Hard News: Wonderful athletes
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I'm guilty of cleaning for the cleaner too. Although really it's more like tidying than cleaning. Few cleaning products are harmed in the manufacture of the "cleanliness".
Re blogger drinks - there's a difference between a) not going because you are not interested, and b) using the fact that you are not going to try to score political points and show that you are some kind of violent anti-Left type who is harder than everyone else.
Whaleoil (and others) seem to be unaware of the fact that the drinks were initially organised by a National blogger (David Farrar) along with Labour blogger Jordan Carter. But for some the hatred of anything Labour is too strong. Which is, to be fair, entirely consistent of Whaleoil; he got his start in blogging through abusing a Labour candidate routinely in comments when that candidate dared to have a blog during the 2005 election.
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Gilly's one cunning little man, isn't he?
He's made such a song and dance about being honest and a walker, that he can get away with anything now, and umpires don't go the 3rd umpire for anything when he's involved. Talk about using a brand to good effet.
I read a very good book on the history of skullduggery in cricket last year, It's Not Cricket, by Simon Rae. Apart from being a generally very interesting view of the history of the game, he goes into contemporary arguments over walking and, based on conversations with players, comes to the conclusion that mnost of the people making noise about it are just trying to get one over the umpire another way - "Look at me, I'm so honest, if I say it's not out of course it is!"
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It does strike me that the various politicians in the Aussie government were probably quite keen to criticise "Australia's laws" when they were out of office. How come naturalized citizens don't get this right?
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Basic problem with sport and gambling.
Cricket has had a match fixing problem for 30 years. Not just, but especially in one day internationals.
In New Zealand we do not associate cricket intimately with gambling, but nor did South Africa and Hanse is dead.
We have to face reality. The MSM are so into gambling that the Herald devotes more space to cricket than to genuine sports like pro wrestling.
Witness the Herald refusing to publish the results of one day cricket.
Harald routinely publishes the runs scores by a batsman, but not the number of balls faced.
The classic methods of match fixing: batting well but slowly, taking part a in disproportionate number of runouts or selecting unfit players are ignored by Harald. Indeed Adam Parore, who's career ended without anyone working out who he played for, is still wrting for the Herald.
Until cricket has a credible system of stipendiary stewards looking over the conduct of players and umpires its back to genuine sports entertainment like WWE. -
WH,
I have tended to compare Stephen Fleming with Mark Richardson, a man with half the talent and twice the record, whose sheer determination brought him tremendous success. But now I tend to think Flem has had to carry a heavy burden as captain, and have resolved to give him the benefit of the doubt.
It's often noted that NZ needs two quality openers, but in the meantime the task (at least in ODIs) should fall to Fleming and Astle. With Taylor, Fulton, Styris, Oram and McCullum our middle order looks okay; Gillespie looks the goods, and Bond is one of the world's best, but we're still going to mostly lose to Australia.
I'm confident Bracewell's tenure will be reconsidered by NZ Cricket at the appropriate time, but I'm glad the selectors finally saw fit to give Gillespie and Taylor their shot.
Boo to Sheikh Hilaly - I bet he hasn't even heard of cricket. This would go some way towards explaining his profound ignorance and terrible manners.
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you have to wonder how long it's going to take for the novelty of annoymous shit peddling to wear thin
Whale Oil's not *that* anonymous. WHOIS is a good start; showing off the pictures of Daddy meeting GWB is another.
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Span wrote:
Whaleoil (and others) seem to be unaware of the fact that the drinks were initially organised by a National blogger (David Farrar) along with Labour blogger Jordan Carter. But for some the hatred of anything Labour is too strong.Well, to be fair Span, there's some left-wing nuts out there (and I won't tickle their egos by naming names) I'm quite happy not to have to expend any polite social hypocrisy on either. In the end, you really can't let the cock-knockers of any persuasion spoil your day.
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Sport is partisan get over it and get with the commentary.....try being Welsh
Personally I would far rather see the black caps beat the Aussies anyday but.....
Wickets....wickets....wickets...and a shocking system for keeping and developing talent will keep NZ cricket down.
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Agree totally about Aussie comentators, I always turn the commentary off if they are on, but we're hardly blameless in being one-eyed...might I mention Mexted?
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Frankly I'm over the bullshit. NZ does have good players out there playing state cricket, they just never get a chance to step up because Bracewell (and Fleming) can't bring themselve to dump the non-performers. IMO Astle must go, the Marshall twins should be playing state cricket for at least another season and preferably county cricket before they are allowed back in, McMillan has talent to burn but leaves his brain at the rope, MacCullum needs to be batting at 6 or 7 where keepers normally bat. Vettori et al are bowlers and should not be seen at the batting crease if Flemming et al do their job properly!
Who do you replace them with - why not some young players who have performed at state level and maybe could learn to step up. Some with good young eyes like Jesse Ryder and for gods sake why can't we have a real opener like Craig Cumming open the ODI innings. Or pick someone who has shown guts and brains to play the right cricket for the situation.
Bart - generally agree with your comments. While Astle is in absolutely atrocious form at the moment, it is worth bearing in mind that he was the best ODI batsman in the world in the 2006 Calendar year (limited to those who had played 5 or more games). He averaged 58.60 with a strike rate of 81.16. Mike Hussey was second.
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and I'm waiting for the day L-Ron comes out and says "Zing! Fooled you all!".
