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April 16, 2009
SA youngsters outperform Australian counterparts
Posted on 04/16/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Neil Johnson, writing in the Witness, says the performances of South Africa's newer players, such as Wayne Parnell and Roelof van der Merwe, and the relative failure of Australia's less experienced players to make an impact, proved critical in the outcome of the ODI series.
Graeme Smith is understandably enjoying the “good energy” in his team. In stark contrast, Ricky Ponting appears to have run out of options (and fingernails!). His efforts to galvanise his team appear to have been thwarted by South Africa’s dominance and the underperformance of his youngsters has not helped.
April 12, 2009
Australia should split the captaincy
Posted on 04/12/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Australia have in recent weeks played an anonymous brand of 50-over cricket. Throughout, the players have looked hangdog and tactically, they have lacked invention, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. He says the frustration of poor form is getting to Ponting and his deputy Michael Clarke and it's time for a captaincy review.
The time has come to awaken the one-day team and to divide the captaincy load. At least, Clarke can be put in charge of the 20-over outfit. An argument can be made for giving him responsibility for the one-day side as well. The outfit that served so well for so long is breaking up, with Brett Lee needing to rediscover his pace, Andrew Symonds given one last chance and the remaining thirtysomethings fraying at the edges. Abu Dhabi could herald the end of an era.
April 5, 2009
Parnell starts to purr
Posted on 04/05/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
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Wayne Parnell has enough pace and bounce to command respect
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Peter Roebuck has followed the rise of South Africa over the past five months and continues to like what he sees. In the Sydney Morning Herald he says Wayne Parnell, who took four wickets in the second ODI in Centurion, is the latest member of the growing band of promising cricketers breaking through.
Briefly glimpsed in Australia sending down a handful of overs, the lanky left-armer belongs to the old school of swing bowling. Those scanning the card might imagine he produced an unplayable succession of deliveries that behaved along the lines of an escaping mosquito. In fact, he merely followed in the footsteps of the fine curl and cut bowlers of the past ...
Parnell has enough pace and bounce to command respect from even a properly constructed and functioning batting order. Australia's batting offered no such opposition.
Nathan Hauritz was a star of the opening match of the series and he spoke to AAP’s Greg Buckle about his unconventional international journey.
April 2, 2009
Stand up to the spinners and succeed
Posted on 04/02/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Australia face a stiff challenge to overcome the top-ranked South Africa in the one-day series. He writes that the visitors’ most pressing need in the five matches is to score more runs against the spinners.
To watch the batsmen pushing and prodding against Johan Botha and even JP Duminy in recent meetings was to see supposedly formidable batsmen reduced to a state of semi-paralysis. From the top downwards, the batting lacked inventiveness, placement, boldness and intelligence.
March 28, 2009
Quash the referral system
Posted on 03/28/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
The ICC must quash any future plans of the referral system, and leave the judging to the grey-haired chaps in the middle, writes Lungani Zama in the Witness.
Chief amongst my reasons to dislike the system is the ridiculous amount of time it takes to make a decision. First the no-ball must be cleared, then the actual dismissal must be viewed from a variety of angles, heights and hypotheses before the trembling third umpire presses the green or red button.
........
Human error is a part of life, and if the modern fan cannot deal with that, then they are perhaps best served sticking to sci-fi films for entertainment, because in that field technology has really taken huge strides.
March 18, 2009
South African depth a worry
Posted on 03/18/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
South Africa may have developed into a good team, but not a good international squad. Now that certain players have retired, been injured or lost form, there are no experienced players to replace them. Arthur Turner in Sport24.com believes their reserve strength has been badly exposed.
CSA also needs to abolish the quota system at franchise level like rugby has as soon as possible to ensure the development of their future players. They need to avoid the situation where a South African 'A' opening batsman like Blake Snijman cannot play for his franchise because of the quota system.
CSA needs to develop all its resources on an equitable basis to build a quality and experienced squad for the Proteas to remain a leading team in international cricket.
