G&C 237
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 237
September 2022
Spot the Ball
Out and About with the Professor
Well, as we all know, England’s women footballers have come a long way. Judging by the performances in the Commonwealth games, England’s women cricketers still have a bit to do. The semi-final and Bronze Medal performances were all the more disappointing given the ease with which the team qualified in the group sections. England went into the first semi-final as favourites but the Indian openers all but settled the result with their 76 from 7.5 overs. The other decisive factors being a couple of dropped catches and a dreadful missed stumping.
The two semi-final results looked, retrospectively, quite close (4 runs and 3 balls) but viewed live India and Australia were comfortable winners - England seldom looked likely to chase down 164 and Australia always seemed able to knock off 20 fewer.
What, I think, the tournament did show, is how much the standard of women’s cricket has (perhaps unsurprisingly) advanced in the professional era. The quality of the stroke play in particular was eye-catching as was, on occasions, the power with which the players hit the ball. My only previous experience of watching county-level women’s cricket was many years ago at Taunton – and the difference is striking.
The other quality of note was the ground fielding which was also very high. Edgbaston is a beautiful fielding surface but you still have to get round, gather the ball and make a decent return: the number of run outs was testimony (in part) to the fielders’ ability to do just that. By contrast, some of the catching was poor (always excepting Maia Bouchier’s magnificent diving catch in the outfield to dismiss India’s Kaur), and I was also disappointed by the quality of some of the bowling – when I have seen women’s cricket in the past (and indeed played, many years’ back, against an England opening bowler) the quick bowling looked none too terrifying but the slow bowling very consistent. On the sample of these two semi-finals, the seam bowling has quickened a lot, but some spin bowling was quite poor. Obviously having batters charge the slow bowling changes things a touch but my expectation was, at this level, that they should have been able to cope better.
England’s performance was obviously hampered by the loss of Heather Knight, perhaps most especially as captain. Sciver is a fine striker of the ball but there were some odd decisions in the India match with field placings that the bowlers were unable to bowl to and (retrospectively at least) the sending in of Ecclestone far too late. Indeed there seemed to be no plan as to how to dismiss the Indian openers, with just a succession of bowlers delivering a single over each. It looked, at times, like more than a hint of panic. Of course there is not much you can do about dropped catches and Jones is presumably in the team because she is a very useful bat rather than for her ‘keeping…now where have we heard that before?
The Bronze Medal match was a rather dismal effort – tempting, of course, to blame the comedown after failing to make the final…but these are professionals. Losing by more than eight overs in a 20 over game was, indeed, dismal.
The big plus has been the enhanced profile of women’s cricket and the possibility of having cricket included in these games. And if the women, why not the men? And if the Commonwealth, why not the Olympics? Cricket is, after all, the world’s second most popular team game. “Venues” and the “crowded fixture list” might well be responses to these last two questions but drop-in and composite pitches might help the second and a four or eight-year time scale might assist the planning of the first.
So much to think about and much to enjoy and plenty of time for the England women’s team to improve just a little more.
This & That
Middlesex were bowled out for 350 in 44 overs in their match against Berkshire with Joe Cracknell scoring 147 from 94 balls. They probably thought that it was enough but Berkshire cruised home with ten overs to spare thanks to centuries from Connell and Lincoln, the latter having famously played for Middlesex in place of ABdeV in their T20 match at Gloucestershire in 2019.
In another of these games, for which no-one knows why they took place, Middlesex racked up 392 in their 50 overs against Hertfordshire. This time they weren’t embarrassed and managed to bowl their opponents out for 218. Eskinazi scored 160 in this match and has enjoyed a purple patch through August in the one-day formats.
Middlesex had a good run of scores in August in the Royal London One Day Cup - 344 for 9 (chasing and lost), 271 for 1 (chasing and won), 351 for 7, 355, 336 for 9, and 374 for 3. But this form with the bat, led by Eskinazi, was not enough to get them to the play offs. Kent did make the play offs and at the Rose Bowl found themselves at 181 for 5 chasing 313 against Hampshire but Darren Stevens saw them home with 84 not out from 65 balls with an over to spare. In an earlier match Kent chased down Worcestershire’s 351 for 8 thanks to Ollie Robinson’s 206 not out.
Durham found themselves chasing 367 against Gloucestershire and only Paul Coughlin reached fifty but everyone contributed and they ended up just 6 runs short. Somerset reached 120 for 5 whilst chasing Durham’s 342 but then captain Ben Green hit 157 from 84 balls with 12 sixes. But even this was not enough and Somerset fell 9 runs short.
