Thread: Cricket scores around the world

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

^ So does that make Brett Lee a good bloke?

Went right up in my esteem when he broke the wanker's rib, yes.

Ugandan cricketers AWOL in NZ
Last updated 20:15 07/02/2014

Visas expired today for two Ugandan men who disappeared after playing cricket in this country. Faruk Ochimi, 18, and Raymond Otim, 27, could not be found on January 30, the morning the Ugandan cricket team was due to fly home after taking part in an ICC World Cup qualifying tournament, the Uganda Cricket Association said.

“Mr Ochimi and Mr Otim will be liable for deportation from tomorrow and INZ encourages them to leave the country as soon as possible voluntarily,” Immigration NZ said.

Uganda finished bottom in the tournament, losing all six matches heavily.

AAP reported that some media in Uganda blamed the poor performance on the lack of commitment by the two players and teammate Richard Okia, who disappeared in Dubai as the team returned home.

It was believed the two players missing in this country planned to travel to Australia and join two other players who disappeared from a Ugandan cricket team in 2007.

Whakatane police said they had not been looking for the men.

Time for more funnies, wally.

It's the way you tell 'em.

'crickets' ...

Originally Posted by cyrille

Oh I get it ...'crickets'.

Looks more like a cicada to me

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

KP was the biggest game changer

Was being the operative word

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Can I just say Piers Morgan is a total cockhead?

Are cockheads useful for anything...if so...no

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

So does that make Brett Lee a good bloke?

Absolutely...but he always was...and an amazing athlete

Originally Posted by Bruce Bayliss

Originally Posted by cyrille

Oh I get it ...'crickets'.

Looks more like a cicada to me

same same ..

Originally Posted by Bruce Bayliss

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

So does that make Brett Lee a good bloke?

Absolutely...but he always was...and an amazing athlete

I've always thought he was a good bloke too. Yes, great athlete, but quite often never kept consistent line and length, and when he had bad days, would often cost us too many runs.

I was quite surprised that he consistently aimed for Morgan's body. In any case, it has made Morgan more famous than he ever was. I had never heard of the guy before his stunt with Lee.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Time for more funnies, wally.

It's the way you tell 'em.

'crickets' ...

Nice to see you having a laugh cyrille.

Give us a kiss then

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

In any case, it has made Morgan more famous than he ever was. I had never heard of the guy before his stunt with Lee.

He's now trying desperately to 'insert' himself in the Pietersen story. It's what he does.

Morgan is without doubt, a tosser. But he does speak the harsh truth at times, which is why so many people hate him. He has heavily criticized Cook, and rightly so. Every team has their Boycotts, Bothams, Warnes, etc. who are individuals who are not easy to manage. Cook has shown his weak side (again) by not managing KP well - and there is no doubt he had a hand in sacking him. Perhaps jealousy played a part? KP has more talent than the ENG team combined .

NZ beat India by 40 runs on the 4th day of the first test.

India are crap away from home. Flat track bullies.

That said, I hope this also means NZ is on the up. They reached new lows in the past couple of years.

ICC board passes controversial revamp

The International Cricket Council board on Saturday approved wideranging structural and governance reforms despite complaints that they place too much power in the hands of the “Big Three” of India, England and Australia.
The proposals were passed after gaining the support of eight of the ICC’s 10 full members, with Sri Lanka and Pakistan – who have both been vocally opposed – abstaining, a spokesman said.
The package resolution, passed at a meeting in Singapore, includes setting up a five-man executive council with seats reserved for India, England and Australia, the sport’s leading financial powers.
And N Srinivasan of India, who contribute the lion’s share of cricket’s global revenues, will chair the ICC board from the middle of this year.
“I think it was a very good meeting. There was general agreement and all very satisfactory,” said England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke.
South Africa had previously opposed the reforms, which met virulent opposition after they were debated at a board meeting in Dubai last month.
But South African board member Chris Nenzani was one of the eight to vote in favour at a luxury hotel in Singapore on Saturday. He did not answer questions about the meeting as he left.
Members of the cricket establishment have lined up to criticise the proposals, with Imran Khan calling them colonial and Lord Harry Woolf, author of a report into the ICC’s governance, saying they were entirely motivated by money.
The reforms passed on Saturday include setting up a Test Cricket Fund available to all full members except India, England and Australia, and a move to make it easier for other countries to gain Test status.
The proposed World Test Championship, which was due to debut in 2017, has been axed with the Champions Trophy – an eight-country tournament in the one-day format – continuing in 2017 and 2021.
“It proved impossible to come up with a format for a four-team finals event in Test cricket that fits the culture of Test cricket and preserves the integrity of the format,” an ICC release said.
And a new financial model will recognise members’ contributions in terms of finance, history and on-field performances, a moved aimed at providing “long-term certainty of participation” as they negotiate TV and sponsorship deals.
“There were eight full members who were in a position to support the resolution today and the two who have abstained have pledged to further discuss the issues with an aim to reaching unanimous approval over the coming weeks,” said ICC president Alan Isaac.
Sri Lanka’s Nishantha Ranatunga told AFP he would discuss the proposals with his board, while Pakistan representative Zaka Ashraf declined to talk to media.

