video
Cricket-blog gets a lot of reciprocal link requests (hence the insanely long blog roll in the right margin). Not long ago, I received a link request from wattacoach.com and was intrigued by the website. They sell video coaching lessons from a team of coaches who've all played or coached first class cricket. You upload a video of your own bowling or batting action and one of their coaches sends back a video lesson analysing your technique and providing drills to improve it.
I asked if they did a video lesson on my legspin action, could I post it on Cricket-blog. They agreed. Not having a video camera, Wendy and I took our digital camera (it takes short, low-rez movies), went into the backyard and set up the Ricky Ponting beach cricket stumps. I bowled a few leggies which Wendy filmed from side-on and front-on. The front-on was a little tricky - I had to be sure I didn't accidentally strike Wendy or the camera. I then downloaded Windows Movie Maker and quickly edited together the following epic movie:
I uploaded the animation onto the Wattacoach website and a few days ago received a video lesson by David Freedman, a wrist spinner who played for and currently coaches NSW (I won't hold it against him that he lives south of the Tweed). Their two wrist spin coaches are Freedman and Beau Casson who seems to be busy at the moment playing for Australia or something. Here is the lesson in full YouTube glory:
Most interesting was the side-by-side comparison with Beau Casson's bowling action. I can see why Aussie cricketers have a plasma TV in the nets - it's very useful (and fun, bordering on narcissistic) to see a replay of your technique. Even better to compare it side by side with a Test legspinner. I can immediately see how my bowling stride is too long - fixing that has already improved my follow through.
Next is a series of drills explained by Freedman and Casson. I haven't had a chance to try them out - I'll have to give them a quick run through before the club's weekly net session tonight. Plenty of homework to work on anyway.
The cost for most of the lessons is $60 which seems pretty good value considering how useful and content rich the lessons are. The Freedman lesson is $70 but of course wrist spin is going to cost more - legspin after all is cricket's greatest and most difficult artform. Plus bowlers pay once to have their technique analysed - batsmen get 4 batting strokes analysed in a lesson. So if you're having trouble with a whole range of strokes, well, maybe you should consider becoming a bowler.
WattaCoach is an exciting idea - a sign of the post-Buchanan era where nerdy technology is another indispensable tool in our kitbags alongside thigh guards and linseed oil. Whether the tips in my video lesson will help me take more wickets on Saturday, well, we'll just have to wait and see. I may have to go back and ask for some help developing my googly.
| Posted by JC on Wed 30 Jul | 7 comments |
Ed Kavalee versus Australian women's cricket
Radio comedian (and Thank God You're Here background extra) Ed Kavalee made the comment that the Australian women's cricket team "can’t bowl, bat, field or throw, or play sport in general". Having boasted that he could score 100 runs against them, 4 Australian women took up the challenge. Due to the wonders of YouTube, the technology that never fails to deliver, the result is as follows. Note - after viewing Kavalee's batting technique and noting he score 34 runs, I'd be reasonably confident of notching a half-century :-)
h/t to Cricket With Balls
| Posted by JC on Mon 21 Jul | 0 comments |
Dhoni assigned female commando guard
One glance at the Border Medal Award night will tell you being an international cricketer is akin to being a rockstar as far as snaffling babes is concerned. But Mahendra Dhoni, a rockstar among rockstars, takes it to another level and has been forced to employ an all-female commando unit to fight off zealous female fans.
I've heard of beating them off with a stick (or even a cricket bat) but never 15 elite soldiers "trained rigorously in warfare and ambush techniques". I'm picturing Dhoni walking down a market street with hordes of shrill women streaming out of building doors, only to be stopped in their tracks by the jump kicking, round-housing 15 commandoes in combat formation. However, Dhoni may have to fear a Trojan horse:
Ask one of the commandoes, Seema Toppo, a tribal, about her new assignment and she blushes.
"I watched him play on television and never thought I would see him from such close quarters," she giggles.
"It is good to be deployed for his security," says another.
Perhaps the only safe bodyguard for Dhoni would be some kind of androgynous eunuch. Who's never watched cricket. Preferably not from the sub-continent.
| Posted by JC on Thu 17 Jul | 1 comments |
The Experiment Part 3: The drought breaks
Finally, after 6 weeks of rained out weekends (whatever happened to the Australian drought?), I finally got some club cricket last weekend. We batted first and the captain forgot about me when writing in the batting order, finally putting me in at #6. He apologised, I usually batted at #3 or #4, but I was pleased. This fitted in perfectly with my grand experiment to transform from a plodding top-order, part-time bowler into a slogging middle-order, wicket taking legspinner. An ambitious goal - my bowling efforts so far had been underwhelming at best. But shoot for the stars, I always say.