Middlesex have re-signed Ryan Higgins for the run in this season and on a four-year deal thereafter. The Zimbabwe-born Higgins joined Gloucestershire from Middlesex and has scored 2,619 runs in 58 matches at an average of 32.33 as well as taking 194 wickets. The puzzle is why are Gloucestershire prepared to let him go? Will Middlesex seek out other ex-pats they have previously released – James Fuller, Josh Davey, Nick Gubbins, Billy Godleman, Adam Rossington, Chris Wright, Harry Podmore?
Paul Stirling made a late start in the Hundred because of international duties with Ireland but soon made his presence felt with 74 not out from 42 balls for the Southern Braves against the hapless Welsh Fire. Meanwhile at Headingley the Manchester Originals set new standards by scoring 208 for 5 from their 100 balls. Will Smeed scored the first century in the Hundred from 49 balls only for Will Jacks to reach the target in 47 balls just four days later. London Spirit made an interesting selection in picking as Wicket keeper/opening bat, Adam Rossington. He hasn’t fired as consistently this season as in the inaugural competition but made 66 from 25 balls against the Northern Superchargers.
Prior to the South African test series the England Lions gave the tourists a work out at Canterbury. The visitors batted first and reached a creditable 433 after being 129 for 5, however this was quickly dwarfed by the Lions who made 672 and went on to win by an innings. Brook and Duckett made hundreds for the Lions and enhanced their claims to fill any vacancies at the test level.
Things are changing in the world of international T20 cricket. There are two
new arrivals - the UAE's International League T20 (ILT20) and South Africa's yet-to-be-named T20 league. All six franchises in the latter were bought by IPL franchise owners. Reliance Industries, owners of Mumbai Indians, will own a team based at Cape Town's picturesque Newlands Cricket Ground while Chennai Super Kings' owners won the rights to a team that will be based at South Africa's biggest cricket ground, the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The respective owners of Delhi Capitals will have a team in Centurion, Lucknow Super Giants in Durban, Sunrisers Hyderabad in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) and Rajasthan Royals in Paarl, 40km east of Cape Town. Five of the six UAE franchises are owned by Indian firms, including IPL owners. It will be interesting to see how the IPL owners start to use their global influence and whether the Hundred has any place in this changing environment.
Morgan Matters
Our fugitive from Lord’s continues to scour the Sports pages to keep us fully up to date
Sun 31/7: today's O has a 24-page sports section... but I did not find anything of interest!
Yorkshire's keeper Jonny Tattersall is their new captain replacing Steve Patterson, who stepped down on Thursday.
The new MCC president from Oct 1st is Stephen Fry.
Indian pace bowler Umesh Yadav has joined Middx for the rest of this season. Middlesex were "infuriated" by the delay(s) suffered to Pieter Malan's visa.
J Bairstow has followed the example of B Stokes and has withdrawn from the ridiculous Hundred.
There seems to be an awful lot of crap cricket being played at the moment eg in the Commonwealth Games and the Hundred.
Rs were 2-0 down at Sunderland after 40 mins and left it late to grab a draw with goals from Chair (87) and (get this!) goalkeeper Dieng on 90 mins! Rs are 9th in the Championship. I was delighted to see that Brentford (now third in the Premier)) thrashed Man U 4-0 (now bottom of the Premier) at the Brentford Community Stadium.
J Anderson thinks he is the last of the 40-year-old seamers who will play a Test at Lord's, with the latest generation of quicks becoming increasingly drawn to the high-pay, low-workload lifestyle of T20.
Lord's: things (unbelievably) have gone disastrously wrong in the Test. SA went on to 326 a/o (a decent score rather than a match winning one), but England fell apart again for 149 a/o (Lees 35, Broad 35, Nortje 3-47) in 37 overs. SA won by an innings and 12 in about 2 days of playing time! Sack the batsmen! Sack the bowlers! Sack the selectors! B Stokes says it is "not all doom and gloom"... so is he about to argue that this was a fine performance and we should stick with the same bunch of wankers? Everyone is saying that Crawley has to go, with which I have some sympathy, but he should not be the only one.
There appears to be disagreement between B McCullum and B Stokes about what the England team needs now: Stokes favours sticking with the current plan and the current players, but McCullum seems to favour some changes to personnel and attitudes ("we could have been braver") and I am with McCullum.
B Stokes apparently takes daily medication to combat the panic attacks that prompted last year's four-month absence from the England team. The G has 2 and a half pages on Stokes today, but I did not find it all that interesting.
