G&C 245
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 245
May 2023
Spot the Ball
2.Concerned MCC member - How many of the England squad are playing Championship cricket to get themselves ready for the Ashes?
Someone he has just bumped into at Lord’s – I have seen Anderson, Broad, Pope, Foulkes, Crawley on the team sheets.
Concerned MCC member – What about the skipper, Archer etc
Someone he has just bumped into at Lord’s – Oh they are getting expensively injured in the IPL
Out and About with the Professor
It seems slightly irreverent to criticise the editor of Wisden, but when the little yellow house-brick hit the doormat I naturally turned (as I’m sure we all do) to the Editor’s Notes and, well, it wasn’t, shall we say, an uplifting read. It may be countered that we are not in uplifting times, although cricket seems to be on the TV (on one channel or another) almost constantly, but it is not the sort of cricket that the Editor would like to see. Many of us might be with him here and be lamenting the shunting of the county game to the book-ends of the season and Tests into two or three match “series”, but having exulted in the impact of Bazball, Booth gives us several pages of the woes of the game and the whole thing reads like a commentary on the slow demise of a much loved friend beset with the social diseases of racism, sexism and, most of all, greed. Thus: “The national boards have handed the keys to the self-interested few”; “private money calls the shots” (hasn’t it always?); cricket is engaged in: “A race to the bottom…West Indies have launched the 6ixty (a tournament, not a typo), while T10 is part of the furniture in the Gulf and keeping anti-corruption officials on their toes.” The whole thing is: “A bewildering act of self-harm”. This last recalls Duncan Hamilton’s remark that the “ECB’s strategy is to bastardise the game to appeal to people who don’t like cricket”. It is, in short, all a bit dire. Apart from a couple of jokey bits at the end and the approval of singing “God save the King”, the only innovative part of the editorial is to suggest a solution to the Mankading problem as being for the umpires to call “One Short” which I suppose might help, although it would be hard to judge in amateur cricket, and would still allow the backing-up batter to get to the other end more quickly than s/he should. Personally, I think that the batter should stay behind the crease in the same way that those effecting a run should make their ground.
But what of the rest of the 616 pages?
Well there is a good deal (three articles) about Shane Warne and a sycophantic piece about the Queen, as well as a nice piece by Neil Harvey about “The Invincibles” (I confess to not having realised that he was still alive – he is, it seems, 94) and a very well-judged tribute to Eoin Morgan by Jonathan Liew. There was more than I needed to know about making a Dukes cricket ball and a review of cricket in the media, happily entitled: “Life’s too short for sensitive teeth”.
One innovation that may get Googlies readers to ponder is the new award of the Wisden Trophy. The Trophy isn’t, of course, new; it had been awarded to the winners of the England-West Indies Test series since 1963. But then in 2022 the Wisden Trophy was replaced by the Richards-Botham Trophy, for a reason I can’t now recall, and so Wisden had a problem, familiar to many cricket clubs, of a spare pot and no one to give it to (sometimes indeed, no one can remember what it was awarded for in the first place). So, what to do? Answer - award it to the cricketer who has produced the outstanding Test performance in the previous 12 months. Now we are all familiar with the “Five Cricketers of the Year” (although I think many would have struggled to guess more than a couple of this years’ five: Foakes, Potts, Mitchell, Kaur and Blundell) but we now have the outstanding performance of the year. “Performance” seems to be limited to a single Test since the first winner is Jonny Bairstow for his two hundreds against India at Edgbaston. There will be lots of competition for next year. But what of the past? Test cricket has been in existence (as we all know) since 1877 and for the Wisden editorial team: “There was another opportunity too good to miss”. And so, like the Mormon’s retrospective baptism of the human race, the Trophy has gone to long-dead cricketers from mid-Victorian times onward. The first winner was Bannerman (obviously) with W G in 1880 (obviously) sandwiched between The Demon in ’79 and ’82 (ditto). And so on. There are (to me at least) some surprises, with Larwood not getting the posthumous pat-on-the-back in 1932, Hobbs not getting the award at all (his 211 in 1924 at Lord’s being capped by Arthur Gilligan’s 11 wickets in the same series) and Bobby Peel winning in 1894 for his 6-67 rather than his more celebrated pissing on the sightscreen.
This is just the first instalment of the new (sic) award, it concludes with Eddie Paynter’s 243 at Durban in 1939. Next year - the post-War winners. A Googlies competition perhaps?
…I think I’ll have a shot at the winner for 1981.
This & That
The IPL took over from the PSL at the beginning of April as the focus of world cricket and had a fairly sedate beginning before the thirteenth match when it really took light. This doesn’t sound so long when you consider that there are seventy matches before the four play-off matches. Batting first the Gujarat Titans made the fifth score of over 200 in this year’s competition as they reached 204 for 4. In the chase Venkatesh Iyer scored 83 but the Kolkata Knight Riders were subject to a Rashid Khan hat trick in the seventeenth over which slowed them down to such an extent that they required 39 from the final nine balls. Rinku Singh took 10 from the final two balls of the penultimate over and then Umesh Yadav took a single off the first ball of the last over bowled by Yash Dayal. Rinku then hit each of the final five balls of the match for six to secure an unlikely victory.
The next night Royal Challengers Bangalore reached 212 for 2 after du Plessis and Kohli had added 96 and then du Plessis and Maxwell added 115. After eleven overs Lucknow were halfway there but had lost five wickets including Stoinis for 65. Nicholas Pooran then scored 62 from 19 deliveries, having reached his 50 from just 15 balls. Ayush Badoni then hit what would have been a match winning six only to break his own wicket as he swivelled round in his follow through. The climax of the game came off the final ball in which the bowler, Harshal Patel, attempted a Mankad dismissal but failed to make contact with the wicket. When the ball was eventually bowled the final pair ran a bye to secure victory for the Lucknow Super Giants.
