Fair Play and Good Behaviour

"But we understand there's a line you can't cross. You can go close to it, but you can't cross it. I think generally Australians play cricket extremely fairly, and play sport extremely fairly."
 ~ Michael Clarke

Clarke has come out in defence of his team's behaviour. I think this deserves some calling out.

Drawing a line between fair play and good behaviour is a red herring. Clarke and his men certainly do play fair, in that they don't cheat. If anything they tend to play fairer than average. Australian teams tend to see fewer match fixing scandals, fewer bent-elbowed spinners, and more walkers than other teams.

But good behaviour is not the same as fair play. Over the last two years Clarke's team has regularly crossed the line into unacceptable behaviour for a cricket field. There's prior here. Australian sledging has always been legendary, and Steve Waugh's doctrine of mental disintegration was well known. Both skirt the line bordering on boorish behaviour; neither are against the rules of the game. Clarke's men have physically confronted umpires and opposition players en mass, which crosses way over the line of what's acceptable. That behaviour might be tolerated on soccer fields, but it has no place in a game of cricket.

The Australians get away with this because of their place in the Big Three and because the morality of world cricket is still overwhelmingly Anglo-centric. Imagine if the Bangladeshi team massed to confront an umpire about a decision. If a Pakistani player sprouted some of David Warner's lines to the media. If the West Indian fielders broke out in dog howls to see a batsman off (and if it was a Muslim batsman?). Those players and teams would have been instantly and heavily disciplined.

The rest of the cricketing world is going to need to put up with Clarke and his team's ugly and ungentlemanly behaviour, because the authorities are on his side. That sword cuts both ways, so the most that the rest of us can look forward to is watching some disrespectful bad behaviour from Virat Kohli when India visit the land of Oz.

T20 World XI

Following the conclusion of the World T20 we're in a bit of a doldrums in world cricket. What better time to pick a World T20 XI!

I guess if you're going to follow the IPL closely it's not really a doldrums. For me, only Super Rugby exceeds the IPL for drawn-out pointlessness. Which is a pity because there is actually some decent cricket played each IPL, it's just buried amidst endless other dross.

Enough chit chat. Here's Alan's current World T20 team:

1. AJ Finch
2. V Kohli
3. AD Hales
4. BB McCullum (cpt)
5. MDKJ Perera (wk)
6. F du Plessis
7. Mohammad Hafeez
8. KMDN Kulasekara
9. SP Narine
10. MA Starc
11. S Badree
12th man: Shakib al Hasan

Unlike Tests and ODIs I'm not hung up on specialist openers here. The best six in the world can line up in pretty much any order. This one works for me, although I think JP's unlucky to miss out to Faf at 6. Baz to captain, and we'll hand Kushal the gloves.

Hafeez gets the all rounders slot, relegating Shakib to drinks-carrier.

Narine and Badree select themselves, and that's enough spinners for me. Ajmal, Ashwin, Senanayake and Nat McCullum are the spinners to miss out as we scan down the list for the top two pacers. Starc and Kula to open the bowling.

World T20 Team Of The Tournament

The stooges over at the ICC have announced a team of the tournament.

The team was picked, quoth the good selectors, "on the basis of performances in the tournament only. Statistics were used but were not the sole basis for selections."

Other than statistics, the overriding criteria appears to have been to pick Indian players.

Taking into account only performances in the games, with no selection quotas applied, the team would look like this:

1. RG Sharma
2. SJ Myburg
3. V Kohli (cpt)
4. TLW Cooper
5. JP Duminy
6. Shakib al Hasan
7. W Baressi (wk)
8. MA Jamil
9. S Badree
10. Imran Tahir
11. Al-Amin Hossain
12th man: R Ashwin

At Least No One Can Say We Choked...

... because on the night, India was clearly the better team. The Proteas were outplayed, man for man.

~

This review by the estimable Firdose Moonda really says all that there is to say about our T20 (and ODI) sides: less than the sum of the parts. I'm not sure what the problem is, but by now I would say that it's become chronic and is a much worse problem than the old "chokers" tag. At least "choking" meant only losing a couple of high-profile games. This new mediocrity results in a lot more losses.

~

Sri Lanka went on to win it. It's a good send off for some of their legends. Hard times lie ahead in transition for them, but for now they are deserving T20 champions.

~

As the lands here under the Southern Cross begins to slide into winter darkness there isn't much cricket in the immeadiate future. The Protea's next date is with the Lankans in July, over at their place. I have a selection of ideas to write about during the slow news days, but we'll just have to see how it goes.

On the South African limited overs team

For a while now I've been asking myself:  

What the hell's wrong with our limited overs side?

This question is usually muttered while turning away from another dismal TV broadcast, or glumly following another cricinfo commentary feed from my office desk. Once it felt like we were the team to beat in ODIs. Pundits marvelled at our home ODI series record. When T20 came around it felt like we were ahead of the curve, ready for this new format where other sides were still groping for answers.

How valid is this feeling? For a change I rolled up my sleeves and spent some time working up some numbers for you (and even this paltry exercise took too long - the child woke up, suddenly it was food, bath, etc and hours before any more cricket blogging took place).

