The cricket thread

crunchman

sixstringsupplies said:

So the Ashes squad has been announced....

I am surprised Buttler is going he is obviously happy enough with the COVID regulations and allowances for family travel.

Personally I would have picked Parkinson over Dom Bess and tried to find space for Saj Mahmood.

Otherwise....it seems to be our strongest squad from those fit and available. 

I think Australia are pretty shit anyway so we could be in for a competitive series, but their bowling attack is stronger than ours.

Our strongest squad would contain Foakes.

Would agree on Parkinson and Mahmood though.

chris78

We’ve done it again. Going down under with a team full of fast medium right armers. How Overton got in is beyond me, but otherwise, to be fair to the selectors, we’ve picked the best available squad. 

Heartfeltdawn

The injury Foakes suffered and the lack of cricket he's played counted against him. 

I don't have any problem with Parkinson not being picked. Tossing a rookie legspinner out into the hardest tour for an overseas spinner is a hell of a risk. Mason Crane did it last time: hasn't played since. Scott Borthwick in the tour before that: hasn't played since. Simon Kerrigan against Australia at home: we know how that turned out. I'd like to see Parkinson on the tour to the West Indies in Q1 2022. 

Mahmood would have been worth a punt. I imagine he will be with the Lions who are touring at the same time as the Test series and he'll be first name should injuries occur. 

This notion of Australia being shit: pfffh. 

In Warner, Labuschagne, and Smith, you have three players averaging 48 to 60. Tim Paine gets slated for his batting and averages the same as our keepers. Their pace attack is well ahead of ours and there's a few in the second string who might be bolters. Where Australia have a problem in a) an opener to go with Warner and b) one middle order batsman as they'll keep Cameron Green in there at 6. I think they'll keep on with Marcus Harris at the top hoping that his time playing county cricket gives him the boost that it gave to Labuschagne. Whether they'll give Matt Wade another chance... who knows. Will Pucovski hasn't played since his shoulder injury on debut in January against India so it might be too soon for him to come back. 

Gassage

I don't get the Bess hate.

It's a statistical fact he hold the record for the best bowling in test cricket by a spinner with a 'meet me at macdonalds' haircut.

scrumhalf

Whowver they've picked, you can bet your cockbox one or two of them will have gone home before the fourth test. 

crunchman

Heartfeltdawn said:

The injury Foakes suffered and the lack of cricket he's played counted against him. 

I don't have any problem with Parkinson not being picked. Tossing a rookie legspinner out into the hardest tour for an overseas spinner is a hell of a risk. Mason Crane did it last time: hasn't played since. Scott Borthwick in the tour before that: hasn't played since. Simon Kerrigan against Australia at home: we know how that turned out. I'd like to see Parkinson on the tour to the West Indies in Q1 2022. 

Mahmood would have been worth a punt. I imagine he will be with the Lions who are touring at the same time as the Test series and he'll be first name should injuries occur. 

This notion of Australia being shit: pfffh. 

In Warner, Labuschagne, and Smith, you have three players averaging 48 to 60. Tim Paine gets slated for his batting and averages the same as our keepers. Their pace attack is well ahead of ours and there's a few in the second string who might be bolters. Where Australia have a problem in a) an opener to go with Warner and b) one middle order batsman as they'll keep Cameron Green in there at 6. I think they'll keep on with Marcus Harris at the top hoping that his time playing county cricket gives him the boost that it gave to Labuschagne. Whether they'll give Matt Wade another chance... who knows. Will Pucovski hasn't played since his shoulder injury on debut in January against India so it might be too soon for him to come back. 

It's possible that Warner is on the decline.  He's going to be 35 before the start of the series.  He's dependent on having a great eye, rather than a great technique.  His average in the IPL has slipped this year.

Having said that, I can't see us competing unless Stokes decides his head is in the right place to come back.

Heartfeltdawn

crunchman said:

It's possible that Warner is on the decline.  He's going to be 35 before the start of the series.  He's dependent on having a great eye, rather than a great technique.  His average in the IPL has slipped this year.

Having said that, I can't see us competing unless Stokes decides his head is in the right place to come back.

Undoubtedly age is catching up with him but don't dismiss him on home soil. Over his whole career, (not including neutral venues): he averages 37 playing away. At home, 63.20. If you go from the start of 2017 to now, that becomes even more pronounced. 

14 Tests away: 756 runs at 27 (2 tons). 
13 Tests home: 1462 runs at 76.94 with five tons and a best of 335* against Pakistan. 

He might struggle on English greentops but he's still mighty decent on Aussie decks. 

crunchman

Good news:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/59022351

Still underdogs, but it ought to make the series a lot more interesting.

earwighoney

Interesting times for Yorkshire CCC....

pedalo

It’s horrific. 

earwighoney

pedalo said:

It’s horrific. 

I disagree.

If it involved any other team then maybe, but it's the team who's captain/player told an opposing player 'to fuck off back to his own country' then was consequently promoted to Head Coach.

Then after the inquiry, initially refused to acknowledge Rafiq had been racially abused but was instead a victim of 'inappropriate behaviour' then it goes on and on, and I'm sure there are many more incidents to come out.