In match 24 The Chennai Super Kings racked up 226 for 6 but failed to take advantage of Harshal Patel bowling two beamers in the final over and being compulsorily removed from the attack by the umpires. Maxwell bowled the remaining 4 deliveries without great cost, but their score was still enough to beat The Royal Challengers Bangalore who nevertheless scored a creditable 218 for 8 in reply.
In Match 38 the Lucknow Super Giants scored 257 for 5 and in reply the Punjab Kings made 201. At just past the halfway stage there have been 22 scores of over 200 which is a tribute to the wickets being used and the batting techniques employed. When a side struggles in the first ten overs the commentators explain that the ball is sticking in the pitch or is not skidding on. They then look ridiculous when the ball is pinged all over the place thereafter.
Chennai Super Kings cheerleaders
In another match the off spinner, Hrithik bowled a no ball and when he bowled the free hit delivery Warner took guard right-handed. For four consecutive nights (matches16-19) the games were decided on the last ball of the match. Cheerleaders have been restored to the IPL and they jump up onto the platform and do their stuff whenever a boundary is scored or a wicket is taken. Their outfits though are decidedly 1950s in style and would be laughed off the ground in America but would no doubt still be banned in woke UK.
These matches are invariably played before sell-out crowds which mean that they are played before crowds of 60,000 to 100,000. The big cricket competitions are now the IPL, the PSL and the Big Bash. England has nothing to join in with this. The Hundred just looks like a silly experiment alongside. Nobody thinks that five or ten ball overs are a good idea. On the other hand the Impact Substitute seems to be settling in as part of the T20 game. It started in the Big Bash and is now employed in the IPL. I saw Harry Brook make his hundred and then be substituted for a bowler and so he enjoyed the dream match of batting through his side’s innings and then putting his feet up whilst his side fielded. Incidentally Brook is opening for the Sunrisers and apart from his hundred has failed in his other six innings. In another game Faf du Plessis, who was carrying an injury, watched as his side bowled first but then came on as the Impact Sub to open the innings when his side batted.
There is a new Tendulkar in the IPL and he is just about the opposite of his father, Sachin. Arjun is a tall left arm fast bowler who is making his mark.
Middlesex kicked off their return to Division 1 by putting Essex in and when after weather interruptions they were eventually bowled out for 261 Middlesex’s new captain Toby Roland-Jones had taken 7 for 61. However, Middlesex soon found themselves in serious trouble at 4 for 4 with the top four all dismissed for 0. The second time round Stoneman completed a pair and Robson and Malan managed just 7 between them as their side slid to defeat. This inauspicious start was compounded when they were beaten at Northants in the next match. In their first innings the top four did much better than they had against Essex, this time amassing 7 between them. In this match Higgins was the only Middlesex player to pass fifty. In the third game they actually won in a run chase against Notts at Lords after a weather declaration by Notts. Still a win is a win.
Leicestershire recorded their first at Headingley since 1910 after Yorkshire had scored 517 and 286 for 8 declared. They knocked off 392 on the final day winning by three wickets and with seven balls to spare to record their first Championship win since September 2021.
After beating Middlesex Northants went on to suffer their eighth highest defeat in their history as they lost by an innings and 270 runs against Hampshire. Vince 186 and ex Middlesex man Gubbins 125 had helped Hampshire reach 482 for 8 declared before Northants managed only 149 in their first innings with ex Middlesex man James Fuller taking 6 for 37. They then succumbed for only 63 in their second knock.
In the first test in Galle Sri Lanka scored their biggest ever test win and Ireland their heaviest defeat as the margin was an innings and 280 runs. Ireland batted first in the second test and managed a creditable 492 on the back of three centurions which included ex Middlesex man Paul Stirling who has now scored hundreds in all three formats for Ireland. However, in reply the first four batsmen all scored hundreds including two double centuries as their side reached 704 for 3 declared and Ireland lost by an innings and 10 runs.
I have become increasingly irritated by the manhandling and deliberate fouls in Premier League soccer which is often described as taking one for the team. I believe that the game would be cleaned up to its betterment if these transgressions were met with an automatic Red Card. It would particularly affect those sides who employ the High Press tactic, such as Manchester City, and for whom the Professional Foul is a standard part of their defensive tactics.
I have previously commented on the absurd situation in which subs take an inordinate amount of time to prepare before coming on and participating in the match. This includes locating and donning their boots and securing a shirt that fits after taking off layers of superfluous kit. Now a new feature has been added to this charade. When he is finally ready to join the fray one of the team’s coaches appears with a laptop in his hand and starts gesticulating wildly how and where he wants the unfortunate sub to play. This is no doubt necessitated by the lack of a common language since the coach is probably Spanish and sub Serbian. If they both spoke English the coach could presumably say “Would you just drop in at Left Back” or something similar without recourse to the laptop.
Ten Haag has eventually seen sense as he left Waut Weghorst out of his starting line up for the FA cup semi final at Wembley. For those who haven’t seen him he is a poor man’s Andy Carroll and be lucky to get a game in the Championship.
Morgan Matters
Yorkshire remain in a "huge financial mess" with £15m owed to the Graves Trust of which £500k is due in October and the rest a year later.
M Vaughan has been cleared "on the balance of probabilities" of using racist language towards Azeem Rafiq, yet Rafiq "feels vindicated" and has "closure" after the verdict because "seven out of the eight charges have been upheld".
M Vaughan has described the proceedings of the Cricket Discipline Commission as "inappropriate and inadequate" and says that the process of clearing his name "brought me to the brink of falling out of love with cricket". While the G says that "the road to reconciliation after this racism saga will be long and difficult".