While Johan Botha grew as a person and a cricketer in his new role as South Africa's ODI captain, reflected during their performance in Australia, Prince’s decision to decline the Test captaincy in order to concentrate on his own batting is a curious one. Neil Johnson in the Natal Witness considers the move all the more inappropriate given that it would send a wrong message to his team and youngsters such as Imraan Khan, who will be relishing their chance to play for the country.
March 11, 2009
Strange signals to Prince
Posted on 03/11/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Ashwell Prince, South Africa's captain and opener for the third Test against Australia, may well be scratching his head, wondering whether he has been handed a garland or a hand grenade, writes Rob Houwing on Sport24.
It is true that Prince has often encountered the second new ball from his more customary middle-innings role, but that is still rather different from tackling it at the very outset. Ironically he is now going the way of the axed McKenzie, who had made the Test move from a lower spot to the front strikingly successfully until this season, where he has looked scratchy and vulnerable both away and home against the Australians.
The current referral system that has been used by the International Cricket Council has some very serious shortcomings that they will have to address, writes Arthur Turner on Sport24.
The third umpire acting as a consultant and feeding the on-field umpire certain pieces of information based on what he sees and then letting him review his decision makes no sense. This method further complicates the situation and can further embarrass the umpires. Once a referral has been made the decision must be taken out of the on-field umpires' hands and be left to the sole discretion of the third umpire. His decision must be based solely on technology and have no human influence if the system is to work.
March 10, 2009
The secret to playing Tests for Australia
Posted on 03/10/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Why did some prolific run-scorers in domestic cricket - like Jamie Siddons, Brad Hodge, Martin Love, Jamie Cox and Darren Lehmann - not have long Test careers for Australia? Read Greg Baum's reasons in the Age.
Four peculiarities of cricket weighed against all these men, and many others besides. One is that a cricket team is relatively small, and made up of specialists. Only two opening batsmen can be picked at a time, four middle-order batsmen, three seam bowlers, but perhaps only one spinner and certainly only one wicketkeeper. It means that even for a struggling team, wholesale change is rare.
Secondly, cricket is less dynamic than, say, football, so can be played for longer, 20 years or more even at professional level. It means the rate of attritional change is low, at least among batsmen. Thirdly, it has become such a lucrative profession that none are inclined to volunteer for redundancy. Finally, it draws out a sentimentalism not much evident in the Australian character in other spheres.
Phillip Hughes is a tough, pesky 20-year-old lefty from the sticks who bats and lives by his own lights, writes Peter Roebuck in the Age.
Australia's newest batting prodigy was raised by banana-growing parents in Macksville, near Coffs Harbour on the NSW coast. From the start he was mad on the game. Many fathers hang a ball in a sock so that sons and daughters can practise their strokes. Greg Hughes had to provide three balls before his son was satisfied. When darkness fell across the back veranda he would come indoors, put on his full cricketing regalia and rehearse his shots in front of the mirror until his Italian mother announced that supper was ready.
March 9, 2009
Australia stuck in the middle with Hughes
Posted on 03/09/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Peter Roebuck watched Phillip Hughes and Ricky Ponting bat together in Durban and says the pair, rookie and veteran, seemed to enjoy batting together, not so much to rub salt into wounds as for the sheer pleasure. While Ponting was in complete command of the bowling, himself, his team and his opponents, Hughes learnt a lot from him, not least about singles and single-mindedness. Meanwhile, the South Africans went backwards. Read on in the Sydney Morning Herald.
March 3, 2009
Applause for an attack that finishes the job
Posted on 03/03/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Previously, Australia could grind down opponents, crush them with five hours of intensity. With a wide range of skills, unshakeable self-belief and unwavering desire, they made fifth days dance to their tune. Now this fresh but more limited quartet is trying with every power at its disposal to form its own tradition, to start its own winning habit, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Tireless contributions from the front-line pacemen meant that the pressure on the batsmen was unrelenting. Although the ball did not move much and the pitch had slowed down, the leather flingers made it difficult for opponents to protecting their wickets. More by obligation than design, the batsmen crawled along, scoring 30 runs an hour, concentrating on resisting a committed attack.