I have now finished the September Cricketer:
a. the new chair of the ECB Richard Thompson says there will be a "fresh start at the ECB”.
b. Cricket Scotland has been found to be "institutionally racist" following an independent review described as the "most devastating verdict of racism to be delivered on any sporting institution in the UK" and the entire board of Cricket Scotland resigned ahead of publication of the report.
c. former international umpire Rudi Koertzen (73) died in a car accident in the Eastern Cape.
d. Surrey Chairman Richard Thompson has been appointed as the new chair of the ECB and George Dobell says "this feels like a new start for English cricket”.
e. Mike Selvey says that the Royal London Cup will unearth more heroes than the Hundred: what's not to like?
f. Frank Hayes's favourite cricketer is Sir Garry Sobers;
g. Derek Pringle is sure he will be the last man to be picked for England while still an Oxbridge undergrad;
h. Stevie Eskinazi could not contain his delight at the news that Ryan Higgins is to rejoin Middlesex, admitting to being "over the moon" at the return to the club of one of the best players to emerge from the youth system in recent years;
i. Bob Cottam (Hants and Northants) tells us that he went to primary school in Wembley, had coaching at Finchley, but Middx calmly allowed him to join Hants.
Sir A Strauss has told the counties that he wants them to play significantly less cricket (though he does not say why, presumably he wants members to get less value for their money?) but not until 2024. So, will it be worth the membership fee?
The G says that Moeen will lead England's first visit to Pak after a 17 year absence with J Buttler struggling to be fit in time.
J Bairstow has been ruled out of the 3rd Test v SA and the T20WC after sustaining "a possible broken left leg while playing golf". How can you break a leg playing golf? Was he pissed? B Duckett (Notts) has been added to the Test squad.
Keaton Jennings became the first player in the history of Yorkshire/ Lancashire CC games to make four centuries in successive innings 114, 132, 238 and now 119.
The Oval could seize next summer's World Test Championship final from Lord's because pre-existing commercial agreements at Lord's are proving problematic and have led to a growing belief that Surrey could take over. Though not confirmed the Ashes Tests are expected to be at Lord's (starting 28/6), Headingley (6 July), OT (19 July) and Oval (27 July).
Durham face a possible points deduction after overseas player Nic Maddison came to the crease with a bat that was too big. Umpire Hassan Adnan tried to squeeze the bat through the measurement gauge but failed and the bat was confiscated by the match referee.
As hinted above, A Hales appears to be on the brink of a dramatic Eng return in the T20 WC because of i) E Morgan's retirement; ii) J Buttler taking over as capt; iii) J Roy's slump of form; and iv) J Bairstow's broken leg.
At OT, Luke Wells (124) reached his century off just 65 balls and hit 6 sixes on his way to the second fastest "authentic" Roses hundred.
D Saker and D Hussey are set for coaching roles during England's T20WC campaign in Oz this winter as part of a broader move to split the international support staff by format.
Pacey Matters
Brian Pacey sent me these thoughts
I've only attended three days of Division 2 county cricket at Chester-le-Street so far this season although I hope to see some of the last home match against Sussex in September.
I can't remember what guidance the ECB gave counties about pitch preparation pre-season but it's produced the most boring set of matches that I can remember since starting to watch county cricket in the mid-60s whilst working in London.
A combination of pitches that don't wear to help spinners (if we've got any that know how to take advantage of a turning wicket) along with the Dukes balls fiasco has made it extremely hard work for bowlers to bowl a side out twice and leave enough time to knock off the runs.
I heard "Aggers" on TMS recently say that he hoped that water bans didn't apply to cricket grounds. I sat there wanting to throw the radio out of the window as I felt that some dry and possibly dusty wickets in September might lead to more definite results and an increased role for spinners if there are any county captains who know how to use a spinner properly. I've seen two (Glamorgan and Derbyshire) who brought their off spinner on to bowl early in the day for a long spell. They both took wickets in their first spell and were taken off so as to revert to their seamers after the tea interval.
Another problem with County Captains (and/or coaches) is that they don't seem to know how to set a realistic 4th innings target when the wicket is still pretty good for batting. Derbyshire to their cost declared too late at Chester-le-Street in July, and then found that after taking early Durham wickets, they couldn't claim the last three, so the game finished in another boring draw.
I discovered at the recent Middlesex game at CLS, that the Middlesex way around this problem, described by the Director of Cricket, Alan Coleman at a recent members seminar, was to insert the opposition, bowl them out and then make a huge score so that you only had to bat once, and bowl the opposition out cheaply on day 4. I must say that approach worked really well in their last two games against Sussex at Lords and away to Durham.
If the ECB are going to continue with the current advice on pitch preparation, I am convinced that a radical restructuring of the points system is necessary in the championship:-
1. Each day to consist of 100 overs that must be completed in six and a half hours playing time plus the allowances for interruptions. If a side fails to complete overs at the required rate, they are given a penalty point for each over not completed in time. The overs would still be bowled at the end of the day. You would suddenly find that the overs were mysteriously completed in time.
