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.