ICC ODI ranking for South Africa in January of each year

The ICC rankings seem to back up that feeling. The Proteas ODI side seems to be in the worst mid-table slump since the years directly following readmission. I haven't done the same for the T20 rankings - you do it, gentle reader - but I bet you'd find the same.

So, why is this? I have some theories. Prop yourself up against the bar, get another beer, and I'll run them past you.

Focus on the Test side
This current golden age of South African Test cricket didn't come without a price. The performance of the Test side has been put at a premium over the limited overs teams. Players critical to Tests have been rested for ODIs and T20's; future generations will look at Steyn's record and wonder why he player so few of them. Limited overs games have been used to try out promising youngsters and likely "transformation players". The captaincy has changed hands more often and more experimentally. On the whole it's been taken a lot less seriously, and the results show it.

Other teams have gotten better
Especially at T20. These days the top sides seem to be playing a different game to the Proteas. Once upon a time the men in green and gold revolutionised ODIs with their fielding and running between wickets. T20 has come and the game has moved on. Teams around the world have identified new tactics and skill sets that are needed for winning, while we're still trying to play the same game. I have some theories about the team composition needed to win T20's (maybe worth a whole blog post), and it includes beefy baseball-style hitters, unconventional pacemen and mystery spinners. We have none of the above, instead we have...

An obsession with all rounders
All rounders have always a South African strong point. But you only need so many in a team, and we've had a lamentable tendency to pack our sides with three or four bits-n-pieces players (in addition to Kallis) instead of the best specialists available. Ever since Pollock and Klusener we've expected every provincial all rounder to deliver match-winning performances. Vernon Philander managed to escape that trap, although we're all slowly remembering that the guy can bat too. Others like Justin Kemp and Albie Morkel were victims of the expectations of the past. Cricket is a game where specialists shine - wicket takers and run makers need no extra skill (well, these days they do need to be decent fielders too). All rounders are a bonus, not a strategy.

Choking
The choking rep hasn't helped either. But the enough has already been said about that all over everywhere, which is probably part of the problem.

~

So as the Proteas proceed into the semis of the World T20, I'll be watching with low expectations. I think this team has done well to get as far as it has. Anything further will be gravy, especially against an unbeaten Indian side in their (almost) home conditions. I think there are some signs that our limited overs teams are coming out of this current funk, but there's a ways to go still until the glory days are back.
 

World Test XI, Q1 2014

Because there's no Test cricket for a while, and because the World T20 hasn't really fired my interest yet, and because we were AFK this weekend and this is a quick one to whip up... it's time for a snapshot of the World Test XI! This exercise amuses me, and it'll be a regular feature of this blog.

1. DA Warner
2. AN Cook
3. HM Amla
4. KC Sangakkara (cpt)
5. AB de Villiers (wk)
6. S Chanderpaul
7. VD Philander
8. MG Johnson
9. RJ Harris
10. DW Steyn
11. Saeed Ajmal

12th man: R Ashwin

Like some teams around the world, this XI finds itself in a state of some transition. It's hard times for specialist openers, with only Warner really putting his hand up. Cook sneaks in as the next best specialist. Smith is still listed but was not considered following his retirement.

No so with the middle order. Amla, Sanga, AB and Chanders would stand up to any in history. Taylor is unlucky to miss out. AB is still keeping for the Proteas so he gets the gloves here too. With no current captain selected I'm handing the arm band to the ever-classy Sangakkara.

Philander earns himself a promotion to 7 by topping out the all rounder ratings. Ashwin is hot on his heals but only makes the reserve slot.

Johnson, Harris and Steyn round out the fast bowling options. Along with big Vern that makes quite a pace battery; Sanga's only problem will be deciding who gets to open the bowling. Ajmal retains the spinners spot, just edging Herath out.

There we have it. We'll take a look at a World T20 XI as soon as the tournament wraps up, like next week or something.

SA v Aus: Rounding Up The Calls

The world of cricket moves fast enough these days that keeping to a one-post-per-week schedule feels like a plodding pace as news races past. As I write this Nepal have just thrashed Hong Kong on the opening day of World T20. More about that next week. Maybe.