When J Archer completes his spell with Mumbai Indians, he is likely to go straight into the Ashes series without any red ball cricket.
Anjan Luthra (Chairman of Cricket Scotland) has stepped down after claiming that "significant progress" had been made in tackling racism when others said this was "unsubstantiated nonsense".
B Stokes played for Chennai Super Kings in their 12 run win over Lucknow Super Giants, but his bowling figures were 1-0-18-0!
Surrey have signed NZ Test batsman Tom Latham (who averages 41.5 in Tests) for 5 Championship matches in June/ July.
Yorkshire have signed WI batter Shai Hope, but only for the first 3 CC matches.
"Bazbal" keeps getting mentioned, but I still have no idea what it is.
Some tolerable news about the Rs for a change: the lads bounced back from 2-0 down after 13 minutes to grab a point at (top-half) WBA with goals from Dykes and Martin (who charged down a goalie's clearance for his goal) and are now a dizzy 2 points clear of the relegation places!
Despite the continuing lack of fitness of Jofra Archer, B Stokes already claims to have a starting XI in mind for the Ashes series.
Middlesex have started their season in dire fashion and it got no better at Northampton as they were shot out for 149 and that was a decent recovery from the depths of 36-5. Only 2 Middlesex men made more than 8: Simpson 32 with 6 fours and Higgins, last man out for 70 off 85 balls with 9 fours. In the G, Tanya Aldred wrote "Middlesex's top order continued its impression of a dropped trifle".
Day 3: they are playing at Northampton today, but it is more bad news for Middlesex as Northantsp went on to 198 a/o (Keough 75*, TSRJ 4-53) and Middlesex have collapsed yet again to 92-6, only 43 ahead. This is going to be a dismal season... good job I do not have to attend anymore! Here's another dismal season for you: Rs 0 Coventry 3.
Galle Test: this looks like being a nail-biter: SL 591-6 dec (Karunaratne 179, K Mendis 140, Chandimal 102*, Samarawickrama 104*) Ire 117-7!
J Bairstow has apparently been named as the inaugural winner of the (new) Wisden Trophy for his twin centuries v India at Edgbaston last year and for the third time in four years B Stokes is named as the leading men's cricketer in the world in the (new) W Almanack to be published this week.
Rs drew 1-1 at home to Norwich, which was not so bad as Norwich are only just outside the playoff places, but it leaves Rs only one point above the relegation places with a worse goal difference than every club in the division except rock bottom Wigan. I am not optimistic.
My 2023 Wisden was delivered today, but needless to say that I have not had time to even glance at it yet. Daniel Gallan, in the G, writes that "it arrives with a thunk" (what is a "thunk"? it does not feature in any of my dictionaries) though "it is only little", though I would not call 1,616 pages "little" personally.
There is an interesting game going on at Worcester where Gloucester slumped to 45-7, but then T Price made 109 (run out) at no 9 and with a little help from his fellow tailenders lifted the total to 231 a/o (Leach 4-99) and then Worcester collapsed to 118-7 at the close with Price continuing to enjoy himself with 4 wickets including a hat-trick. No play on day two because of rain.
There might be (fingers crossed) a major shock at Burnley (league leaders and already promoted) who are 0-1 (Field the scorer) down to lowly QPR after 66 mins! Burnley have had 82% of the possession but are still losing! Later it is 1-1 after 76 mins. Now, however, there are sensational happenings at Burnley where Martin has scored for Rs after 89 mins! Still 1-2 after 95 mins! Blow the damn whistle you berk! Still 1-2 after 98 mins! But now it is over! Rs have won 1-2! What a result! At 6 mins past 5! Nobody was expecting this result, especially the chaps at the BBC, who managed to borrow a few pieces of film and pretend that they had covered it in full...still... we saw the goals and wallowed in the glory! We could also celebrate moving up to the dizzy heights of 18th... still not safe though.
Lord's: after a wet morning, Nottinghamshire declared at the overnight 158-6, setting Middlesex 249 to win. Middlesex are going for them and are currently 81-1 needing 168 more. Woops! Stoneman is out for 43 off 32, Middlesex are 82-2 needing 167 more. This is one of only three matches where there is currently play and still a chance of a result. Later 100-2 off 14 needing 149 more... and later Middlesex strolled it by four wickets with an over to spare!
There is currently plenty of speculation about the fitness of J Archer. He had a minor operation on his elbow recently during an absence from the IPL missing four matches and he was again missing for Tuesday's defeat against Gujarat Titans. Later it was reported that he had travelled to Belgium for an operation, the fifth on his right elbow in the past 2 years.
Championship Team of the Week
The Cricketer reflects on round three of the 2023 LV Insurance County Championship season by nominating a standout XI after the third week of fixtures...
1.Zak Crawley (Kent)
There will still be those with their doubts, but a regal 170 from Zak Crawley, his highest first-class score for Kent, was nothing but a stark reminder of the prodigious talent that he possesses - if only it came to the fore more frequently. Style and brutality against a strong Essex attack to one side, his contribution was essential as the hosts avoided the follow-on, even if rain would be the eventual victor.
2.Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)
Being dropped on nought was the only invitation Duckett needed to cash in against Middlesex. After recording scores of 51 and 75 in the first two matches of the summer, he made an assured 177 in a total of 364. Nottinghamshire may have lost, but Duckett, and his chances of playing in his first Ashes test this Summer, were winners, nevertheless.
3.Nick Browne (Essex)
While Tom Westley swaggered to 148, Nick Browne was more measured, scoring 159 from 299 balls, including 23 fours and one six. The Essex opener has found runs in short supply since scoring 234 not out against Somerset last July – this knock marks the first time he's passed 50 since then. A welcome, and indeed relieving, change of fortunes.
