Pears on my Pillow

Instant reaction: The entire county of Worcestershire can fuck right off. Apologies for that outburst.

The end of the cricket season has come, and with it a thrilling conclusion to the County Championship, still the most important domestic cricket competition in the UK. Well done to Nottinghamshire for pipping Somerset right at the end, you can’t help but feel a little sorry for Somerset, but Nottinghamshire constructed the way they did it in a superb way and just by the skin of their teeth. Read here for an astoundingly well summarised and commented on piece that evolved during the day. An example of online interactive journalism at its best, for which cricket is amazingly well suited.

While all this exciting stuff was going on in the First Division, I was feverish about the climax to the Second Division and in the end had to (unsuccessfully) bottle my rage at the final denouement. Glamorgan, despite being in the promotion spots all the way through the season, managed to lose out on the last day of the last round to Worcestershire, who secured second place and promotion by beating divisional champions Sussex on the final day. I have to admit that is quite an achievement for Worcestershire, who lost many of their best players before the season started and looked like they would struggle to do anything this year.

The last four days had been incredibly frustrating, with all matches affected by rain, one of the perils of having the end of the season in the middle of September. In the end this created a host of strange results and manufactured games, where sides tried to forge results out of what could have been stultifying 2 innings and a bit affairs. While this is necessary, it can be massively annoying for the supporters of a team who end up losing out because of this. Sussex effectively surrendered their game to Worcestershire, leaving Glamorgan needing a win. Sussex had declared on 264-4 with Worcestershire bowling all of their players bar the wicketkeeper in an effort to up the total and get a declaration. Sussex left what could have been a decent target of just over 300 if it hadn’t been for the gentle approach they took to bowling. Despite a couple of early wickets, Sussex took the foot off and allowed an unbroken 200 plus partnership between Moeen Ali and James Cameron (his maiden century) to build up, handing the win to Worcestershire with a fair amount of time left.

Glamorgan gave it a go, recovering from a shocking batting performance in the 1st innings (reeling at 66-6) to recover to 166, bowling out bottom side Derbyshire for 276 and posting a quickfire 269-3 off 33 overs in an effort to force a result by just about having enough time to potentially bowl them out. It very nearly came off, with Derbyshire at one stage 48-4, but there was not enough time and Glamorgan missed half chances that could have twisted the screw and ended up swinging the day back to Wales.

All so thrilling, but the reality is that Glamorgan should have sewn this up last week and should’ve been playing out a draw in front of their fans while celebrating a return to the top division for the first time in many years. My outbursts upon the close of play were as much annoyance at contrived results as frustration at Glamorgan’s inability to wrap it up earlier. A profligate end to the season meant that chances were missed. Promotion would have been great step up for a young and developing side. Guys like James Harris have been outstanding, the signing of Jim Allenby has been crucial for eking out wickets and getting late middle order runs. Mark Cosgrove, despite being an orca, is a formidable batsman capable of destroying bowling attacks. Gareth Rees has been a stalwart again. Thom Maynard has started to look more in control at the crease though is still too erratic. Crofty is still playing and passed notable landmarks this year. I could go on, but suffice to say this has the makings of a good side, and one that deserved to be promoted. Unfortunately this was not to be.

The way that it has been snatched away after being in our grasp for so long is tough to take, as are the machinations that occurred in other games to conjure up the conclusions that came. So, what can we learn from this? The main thing is that if you want to be promoted you have to be ruthless to the end. This year we didn’t kill off teams when we should have to get the points needed. That’s also what happened last year when Glamorgan just missed out. Clearly there needs to be more of hard edge and mental toughness to Glamorgan’s game before they can step up.

Also, we’ve learnt that pear cider will, for a while at least, be a very bitter drink and best avoided.

Insert cliché about Bollywood glamour here

Tamim Iqbal: sadly not taking part in the IPL

The third edition of the Indian Premier League is kicking off tomorrow and promises to be another instalment of top entertainment, with some cricket thrown into the mix. I watched a lot of last year’s tournament, which was held in South Africa due to security issues in India to do with something along the lines of the need to police the biggest example of the democratic process ever carried out anywhere. Anyway, last year the players involved showed us brilliant hitting and canny bowling, with some pretty awesome fielding thrown into the mix too, with Deccan Chargers coming out as winners.