In this post I'm going to look way way back into ancient history at the Australian victory in the Test series against top ranked South Africa. This won't be a wordy series review or well thought out retrospective. No, this evening we're going to tally up the pre- and mid-series trash talk and see how it panned out.

~~~~o~~~~

Aussie Trash Talk Roundup

Nobody talks smack like the Aussies. Let's see how they did.

"This Australian attack is the best in the World." ~Michael Clarke
Fired off before the Ashes were even over, this one got the South Africans justifiably heated up. Now that the dust has settled it has to be said that Clarke's fast men out bowled their Saffa counterparts. However Australia ended the series with a different pace attack than they started with, and Lyon's spinners were no better than JP Duminy's.
The call: EVENS

"I think he [Johnson] probably is the best fast bowler in the world at the moment." ~Craig McDermott
I'm willing to let the stats speak for themselves here. Mitch sure is on fire. Hope the toe comes right soon.
The call: WIN

"Still 'bull....', Graeme?" ~Daniel Brettig after the first Test.
Port Elizabeth followed a few days a later.
The call: FAIL

"I would have liked to see him [Vernon Philander] bowl at Adelaide in that second Test when he apparently hurt his back." ~David Warner
Vern bowled his share of hard overs during the series, albeit without much success. Warner's series was dazzling, but he can't justifiably accuse his opponent of shirking any work.
The call: FAIL

"The boys have learned how to play him [Vernon Philander]." ~Peter Siddle
With seven wickets at 51, the Aus top order sure seemed to have worked out how to play Philander.
The call: WIN

"They did it better than what we did, or more obvious than what we did." ~David Warner, on ball tampering
Warner followed up by accusing AB's wicketkeeping gloves. I don't think much needs to be said about this one.
The call: FAIL

"Low and slow, it [PE] is the sort of wicket that threatens to kill cricket instead of the batsmen who play on it." ~Malcolm Conn, after Day 2 at PE
This pretty much summed up the Aussie whining during and after the PE Test. Conn was singing a different tune after day 4.
The call: FAIL

"David Warner’s lack of respect making Australia look like whingers." ~Malcolm Conn
When a low-brow critic like Conn - whose column is written at a 8th grade reading level using the maximum number of monosyllables and single-sentence paragraphs - disses you like this it's pretty embarrassing. Good on Mr Conn.
The call: WIN

~~~~o~~~~

Alan's Calls

Because we're all about objectivity over here. Let's take a look at my own pre-series predictions.

"My money is on Ryan Harris as the danger man"
Mitch sure did pitch, but I stand by this prediction. One has only to watch the highlights of the last Test and read the post match press coverage to see how important Harris is to the side. The Australians will be hoping that he makes a swift post-op recovery.
The call: WIN

"If Steyn, Philander and Morkel stay fit enough to play all the games the Proteas will probably win"
Steyn's fitness struggle was pretty clear, and Morkel wasn't without niggles. So I've got an out here. Still, they took the field in all the games, so...
The call: EVENS

"The senior [batsmen] in Smith, Amla and de Villiers are going to need to collectively make up the extra man"
I'll stand by this one too. Too bad Smith's head was in a different place.
The call: WIN

"Clarke is world class [...] Of the rest, I've always rated Warner and Spud Smith. The rest are a mix of overrated senior pros and unproven rookies."  
The first half was a bit of a no-brainer, but I'll take credit for it anyway. The second was born out by the performances of Marsh, Doolan and Rogers.
The call: WIN

"Tail end runs [will be] a vital difference."
Both tails scored runs, but neither was that vital to the results.
The call: FAIL