4.Keaton Jennings (Lancashire)
Had Jennings not retired hurt on 189 (247) due to a hamstring injury, we may well have been talking about the highest individual score of the season so far. It was another composed knock from the Lancashire skipper, who put Somerset's bowlers to the sword with 27 fours and two sixes. He has an affinity for big knocks against Somerset, notching up a career-best 318 against the same opponents in Southport last season.
5.James Vince (Hampshire)
A quintessentially James Vince knock of 186 off 279 did nothing but remind us of the Hampshire captain's first-class pedigree. His innings was fundamental to setting up Hampshire's largest victory in the County Championship – they defeated Northamptonshire by an innings and 270 runs, wrapping up the win on day three. In six-and-a-half hours at the crease, Vince only gave one chance away - he was dropped by Ben Sanderson at long leg when he was on just 25.
6.James Rew (Somerset)
Promising Somerset youngster James Rew returned his highest first-class score and took six catches behind the stumps in Somerset's draw with Lancashire. With his side reduced to 80 for 4 in the 23rd over, a mature knock of 117 from 253 against a full-flow James Anderson kept Somerset in the game. This, bolstered also by a tidy performance behind the stumps (he conceded just two byes), is an outstanding platform from which he can build.
7.Ryan Higgins (Middlesex)
Half-centuries from Pieter Malan and Max Holden laid the foundations for Middlesex's unlikely victory against Nottinghamshire, but Ryan Higgins gets the nod for a useful contribution with the ball, a vital half-century in the first innings and a nerveless unbeaten 22 from as many deliveries to steer Middlesex home in sodden and gloomy North London conditions. It was an essential contribution and a big result for Middlesex, who snuck a victory in the April rain when others had to settle for a draw. It may well be the difference come the end of the season.
8.Tom Price (Gloucestershire)
There are no guarantees in life, other than Price's inclusion in this week's team that is. Hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime performance, the Gloucestershire allrounder's same-day maiden century and hat-trick heroics made him a shoo-in. Coming in at No.9 with the scoreboard making for grim reading at 45 for 7, the 23-year-old blasted his way to 109 off 98 balls. Later, the wickets of Azhar Ali, Jack Haynes and Worcestershire skipper Brett D'Oliveira in successive deliveries, all snaffled behind by wicketkeeper James Bracey, made Price only the second player to hit all 100 runs and take a hat-trick on the same day - genuinely phenomenal.
9.James Fuller (Hampshire)
A first-innings six-for from James Fuller warrants a place in this week's team, even if Mohammad Abbas was nipping at his heels. His contribution with the ball saw him return figures of 6 for 37 as Northamptonshire were skittled for 149 and forced to follow-on. He later removed captain Luke Procter – who top-scored with 18 in the second innings – as Hampshire romped home.
10.Ben Coad (Yorkshire)
A win may have eluded them, but Coad gave Yorkshire every chance of securing victory before the rain ultimately decided their fate. He picked up 5 for 54 in the first innings, including maintaining an economy of 2.51, but that was overshadowed by his contribution with the bat. Coming in at No.11, he scored 45 runs off 32 balls as part of a 59-run tenth-wicket stand with Mickey Edwards to dent Sussex's lead heading into the second innings.
11.James Anderson (Lancashire)
Death, taxes etc. A timeless display from the veteran quick, he picked up 5 for 76 in the first innings against Somerset, including the wickets of Sean Dickson and Tom Lammonby as the hosts found themselves two-down inside 10 overs. Anderson's fellow bowlers returned 5 for 352.
Those who narrowly missed out: Mark Stoneman, Kiran Carlson, Jack Carson, Mohammad Abbas, Tom Westley, Nick Gubbins, Ajeet Singh Dale
Barnet Watch
Everton seem to be managing to compete with Southampton on the exotic hairstyles front with their entire midfield exhibiting flamboyant concoctions. They have been led for sometime by ex-Arsenal man Iwobi who has very long locks tied into a ponytail at the back. He canters around the field looking like a Shire horse at an agricultural show.
Those with regulation hairstyles are seeking notice for other than their footballing prowess by wearing absurd boot colours. The full rainbow is now employed as players have been noted wearing pink, pale green and even orange boots with yellow soles.
Good Deal – Bad Deal
Gary Linekar: Let’s play Good Deal: Bad Deal. You go first.
Alan Shearer: OK, Good Deal: Eberezi Eze - £17m QPR to Crystal Palace. Bad Deal – Nicolas Pepe - £72m Lille to Arsenal
Gary Linekar: Nice one. Try this: Good Deal: Erlin Haarland- £51m Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City. Bad Deal: Kai Havertz - £72m Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea.
Alan Shearer: Now I’m getting the hang of this, how about Good Deal: Dan Burn £13m Brighton to Newcastle. Bad Deal: Ryan Sessegnon £30m Fulham to Tottenham Hotspur.
Gary Linekar: I still think that I am winning and definitely will be after this. Good Deal: Jarrod Bowen £18m Hull to West Ham. Bad Deal Antony £82m Ajax to Manchester United.
Alan Shearer: Good Deal: Gabriel Martinelli £6m Ituano to Arsenal. Bad Deal: Georginio Rutter £28m TSG Hoffenheim to Leeds.
Gary Linekar: Ok that’s enough for now.
Loftus Road Matters
George sent me this epic photo
When the Rangers visited Turf Moor they had won only one match out of twenty one since their manager Michael Beale had left and a Burnley victory would secure them the Championship title. The Rangers victory might just keep them in the Championship for next season. They secured victory 2-1 in the closing minutes and the photo shows the players acknowledging the fans.