Our top order started slowly, not a good idea in a 35 over one-dayer. I came in with 7 overs left with the run rate around 3 per over, facing a legspinner. I love facing club leggies. Being one myself, I know the small margin for error - all I have to do is survive the good balls then feast on the short and full deliveries. His second ball was a loopy full toss (one of my own signature deliveries) which I nearly sent into the hands of deep backward square. Just fell short, luckily, and I was off the mark.
I then went the tonk. Another waist high full toss went over mid-wicket for 3. I swung wildly at the quicks at the other end, often missing but connecting enough to notch a few boundaries. Finally I holed out to long on for 17 with a few overs to go. It was what was needed - a quick boost to the run-rate and establishing my position as a middle-order slogger. And I gotta say, slogging is a lot more fun than grinding.
We took the field with 132 runs to defend. With less than 4 runs per over required, we needed wickets. Their openers started strongly, striking boundaries each over to keep them comfortably on track. Then their best batsman slogged one too many times, edging the ball to point. A left hander came in and was striking the ball nearly as well. I didn't like the way he was middling the ball and hoped he'd fall before I came on.
Just before drinks, the captain informed me I was on next. His plan was to position heaps of fielders in the deep and I was to bowl with lots of flight, trying to take wickets. If flight was what he wanted, he'd come to the right place. After all, I am slower than Brett Lee on super slowmo. In the over before mine, the left-hander lofted the ball to long off. I couldn't believe my good luck. Then long off dropped the catch. Dang it, I couldn't believe my bad luck!
My first ball was to the right hander and it was one of my signature deliveries - the double bouncer. Surprisingly, although I've bowled a number of double bouncers - the king of pies - none of them have been put away. It's like the batsman can hardly believe his eyes or can't make his mind up what to do with it. This was no exception - the batsman squirted it to the legside where it nearly carried to midwicket. Hmm, really need to loosen up those shoulders before that first delivery!
I found my line and length by the end of the over, conceding only a few runs. My second over was to the left hander. I hate bowling to lefties. He immediately charged down the wicket, turned a full ball into a yorker and played over it. The wicketkeeper comfortably stumped him and leftie was gone! Phew, I was more relieved than anything.
Meanwhile, our club's C grade team had finished early as they were dismissed for 27 runs. Consequently, most of them were in the clubhouse, drinking beers and heckling as I bowled. Note the heckling was directed towards me, not the opposition! Whenever I darted in a quicker ball, they yelled "More air! More air!" Our first slip was also regularly calling out "give it more flight". It was refreshing advice - at the Cavs, a bowler was rated primarily by their economy rate. Not a good environment for a flighty legspinner.
Even better, our home ground is a big field. With deep mid-wicket and long on tiny specks in the distance, I felt pretty comfortable giving the ball plenty of flight. I took to lobbing the ball up like a hand grenade. They were the type of deliveries that if bowled in the nets, would land on the top of the net roof. But the batting side didn't seem to know how to face spin and for the most part, stayed rooted to the crease.
In my fourth over, the batsman went for a big slog, not quite getting hold of it. One of our C-graders called out to our captain to move long-off 1/3rd in from the boundary. I threw up another flighty one and the slogger lofted it straight to the newly positioned long off. I made sure after the game, I thanked the C-grader for the fielding advice.
In my fifth over, the new batsman stood with a square, Chanderpaul-like stance. As soon as I released the ball, he switched stances and reversed swept me through backward point. The unexpected tactics threw me off my line. With the reverse sweep in mind, I pushed one down the leg-side and he swept behind square leg to the boundary.
Next over, I was determined not to be put off by this Kevin Pietersen wanna-be and decided to concentrate on line and length. Well, the spirit was willing but the accuracy was weak. Instead, I delivered my other signature delivery - the loopy waist high full toss. His eyes lit up and he swung mightily, top edging the ball to mid-wicket who took the catch. Wicket #3 albeit a little lucky this time.
For my last over, I was bowling to their #11 batsman. He blocked a few balls, survived an LBW shout. With two balls to go, I planned to bowl a quicker one then save my loopiest hand grenade for the final delivery. He charged my quicker one, missed and got stumped for his troubles. The opposition, all out for 80, victory by 50 runs and career best figures of 4 for 20.
As far as the experiment goes, the match went perfectly. Slogged some quick runs then took a bag of wickets. Of course, it was aided by a batting side that didn't seem to know how to play legspin and a helluva lot of luck. That won't always be the case so I still have to avoid getting thrown off my line and length by quick footwork and inventive strokeplay. But at least the ball is more likely to be thrown my way. The experiment is back on track for now...
| Posted by JC on Mon 14 Jul | 6 comments |