"And finally... Sledging"
Again, a no brainer in any Aus/SA context. If anything the Aussies have gotten worse over the years. Maybe the stump mikes are just better. 
The call: WIN

~~~~o~~~~

Memories of Captain Smith

On the 30th of December 2002 I packed my worldly posessions into my newly purchased '98 Citi Golf and drove the Garden Route to Cape Town, leaving my parent's house behind me to start my first job in an unfamiliar city. The car wasn't very full. January 2003 was spent sleeping on the floor of a rented bachelor flat. My first paycheck arrived on the 25th and because the World Cup was around the corner I bought a television and stood it against the wall on top of the box it came in. In February I watched the Proteas knocked out of the tournament, and slept on the floor for another month.

Graeme Smith and I are just about the same age. I remember being struck by this when he was first drafted into the side in 2002. The other cricketers in the national side at the time were clearly older guys than myself. But Smith wasn't. Suddenly growing up didn't seem that far away. Except for my lack of any actual skill at playing the game - a pesky detail that many sports fans must face - I was able to look at him and said to myself "that could be me".

Later in 2003 I remember evenings spent at my flat window, beer can in my hand, looking out over the shadows lengthening over Rondebosch and listening on the radio (or following on cricinfo, I forget) as Smith, now captain, piled up the runs against Nasser "what's-his-name" Hussain's England. The poms burgled a drawn series there, but Smith claimed the first of his three English captain scalps as Hussain resigned.

South African cricketers will always be divided into two groups for me: pre-Smith and post-Smith. Those before him belong to my father's sporting generation. I remember seeing them on TV from the vantage point of his couch or with him in the stands at St Georges Park, watching the isolation era Currie Cup and then later as Kepler and Hansie led the return to international cricket; the memories of scholar and a student. My memories of Proteas cricketers from Smith onwards are from a different city, with different company and part of a different life.

My second last year renting that bachelor flat in Rondebosch was 2006. On the same television, still sitting on it's box, I remember watching the 438 game. Most of the Australian innings was spent not watching the set, but the same can't be said for the three hours after that. Gibbs rightly gets remembered for his batting that day, but Smith's rapid-fire batting first up is what set the pace and made us all believe it was possible. It seldom gets the credit it deserves (and neither does van der Wath's manic 30 in the dying overs of the chase).

I suspect that history will largely remember Graeme Smith for the last five years of his captaincy. The Proteas team that he led from 2008 to 2013 dominated home and away, failing only to bring home any ICC silverware. His record as a batsman will always fall just slightly short of the greats, especially after a year of poor form at the tail end. Despite that he still rates as the greatest opening batsman South Africa has produced. If his feats as a captain outshine those as a batsman it is only because the former are so memorable.

I will remember Smith as the sportsman who divided my childhood from my adulthood. Eleven years after I watched him take Jonty's place in the 2003 World Cup squad, we both have young families and different priorities. The world has moved on from the days of our youth. Good luck and godspeed where ever life takes you from here Graeme. Thanks for all the memories.

On Statistics And This Blog

As I type the rain is falling in Cape Town and there's only one team that can win the deciding Test from here. Clarke and his top order have picked the right game to get their act together. I don't expect many more interruptions of play, so a result is entirely possible. We'll need to see what the next nine sessions bring, but a post on whatever those events are will have to wait a little longer.

While we all wait for the start of play at Newlands (10am tomorrow folks), it's time to deploy one of my designated backup pieces: the place of statistics in this project of mine.

Along with a love of cricket I'm equally unashamed to admit a love for statistics. It was my second major at university. While that isn't much of a claim to fame, it is enough to know my correlation from my causation.

Statistics and cricket are usually thick as thieves. The nature of the game leaves much (but not enough) that can be quantified and lots of time (in hindsight) to analyse the data. It's almost an unwritten convention that no cricketing opinion should offered but that it is backed up by some or other statistical snippet.

Despite all this, you will not find many numbers quoted or stats expounded here. This might seem a strange choice and so here, for the record, are my reasons:

Time. Did I mention that I don't have much free time? Compiling accurate and enlightening stats to back up my points takes time - time that I don't have. Where I feel it matters I will usually fact check my statements. Please to go over to Statsguru and check up on me.

Redundancy. The truth is that there's nothing much that I can add to the field. Well, there may be - I have some interesting ideas for cricket stats that I'd like to see - but not without a significant investment of my time. The pages of cricket writing both online and offline already include greater volumes of commentary on and creation of cricket statistics than, frankly, is sensible or decent. I especially direct those looking for a fix of cricket statistics to the excellent writings of Kartikeya Date and Anantha Narayanan.

Lies. And damn lies, and statistics. I may not be the sharpest tool in the statistical shed, but I know enough to understand how the numbers can be shaped to support the most subjective arguments. I would rather not be part of that.

Subjectivity. Because at the end of the day these are opinion pieces. I don't want it to feel like this is a lecture hall where assertions are carefully laid out on a chalk board, explained and proven. No sir, coming here should feel like getting trapped with me against the bar of a busy pub and having to listen while I bend your ear over a couple of pints about the game that we both love.

One All

Despite a slow track, Smith's continued lack of form, being one bowler down (dammit Parnell!), being without a specialist spinner and a day five rainstorm literally looming on the horizon the Protea's rose to the occasion and handed out a lesson on what it takes to be number 1. Not for nothing have they held that rating fo the past 18 months.