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

India are crap away from home. Flat track bullies.

They aren't the only team to struggle down here...the English only scraped through last year

Originally Posted by cyrille

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

Morgan is without doubt, a tosser. But he does speak the harsh truth at times, which is why so many people hate him.

How have you calculated that when you've just said a few weeks ago you'd never even heard of him?

I wouldn't say 'many people hate him'.

It's just that many people think he's a tosser because, well, he's such a tosser and has a lengthy record of being so.

Most of what I have heard about him hasn't been very nice. And as you say he has been trying his best to be 'inserted' into the whole KP/English team affair.

Matt Prior has come out and publicly slammed him over the past couple of days.

Originally Posted by Bruce Bayliss

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

India are crap away from home. Flat track bullies.

They aren't the only team to struggle down here...the English only scraped through last year

NZ reached some new lows by losing to the deshis not long ago. I was hoping they were improving as a team in recent times. Having Ryder back in form and enjoying his cricket is a big plus IMHO.

Did England sack him because he thought differently from his captain and coach or because he was a disruptive force in the dressing room?
Ian Chappell
February 9, 2014


Was sacking Pietersen just the easy way out for England? © AFP


Was Kevin Pietersen eventually sacked because he disagreed with aspects of Alastair Cook's captaincy? Any English player who wasn't exasperated by some of Cook's captaincy in Australia deserves to be demoted.

Is it better for England to cut Pietersen adrift and choose a player who is more compliant, or is it just easier? There's no doubt that working on a difficult relationship takes a lot of time and effort, but sometimes that's what good leadership entails. So was Pietersen unmanageable, or should questions be asked about the way modern cricket teams are run?

What I do know is that when selecting a cricket team, it's performing not conforming that counts. A selector only has to ask himself if a player can get him a hundred or take five wickets.

There's no doubt Pietersen is still capable of scoring Test centuries, so he must have been sacked for reasons other than cricket ability. That's another thing about selection: likes and dislikes shouldn't enter the discussion. A player should be chosen on merit and then it's up to the captain to sort out any personality clashes and ensure there's a degree of harmony in the team. That doesn't mean everyone has to be in agreement with the captain; a bunch of yes men won't help a team win.
Players who question the way things are done actually help the captain. Firstly, the skipper can learn from the way others think, and secondly, the argumentative players off the field are usually the last ones to concede defeat on it. While cricket is a team game, it's played by individuals. A captain can't expect a player to be an individual expressing his talent on the field and then demand that off it he be subservient. Occasionally a captain has to live with the consequences of individuality, whether it be on the field or off it.

That said, a captain can only put up with so much and if individuality turns into insubordination then he has to act. A captain should do all in his power to inform the individual he's wanted in the team but the player has to be prepared to compromise. If, after exhausting all avenues, a player won't compromise and is a disruptive force, then it's time to cut him loose, even if he can score a century or take five wickets.
Had it reached that point with Pietersen?

There's a theory that Pietersen vented his feelings about the operating style of coach Andy Flower. If so, it wouldn't be the first time Pietersen had expressed a strong opinion about a coach. He was sacked as captain for speaking out against Peter Moores when he had the England job.

Doesn't Pietersen speaking out show he cares?

The priority should be appointing the right captain. Then you worry about choosing the coach. If Pietersen was considered the best man to captain England, surely he deserved the right to have a say in who was coach?