The whole IPL experience last year was also enlivened by an interesting website, Fake IPL Player who blogged spurious rumours and innuendo about the Kolkata Knight Riders (hilarious team name BTW). It seemed the more FIP blogged the worse Kolkata did until they imploded and finished bottom of the table.

As mentioned previously on this blog, I’m an admirer of Twenty20 as a format and I’m especially glad that this year’s IPL is being shown on free to air TV courtesy of ITV 4. It’s also nice that my ITV watching will extend beyond Jeeves and Wooster reruns, Poirot, and their excellent regional news coverage. Here’s hoping they do a good job, the Bollywood presenter they’ve brought in for it is suitably attractive so that’s a start at least.

There have been some slightly puzzling developments in the IPL this year to do with overseas players. One is that no Pakistan players have been bought up by any of the franchises, despite them being the Twenty20 world champions and boasting players such as Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir and Umar Gul, all of whom have been hits in this format. I know there are extreme tensions between India and Pakistan but it does seem strange that no Pakistan players were bought up by the franchises.

Equally puzzling is the total lack of Bangladesh players in the IPL. While Bangladesh overall may not be an especially good side they boast some outstanding talents in the form of Shakib al-Hasan and most spectacularly in Tamim Iqbal, a young man who could go on to be one of the game’s great limited-over batters. While the Bangladesh v England Test series is going to be taking place for the first part of the IPL, English players such as Keven Pietersen and Eoin Morgan have been picked up, yet no Bangladeshis. It also seems daft that Kolkata, given its proximity to Bangladesh, haven’t picked up any Bangladeshi players.

This leaves the IPL relying on the talents of, well, the rest of the world really. There’s pretty much all the stars from world cricket you’d want to see play in this format (Dhoni, Murali, McCullum, Gayle) plus some over the hill Aussies and journeymen Saffers. Looks like it could be a good one. Would’ve loved to have seen Tamim Iqbal though. That boy’s a bit special.

An apology to Mr. I.R. Bell

The text on The Guardian website accompanying this pic said 'You shall not pass'

Ok, so this blog may have been a little, uh, hasty in calling for the dropping of Ian Bell from the England side before Christmas. I don’t know what he was given for Christmas, but clearly it worked some sort of miracle as he has followed up the First Test debacle with two matches where his performances have been outstanding.

I was going to write an apology immediately after the 2nd Test and his extremely well made 140. But, but, something held me back. While it was a great innings the platform was already set for him. Ali Cook had already scored a century (I believe the stat trotted out by Sky at the time was that Bell has only scored Test centuries in innings where someone else has also scored a ton) and the score was well poised at 297-4 for him to go on and score runs with the pressure off and on a flat pitch. While his score contributed a lot to England’s emphatic win, you get the feeling that it was just a bit too easy.

However, the 78 off 218 balls that he scored yesterday in a partnership of epic proportions with Paul Collingwood (yet again the hero with an extended bout of billy blocking) was undoubtedly magnificent. It showed grit, determination and character in the face of adversity, combined with some elegant strokeplay and an unwillingness to succumb to the pressures that the Saffers were exerting. The only downside was that he couldn’t stick it through to the end and score a much deserved century. In addition, he made an excellent 48 in exacting conditions in the 1st innings. In the Third Test Ian Bell was called upon and stepped up to the mark.

So once again apologies to Ian Bell for hastily shouting off-with-his-head. Your performances over the last 2 games have earned you a well deserved reprieve. I really do hope this is the spur for you to go on and fulfil your huge potential as a top batsmen.

Before I finish my grovelling, can I just say let’s drop Kevin Pietersen ASAP. He’s done nothing this tour and is clearly rubbish.

Here’s hoping that has the same effect on KP as it did on Ian Bell.

Ian Bell, you are rubbish.

There have been arguments about the rights and wrongs of the selection decisions for England’s side in the 1st Test against South Africa. Should they have picked an extra bowler, and who would that have been? For some reason Luke Wright has entered the frame as a potential Test player. While I admire his contributions in ODIs, where he’s chipped in with useful spells with ball and bat, I’m not sure he’s yet got the all round game to offer much at Test level. It also left me confused as to why we’d given Tim Bresnan all those Tests over the summer. He offers far more with the ball and nearly as much with the bat as Wright would.