The earliest finishing time I've experienced at Chester-le-Street this season is 6.40 pm and it's usually nearer 6.50, by which time most of the crowd have left the ground. Mysteriously, there never seems to be an over rate penalty for these late finishes.
2. Bonus points to be abolished - you don't get bonus points in Test Matches and the 4-day matches are supposed to be preparation for Test Matches.
3. Points system:- Win 10 pts, Loss Nil, Winning draw 3 pts, losing draw 1pt. I'm open to suggestions on how to allocate draw points, but one way might be to give the winning draw to the side with the higher scoring rate in runs per over, over both their innings, or number of wickets taken per over bowled in both innings could be used, or a combination of both of these.
4. To stop sides batting for most of the first 2 days, I would introduce an overs limit of 125 overs on each 1st innings. If the side batting first were bowled out without using up their allocation of overs, the opposition would have the right to add these overs to their first innings allocation.
This innovation would require that the pitch was not over- grassed or under prepared, in which case the home side could be deducted points after the pitch had been inspected by the relevant authorities.
I propose these changes to stop sides being able to gain two thirds of a win under the current system by picking up 8 bonus points and 8 draw points from what could be quite a boring match with no possibility of a positive result at the end of it.
One final thought is how can the first Division of the County Championship be decided fairly without all teams playing every other team home and away. This would mean going back to an 8 team first division if each county is to play 14 championship matches as indicated by the draft Strauss report.
Tracey Matters
Eric Tracey is currently confined to a wheelchair but has good news to report from Lord’s
I had arranged to take Simon and Rachel Butler to Lords for the ODI v SA for their first visit as full MCC members and run them through a typical Eric /Peter boys’ day there visiting various vantage points and refreshment spots in the Pavilion and Allen Stand but plans were curtailed by my current lack of mobility.
I phoned Lord’s and asked about taking an electric buggy into the Pavilion. No problem. I get there and am led to a door which when unlocked revealed a lift and up we went to the roof and out onto the deck behind glass behind and above the otherwise highest level of white seating. I am led to a couple of sets with my name on and one is removed for me to steer my buggy in and imagine my joy at finding I am looking right down the wicket. The best seat in the house rivalled only by some in the press centre I imagine. A not very good photo is attached which shows the vantage I had.
Simon and Rachel joined me and we stayed there all day enjoying some good cricket and a very good England win as well as tucking into Rachel’s emptying of the M&S food shelves. Simon brightly thought to buy a bottle of wine in order to get a wine ice bucket which we could hold onto all day and refresh his/Rachel’s wine supplies as required.
The Hundred Finals 2022 match reportDaisy’s report appeared on King Cricket. Daisy is Ged’s partner
There was a sound-off between competing DJs ahead of (and during) each match. This pitted Abbie McCarthy of the Oval Invincibles against Steph Nieuwenhuys of Southern Brave. Ged and I both thought that Steph won that sound off.
Then things got really exciting. I even saw a cameraman spontaneously combust. “Dozens of people, (mostly drummers, cameramen and wicketkeepers), spontaneously combust each year. It's just not widely reported,” said Ged.
Between matches, we took a stroll, missing Bastille on stage, but we did hear them. It sounded like “dad rock” to us – nowhere near as cool as Jax Jones last year.
On our return, one of the grumpy pair of men in front of us – Ged called them Statler & Waldorf – was whingeing about his wet trousers (goodness knows how), then the same old git got clumped on the head by a passer-by with a bottle of water, kicking off a mini-rant.
I tried not to laugh. Here’s a picture of Ged’s cantankerous old git face for KC readers’ benefit.
Ged has good reason to show that face. He’s just received a card from London Transport and a “shuv it up yer arse” message from the NHS in the post.
On music scene paper, we’d have expected Manchester to win hands down. But Charlie launched sounds with far more energy and danceability than Rohshan. We wondered whether drum ’n’ bass is still an “in-ting”, but still we and others in the pavilion, (mostly under 16s), danced.
Big ups to Charlie for getting a young animated drum ’n’ bass crew up on stage with him. But why weren’t Ged and I invited?
The Last Old Danes Gathering
We originally advertised this year’s event as the Last ODG but many of those in attendance wanted another one and so we are provisionally planning for one in 2024, not 2022, as previously suggested.
Ken Molloy sent me this:
If you are thinking about another “last” reunion I think you need to take a leaf from the old rockers and call it a “farewell" reunion or something similar that leaves you plenty of scope for the reunions in 2024 2025 etc.
Ken, of course, doesn’t attend these events and so I thought that I would include this photo of him for those who wondered what he looks like these days.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 237
September 2022
Spot the Ball
- Debutant: Who is that guy?
- Rooky bowler: Do all the guys in their fifth decade bat like that?