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
Googlies and Chinamen
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 245
May 2023
Spot the Ball
- Middlesex player pre-match: Why are we going to Northampton? Surely they are not in Division 1?
2.Concerned MCC member - How many of the England squad are playing Championship cricket to get themselves ready for the Ashes?
Someone he has just bumped into at Lord’s – I have seen Anderson, Broad, Pope, Foulkes, Crawley on the team sheets.
Concerned MCC member – What about the skipper, Archer etc
Someone he has just bumped into at Lord’s – Oh they are getting expensively injured in the IPL
Out and About with the Professor
It seems slightly irreverent to criticise the editor of Wisden, but when the little yellow house-brick hit the doormat I naturally turned (as I’m sure we all do) to the Editor’s Notes and, well, it wasn’t, shall we say, an uplifting read. It may be countered that we are not in uplifting times, although cricket seems to be on the TV (on one channel or another) almost constantly, but it is not the sort of cricket that the Editor would like to see. Many of us might be with him here and be lamenting the shunting of the county game to the book-ends of the season and Tests into two or three match “series”, but having exulted in the impact of Bazball, Booth gives us several pages of the woes of the game and the whole thing reads like a commentary on the slow demise of a much loved friend beset with the social diseases of racism, sexism and, most of all, greed. Thus: “The national boards have handed the keys to the self-interested few”; “private money calls the shots” (hasn’t it always?); cricket is engaged in: “A race to the bottom…West Indies have launched the 6ixty (a tournament, not a typo), while T10 is part of the furniture in the Gulf and keeping anti-corruption officials on their toes.” The whole thing is: “A bewildering act of self-harm”. This last recalls Duncan Hamilton’s remark that the “ECB’s strategy is to bastardise the game to appeal to people who don’t like cricket”. It is, in short, all a bit dire. Apart from a couple of jokey bits at the end and the approval of singing “God save the King”, the only innovative part of the editorial is to suggest a solution to the Mankading problem as being for the umpires to call “One Short” which I suppose might help, although it would be hard to judge in amateur cricket, and would still allow the backing-up batter to get to the other end more quickly than s/he should. Personally, I think that the batter should stay behind the crease in the same way that those effecting a run should make their ground.
But what of the rest of the 616 pages?
Well there is a good deal (three articles) about Shane Warne and a sycophantic piece about the Queen, as well as a nice piece by Neil Harvey about “The Invincibles” (I confess to not having realised that he was still alive – he is, it seems, 94) and a very well-judged tribute to Eoin Morgan by Jonathan Liew. There was more than I needed to know about making a Dukes cricket ball and a review of cricket in the media, happily entitled: “Life’s too short for sensitive teeth”.
One innovation that may get Googlies readers to ponder is the new award of the Wisden Trophy. The Trophy isn’t, of course, new; it had been awarded to the winners of the England-West Indies Test series since 1963. But then in 2022 the Wisden Trophy was replaced by the Richards-Botham Trophy, for a reason I can’t now recall, and so Wisden had a problem, familiar to many cricket clubs, of a spare pot and no one to give it to (sometimes indeed, no one can remember what it was awarded for in the first place). So, what to do? Answer - award it to the cricketer who has produced the outstanding Test performance in the previous 12 months. Now we are all familiar with the “Five Cricketers of the Year” (although I think many would have struggled to guess more than a couple of this years’ five: Foakes, Potts, Mitchell, Kaur and Blundell) but we now have the outstanding performance of the year. “Performance” seems to be limited to a single Test since the first winner is Jonny Bairstow for his two hundreds against India at Edgbaston. There will be lots of competition for next year. But what of the past? Test cricket has been in existence (as we all know) since 1877 and for the Wisden editorial team: “There was another opportunity too good to miss”. And so, like the Mormon’s retrospective baptism of the human race, the Trophy has gone to long-dead cricketers from mid-Victorian times onward. The first winner was Bannerman (obviously) with W G in 1880 (obviously) sandwiched between The Demon in ’79 and ’82 (ditto). And so on. There are (to me at least) some surprises, with Larwood not getting the posthumous pat-on-the-back in 1932, Hobbs not getting the award at all (his 211 in 1924 at Lord’s being capped by Arthur Gilligan’s 11 wickets in the same series) and Bobby Peel winning in 1894 for his 6-67 rather than his more celebrated pissing on the sightscreen.
This is just the first instalment of the new (sic) award, it concludes with Eddie Paynter’s 243 at Durban in 1939. Next year - the post-War winners. A Googlies competition perhaps?
…I think I’ll have a shot at the winner for 1981.
This & That
The IPL took over from the PSL at the beginning of April as the focus of world cricket and had a fairly sedate beginning before the thirteenth match when it really took light. This doesn’t sound so long when you consider that there are seventy matches before the four play-off matches. Batting first the Gujarat Titans made the fifth score of over 200 in this year’s competition as they reached 204 for 4. In the chase Venkatesh Iyer scored 83 but the Kolkata Knight Riders were subject to a Rashid Khan hat trick in the seventeenth over which slowed them down to such an extent that they required 39 from the final nine balls. Rinku Singh took 10 from the final two balls of the penultimate over and then Umesh Yadav took a single off the first ball of the last over bowled by Yash Dayal. Rinku then hit each of the final five balls of the match for six to secure an unlikely victory.
The next night Royal Challengers Bangalore reached 212 for 2 after du Plessis and Kohli had added 96 and then du Plessis and Maxwell added 115. After eleven overs Lucknow were halfway there but had lost five wickets including Stoinis for 65. Nicholas Pooran then scored 62 from 19 deliveries, having reached his 50 from just 15 balls. Ayush Badoni then hit what would have been a match winning six only to break his own wicket as he swivelled round in his follow through. The climax of the game came off the final ball in which the bowler, Harshal Patel, attempted a Mankad dismissal but failed to make contact with the wicket. When the ball was eventually bowled the final pair ran a bye to secure victory for the Lucknow Super Giants.