While Andrew Strauss’ judgement can be called into question for his misreading of the pitch on Wednesday morning, the one clear thing that has emerged is that Ian Bell cannot play for England again this tour. Bell’s leave in the 1st innings was awful, woeful. Paul Harris is the Saffer version of Ashley Giles, a non-spinning spin bowler. This can be highly effective, as Giles proved in his England career. But to get out while leaving what is Harris’ stock ball, the arm ball, is a disgrace. And for that ball to then take out middle stump, well that just compounds it. I just hope that shot (or lack of) doesn’t skewer Bell’s career in the same way as happened to Chris Read after his duck to that Chris Cairns slower ball.

The 2nd innings showed yet again that while he is a talented batsmen, Bell lacks the mental fortitude to succeed at the highest level. England had just lost a couple of highly settled batsmen in Trott and Pietersen (KP, what were you thinking of with that run out?) and needed someone to come and keep Paul Collingwood company at the crease to play out the rest of the day. Bell went after just 10 balls. Contrast his innings with that of Paul Collingwood, who yet again played an epic one. He faced just shy of a century of deliveries, scoring 26 not out, and grinding out a performance exactly matching what the game situation required. Ian Bell could never play that innings.

My problem and frustration is that I want Bell to succeed. He’s a technically gifted batsman who I’ve seen score beautiful, elegant runs, and get some big runs too. I just fear he will be another Hick or Ramprakash, and that in 12 years, when he’s scored 1000 runs a season for the fourth season in the row we’ll be having the same conversations we’ve had about those two. Bell can have one more go at international cricket, possibly in 2 years time. But for the near future, his international career should be put on hold.

Handbags!

It all seems to be kicking off Down Under in the series between Australia and the West Indies. Yesterday saw some real, proper argy-bargy between Sulieman ‘The Magnificent’ Benn and Brad Haddin. I particularly liked the exchange that got picked up on the stump mics with Benn (6ft 6in at least) saying to Haddin (5ft 10in if he’s lucky) ‘come on then big man, what are you saying to me?’ and Benn trying to poke Haddin in the face. Ultimately this ended up with a ban for 2 ODIs for Benn and fines for Haddin and Mitchell Johnson who was also involved.

I must admit I don’t like Benn, he strikes me as incredibly arrogant for someone who’s a truly ordinary spin bowler, and for some reason his loping run up really annoys me. I’ll add him to the list of West Indies cricketers I dislike, which includes Darren Sammy (covered by the Giraffe Farmer previously) and Ravi Rampaul (if he’s a Test bowler then I’m a Test bowler). But it was funny to have a huge West Indian bloke threatening a stocky Aussie. It was like watching clips from the 70s and 80s.

But you can understand why the Windies may be riled and react in this way. Apparently the Aussie press has been laying into them following their heavy defeat in the First Test. An article by Tony Cozier in response to the harsh attacks highlights the hypocritical attitude by the Aussie press pack.

Which brings me onto the best part of yesterday, Chris Gayle’s magnificent century (the 5th quickest of all-time in Test matches) which I had the fortune of watching on the highlights last night. It was truly inspiring to see one man flailing an admittedly mediocre Australia attack to all parts of the ground. Particular high points were successive sixes off Nathan Hauritz and also the shot that deposited Hauritz on the roof of the Dennis Lillee stand. Seriously, that was an almighty hit. Also a baseball style straight pull (I guess that’s the best description of the shot?) down the ground that barely got above 20 ft off the ground.

His opening partner Dowlin also hit some exquisite cover drives, though his run rate was more pedestrian. Ultimately the Windies got bowled out for 312, which is a 200 run deficit, but the situation is looking potentially interesting with the Aussies 136-8 overnight and 2 days left. 350 odd to get in the final innings is a task beyond most teams, but if Gayle pulls something out of the bag again then who knows.

Should he or shouldn’t he?

Watching England’s superb win last night I saw a team fulfilling it’s potential. I was particularly impressed by Eoin Morgan’s batting, a perfect example of what a genuine ‘finisher’ in the mould of Hussey and Dhoni can do for England.