Nowadays players are outnumbered by the support staff, who all have a say in team affairs. In matters affecting team spirit, it's best if the captain alone deals directly with the players. The more personalities that become involved, the greater the chance of likes and dislikes playing a part in the selection process.

The captain - if he knows what's good for him - has a vested interest in having the best players in the team, as all the wins and losses go against his name.

The England hierarchy makes a big thing of "team culture". Selectors can pick players of good character but team "culture" can't be manufactured, it has to evolve through strong leadership and natural friendships. Character only comes into selection when two players are even in ability. Otherwise, picking the best player is the wisest choice.

Cook took such a battering from Michael Clarke and his team, I believe that if he's opposed by the same captain in 2015 he'll be too mentally scarred to regain the Ashes. And England certainly won't beat Australia if they don't pick their strongest team.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell is now a cricket commentator for Channel 9, and a columnist
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ANDREW FLINTOFF EXCLUSIVE: England made piles of money out of KP... now they've hung him out to dry
By MARTIN SAMUEL
PUBLISHED: 17:03 EST, 7 February 2014 | UPDATED: 18:19 EST, 7 February 2014



First, the explanation. Freddie Flintoff sits down for coffee and spells out why he wishes to talk about England’s Ashes debacle. ‘I haven’t said anything all winter,’ he tells me. ‘I’ve been asked, but I haven’t spoken. Then you see something happening and you think, “No, that’s just not right”.’

So what’s not right? Kevin Pietersen’s not right; or rather his treatment at the hands of the ECB.

Flintoff admits he didn’t always see eye to eye with England’s finest stroke-playing batsman during his time as captain - but he never doubted Pietersen’s commitment to the cause, and believes he has been hung out to dry by senior players and officials fearful for their own futures after the tour from hell.

‘The England teams I played in, the buzzword was always the “group”,’ Flintoff says. ‘That was the mantra, “The group is close, the group is tight” - and when we were all doing well, that was true. The group stuck together because the group all wanted to take credit for victory and get their column inches in the newspaper.

‘But it’s when you’re not doing well that you need team spirit, and I haven’t seen too many people coming out and accepting responsibility for this one. The group doesn’t seem to be a group any more. They’ve got one player who can take the blame and the rest of them want to go about their business and let him take the fall.

‘It’s not that we couldn’t bowl them out, not that we couldn’t score runs, not that we got outplayed - it’s Kevin Pietersen’s fault. I’d have more respect for some of the senior players if they held their hands up, rather than letting it all get heaped on one bloke.’

Flintoff is not part of any Pietersen entourage - ‘I’m on the same side as Piers Morgan and David Cameron, so something’s wrong’ - but he knows the feeling of being the tallest poppy in the field.

England captain during the last Ashes whitewash, Flintoff paid the price, but has long believed others who shared some of the responsibility on the 2006-07 tour were less willing to confess their shortcomings.

‘Kevin’s the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t he?’ he adds. ‘If England win he gets applauded, it’s an easy piece to write for the journalists and all his team-mates say he’s wonderful. If we lose, it’s as if it’s his fault, the same people in the Press slag him off and the team melt away. Everyone hides behind him.

‘Lose 5-0 in Australia and it falls on someone to be the scapegoat. In 2006 it was me. I was captain and I didn’t go about things the right way at times, so I deserved some of it. But not all of it. Sometimes you need help as a player, an arm around you, or someone to back you. Kevin deserved that. It wasn’t just him out there. I’d like someone to start talking about the group again, and not just when it suits.

‘If his attitude was that bad, why did he play five Tests? Who made the decision to drop him? Do they genuinely believe we are better off without him, or are they just fearful for their own jobs and too afraid to say no? I can’t imagine what Kevin could have done, or what the ECB could announce, that would allow this to make sense.

‘Kevin Pietersen was one of the two best cricketers I played with, alongside Marcus Trescothick. Not always the easiest, but I’m not saying I was either. You all have your moments. I liked that if he had a gripe, he would front it up. You knew exactly where you stood and I never had a problem with that.

‘Some of the so-called team players would give you everything while they were stood in front of you, and then go back to their hotel rooms to whisper about you. I had a better relationship with Kevin than many of the others.

‘Kevin’s a proud man who wants to win. And when you are in a side getting beat every week it’s hard to swallow, so he’s not the type to let that pass without getting involved.