There's lots that could be said, but to paraphrase cricinfo commentor SurlyCynic I think that the comments posted all over by Aussie fans pretty much sum it up:

Before the Test: "It doesn't matter what the pitch is like, Johnson will destroy you!"
After Day 1: "Pitch doctoring! This is the perfect anti-Mitch pitch! - slow and low, totally unlike the usual PE pitch which is... erm, slow and low."
After Day 2: "SA got lucky wickets. Aus will recover to make 400. AB is the world's most boring batsman to watch"
After Day 3: "Rain is forecast for day 5!"
After Day 4: "We were screwed by the umpiring decisions!"

Further commentary from me will wait until after the deciding Test at Newlands. It doesn't look like I'll be getting there in person, but you never know....

Capitulation

The last five years have been a golden age for South African cricket - clearly the best since readmission and certainly among the best of our cricketing history. In one week, on and off the field, we've seen the first glimmers of the future. It ain't pretty.

In the board room, CSA's troupe of administrators surrendered to the will of cricket's Big Three. They were bought for depressingly little. I wish I'd been wrong, but it was an easy call to make. With CSA on board, the BCCI and it's two brides got their way and everyone else began their new lives as official lower caste citizens in the cricketing world. The last hold outs, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, abstained. I wish them luck with their continued resistance and would like to apologise on behalf of all South Africa to their fans for our bungling bureaucrat's abject surrender. Time will tell whose path was the right one to choose.

With that last sad act the saga of the ICC restructuring came to an end and there was a gap for actual cricket to take center stage. The Proteas duly followed their board's lead by throwing in the towel against a red hot Australian team. Gaps and weaknesses that have been slowly appearing in Graeme's Smith's team were rapidly wrenched open and it wasn't long before the wheels came off completely. There are two Tests to go but there needs to be a whole lot of improvement if we're going to save the series from here. We got out of jail against Pakistan and India, but I don't know if we can hope for a third such result in a row.

In the board room, CSA say that they have been promised more fixtures for the national team. We will know more once the Big Three finalise their bilateral agreements. No prizes will be awarded for predicting who such agreements will be arranged to suit. Those of us in the lower caste of cricket playing nations will just have to wait and see how the scraps of the rich are divvied out.

On the field, the Proteas will have better days than last week. We might even pull off another miraculous series rescue against these rejuvenated Australians, and even if we don't we will still be ranked #1. The golden era will continue for a while; AB, Dale and the others will fight the dying of light for some time yet. But our first post-Kallis Test has shown us that nothing lasts forever, especially not sporting success.

The wheel always turns, but this time there is a difference: the hand spinning it is the BCCI, ECB and CA. Power in the board room might not directly project across the boundary, but control over the flow of money and the scheduling of fixtures sure doesn't hurt your teams chances. The Proteas of the 2010's could be the last team outside this Big Three to dominate Test cricket.

Here Come The Aussies

When I started writing here I thought it was going to be about cricket. Instead for a month it's been mostly ranting about ICC politics. This hasn't been helped by my relative lack of interest in the Ram Slam T20, the Big Bash or Sri Lanka v Bangladesh.

Well it's time to change that. Hot from thrashing the old enemy, Australia have landed in the Republic and they're here for the serious business of three Tests (plus some T20's that nobody will remember).

Let's see what the series will be all about...

~

Fast Bowlers

ht: The News

Because while Nathan Lyon will take some wickets and Robbie P will score some runs, in any Oz-SA series it's gotta be all about the quick men

The pre-series hype is naturally focused on Mitchell Johnson. He's fast, he's mean, he demolished the English and he has a good record against South Africa. He's broken Smith's hand twice and he's blooded Kallis. Pictures from OR Tambo suggest he may have even regrown his Ashes 'tache, but that may just have been shadows from the long haul flight.

Now Mitch is pretty fierce, but my money is on Ryan Harris as the danger man. He's class act whose career has been held back only by injury. Like Australia's version of Shane Bond, when Harris plays Australia look like a different team. Axeman Siddle will toil effectively and Mitch may or may not pitch, but a key battle of the series is between Harris' deadly swing and seam and the Protea's Kallis-less top order.

As always at home, if Steyn, Philander and Morkel stay fit enough to play all the games the Proteas will probably win. No doubt the Aussie "best attack in the world" bluster has got them suitably fired up. Who backs them up will be interesting too, which leads us to...

Jacques Kallis

ht: India Times

Or rather, the lack thereof.

This is the series where South Africans will first confront the post-Kallis future. Word seems to be that the strategy will be to move Faf to number four, to keep AB keeping at five (making him effectively the replacement all rounder for JK) and play one of McLaren or Parnell as a bowling all rounder at seven.

However you slice it the Proteas will be playing with one less batsman than for the last decade. At the same time this depleted lineup are up against the best bowling lineup they've faced for a while (Pakistan fans may disagree). The likes of Alviro Petersen, Faf du Plessis and arguably JP Duminy are never going to be more than average Test batters, so the seniors in Smith, Amla and de Villiers are going to need to collectively make up the extra man.

There's no way to replace a player like Kallis. How South Africa deal with his absence will be crucial to the teams fortunes for the next few years, starting now.

The Aussie Batsmen

ht: Zimbio

Because they've been pretty rubbish for a while now.

Clarke is world class and will get some runs, but the rest were poor at home against a wonky English attack. That Brad Haddin was the stand out in the lineup shows up how bad the rest were. BJ is a good keeper-batsman but he can't be saving the day every time around.