I also saw a brilliant example of the steel of England’s captain Andrew Strauss. Graeme Smith, having already scored a ton, appeared to be struggling with some sort of hamstring problem and asked for a runner to be brought out. Strauss refused the request, and Smith seemed pretty pissed off about it at the time. Now I’m not sure if there will be debate over the rights and wrongs of this decision, cricket is supposed to be a gentleman’s sport after all and in the name of ‘being sporting’ some may think you should accede to this request.

But I would ask one question. What would Ricky Ponting do? The answer? Ricky Ponting would tell Smith to eff off if he thinks he’s getting a runner when he’s got cramp because he’s on 120 not out and has been batting for over 2 hours in the high veldt. And when the match could go either way and was swinging in South Africa’s favour.

And quite right he would be too. I’m all for sporting and gentlemanly conduct in cricket, it’s one of the reasons I love the game. But there comes a time in any sport where the match situation is so finely balanced that you have to be tough and say no, we’re here to win and to be honest, screw the opposition.

On and on and on and on and on...

As the ODI series between England and Australia drags interminably on into the latter half of September, I started thinking about the Test series in South Africa. However, I then looked at the calendar for England and realised we have 358 ODIs to play before the Test series starts. OK, so I exaggerate, but there is a lot of ODI stuff to get through before we get to the Tests, with Champions Trophy and then the ODI series versus South Africa.

Thing is, why am I not very excited about this? The Champions Trophy is like a mini world cup, this should be great. Why do I really not care? Well, partly it’s because England are terrible at this format of the game. I won’t go into all the whys and wherefores as there are many, but I cite 3 examples. 1) Jonathan Trott is the top limited- over run-scorer in the country, just got called up to the Test side and doesn’t play ODIs. 2) Adil Rashid played really well in the 1st ODI vs Australia, and then we dropped him supposedly to bolster the batting. The batter was Eoin Morgan. 3) The ECB is about to drop the last 50 over form of the game from the domestic calendar. Seriously, what on earth are they playing at?

However, one of the main reasons is that the 50 over has got a little bit, well, dull. The last world cup featured far too many meaningless matches. The middle overs drag, there’s countless tinkering around the margins of the game trying to inject some whiz-bang into a format that seems tired. So, what is to be done to the 50 over game?

What I’d go for is 50 overs of Test-style cricket. No fielding restrictions, no bowling restrictions. Essentially it would a short form Test match.

If you’ve got an on-fire bowler then you can use him as much as you want, and batters can’t try and ‘see out’ his allocation of overs. There’d be no need for the standard medium pacers coming on to bowl 5-6 overs just because someone needs to fill a 5-6 over slot, they’d be on because they’re the best option for conditions and circumstances. Captains would have far more flexibility over selection and bowling changes.

It would also remove the nonsense that is fielding restrictions. At the moment the opening bowling powerplays essentially mean you have fielding restrictions for the first 15 overs as it is extremely rare that captains hold back a powerplay for a different time. And the batting powerplay seems like a monumentally worthless addition to the game, I don’t think any captain has worked out when it’s best to play it (BTW, it’s when you’ve got 2 established batters on 30ish who are just about to start playing more expansive shots, it’s not for the last 5 overs when your 8 and 9 are in).

It would bring a nice tactical edge that reflects ‘proper’ cricket a bit more. It would also alleviate some of the formulaic nature of the 50 over format. Because there’s so much variation available in Test cricket then there is less chance of innings progressing in the standardised form that often occurs right now.

This would leave Twenty20 as the arena for all the tinkering with powerplays, bowling restrictions etc etc. Which feels like the natural place for all that jazz.

And now for the weather in your area...

The cricket season is coming to the end of its glorious run, and already football’s hyperbolic ‘thump thump thump’ is starting to take over as the Premiership and Champions League start up again. Whilst I love football, I do resent it for intruding into the mental space I’ve laid out for cricket in my internal seasons of sport. But that is for another time.

Yet again this season of cricket has been severely hit by the weather. Now I’m not here to talk about Test or County cricket, the grounds where they are played have great drainage (at Lords and Cardiff truly spectacular drainage) and modern covers. No, what I’m talking about is the amateur game. The one that you or I play.