In match 24 The Chennai Super Kings racked up 226 for 6 but failed to take advantage of Harshal Patel bowling two beamers in the final over and being compulsorily removed from the attack by the umpires. Maxwell bowled the remaining 4 deliveries without great cost, but their score was still enough to beat The Royal Challengers Bangalore who nevertheless scored a creditable 218 for 8 in reply.
In Match 38 the Lucknow Super Giants scored 257 for 5 and in reply the Punjab Kings made 201. At just past the halfway stage there have been 22 scores of over 200 which is a tribute to the wickets being used and the batting techniques employed. When a side struggles in the first ten overs the commentators explain that the ball is sticking in the pitch or is not skidding on. They then look ridiculous when the ball is pinged all over the place thereafter.
Chennai Super Kings cheerleaders
In another match the off spinner, Hrithik bowled a no ball and when he bowled the free hit delivery Warner took guard right-handed. For four consecutive nights (matches16-19) the games were decided on the last ball of the match. Cheerleaders have been restored to the IPL and they jump up onto the platform and do their stuff whenever a boundary is scored or a wicket is taken. Their outfits though are decidedly 1950s in style and would be laughed off the ground in America but would no doubt still be banned in woke UK.
These matches are invariably played before sell-out crowds which mean that they are played before crowds of 60,000 to 100,000. The big cricket competitions are now the IPL, the PSL and the Big Bash. England has nothing to join in with this. The Hundred just looks like a silly experiment alongside. Nobody thinks that five or ten ball overs are a good idea. On the other hand the Impact Substitute seems to be settling in as part of the T20 game. It started in the Big Bash and is now employed in the IPL. I saw Harry Brook make his hundred and then be substituted for a bowler and so he enjoyed the dream match of batting through his side’s innings and then putting his feet up whilst his side fielded. Incidentally Brook is opening for the Sunrisers and apart from his hundred has failed in his other six innings. In another game Faf du Plessis, who was carrying an injury, watched as his side bowled first but then came on as the Impact Sub to open the innings when his side batted.
There is a new Tendulkar in the IPL and he is just about the opposite of his father, Sachin. Arjun is a tall left arm fast bowler who is making his mark.
Middlesex kicked off their return to Division 1 by putting Essex in and when after weather interruptions they were eventually bowled out for 261 Middlesex’s new captain Toby Roland-Jones had taken 7 for 61. However, Middlesex soon found themselves in serious trouble at 4 for 4 with the top four all dismissed for 0. The second time round Stoneman completed a pair and Robson and Malan managed just 7 between them as their side slid to defeat. This inauspicious start was compounded when they were beaten at Northants in the next match. In their first innings the top four did much better than they had against Essex, this time amassing 7 between them. In this match Higgins was the only Middlesex player to pass fifty. In the third game they actually won in a run chase against Notts at Lords after a weather declaration by Notts. Still a win is a win.
Leicestershire recorded their first at Headingley since 1910 after Yorkshire had scored 517 and 286 for 8 declared. They knocked off 392 on the final day winning by three wickets and with seven balls to spare to record their first Championship win since September 2021.
After beating Middlesex Northants went on to suffer their eighth highest defeat in their history as they lost by an innings and 270 runs against Hampshire. Vince 186 and ex Middlesex man Gubbins 125 had helped Hampshire reach 482 for 8 declared before Northants managed only 149 in their first innings with ex Middlesex man James Fuller taking 6 for 37. They then succumbed for only 63 in their second knock.
In the first test in Galle Sri Lanka scored their biggest ever test win and Ireland their heaviest defeat as the margin was an innings and 280 runs. Ireland batted first in the second test and managed a creditable 492 on the back of three centurions which included ex Middlesex man Paul Stirling who has now scored hundreds in all three formats for Ireland. However, in reply the first four batsmen all scored hundreds including two double centuries as their side reached 704 for 3 declared and Ireland lost by an innings and 10 runs.
I have become increasingly irritated by the manhandling and deliberate fouls in Premier League soccer which is often described as taking one for the team. I believe that the game would be cleaned up to its betterment if these transgressions were met with an automatic Red Card. It would particularly affect those sides who employ the High Press tactic, such as Manchester City, and for whom the Professional Foul is a standard part of their defensive tactics.
I have previously commented on the absurd situation in which subs take an inordinate amount of time to prepare before coming on and participating in the match. This includes locating and donning their boots and securing a shirt that fits after taking off layers of superfluous kit. Now a new feature has been added to this charade. When he is finally ready to join the fray one of the team’s coaches appears with a laptop in his hand and starts gesticulating wildly how and where he wants the unfortunate sub to play. This is no doubt necessitated by the lack of a common language since the coach is probably Spanish and sub Serbian. If they both spoke English the coach could presumably say “Would you just drop in at Left Back” or something similar without recourse to the laptop.
Ten Haag has eventually seen sense as he left Waut Weghorst out of his starting line up for the FA cup semi final at Wembley. For those who haven’t seen him he is a poor man’s Andy Carroll and be lucky to get a game in the Championship.
Morgan Matters
Yorkshire remain in a "huge financial mess" with £15m owed to the Graves Trust of which £500k is due in October and the rest a year later.
M Vaughan has been cleared "on the balance of probabilities" of using racist language towards Azeem Rafiq, yet Rafiq "feels vindicated" and has "closure" after the verdict because "seven out of the eight charges have been upheld".
M Vaughan has described the proceedings of the Cricket Discipline Commission as "inappropriate and inadequate" and says that the process of clearing his name "brought me to the brink of falling out of love with cricket". While the G says that "the road to reconciliation after this racism saga will be long and difficult".