March 2, 2009
Hughes' hotch-potch game works
Posted on 03/02/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Debutant Phillip Hughes improved on his first-innings duck to top score for Australia in the second. But his technique has come under a lot of flak, especially from his opponents South Africa. Peter Roebuck believes his game is an unusual hotch-potch of eye and instinct. He writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:
On flatter pitches he scores most of his runs with flicks off his pads, cuts and drives through extra-cover. It sounds orthodox but he relies much more on hands and less on footwork and shoulders than most batsmen. But, then, he is not the only idiosyncratic left-hander running around. His opening partner shuffles around like a politician under the spotlight while Shivnarine Chanderpaul hardly bothers with the coaching manual. Hughes's game works. In all forms of the game, he scores a heck of a lot of runs.
February 28, 2009
It’s not soccer, but South Africa might like it
Posted on 02/28/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Cricket will never supplant soccer as the preferred sport of the South African majority but like never before it has a priceless opportunity to enter the consciousness of the Rainbow Nation. And remain there. So says Mike Coward in the Australian as he worries about the country’s lack of Test culture.
South Africa has played Test cricket since 1889, was, with England and Australia, a foundation member of the then Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 and its black and coloured communities of the Western Cape have a rich but largely unknown cricket history spanning more than a century. For all this, only occasionally does cricket engage across the numerous divides of one of the most complex, compartmentalised and politicised societies on Earth.
Robert Craddock, writing in Daily Telegraph, looks at the rise and potential fall of Twenty20.
The first casualty of recession is often gratuitous glitz and glamour and that is how it has proved in cricket's newest form of the game. Twenty20 cricket is not going to die - but it is going to have its wings clipped. It may have to survive on its product as much as its rowdy bells and whistles.
February 21, 2009
Prince omission a sign of South Africa's progress
Posted on 02/21/2009 in South African cricket
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Ashwell Prince has lost his place in South Africa's XI to JP Duminy
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The omission of Ashwell Prince from South Africa's Test squad to face Australia is an indication of the country's progress in the game, Daryll Cullinan writes in the Weekender:
How refreshing is it that the debate around his nonselection is about what is best for the team from a winning point of view. It is good that we are finally seeing the next generation of cricketers come through whose talent and not race is the issue in the media.
Cullinan also feels that pre-tour banter between the two teams counts for nothing.
I can’t imagine the players being concerned by this game of ping-pong in the press about who is after whom with bat or ball, who are the favourites and who is trying desperately to take the pressure off themselves. Some new, refreshing comments and insight would be welcome.
One of those who made a mark on the Australia tour was left-armer Lonwabo Tsotsobe, and bowling coach Vincent Barnes tells Simon Borchardt he's impressed by the newcomer's attitude and accuracy. Click here for more.
February 15, 2009
Australia's young talent free of excess baggage
Posted on 02/15/2009 in Australia in South Africa 2008-09
Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, feels Australia’s squad to South Africa boasts plenty of young talent, unfazed by distractions. He says Australia will miss the services of Stuart Clark, though they’ll be hard to beat on pitches likely to favour seam bowling.
Accordingly, the Australians will arrive in Africa without the baggage they have been carrying all season. Youngsters tend not to worry about margin loans, breaking bodies or upset partners. Whereas seasoned campaigners can be thrown off course by outside forces, youngsters can retain simplicity. Part of the trick in sport is to stay young as long as possible while absorbing the lessons time alone can bring. Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee were bogged down by a variety of issues, and it showed. The main recent mistake involved Brad Haddin's gloves and response, conduct that did not stop him ascending to the T20 captaincy.
Meanwhile, in the Weekender, Daryll Cullinan writes that South Africa's team looks in good shape ahead of the series against Australia. He feels Ashwell Prince, though out of the first two Tests, still has some cricket left in him, and opening the batting may perhaps be the best way to make a comeback.
I don’t think Prince’s Test career is over. I think a smart move may have been to open with him. He must, however, be given the assurance that it is a long term move. Prince has built his Test game around good shot-selection and leaving well outside off-stump. His ability to concentrate for long periods was fuelled by a fierce determination to prove himself as a player worthy of his selection.
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