- Twelfth man: I suppose that you are going to tell me next that he opens the bowling as well?
- Wicket Keeper: He’s older than my dad!
Out and About with the Professor
Well, as we all know, England’s women footballers have come a long way. Judging by the performances in the Commonwealth games, England’s women cricketers still have a bit to do. The semi-final and Bronze Medal performances were all the more disappointing given the ease with which the team qualified in the group sections. England went into the first semi-final as favourites but the Indian openers all but settled the result with their 76 from 7.5 overs. The other decisive factors being a couple of dropped catches and a dreadful missed stumping.
The two semi-final results looked, retrospectively, quite close (4 runs and 3 balls) but viewed live India and Australia were comfortable winners - England seldom looked likely to chase down 164 and Australia always seemed able to knock off 20 fewer.
What, I think, the tournament did show, is how much the standard of women’s cricket has (perhaps unsurprisingly) advanced in the professional era. The quality of the stroke play in particular was eye-catching as was, on occasions, the power with which the players hit the ball. My only previous experience of watching county-level women’s cricket was many years ago at Taunton – and the difference is striking.
The other quality of note was the ground fielding which was also very high. Edgbaston is a beautiful fielding surface but you still have to get round, gather the ball and make a decent return: the number of run outs was testimony (in part) to the fielders’ ability to do just that. By contrast, some of the catching was poor (always excepting Maia Bouchier’s magnificent diving catch in the outfield to dismiss India’s Kaur), and I was also disappointed by the quality of some of the bowling – when I have seen women’s cricket in the past (and indeed played, many years’ back, against an England opening bowler) the quick bowling looked none too terrifying but the slow bowling very consistent. On the sample of these two semi-finals, the seam bowling has quickened a lot, but some spin bowling was quite poor. Obviously having batters charge the slow bowling changes things a touch but my expectation was, at this level, that they should have been able to cope better.
England’s performance was obviously hampered by the loss of Heather Knight, perhaps most especially as captain. Sciver is a fine striker of the ball but there were some odd decisions in the India match with field placings that the bowlers were unable to bowl to and (retrospectively at least) the sending in of Ecclestone far too late. Indeed there seemed to be no plan as to how to dismiss the Indian openers, with just a succession of bowlers delivering a single over each. It looked, at times, like more than a hint of panic. Of course there is not much you can do about dropped catches and Jones is presumably in the team because she is a very useful bat rather than for her ‘keeping…now where have we heard that before?
The Bronze Medal match was a rather dismal effort – tempting, of course, to blame the comedown after failing to make the final…but these are professionals. Losing by more than eight overs in a 20 over game was, indeed, dismal.
The big plus has been the enhanced profile of women’s cricket and the possibility of having cricket included in these games. And if the women, why not the men? And if the Commonwealth, why not the Olympics? Cricket is, after all, the world’s second most popular team game. “Venues” and the “crowded fixture list” might well be responses to these last two questions but drop-in and composite pitches might help the second and a four or eight-year time scale might assist the planning of the first.
So much to think about and much to enjoy and plenty of time for the England women’s team to improve just a little more.
This & That
Middlesex were bowled out for 350 in 44 overs in their match against Berkshire with Joe Cracknell scoring 147 from 94 balls. They probably thought that it was enough but Berkshire cruised home with ten overs to spare thanks to centuries from Connell and Lincoln, the latter having famously played for Middlesex in place of ABdeV in their T20 match at Gloucestershire in 2019.
In another of these games, for which no-one knows why they took place, Middlesex racked up 392 in their 50 overs against Hertfordshire. This time they weren’t embarrassed and managed to bowl their opponents out for 218. Eskinazi scored 160 in this match and has enjoyed a purple patch through August in the one-day formats.
Middlesex had a good run of scores in August in the Royal London One Day Cup - 344 for 9 (chasing and lost), 271 for 1 (chasing and won), 351 for 7, 355, 336 for 9, and 374 for 3. But this form with the bat, led by Eskinazi, was not enough to get them to the play offs. Kent did make the play offs and at the Rose Bowl found themselves at 181 for 5 chasing 313 against Hampshire but Darren Stevens saw them home with 84 not out from 65 balls with an over to spare. In an earlier match Kent chased down Worcestershire’s 351 for 8 thanks to Ollie Robinson’s 206 not out.
Durham found themselves chasing 367 against Gloucestershire and only Paul Coughlin reached fifty but everyone contributed and they ended up just 6 runs short. Somerset reached 120 for 5 whilst chasing Durham’s 342 but then captain Ben Green hit 157 from 84 balls with 12 sixes. But even this was not enough and Somerset fell 9 runs short.