This is now the 3rd year in a row we’ve had terrible weather. As in the other years we’ve had a really nice April (before the league programme starts), and then only a single decent month out of May, June, July and August. Followed, in all likelihood, by a glorious September just as the season ends. In all around half of the games I have been scheduled to play in this season have been lost to the weather. Cricketers are willing to accept a cancellation rate of a third in a bad year, but half? That’s ridiculous. I find it difficult to explain the frustration that accompanies having your match called off. Often you’ve looked forward to it all week. You may have been plotting the strokes you were going to play, the structure of overs you would bowl. If you’re captain you’ve been ruminating on who will open the bowling, the batting line-up, the fielding positions you may use. I’ve even been known to not get drunk on a Friday if I have a big match the next day. Then all of a sudden it’s taken away. As I said, frustrating.

Now this just looks like a bit of a bitch and a moan about our stupid British weather. But the fact is these past 3 years have been the wettest summers that I can remember and have resulted in the most cricket being called off that I, and much older lags that I play with, can remember. And this creates a problematic question. Is this a permanent climate alteration, or just a 3 year unfortunate weather pattern? If this is a climate alteration then I think the national summer game may be in trouble.

How long will we be able to sustain the game if only half the fixtures are completed? Will youngsters learning the game want to continue if they are regularly frustrated by not being able to play? What about all those people across the country that give up their time to help out their clubs with ground preparation and all the behind the scenes work, only for a match to not happen. Or those players who put off things in their lives, such as partners, kids, work, DIY to keep their Saturdays free for cricket only for the match not to materialise?

Improved grounds would be a way of improving this, but not that many clubs can afford covers, let alone an intricate and expensive drainage system for their square and a way of quickly drying the outfield. And it’s not like the appetite and willingness to be involved isn’t there, it is in spades. It’s just how long will that appetite exist if the weather regularly puts paid to half a season.

(Props to danchelo for the topic tip)

The ebb and the flow

What I really want to talk about here today is the impact of the 20 over game on cricket in general, and it’s potential for the future.

First things first, the fielding. Twenty20 has vastly improved the standard of fielding in the modern game. Having watched baseball over the last couple of years I’d say that the standard of fielding in international cricket is now better than that of baseball. Ridiculous stops, slides and throws are now commonplace and all without the aid of a really big glove. The improvement in fielding started with the ODIs and the higher standard required there to put pressure on batting teams. In Twenty20 every run is vital and should be scrapped for, so the fielding standard has been ramped up a notch once again. This has contributed to fielding improving across all formats of the game. So much so that someone such as Jonty Rhodes, the renowned fielder from the late 90s South African side, would not be considered hugely exceptional in the field today.

When Twenty20 started, it seemed to herald another nail in the coffin of the art of bowling. Bowlers were seen as glorified bowling machines there to simply supply the batsmen with balls to smack out of the ground. However, you should never underestimate how much bowlers really hate batsmen. And how much we’re determined to make their lives hell. Twenty20 has advanced the skill of ‘death bowling’ that occurs in ODIs into an art form. Slow balls, the use of the yorker, also the bouncer, they are all stock weapons for bowlers who cannot rely on nagging accuracy back of a length just outside off stump to contain run rates and get wickets. Predictability is the enemy of the Twenty20 bowler. Which probably explains why spinners play such an important role in the game now. They bowl slower, meaning the batsmen cannot use the pace of the ball off the bat to reach the fence. And a canny spinner can wreak havoc through deception, flight and their old weapon of people seeing something bowled slowly and really wanting to smash it out of the ground but failing to do so. In addition, bowlers now need to learn how to bowl 6 ball spells instead of 6 over spells. The Sri Lankans have used this to decent effect and this was shown in the final, with their bowlers constantly switching around so the batsmen couldn’t settle and get used to that bowler.

Once again looking at the start of Twenty20, the fear was that batsmen would lose technique as all they would be doing was slogging. While the slog-sweep and heave over midwicket for six are key elements of a Twenty20 game, slogging does not win you matches. Punishing bad balls, taking calculated risks, rotating strike and excellent running between the wickets gets you the matches. If you look at the West Indies v England match in the groups stages you’ll see my point. The Windies hadn’t been set a massive total, but looked at one stage to be throwing it all away. 6 wickets down, their youngsters had gone out and basically tried to smash every ball they faced out of the ground from the off. What won the match for the Windies were the calm heads, good running and elegant strokeplay of Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan that steered them home in ease. Another advent of Twenty20 batting is the thought that scoring at 8 an over for 5 overs is ‘eminently doable’ (I believe I’ve used that phrase on a number of occasions). 5 years ago I’d have said you were nuts if you thought that getting 40 off 30 balls was anything but a huge ask.

