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August 31, 2006
Posted by Ken Tinker on 08/31/2006 in Commentary
The life of the modern elite cricketer is different from most of our own. At an early age, usually before they leave school, they are hand picked from thousands of other hopefuls to be their country's Best New Hope. They're often sponsored before they can drive, they pay more attention to the location of their off stump than their school lessons, and ultimately they are bred and nurtured to be athletes. They are ushered into state cricket, national A sides, and eventually the national team itself, collecting money along the way. Mundane goals such as holding down a regular job, are at best secondary to goals such as maintaining a 50+ average, or consistently taking wickets. Cricketers evolve differently as people as a result of these different priorities, it's inevitable. With the bulk of commentators everywhere made up of former athletes, are we kidding ourselves to expect anything else?
While many elite athletes are still capable of maintaining society's standards for morals and ethics, plenty cling on to the school boy mentality they were never forced to relinquish due to the all-forgiving cocoon they're wrapped in. Ego and arrogance are justified as self belief, stubborness as grit & determination, and humour such as Dean Jones' thought of as larrakinism. After life in cricket finished for Jones, he moved into coaching and commentary after a quick public relations course in how not to make an arse of yourself. It either didn't include a lesson on always treating the microphone as though it's on, or Deano didn't listen that day.
Continue reading "It's not what you say..."
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Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 08/31/2006 in Miscellaneous
Here’s a much-awaited treatise on that great mystery of cricket – swing. While Saad Shafqat mentions a few interesting facts there about the past of swing bowling and touches upon the scientific simplicity of it all, he yorks me with the lines:
It is often said that reverse (super) swing is poorly understood, but in fact it is a simple and straightforward technique that you can try in your own backyard. All you need is a tennis ball, a roll of electrical insulation tape, and a set of stumps to aim at. Cover one half of the ball with strips of tape and hold it down the center, with the taped side entirely to one side. For a toe-bruising yorker, keep the taped side towards leg and deliver the ball aiming for second slip. About two-thirds of the way the ball will curve like a banana and crash into the base of middle and leg. The faster you are the better, but you don't have to be very quick to create the effect. To bowl a menacing outswinger, keep the taped side facing off and aim for fine leg. The physics is elementary. The smooth, taped side creates less turbulence than the uncovered, rough side of the tennis ball. Less turbulence means lesser resistance, and the ball moves in that direction.
Continue reading "Swinging in confusion"
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August 7, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 08/07/2006 in Miscellaneous
What is the best way to celebrate an anniversary? Simple - recreate the original magic.
Test cricket in the year 2006 has so far been generally disappointing. If we delve deeper for reasons we find that most of these Test series were afflicted by at least two of the four principal causes behind nondescript matches: mismatch in strengths of rival sides, loss of key players through injury, pitches that are unconducive to rivetting cricket (bat dominating ball being the bigger problem) and safety first approach from skippers.
Continue reading "A nice celebration for a 1st anniversary"
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