When J Archer completes his spell with Mumbai Indians, he is likely to go straight into the Ashes series without any red ball cricket.
Anjan Luthra (Chairman of Cricket Scotland) has stepped down after claiming that "significant progress" had been made in tackling racism when others said this was "unsubstantiated nonsense".
B Stokes played for Chennai Super Kings in their 12 run win over Lucknow Super Giants, but his bowling figures were 1-0-18-0!
Surrey have signed NZ Test batsman Tom Latham (who averages 41.5 in Tests) for 5 Championship matches in June/ July.
Yorkshire have signed WI batter Shai Hope, but only for the first 3 CC matches.
"Bazbal" keeps getting mentioned, but I still have no idea what it is.
Some tolerable news about the Rs for a change: the lads bounced back from 2-0 down after 13 minutes to grab a point at (top-half) WBA with goals from Dykes and Martin (who charged down a goalie's clearance for his goal) and are now a dizzy 2 points clear of the relegation places!
Despite the continuing lack of fitness of Jofra Archer, B Stokes already claims to have a starting XI in mind for the Ashes series.
Middlesex have started their season in dire fashion and it got no better at Northampton as they were shot out for 149 and that was a decent recovery from the depths of 36-5. Only 2 Middlesex men made more than 8: Simpson 32 with 6 fours and Higgins, last man out for 70 off 85 balls with 9 fours. In the G, Tanya Aldred wrote "Middlesex's top order continued its impression of a dropped trifle".
Day 3: they are playing at Northampton today, but it is more bad news for Middlesex as Northantsp went on to 198 a/o (Keough 75*, TSRJ 4-53) and Middlesex have collapsed yet again to 92-6, only 43 ahead. This is going to be a dismal season... good job I do not have to attend anymore! Here's another dismal season for you: Rs 0 Coventry 3.
Galle Test: this looks like being a nail-biter: SL 591-6 dec (Karunaratne 179, K Mendis 140, Chandimal 102*, Samarawickrama 104*) Ire 117-7!
J Bairstow has apparently been named as the inaugural winner of the (new) Wisden Trophy for his twin centuries v India at Edgbaston last year and for the third time in four years B Stokes is named as the leading men's cricketer in the world in the (new) W Almanack to be published this week.
Rs drew 1-1 at home to Norwich, which was not so bad as Norwich are only just outside the playoff places, but it leaves Rs only one point above the relegation places with a worse goal difference than every club in the division except rock bottom Wigan. I am not optimistic.
My 2023 Wisden was delivered today, but needless to say that I have not had time to even glance at it yet. Daniel Gallan, in the G, writes that "it arrives with a thunk" (what is a "thunk"? it does not feature in any of my dictionaries) though "it is only little", though I would not call 1,616 pages "little" personally.
There is an interesting game going on at Worcester where Gloucester slumped to 45-7, but then T Price made 109 (run out) at no 9 and with a little help from his fellow tailenders lifted the total to 231 a/o (Leach 4-99) and then Worcester collapsed to 118-7 at the close with Price continuing to enjoy himself with 4 wickets including a hat-trick. No play on day two because of rain.
There might be (fingers crossed) a major shock at Burnley (league leaders and already promoted) who are 0-1 (Field the scorer) down to lowly QPR after 66 mins! Burnley have had 82% of the possession but are still losing! Later it is 1-1 after 76 mins. Now, however, there are sensational happenings at Burnley where Martin has scored for Rs after 89 mins! Still 1-2 after 95 mins! Blow the damn whistle you berk! Still 1-2 after 98 mins! But now it is over! Rs have won 1-2! What a result! At 6 mins past 5! Nobody was expecting this result, especially the chaps at the BBC, who managed to borrow a few pieces of film and pretend that they had covered it in full...still... we saw the goals and wallowed in the glory! We could also celebrate moving up to the dizzy heights of 18th... still not safe though.
Lord's: after a wet morning, Nottinghamshire declared at the overnight 158-6, setting Middlesex 249 to win. Middlesex are going for them and are currently 81-1 needing 168 more. Woops! Stoneman is out for 43 off 32, Middlesex are 82-2 needing 167 more. This is one of only three matches where there is currently play and still a chance of a result. Later 100-2 off 14 needing 149 more... and later Middlesex strolled it by four wickets with an over to spare!
There is currently plenty of speculation about the fitness of J Archer. He had a minor operation on his elbow recently during an absence from the IPL missing four matches and he was again missing for Tuesday's defeat against Gujarat Titans. Later it was reported that he had travelled to Belgium for an operation, the fifth on his right elbow in the past 2 years.
Championship Team of the Week
The Cricketer reflects on round three of the 2023 LV Insurance County Championship season by nominating a standout XI after the third week of fixtures...
1.Zak Crawley (Kent)
There will still be those with their doubts, but a regal 170 from Zak Crawley, his highest first-class score for Kent, was nothing but a stark reminder of the prodigious talent that he possesses - if only it came to the fore more frequently. Style and brutality against a strong Essex attack to one side, his contribution was essential as the hosts avoided the follow-on, even if rain would be the eventual victor.
2.Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)
Being dropped on nought was the only invitation Duckett needed to cash in against Middlesex. After recording scores of 51 and 75 in the first two matches of the summer, he made an assured 177 in a total of 364. Nottinghamshire may have lost, but Duckett, and his chances of playing in his first Ashes test this Summer, were winners, nevertheless.
3.Nick Browne (Essex)
While Tom Westley swaggered to 148, Nick Browne was more measured, scoring 159 from 299 balls, including 23 fours and one six. The Essex opener has found runs in short supply since scoring 234 not out against Somerset last July – this knock marks the first time he's passed 50 since then. A welcome, and indeed relieving, change of fortunes.