Middlesex have re-signed Ryan Higgins for the run in this season and on a four-year deal thereafter. The Zimbabwe-born Higgins joined Gloucestershire from Middlesex and has scored 2,619 runs in 58 matches at an average of 32.33 as well as taking 194 wickets. The puzzle is why are Gloucestershire prepared to let him go? Will Middlesex seek out other ex-pats they have previously released – James Fuller, Josh Davey, Nick Gubbins, Billy Godleman, Adam Rossington, Chris Wright, Harry Podmore?
Paul Stirling made a late start in the Hundred because of international duties with Ireland but soon made his presence felt with 74 not out from 42 balls for the Southern Braves against the hapless Welsh Fire. Meanwhile at Headingley the Manchester Originals set new standards by scoring 208 for 5 from their 100 balls. Will Smeed scored the first century in the Hundred from 49 balls only for Will Jacks to reach the target in 47 balls just four days later. London Spirit made an interesting selection in picking as Wicket keeper/opening bat, Adam Rossington. He hasn’t fired as consistently this season as in the inaugural competition but made 66 from 25 balls against the Northern Superchargers.
Prior to the South African test series the England Lions gave the tourists a work out at Canterbury. The visitors batted first and reached a creditable 433 after being 129 for 5, however this was quickly dwarfed by the Lions who made 672 and went on to win by an innings. Brook and Duckett made hundreds for the Lions and enhanced their claims to fill any vacancies at the test level.
Things are changing in the world of international T20 cricket. There are two
new arrivals - the UAE's International League T20 (ILT20) and South Africa's yet-to-be-named T20 league. All six franchises in the latter were bought by IPL franchise owners. Reliance Industries, owners of Mumbai Indians, will own a team based at Cape Town's picturesque Newlands Cricket Ground while Chennai Super Kings' owners won the rights to a team that will be based at South Africa's biggest cricket ground, the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The respective owners of Delhi Capitals will have a team in Centurion, Lucknow Super Giants in Durban, Sunrisers Hyderabad in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) and Rajasthan Royals in Paarl, 40km east of Cape Town. Five of the six UAE franchises are owned by Indian firms, including IPL owners. It will be interesting to see how the IPL owners start to use their global influence and whether the Hundred has any place in this changing environment.
Morgan Matters
Our fugitive from Lord’s continues to scour the Sports pages to keep us fully up to date
Sun 31/7: today's O has a 24-page sports section... but I did not find anything of interest!
Yorkshire's keeper Jonny Tattersall is their new captain replacing Steve Patterson, who stepped down on Thursday.
The new MCC president from Oct 1st is Stephen Fry.
Indian pace bowler Umesh Yadav has joined Middx for the rest of this season. Middlesex were "infuriated" by the delay(s) suffered to Pieter Malan's visa.
J Bairstow has followed the example of B Stokes and has withdrawn from the ridiculous Hundred.
There seems to be an awful lot of crap cricket being played at the moment eg in the Commonwealth Games and the Hundred.
Rs were 2-0 down at Sunderland after 40 mins and left it late to grab a draw with goals from Chair (87) and (get this!) goalkeeper Dieng on 90 mins! Rs are 9th in the Championship. I was delighted to see that Brentford (now third in the Premier)) thrashed Man U 4-0 (now bottom of the Premier) at the Brentford Community Stadium.
J Anderson thinks he is the last of the 40-year-old seamers who will play a Test at Lord's, with the latest generation of quicks becoming increasingly drawn to the high-pay, low-workload lifestyle of T20.
Lord's: things (unbelievably) have gone disastrously wrong in the Test. SA went on to 326 a/o (a decent score rather than a match winning one), but England fell apart again for 149 a/o (Lees 35, Broad 35, Nortje 3-47) in 37 overs. SA won by an innings and 12 in about 2 days of playing time! Sack the batsmen! Sack the bowlers! Sack the selectors! B Stokes says it is "not all doom and gloom"... so is he about to argue that this was a fine performance and we should stick with the same bunch of wankers? Everyone is saying that Crawley has to go, with which I have some sympathy, but he should not be the only one.
There appears to be disagreement between B McCullum and B Stokes about what the England team needs now: Stokes favours sticking with the current plan and the current players, but McCullum seems to favour some changes to personnel and attitudes ("we could have been braver") and I am with McCullum.
B Stokes apparently takes daily medication to combat the panic attacks that prompted last year's four-month absence from the England team. The G has 2 and a half pages on Stokes today, but I did not find it all that interesting.