‘He was the same with me. If he thought something wasn’t right in preparation or there was a player he didn’t think was working as hard as him, he would say. He’s got a fantastic work ethic. In 2006-07 he seemed to have a problem with the short ball, so he got peppered for hours in the nets and ended up scoring 600 runs. It seems he fell out with Alastair Cook over a fitness session before the Sydney Test. Kevin thought it was more important to work on technique and I’m inclined to agree. You’re not going to get fitter with one work-out before a Test.

‘If the fitness was off, the problem started a lot earlier and needed to be addressed then. At 4-0 down, when none of them could score a run or take a wicket, what is the point in a naughty-boy session?’

‘He lost 5-0 yet he still wants more,’ he insists. ‘That is an admission of his desire. It would be easy to walk away from it. He’s a wealthy lad. Yet I spoke to him last year and asked him about retiring after this series and he put me in my place.

‘He wanted to play for England for a long time and made that very clear. He wanted 10,000 Test runs and if he is driven to achieve that, it would have been good for the team. He wasn’t doing it for the money. He wanted a legacy, but he’s been the victim of his own success. He’s the box-office player, he gets the endorsements, he gets the profile. I know what that is like. When it is going well people are behind you. Then, if you stop performing, there is resentment and jealousy.’

Flintoff has had a bee in his bonnet about this tour for a while. In a conversation several weeks ago, he said he considered Andy Flower’s position untenable after such a heavy defeat, adding that the uber-professional buttoned-down approach was counter-productive.

England’s players would benefit from the freedom introduced by Australia’s Darren Lehmann, he said - a view he reiterates now, after Flower’s departure.

‘When I started as a professional cricketer, it wasn’t a professional sport,’ Flintoff claims. ‘It only said it was. During my career it changed so much - and I tried to change too, but now it’s gone too far.

‘I first saw the signs before we left for that 2006-07 series. We had won the Ashes, but there was no enjoyment. The ECB were holding meetings as if we were going to war. They would be talking worst-case scenarios, building it up as if we would be spat on in the street.

‘Landing in Australia and they were talking about how we needed to be sneaked in by the back door because they were expecting chaos. It turned out one of the Minogue sisters was on our plane, so she took the attention and we stood there, looking at each other. Eventually someone said, “Just get on the bus, lads”.

‘Andy Flower has carried that on. He is quite dominating, quite controlling. The players need time to breathe and express themselves. That should be point one for any new coach. Let the players go out without fear of failure, let them eat what they want, within reason. I can’t think of anything worse than tofu. Let’s have some meat.

Quote:
FIERY FRED ON...

ANDY FLOWER
He is dominating and controlling. The players need time to breathe and express themselves.

GRAEME SWANN
He’s supposed to be the team’s heartbeat. He owed it to the other players to see out the tour.

OVAL DISGRACE
Peeing on The Oval wasn’t good. As a group you’d think someone would have stopped that. It was disrespectful.

ENGLAND’S DIET
I can’t think of anything worse than tofu. Let’s have some meat!

ALASTAIR COOK
Cook stuck to the same Ashes plans that had worked in the summer. That was standing still.


‘Lehmann taking over Australia may be good for our game, because he has shown how to strike the perfect balance. Yes, cricket needs to be professional, but it also needs to be a sport. There is a lot happening at the moment in that England team and it’s all very strange.

You could see it last summer. The 3-0 win flattered us because the Australians were plainly getting better, but we weren’t. Other things crept in, too. Peeing on the wicket at The Oval wasn’t good.

‘We’ve all wondered what possessed us to do things in life, me especially, but as a group you’d think someone would have stopped that. It was disrespectful to Australia. It was as if we thought we could do what we wanted.

‘Meanwhile, Darren Lehmann was stripping things back to basics, turning his team into fighting, aggressive Aussies and keeping it simple. They weren’t turning up for matches like us, with riders longer than Mariah Carey’s.

‘I was worried after the first Test in Brisbane when Cook was interviewed and asked about preparation. He said he would be sticking to the same plans as the summer but that’s standing still. Even when you’re successful you’ve got to strive to move forward.

‘The Australians were making progress. I don’t think they’re the best team but their aggression took England aback and we couldn’t return it. I was at an ECB awards ceremony and Jimmy Anderson picked up a Barmy Army award for sledging Mitchell Johnson. Now the boot’s on the other foot, we don’t like it. You’ve got to be careful.