It'd be horrific if there was an element of surprise, but for the county of Yorkshire CCC it just seems to be day to day behaviour, calling a player a 'Paki' is just banter.

Any other workplace in the UK, these incidents would be sackable offences, but not in God's County.

The whole club is rotten to the core, I'd like to imagine the ECB will do something about it, but even to their own admissions they have fucked it up, a sign they weren't really taking it seriously.

pedalo

I’m mortified by it all to be honest. 

Heartfeltdawn

earwighoney said:

The whole club is rotten to the core, I'd like to imagine the ECB will do something about it, but even to their own admissions they have fucked it up, a sign they weren't really taking it seriously.

It'll be bloody interesting to see who steps forward to sponsor them in the future. 

Everything that's happened doesn't surprise me. It's no different to what I saw in the youth cricket days. the dumb fuck sexism, the casual racism from some players. I toured Barbados 20+ years ago with a 2nd XI county/BUSA composite side. One guy there was too ready with the racist language. I gave him a warning twice to stop on different days. Third time it happened, he called our bus driver a stupid N word. He was three rows up in the bus from me. I got up, walked over, told him that I'd warned him, and decked him. Nobody said a word after that. Outside of my brother, he is still the only individual I've punched. It wasn't edifying, I felt horrible afterwards and took myself away from the team for 24 hours to contemplate whether I wanted to continue the tour, but in my mind it was the right thing to do. The sexist side: most of you know about the Alex Hepburn case at Worcester. I went to uni there and saw things involving folk who played at county level that were just hideous. 

Shit. That's depressing me already. To think that it's still going on is even more depressing. So I want to put something positive up. Two years prior to the Barbados trip, I saw one of the best things I've ever seen on a cricket field. We were playing Oxfordshire and we'd lost early wickets chasing 260 odd. It got exciting, 50 needed with four wickets left from the last 10 overs. Our off spinner was batting well, very short chap, maybe 5ft 2". Oxford skipper brought his opening bowler back. he was quite a verbal bowler who'd already given a load of shit out. Lo and behold, he does it again to our offie, a lot of disabled comments and suggesting that his short stature was some kind of birth defect. His skipper warned him to stop or he'd be removed. Two overs later, more abuse continuing along the disabled lines. Skip not only took him out of the attack, he ordered him from the pitch to be replaced by the 12th man. We beat Oxfordshire and post-match we as a side all went up to their captain one by one to shake his hand. That's always stuck with me as one of the best "I will not compromise my principles" acts I've ever seen, that he compromised his own team's ability to win in order to not compromise his morals and ethics. Maybe that incident had an impact on me in Barbados two years later.  

And maybe that is what we need here, leaders who are prepared to come and and say what is wrong and what is right, and for people who have fucked up to come out and say that they have fucked up. 

earwighoney

That's a bit of a grim story Andy, but at least you finished on a positive note.

Heartfeltdawn

More positive than the outlook for Yorkshire...

https://twitter.com/GeorgeDobell1/status/1456319802918776838

earwighoney

Heartfeltdawn said:

More positive than the outlook for Yorkshire...

https://twitter.com/GeorgeDobell1/status/1456319802918776838

Seems all the more bizarre they had a test match this summer, when the players were taking a knee against racism. 

Considering Azeem Rafiq went to the ECB over a year ago not much was done until the report was leaked to a newspaper.

There are some Yorkshire supporters here, I'd be intrigued to their thoughts. 

earwighoney

Heartfeltdawn said:

More positive than the outlook for Yorkshire...

https://twitter.com/GeorgeDobell1/status/1456319802918776838

It gets worse.

Michael Vaughan is the next name to be involved.

Allegedly looked at some of the Asian players and said 'there are too many of you lot'.

sixstringsupplies

earwighoney said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

More positive than the outlook for Yorkshire...

https://twitter.com/GeorgeDobell1/status/1456319802918776838

It gets worse.

Michael Vaughan is the next name to be involved.

Allegedly looked at some of the Asian players and said 'there are too many of you lot'.

His article in the Telegraph this evening is....squirmish to say the least.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/11/04/michael-vaughan-named-azeem-rafiq-report-totally-deny-accusation/?utm_content=sport&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1636058895

earwighoney

sixstringsupplies said:

earwighoney said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

More positive than the outlook for Yorkshire...

https://twitter.com/GeorgeDobell1/status/1456319802918776838

It gets worse.

Michael Vaughan is the next name to be involved.

Allegedly looked at some of the Asian players and said 'there are too many of you lot'.

His article in the Telegraph this evening is....squirmish to say the least.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/11/04/michael-vaughan-named-azeem-rafiq-report-totally-deny-accusation/?utm_content=sport&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1636058895

There are a few murmurs, Vaughan and his lawyers were behind the Rafiq report being delayed/redacted, and like with Gary Ballance, the details emerged after the report was leaked to the media.

sixstringsupplies

Well it looks like Graeme Swann will be back on TMS for the Ashes commentary. Noooooooooooooooo!