I have now finished the September Cricketer:
a. the new chair of the ECB Richard Thompson says there will be a "fresh start at the ECB”.
b. Cricket Scotland has been found to be "institutionally racist" following an independent review described as the "most devastating verdict of racism to be delivered on any sporting institution in the UK" and the entire board of Cricket Scotland resigned ahead of publication of the report.
c. former international umpire Rudi Koertzen (73) died in a car accident in the Eastern Cape.
d. Surrey Chairman Richard Thompson has been appointed as the new chair of the ECB and George Dobell says "this feels like a new start for English cricket”.
e. Mike Selvey says that the Royal London Cup will unearth more heroes than the Hundred: what's not to like?
f. Frank Hayes's favourite cricketer is Sir Garry Sobers;
g. Derek Pringle is sure he will be the last man to be picked for England while still an Oxbridge undergrad;
h. Stevie Eskinazi could not contain his delight at the news that Ryan Higgins is to rejoin Middlesex, admitting to being "over the moon" at the return to the club of one of the best players to emerge from the youth system in recent years;
i. Bob Cottam (Hants and Northants) tells us that he went to primary school in Wembley, had coaching at Finchley, but Middx calmly allowed him to join Hants.
Sir A Strauss has told the counties that he wants them to play significantly less cricket (though he does not say why, presumably he wants members to get less value for their money?) but not until 2024. So, will it be worth the membership fee?
The G says that Moeen will lead England's first visit to Pak after a 17 year absence with J Buttler struggling to be fit in time.
J Bairstow has been ruled out of the 3rd Test v SA and the T20WC after sustaining "a possible broken left leg while playing golf". How can you break a leg playing golf? Was he pissed? B Duckett (Notts) has been added to the Test squad.
Keaton Jennings became the first player in the history of Yorkshire/ Lancashire CC games to make four centuries in successive innings 114, 132, 238 and now 119.
The Oval could seize next summer's World Test Championship final from Lord's because pre-existing commercial agreements at Lord's are proving problematic and have led to a growing belief that Surrey could take over. Though not confirmed the Ashes Tests are expected to be at Lord's (starting 28/6), Headingley (6 July), OT (19 July) and Oval (27 July).
Durham face a possible points deduction after overseas player Nic Maddison came to the crease with a bat that was too big. Umpire Hassan Adnan tried to squeeze the bat through the measurement gauge but failed and the bat was confiscated by the match referee.
As hinted above, A Hales appears to be on the brink of a dramatic Eng return in the T20 WC because of i) E Morgan's retirement; ii) J Buttler taking over as capt; iii) J Roy's slump of form; and iv) J Bairstow's broken leg.
At OT, Luke Wells (124) reached his century off just 65 balls and hit 6 sixes on his way to the second fastest "authentic" Roses hundred.
D Saker and D Hussey are set for coaching roles during England's T20WC campaign in Oz this winter as part of a broader move to split the international support staff by format.
Pacey Matters
Brian Pacey sent me these thoughts
I've only attended three days of Division 2 county cricket at Chester-le-Street so far this season although I hope to see some of the last home match against Sussex in September.
I can't remember what guidance the ECB gave counties about pitch preparation pre-season but it's produced the most boring set of matches that I can remember since starting to watch county cricket in the mid-60s whilst working in London.
A combination of pitches that don't wear to help spinners (if we've got any that know how to take advantage of a turning wicket) along with the Dukes balls fiasco has made it extremely hard work for bowlers to bowl a side out twice and leave enough time to knock off the runs.
I heard "Aggers" on TMS recently say that he hoped that water bans didn't apply to cricket grounds. I sat there wanting to throw the radio out of the window as I felt that some dry and possibly dusty wickets in September might lead to more definite results and an increased role for spinners if there are any county captains who know how to use a spinner properly. I've seen two (Glamorgan and Derbyshire) who brought their off spinner on to bowl early in the day for a long spell. They both took wickets in their first spell and were taken off so as to revert to their seamers after the tea interval.
Another problem with County Captains (and/or coaches) is that they don't seem to know how to set a realistic 4th innings target when the wicket is still pretty good for batting. Derbyshire to their cost declared too late at Chester-le-Street in July, and then found that after taking early Durham wickets, they couldn't claim the last three, so the game finished in another boring draw.
I discovered at the recent Middlesex game at CLS, that the Middlesex way around this problem, described by the Director of Cricket, Alan Coleman at a recent members seminar, was to insert the opposition, bowl them out and then make a huge score so that you only had to bat once, and bowl the opposition out cheaply on day 4. I must say that approach worked really well in their last two games against Sussex at Lords and away to Durham.
If the ECB are going to continue with the current advice on pitch preparation, I am convinced that a radical restructuring of the points system is necessary in the championship:-
1. Each day to consist of 100 overs that must be completed in six and a half hours playing time plus the allowances for interruptions. If a side fails to complete overs at the required rate, they are given a penalty point for each over not completed in time. The overs would still be bowled at the end of the day. You would suddenly find that the overs were mysteriously completed in time.