Hmmm.... if he can do that, I'll become an instant beleiver... he is dead, after-all *
*The book "The Barefaced Messiah" claims scientologists deny he is dead.... but the only one I've had a chance to discuss this with said thats changed and they now do beleive he's dead? -
Saint Gilly, aka "The Man who Walks"
Interesting guy, by many inside accounts a very nice and level-headed bloke, and beloved by Aussie cricket media because he usually has an interesting opinion and he is willing to share it rather than trot out the usual cliches.
But there is a but, in the disconnect between his attitude to walking when batting, and his attitude to appealing when fielding, be it the ridiculous appeal, or the blithely taken non-catch. As we have seen.
Despite the obvious differences in national character, I think there are many parallels between Aussie cricket and NZ rugby, where the long term excellence and dominance of a single country has ingrained into their sports culture some of the less attractive aspects of sport, such as; being sore losers, having a thin-skin to criticism, unbearably patronising commentators and media, a myopic attitude to individual games or even the longer term interests of the global game, unnaturally high expectations of success from the public, a perception from other countries that the dominant country gets the rub of the green etc etc.
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I don't think anyone this side of the ditch is really on the firm moral high horse when it comes to psychotically partisan sports punditry
In particular the testosterone-heavy rubbish that our rugby and (especially) our rugby league commentators indulge in. An embarrassing parade of uninformative drivel for the most part (I'm in particular looking at you, McIvor). As for the Aussies, aren't they *required* to be partisan by the broadcaster? Problem is, the bastards are just so dominant on the pitch these days that the gloating by the commentators comes across as undignified in the extreme.
The other problem is, this bullshit preoccupation with rotation & depth. NZ doesn't have the depth to rest its top players. I think Braces may have become preoccupied with building a bigger squad after NZ toured England in 2004. The team was so racked with injury that we couldn't compete, especially when Fleming (IMHO, a great captain) refused to change his tactics to make up for the weaker team he was fielding.
Oh, and to reinforce the idea that cricket has *always* been dirty and prone to manipulation by gambling, I can't recommend highly enough the first half of Flashman's Lady, by George MacDonald Fraser. Hillarious & brilliant. That comment applies to the whole Flashman series in fact!
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Jen,
Gilchrist didn't catch it. He is a charlatan. He's honest enough to know he's dishonest.
Our top order failed again. McCullum as an opener?
Why do so many of our batsmen have poor technique?
Can we please pick our team on current form?
Can we rest our injured players properly instead of bringing them back when they are still so obviously injured? -
While Astle is in absolutely atrocious form at the moment, it is worth bearing in mind that he was the best ODI batsman in the world in the 2006 Calendar year (limited to those who had played 5 or more games). He averaged 58.60 with a strike rate of 81.16. Mike Hussey was second.
Does that count his performances versus Sri Lanka? I get his average as 40.09? Anyway I love Astle. He was one of our best batsmen. I have his 200 on tape and love watching it. But he can't see the ball anymore. I guess I don't know if he will get that back but to me at the moment he just isn't good enough. And while I hope I'm wrong (because I don't believe for a second he will be dropped) I don't really think we will ever again see the kind of form from Astle that made him great.
Oh well off to the cricket:).
cheers
Bart -
Agree totally about Aussie comentators, I always turn the commentary off if they are on, but we're hardly blameless in being one-eyed...might I mention Mexted?
Don't get me started. Mexted seems incapable of understanding the laws of the game, yet feels able to prattle on about the referees' decisions. Richard Turner's another one. They frequently miss key facets of play and are basically awful at what they're paid to do.
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RB, Mexted is one of the reasons I get so frustrated watching rugger these days - he's frequently just wrong, and/or doesn't know what is going on. Grrrrr.
Grant Fox I like though. Even though I am NOT an Auckland fan.
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And Big Mer, like his Australian counterpart Mr Bray, while not always actively cheerleading, too frequently falls into the mind-set of describing the game as a function of one team only.
So for Gordo a Bledisloe Cup game is all about Australia either defending well or attacking well. Likewise Muzza only ever seems to talk about the AB's during a game, except when he is patronising the opposition.
Maybe their employers direct them to speak to a domestic audience, but one would think a discerning listener wants to hear a genuine contest described as such.
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Heh, we invented this game where we all had invisible controllers that could administer an electric shock to a commentator every time they said something particularly stupid. If it had been real, we'd have killed Murray Mexted first game out.
The only person who annoyed me more was Martin Crowe commentating cricket.
And I'd love to see Andrew Mehrtens come back as a rugby commentator.
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drinks in tassy, the top order is as usual out for sfa, english have advantage 150/5 have a listen at this url;
http://www.cricbuzz.com/staticcontent/audio/2007_CWBS/wm-player.html
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146/7!
fcuking hell!
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the tail wags on...
what odds a 'reverse grid' approach to our batting order? Whaddaya reckon braces? c'mon you never know.
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for those of us near monitor not transister:
gillespie out on last ball but good strike rate!
reverse grid a great wheeze.
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Here's a question.
If you had to pick a Black Cap who had to bat for your life who would you choose?
It'd be a brave (or foolish) person who chose Craig McMillan - in fact you'd be better off picking James Franklin!
I honestly don't know who I'd pick on current form. Peter Fulton? Ross Taylor? Those are about the only names that spring to mind and I'd only pick Taylor idf it was a cool overcast day where he wasn't at risk of dehydration.
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I'd pick rigor every time, not just to bat for me, but as my runner too, heh.
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