‘Stuart Broad took the local newspaper into the Press conference after day one in Brisbane to try to score points. He’d got a few wickets but we should have bowled them out more cheaply - it’s a dangerous game and we got found out. We ended up acting like victims and the Aussies knew they had us.

‘As good as you think you are, the game does get you. The bad run is always just around the corner and we should have realised that.

‘I remember in a match against Pakistan telling Shoaib Akhtar that he looked like Tarzan and bowled like Jane. He got me next ball. I think the worst I ever gave it out was to Yuvraj Singh, the over before he hit Stuart Broad for six sixes. That went well.

‘I played for Lancashire against Matthew Hayden and he was 90 not out overnight. We had a meeting and the senior players decided to sledge him. Actually, they decided I should sledge him. It was my third game. So I stood at silly point while Gary Yates bowled off-spin and absolutely gave it to him. He got out trying to cut the ball so hard at me that he edged it behind.

‘It was a temporary dressing room, on stilts, and I could see it was shaking where he was in such a fury. I walked off the field on the opposite side at lunch because I thought he’d be waiting for me. Before I went out to bat, he came up to me. “You think you’re special, don’t you?” “Er, not really”. “Well, this game has a way of biting you on the ****. Remember that”.

‘I made 100, and breezed past him. “Still waiting for that bite, Matt”. But it was so true, so right. I’ve seen this England team giving out verbals on TV but once the Aussies stopped being nice and got that spite back, we didn’t like it and the tour became a disaster.

‘Lehmann got his side playing for each other. Even last summer when they were getting beat, they lost as a team. That’s hard to do.

‘Graeme Swann’s great, but he might look back in a few years and think walking away after three Test matches, even if he was injured or about to be dropped, wasn’t right. This is a guy who says he is the heartbeat of the team because of his character - he owed it to the other players to see the tour out.

‘Scott Borthwick needed someone to sit on his shoulder, to talk him through it, and Swann owed at least that to the side.

‘Did Swann’s decision help England? No. What message did it send to the opposition about where England were as a group when the best bowler went home? If you were in that Australia dressing room, you would have loved it.’

Flintoff’s belief is that English cricket needs an overhaul and, for this reason, it was wrong to drop Pietersen before a new coach was appointed.

‘If I was considering coaching England, I’d want Kevin Pietersen,’ he added. ‘The job is less attractive without him. You’d want the best players. Graham Ford, Gary Kirsten - I’m sure these people would want Kevin.

‘I don’t think any situation is irretrievable. Yes, those text messages during the match with South Africa were not good. But Kevin ate a bit of humble pie and got on with it, so whatever happened in Australia could have been resolved, too.

‘Michael Clarke and Shane Watson have also had their problems, but they put them aside this winter. You’ll never have a dressing room where everyone likes each other. You’re put together because you’ve got a shared talent for cricket.

‘It’s like any other workplace: you’ve got mates, you’ve got the guys you can rub along with, and the odd one you’re not having under any circumstances. As long as you come together on the field, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to invite these people to weddings, just stick by each other in games.

‘Michael Vaughan wouldn’t be remembered as a great England captain without Kevin Pietersen. I couldn’t have turned in some of my performances without Ashley Giles making me look good by bowling at the dog end for hours. This England side all owe some of their success to Kevin. He has helped them win, and that brings in sponsors and money. When it’s going well they all embrace it, and now they need to be honest and not let one guy carry the can.’

And, that off his chest, he departs. Still fiery. Still Fred.


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gotta love freddy..

ALASTAIR COOK
Cook stuck to the same Ashes plans that had worked in the summer. That was standing still.

GRAEME SWANN
He’s supposed to be the team’s heartbeat. He owed it to the other players to see out the tour.

Indeed. He could have at least hung around the dressing room to give his support. He may have been out of form, but leaving mid-tour didn't look good at all.

Good read from crying Freddie that was.
Might cut him some slack.

Originally Posted by Bruce Bayliss

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

India are crap away from home. Flat track bullies.

They aren't the only team to struggle down here...the English only scraped through last year

Best looking NZ side for a long while I reckon

Fulton
Rutherford
Williamson
Taylor
Ryder
McCullum
Anderson
Wagner
Southee
Boult
Sodhi/ other spinner.