Of the rest, I've always rated Warner and Spud Smith. The rest are a mix of overrated senior pros and unproven rookies. Not too many remain from the lineup that was smoked for 47 at Newlands last time they were here, but this lot are going to need to be on top their game to avoid a similar fate.

Trash talk aside, the Proteas attack have been the scourge of all comers for years now. Whether or not the Aussie batsmen can scrape together enough runs for their bowlers to defend may well decide the series.

Tail Enders

ht: Cricket Dawn

Because it's going to be carnage at the top of the order.

This might not be everyone's pick, but my feeling is that tail end runs are often a vital difference between two sides with strong bowling attacks.

Both tails look reasonably strong. Johnson, Harris, Siddle and Lyon stack up pretty well against Peterson, Philander, Steyn and Morkel. With Watson at three Australia will probably have an extra batsman at seven, where the Proteas look like they'll make do with McLaren or Parnell. Still this one is anyone's race.

After the dust has settled and the shine has worn off the ball the runs those names can put on the board will make a big difference to the series result.

~

And finally...

Sledging

Premature bravado from the Aussie players in advance of the series has only been matched by Aussie fans on the forums rudely predicting a certain whitewash in favour of their team. As usual on cricinfo I'm genuinely puzzled by how such one eyed semi-literate rants get posted and my insightful and balanced comments are always moderated away.

Anyway. Posturing and online flame wars aside, it'll be a close series. The Proteas are starting favourites and I'm calling a 2-1 score line in their favour. Now to see if I can make a plan to get down to Newlands for at least some of the deciding Test...

Everyone Has A Price

The ICC revamp: everyone knows that it's all about the Benjamins. Much more money for the BCCI specifically. The BCCI have stated that they're totally ok with getting more money. Well thank goodness then, happy days.

The original idea seems to have been to get the three biggest kids in the playground to work out some rules for everyone. But that worked out about as well as throwing a dead cow to three sharks and asking them to arrange servings for all the other fish in the sea. Before long it became all about how the biggest shark could get the biggest chunk of meat.

To do that the BCCI needed CA and the ECB to cooperate. Their prices were easy to settle on - deep down both England and Australia feel entitled to more money and the power to arrange their own itinerary (i.e. avoid pesky tours against anyone they don't want to play). England got the extra promise of (maybe) hosting the ICC office instead of Dubai. And so then there were three.

To achieve this goal - loads more cash for the BCCI, and some more it's co-conspirators - a plan was created. No other sane Full Member board would vote for such a proposal, but the Big Three knew that each in turn would have it's price. The draft that they came up with contained carefully planned clauses aimed in specific directions. Along with some hard negotiating, each Full Member would fall.

For good measure the BCCI went all in and put their participation in ICC events on the table, conditional to the draft being approved. Nobody has yet dared to call their bluff.

Zimbabwe needed little more than a vague promise some money and the even vaguer carrot of bilateral tour agreements. They were never really in the game.

The price for West Indies and New Zealand were a series against India each (as an added bonus for the BCCI those matches came at South Africa's expense) and the promise of bilateral tour agreements. These boards folded on the blind, without even waiting to see how serious the bilateral promises were.

Bangladesh got the stick. The threat of a two-tier Test system which would inevitably set them up as the first Full Member relegated out of Tests was a gun to their heads. In due course this clause was dropped and the BCB came on board without much more fight.

That's where we stand today. South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are holding out for "more time" to "consult their boards". This can probably be read as "more time to negotiate for more concessions".

Cricket South Africa's price may well turn out to be eligibility for payouts from the new Test Cricket slush fund and a seat on the all-powerful ExCo. The slush fund is a monetary pittance compared to what's moving around in the Big Three's orbit, but the ExCo seat is a big one. Our bureaucrats have small minds and large egos, so I expect little argument.

I'm not certain of Sri Lanka's position. Like CSA, I think they will be bought by a little bit of money and a seemingly significant slice of political power. Maybe the promise of more games against opposition other than India. Perhaps the power to decide not to play Test cricket if they don't feel like it.

That leaves Pakistan. The PCB has little love for the BCCI and seem to be playing the hardest to get. But if the others fall into line the BCCI doesn't need them, and that's what I think will happen. An organised and united Pakistan would be the nearest rival to India in terms of population and potential cricket revenue so the BCCI will have no problem with shafting them however possible.

This hand of cards has just about wrapped up. No doubt the phone lines are alive to the sound of concessions, and bilateral tour agreements are being bought and sold like packets of crack on a street corner in downtown Baltimore. Once the dust settles the little people will all feel like they've protected their own interests, and the BCCI will get the fat paycheck that it feels that it deserves.

The Next Sobers

A lotta guys have, at one time or another, been branded the greatest thing since Garry Sobers. 'The next Sobers' or some variation on that is staple fare for over-excited commentators and press.

Let's take a look at how some of these fellows have fared...

Image from Sporting Life

Stuart Broad

"He's a wonderful player. There's a little bit of Sobers in him," gushed none other than that old card Geoff Boycott in July 2008, provoked to such an unusual level of excitement by Broad's tail-end batting and bowling in the second Test against South Africa.

Five years and 60-odd Tests later, 2010 runs at 24.21 and 238 wickets at 30.31 suggests that Stuey is rather more like the next Heath Streak.

Yuvraj Singh