The earliest finishing time I've experienced at Chester-le-Street this season is 6.40 pm and it's usually nearer 6.50, by which time most of the crowd have left the ground. Mysteriously, there never seems to be an over rate penalty for these late finishes.
2. Bonus points to be abolished - you don't get bonus points in Test Matches and the 4-day matches are supposed to be preparation for Test Matches.
3. Points system:- Win 10 pts, Loss Nil, Winning draw 3 pts, losing draw 1pt. I'm open to suggestions on how to allocate draw points, but one way might be to give the winning draw to the side with the higher scoring rate in runs per over, over both their innings, or number of wickets taken per over bowled in both innings could be used, or a combination of both of these.
4. To stop sides batting for most of the first 2 days, I would introduce an overs limit of 125 overs on each 1st innings. If the side batting first were bowled out without using up their allocation of overs, the opposition would have the right to add these overs to their first innings allocation.
This innovation would require that the pitch was not over- grassed or under prepared, in which case the home side could be deducted points after the pitch had been inspected by the relevant authorities.
I propose these changes to stop sides being able to gain two thirds of a win under the current system by picking up 8 bonus points and 8 draw points from what could be quite a boring match with no possibility of a positive result at the end of it.
One final thought is how can the first Division of the County Championship be decided fairly without all teams playing every other team home and away. This would mean going back to an 8 team first division if each county is to play 14 championship matches as indicated by the draft Strauss report.
Tracey Matters
Eric Tracey is currently confined to a wheelchair but has good news to report from Lord’s
I had arranged to take Simon and Rachel Butler to Lords for the ODI v SA for their first visit as full MCC members and run them through a typical Eric /Peter boys’ day there visiting various vantage points and refreshment spots in the Pavilion and Allen Stand but plans were curtailed by my current lack of mobility.
I phoned Lord’s and asked about taking an electric buggy into the Pavilion. No problem. I get there and am led to a door which when unlocked revealed a lift and up we went to the roof and out onto the deck behind glass behind and above the otherwise highest level of white seating. I am led to a couple of sets with my name on and one is removed for me to steer my buggy in and imagine my joy at finding I am looking right down the wicket. The best seat in the house rivalled only by some in the press centre I imagine. A not very good photo is attached which shows the vantage I had.
Simon and Rachel joined me and we stayed there all day enjoying some good cricket and a very good England win as well as tucking into Rachel’s emptying of the M&S food shelves. Simon brightly thought to buy a bottle of wine in order to get a wine ice bucket which we could hold onto all day and refresh his/Rachel’s wine supplies as required.
The Hundred Finals 2022 match reportDaisy’s report appeared on King Cricket. Daisy is Ged’s partner
There was a sound-off between competing DJs ahead of (and during) each match. This pitted Abbie McCarthy of the Oval Invincibles against Steph Nieuwenhuys of Southern Brave. Ged and I both thought that Steph won that sound off.
Then things got really exciting. I even saw a cameraman spontaneously combust. “Dozens of people, (mostly drummers, cameramen and wicketkeepers), spontaneously combust each year. It's just not widely reported,” said Ged.
Between matches, we took a stroll, missing Bastille on stage, but we did hear them. It sounded like “dad rock” to us – nowhere near as cool as Jax Jones last year.
On our return, one of the grumpy pair of men in front of us – Ged called them Statler & Waldorf – was whingeing about his wet trousers (goodness knows how), then the same old git got clumped on the head by a passer-by with a bottle of water, kicking off a mini-rant.
I tried not to laugh. Here’s a picture of Ged’s cantankerous old git face for KC readers’ benefit.
Ged has good reason to show that face. He’s just received a card from London Transport and a “shuv it up yer arse” message from the NHS in the post.
On music scene paper, we’d have expected Manchester to win hands down. But Charlie launched sounds with far more energy and danceability than Rohshan. We wondered whether drum ’n’ bass is still an “in-ting”, but still we and others in the pavilion, (mostly under 16s), danced.
Big ups to Charlie for getting a young animated drum ’n’ bass crew up on stage with him. But why weren’t Ged and I invited?
The Last Old Danes Gathering
We originally advertised this year’s event as the Last ODG but many of those in attendance wanted another one and so we are provisionally planning for one in 2024, not 2022, as previously suggested.
Ken Molloy sent me this:
If you are thinking about another “last” reunion I think you need to take a leaf from the old rockers and call it a “farewell" reunion or something similar that leaves you plenty of scope for the reunions in 2024 2025 etc.
Ken, of course, doesn’t attend these events and so I thought that I would include this photo of him for those who wondered what he looks like these days.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
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