4.Keaton Jennings (Lancashire)
Had Jennings not retired hurt on 189 (247) due to a hamstring injury, we may well have been talking about the highest individual score of the season so far. It was another composed knock from the Lancashire skipper, who put Somerset's bowlers to the sword with 27 fours and two sixes. He has an affinity for big knocks against Somerset, notching up a career-best 318 against the same opponents in Southport last season.
5.James Vince (Hampshire)
A quintessentially James Vince knock of 186 off 279 did nothing but remind us of the Hampshire captain's first-class pedigree. His innings was fundamental to setting up Hampshire's largest victory in the County Championship – they defeated Northamptonshire by an innings and 270 runs, wrapping up the win on day three. In six-and-a-half hours at the crease, Vince only gave one chance away - he was dropped by Ben Sanderson at long leg when he was on just 25.
6.James Rew (Somerset)
Promising Somerset youngster James Rew returned his highest first-class score and took six catches behind the stumps in Somerset's draw with Lancashire. With his side reduced to 80 for 4 in the 23rd over, a mature knock of 117 from 253 against a full-flow James Anderson kept Somerset in the game. This, bolstered also by a tidy performance behind the stumps (he conceded just two byes), is an outstanding platform from which he can build.
7.Ryan Higgins (Middlesex)
Half-centuries from Pieter Malan and Max Holden laid the foundations for Middlesex's unlikely victory against Nottinghamshire, but Ryan Higgins gets the nod for a useful contribution with the ball, a vital half-century in the first innings and a nerveless unbeaten 22 from as many deliveries to steer Middlesex home in sodden and gloomy North London conditions. It was an essential contribution and a big result for Middlesex, who snuck a victory in the April rain when others had to settle for a draw. It may well be the difference come the end of the season.
8.Tom Price (Gloucestershire)
There are no guarantees in life, other than Price's inclusion in this week's team that is. Hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime performance, the Gloucestershire allrounder's same-day maiden century and hat-trick heroics made him a shoo-in. Coming in at No.9 with the scoreboard making for grim reading at 45 for 7, the 23-year-old blasted his way to 109 off 98 balls. Later, the wickets of Azhar Ali, Jack Haynes and Worcestershire skipper Brett D'Oliveira in successive deliveries, all snaffled behind by wicketkeeper James Bracey, made Price only the second player to hit all 100 runs and take a hat-trick on the same day - genuinely phenomenal.
9.James Fuller (Hampshire)
A first-innings six-for from James Fuller warrants a place in this week's team, even if Mohammad Abbas was nipping at his heels. His contribution with the ball saw him return figures of 6 for 37 as Northamptonshire were skittled for 149 and forced to follow-on. He later removed captain Luke Procter – who top-scored with 18 in the second innings – as Hampshire romped home.
10.Ben Coad (Yorkshire)
A win may have eluded them, but Coad gave Yorkshire every chance of securing victory before the rain ultimately decided their fate. He picked up 5 for 54 in the first innings, including maintaining an economy of 2.51, but that was overshadowed by his contribution with the bat. Coming in at No.11, he scored 45 runs off 32 balls as part of a 59-run tenth-wicket stand with Mickey Edwards to dent Sussex's lead heading into the second innings.
11.James Anderson (Lancashire)
Death, taxes etc. A timeless display from the veteran quick, he picked up 5 for 76 in the first innings against Somerset, including the wickets of Sean Dickson and Tom Lammonby as the hosts found themselves two-down inside 10 overs. Anderson's fellow bowlers returned 5 for 352.
Those who narrowly missed out: Mark Stoneman, Kiran Carlson, Jack Carson, Mohammad Abbas, Tom Westley, Nick Gubbins, Ajeet Singh Dale
Barnet Watch
Everton seem to be managing to compete with Southampton on the exotic hairstyles front with their entire midfield exhibiting flamboyant concoctions. They have been led for sometime by ex-Arsenal man Iwobi who has very long locks tied into a ponytail at the back. He canters around the field looking like a Shire horse at an agricultural show.
Those with regulation hairstyles are seeking notice for other than their footballing prowess by wearing absurd boot colours. The full rainbow is now employed as players have been noted wearing pink, pale green and even orange boots with yellow soles.
Good Deal – Bad Deal
Gary Linekar: Let’s play Good Deal: Bad Deal. You go first.
Alan Shearer: OK, Good Deal: Eberezi Eze - £17m QPR to Crystal Palace. Bad Deal – Nicolas Pepe - £72m Lille to Arsenal
Gary Linekar: Nice one. Try this: Good Deal: Erlin Haarland- £51m Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City. Bad Deal: Kai Havertz - £72m Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea.
Alan Shearer: Now I’m getting the hang of this, how about Good Deal: Dan Burn £13m Brighton to Newcastle. Bad Deal: Ryan Sessegnon £30m Fulham to Tottenham Hotspur.
Gary Linekar: I still think that I am winning and definitely will be after this. Good Deal: Jarrod Bowen £18m Hull to West Ham. Bad Deal Antony £82m Ajax to Manchester United.
Alan Shearer: Good Deal: Gabriel Martinelli £6m Ituano to Arsenal. Bad Deal: Georginio Rutter £28m TSG Hoffenheim to Leeds.
Gary Linekar: Ok that’s enough for now.
Loftus Road Matters
George sent me this epic photo
When the Rangers visited Turf Moor they had won only one match out of twenty one since their manager Michael Beale had left and a Burnley victory would secure them the Championship title. The Rangers victory might just keep them in the Championship for next season. They secured victory 2-1 in the closing minutes and the photo shows the players acknowledging the fans.
Googlies Website
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