After Yuvraj nailed a young Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in the T20 World Cup, Pak batting legend Hanif Mohammed was moved to haul out the Sobers comparison. "For a moment, I thought that Sobers was batting,"said he.

Now I've always rated Yuvraj highly but with 1900 Test runs at 33.92 and 9 wickets at 60.77, Sobers he ain't. Even if we charitably look at his 8329 ODI runs (at 36.27) and 111 wickets (at 38.18) the best one can do is hail our boy Yuvvie as the next Aravinda de Silva.

Shaun Pollock

Now Polly was a fine bowling all rounder, no doubt about that. I hope to have more to say on the subject in due course. But in 2001 when the late Bob Woolmer wrote for cricinfo that "Shaun could easily become the next Garry Sobers" he was letting his enthusiasm get the better of him.

When Polly looks back on his stellar Test record of 3781 runs at 32.31 and 421 wickets at 23.11 even he will be force to agree that Woolmer should have hailed him as, at best, the next Richard Hadlee. No mean act to follow, but no Sobers.

Colin Miller

Now there's no doubt that Miller was a handy bits n pieces all rounder, but in 1998 when Agnew accused the Aussie press of "building Miller up to the realms of being the next Garry Sobers", there was surely an element of cognitive dissonance somewhere.

With 174 Test runs at 8.28 and 69 wickets at 26.15, Miller would have been better described as the next Roy Tattersall. Yeah, I had to look him up too. 

Nailing Our Colours To The Mast

Cricket South Africa has surprised everyone by coming out loudly against the ICC restructuring proposals put forward by India, Australia and England (henceforth referred to as The ExCo Members). CSA has habitually been an incompetent, divisive and bumbling organisation. But this time around the feeling must be that they're getting shafted regardless so they might as well go down with the ship, lashed to the wheel and firing all the cannons. Of course, cricket politics leaves ample room for a craven reversal of this position. But at least for now someone has spoken up.

The politics behind India's recently truncated tour to SA have become clear. This proposal needs seven votes of the ten ICC Full Members to pass at the Jan 28/29 board meeting. Let's tally up the votes.

Sri Lanka has always been India's satellite. Pakistan and Bangladesh might have little love for the Indians but are likely to vote with them anyway as part of the Asian bloc. That leaves the three ExCo members with six votes; five if Pakistan go rogue. Zimbabwe will vote with South Africa.

So the ExCo needs one or both of New Zealand and the West Indies to vote with them. Not so coincidentally, these two countries were the ones filling up the gaps in India's schedule created by cancelling matches against South Africa.

The lads at CSA expressed some baffled confusion at the BCCI's politicking around the tour. At the time I thought it was our own incompetent administrators trying to play hardball with a team way out of their league. Now the full and brutal truth has come to light.

SA Spin

Image from ESPNCricinfo

Cricinfo's estimable Firdose Moonda published an article on South Africa's spin talent.

Here's how I see it playing out in Tests.

Of those the Moonda mentions in the article, I'd play Robin Peterson nine times out of ten. South Africa always look more comfortable with a containing spinner. Robbie P isn't as much one of those as Harris was, but he can do the job. As a bowling allrounder Peterson's batting and fielding ability makes him my default available choice.

Then there's Imran Tahir. There's no doubting his talent and experience, but as we saw in the UAE, Tahir is only really useful at Test level when you get the combination of a turning track and an inept opposition batting lineup. I'd play him on those days, otherwise I think his best contribution to South African cricket would be to keep plying his trade in the SunFoil series, hoodwinking our young domestic batsmen. At least it'll mean that when they get a shot at an international game it won't be the first time they've seen a googly. When he retires let's get him and Harro set up in a spin bowling academy. His experience is valuable. Tahir is also a better bowler in limited overs formats than the long form, so I think he still has a role to play there.

That's it for the incumbents. Frankly I'd consider coaxing Harris out of retirement (he's only 35), or reaching out to Johan Botha again (only 31). But team politics have probably shut the door on both of those options. It's a pity, not the least because Botha might have made a better captain than AB de Villiers. But that's an article for another day.

For the youngsters, I'd back Simon Harmer as the next in line. He's young, he turns the ball, he can bat, and he already has a first class bowling average and strike rate comparable to any of Peterson, Tahir, Harris, Boje or Adams.

Eddie Leie might get a go ahead of Harmer. He's older but has a better first class strike rate and average. I haven't seen enough of him to make a call, but if he gets a chance I hope he takes it.

I don't rate any of Dane Piedt, Prenelan Subrayen, Aaron Phangiso or Werner Coetsee as international prospects. The first two are young so maybe they'll still surprise me.

The best young spinner in the country with Harmer and Leie might just be Dane van Niekerk. Now her I'd love to see enrolled in the Tahir & Harris SA Spin Academy and bowling in the SunFoil series, but I guess that's unlikely to ever happen. Keep an eye on her career, I reckon she'll dominate in our woman's team.

ICC Power Grab Leaked

Image from Zimbio

I would have written something caustic about the leaked news of India, Australia and England's sordid plans for the ICC. Anyone who's been vaguely following cricket could see this coming and can see where this is going.

But Jarrod Kimber has already said all that needs to be said. I have nothing to add to his commentary except to urge you to follow the suggestion he makes at the end of his post.

Emirati Surprises

Two Tests into the three Test series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan and there are already some surprises to comment on.

One surprise is that Sri Lanka is playing Test cricket at all. Their board has been allergic to the format for the last few years. I'm not sure how they got tricked into playing this series, but here we are. It's good to see the likes of Herath, Sangakkara and Jayawardena playing the long form again.

Another surprise is to see Sri Lanka's seamers have come to the party. Not long after being the laughing stock of the Australia tour Lakmal and Eranga, along with Nuwan Pradeep in the second Test, have gone about their business effectively and efficiently. It must make a pleasant change for the long suffering Rangana Herath to have some support at the other end.

