International cricket has ended in the southern hemisphere for now and the eyes of cricket fans (true fans) turn to events in England where Bangladesh are playing and eventually Pakistan will play both England and Australia (the latter counted as home games for Pakistan). However attention has been drawn back to Australasia as John Howard faces growing opposition to his appointment to the ICC vice-presidency. This business threatens to open up the sport to some nasty politics between the old cricket powers and the new ones (not to mention latent racism between the subcontinent and Australia similar to the Symonds vs Singh business)
South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka have voiced concerns over the lack of cricket experience in Mr. Howard's career. This is a kind of facade for real concerns over the fact that Howard is the former Prime Minister of Australia and whose appointment may set an interesting precedent. As many commentators have pointed out there was also the comments made by him about Murali's bowling action several years ago.
Personally, after more thought on this subject, the appointment seems bizarre to me. The lack of cricket experience is a small thing (he did run a successful country for more than a decade) but the idea that a politician can gain this position is no small discussion. What concerns me most are the practical implications of this whole issue, cricket faces uncertain times in the next decade with 2020, tests and ODI cricket fighting for position, not to mention the development of cricket in the USA. As such, is it really wise to appoint a person of such advanced years? There needs to be a distinction between a veteran or a person of wisdom and someone who is just elderly. Australia already made that distinction by voting him out in 2007. Perhaps the position of ICC President requires a little more youth and an ability to relate to the environment in which cricket is now precariously placed
Some might expect me to support him in this case where someone not affiliated with cricket may be employed in it (my best hope in other words) but cricket must come first. Mr. Howard, I can't have everything and neither can you
NEWS
Central Districts player Ewen Thompson has announced his retirement from cricket after struggling to keep bowling in during the summer. At age 30 this comes as a slight shock and also because his team is due to play in the next Champions League
Shoaib Malik's punishments have been drastically reduced (his ban has been removed and his fines lessened)
The New Zealand Herald included an article accusing the NZ team of no improvement under its new leadership. I have two problems with this: first there has hardly been enough time to gauge this (Moles only resigned 10 months ago) second I disagree with the conclusion. The team won a very tight test against Pakistan for a start (the kind that any fan would recognise as an inevitable loss in the past). The main problem is every step forward seems to be derailed by outside forces (retirements of Bond and O'Brien at their best and Jesse Ryder missing most of the season). The author of that article would do well to put away the knife before we wipe out what little depth we have in New Zealand cricket circles - this isn't rugby (although that sport may have issues of depth as well)
RECENT RESULTS
- SA have beaten WI 3-0 in their ODI series although the games were closer (at times) than that scoreline would suggest
- ZIM beat IND in an ODI if you can believe it and not in some desperate last over heroics either; they played convincing cricket throughout. Congratulations
ARTICLE OF INTEREST
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/3279240/Jesse-Ryder-reveals-his-untamed-past
After a source of mine in Wellington alerted me to the fact that Jesse Ryder was out drinking this past weekend I think it an opportune moment to direct people to read this. Any of his critics are doing their own argument a disservice if they're unaware of his complete past
LOOKING BACK
May 27th (1887) - this was the birth date for Frank Woolley, one of the finest players of cricket in the game's history. a left-hander of legendary ability to time the cricket ball and a deadly left-arm-finger-spinner. Although I was aware of this player it was not until this anniversary that I looked at his stats:
- Played for England 1909-1934 in 64 tests
- 3000+ runs, 87 wickets and 64 catches
- Played first class cricket for 32 years
- 978 matches for 58959 runs @ 40 with 145 centuries and 1018 catches (only non-wicket keeper to reach this mark)
- 2066 wickets @ 19.87
- Only Hobbs made more runs and only Grace made 40000 runs and 2000 wickets
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
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