The third surprise, perhaps the largest of all, is seeing a sporting wicket in Dubai. While Abu Dhabi laid out a typically dead surface and delivered the inevitable draw, the pitch in Dubai has been unexpectedly lively. It only rains for a couple of weeks every year in the Emirates and it may not be a coincidence that this week has seen both rain and a Test that finished midway through day five.

Three unusual occurances. Here's hoping we see more of all three in the future.

Why Another Cricket Blog?

If one truth were to be told, I really don't have time for this. Waking life in the rat race is almost fully split between work and family, with any left over time devoted the demands of my several other hobbies. There really isn't time to do justice to a blog like this.

If another truth were to be told, if there's one thing this world does not need it's more writing about cricket. The Internet is already overflowing with cricket writing of the entire spectrum from news articles to professional bloggers to the forum posts and cricinfo comments of semi-literate but enthusiastic fans. Physical cricket books are published all the time.

A third truth, to round out three for the post, is that I read a lot about cricket. I don't really have time for that either, but I do it anyway. ESPNcricinfo is a daily destination, especially it's many excellent columnists. Two of my favourite cricket blogs are Leg Side Filth and The Old Batsman, both thoughtful and well written.

So why write articles here, despite all this? Well, cricket is a passion of mine. It occupies a share of my waking thoughts. My mother in law likens it to her soap operas - an insightful comparison.

Then there is the dearth of South African cricket bloggers. SA Cricket Blog looms largest on the scene, but to me it feels a little slick and soulless. The SuperSport Cricket Blog is a media outlet. If there are others I haven't found them yet. In the great deluge of online cricket writing I struggle to find a voice that doesn't speak with an English, Australian or Indian accent.

So there we have it. I'll give this endeavour a year and see where it goes. Perhaps I can scratch an itch and put words to some of my thoughts. Updates will be on Mondays, if I'm able to keep the content coming. Here's to 2014.

England, Squashed

So the Aussies have whitewashed their way back to possession of the Ashes. I expected the result, but not the margin of victory

Image from Drive Cricket

There's no worse winner than the English, and after the 3-0 home series and the first day of the first test they'd gotten positively insufferable. As things turned out, that was their last good day of the series. As Mark Nicholas puts it, that was the last English gloat of the summer.

Now I enjoy watching England getting beaten as much as the next guy, and no one can say that they didn't have it coming, but by the end it was like watching a vicious boy kicking a paralysed dog. Even the Aussies were glad when it was all over. I don't know how the wheels came off the English machine so completely, but the only way from here is up. After all they're still a decent side.

For England Stokes' debut was the only hightlight. He's young and keen and checks two important boxes in (1) being non-English and (2) having a single-syllable surname. I predict a bright future for him in team England.

For Australia, the coming together of Johnson, Harris and Siddle as an attack is no doubt the high point. I'm looking forward to seeing them in a month here in the Republic. If they all stay fit and in form it'll be a feast of a series for fans of fast bowling. Whoever is replacing Kallis in the lineup (and my money is on Elgar or McLaren) had better pack the chest protector and forearm guards and start cranking the bowling machine up to max.

Kallis: Here Come The Naysayers

The retirement of Jacques Kallis from Tests marks the end of an era in South African cricket, an era that spans just a little less than my own interest in the game. In my lifetime I doubt that we will see another player in the same class from any cricket playing nation.

The Internet is already full of articles singing his praises and digesting his remarkable statistics, but Kallis has always had his share of critics and they have also been sharpening their pens. Kartikeya Date's thoughtful article "Can Kallis really be called an allrounder?" does a good job of putting words and numbers to what most others struggle to articulate. In the coming weeks no doubt we will see more of the same.

Kartikeya damns with faint praise by calling Kallis "the greatest batsman who can bowl" and highlights the oft-cited observation that Kallis never dominated series with both bat and ball, and the less often cited fact that Kallis bowled fewer overs per year than Sobers, Imran, Hadlee and Kapil.

Most of the all rounder arguments are caused by people refusing to accept that there is more than one kind of all rounder, and that the different types are impossible to compare.

Batting all rounders: Kallis and Sobers are the best of these. Steve Waugh, Carl Hooper, Tony Greig, Wally Hammond and Wilfred Rhodes are others on the list. Ravi Shastri, Sanath Jayasuriya, Bob Simpson, Ted Dexter and Frank Worrel probably are too. Through most of their careers their bowling effectiveness was secondary to their batting. This is the case even for Sobers, despite what Kartikeya would like to claim.

Bowling all rounders: Imran Kahn and Ian Botham head this list, others on it are Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee, Shaun Pollock, Keith Miller, and Andrew Flintoff. These guys were bowlers first and foremost but could, at least for some of their career, hold their own with a bat.

Comparing the two types leads to endless debates of "Kallis wouldn't be picked for his bowling" versus "Imran wouldn't be picked for his batting". Both are partly true, but the comparison is meaningless. Wicket-taking bowlers win you cricket matches, which makes bowling all rounders arguably the most valuable type of player. This further confuses the all rounder argument.

Statistics aside, one department that Sobers clearly has Kallis' number is in charisma. Sobers was a a renowned entertainer, a dashing, well built athlete and hailed from the mysterious Caribbean. Although they will never admit it, I'll bet that all his detractors find it hard to stomach that the second best batting all rounder in history is a chubby balding Afrikaans guy from Pinelands with all the charisma of a fence post.