Ultimately, Twenty20 is here to stay. Frankly it’s been around for ages being played by club cricketers. But there is a need to avoid overexposure of this new format. The lure of big crowds and advertising will be great for those that run the game, but cricket needs to be sensible for once. For a sport that is regarded as fundamentally conservative, cricket has tendency to embrace radical shifts over a very short period of time which then become the status quo. Twenty20 works well: it’s accessible; it’s fun; it shows the best skills of cricketers in an intense match; and is exciting, with results often still in the air when approaching the final couple of overs. Just don’t milk it too much. Keep it so that it’s still a bit special and fun, the bread and butter pudding as opposed to the bread and butter.

To the winners the spoils, to the losers...

Congratulations to Pakistan. I really thought that Sri Lanka were the nailed on favourites to walk away with the Twenty20 World Cup, but some extremely clever bowling (the wicket of Dilshan was inspired) put pressure on Sri Lanka from the off, and it was only due to a captain’s innings by Sangakarra that Sri Lanka posted a semi-decent total. Afridi was imperious with the bat for Pakistan and always in control, though a couple of tight overs at the end, especially by Malinga, meant that a couple of wickets could have made it very difficult for Pakistan. So, not the run-fest that many would have expected, but the final showed that nuance and momentum can play a role in Twenty20. And hats off to players from both countries in respect to the situations surrounding the teams and their countries. The Sri Lankan team were hideously attacked by gunmen while touring in Pakistan a few months back, and their country has recently had to endure more flare-ups in the war between government forces and the Tamil rebels, though this seems to have come to an end. Pakistan, meanwhile, have been dealing with their own internal troubles and a situation that threatens to put the country, and the entire region, into a highly unstable situation. Hopefully sport can do a small amount of good by uniting disparate groups in their support of a band of cricketers.

In addition, well done to the England Women's team for their convincing win over the Kiwis in the Women's Twenty20 World Cup. As with the men, not a run-fest, but it showed that the England team is comfortably the best in the world at all formats of the game. Not often we get to say that about any British side.

Croesy 3rds v Blaina Match Report

This should be on the Croesyceiliog Cricket Club Website imminently, but here it is in advance. My personal bowling figures were 10 overs, 3 maidens, 0 wickets for 27 runs. Economical as I usually am but none of the all important Ws:

This week the thirds were away at Blaina. The skipper won the toss (first time for everything!) and following last week’s sterling efforts with the ball decided to insert Blaina, reasoning the track would dry out and become easier as the day progressed. How wrong he was.

Andrew Hagger and Richie Bean opened up and kept it reasonably tight without threatening too much. Soon the batsmen settled and started to push the ball around at ease. Catches were dropped and heads went down as the afternoon progressed and the runs started to pile up. A great spell at the end by Gareth Berry (including a hat-trick) and tight bowling by Owen Hagger meant that Blaina could only add 40 from their last 10 overs, despite being at one point 200-0 and they ended with 270-5. Best bowling was Gareth with 4-64 off 10.

Obviously this would be a tall but not insurmountable run chase given the depth of the batting talent available. Unfortunately early wickets put a dent in our chances from the off, and the batsmen were unable to establish innings and build a score in the face of unthreatening but accurate bowling. Wickets continued to fall regularly with Croesy limping through to 93 all out at the end.

IPL Missives

Hey, just thought I should post up a link to this blog about the IPL currently going on South Africa. Apparently it's been making some headlines in India and has been mentioned on the Cricinfo site and the Guardian. If it's real (there's debate about whether it's actually a player or a just a journalist stirring things up) then quite simply, wow! It's remarkably open and searing in its character assassinations of bona fide idols of Indian cricket. Definitely worth a quick look.

Cheating Darren Sammy

First things first, I'm not a big fan of Darren Sammy anyway. No idea why, I mean he's not even that great a player, and symbolic to a certain extent of the malaise that has hung over West Indies cricket for too long but appears to be shifting. He just has an annoying face (see right). I offer no evidential or rational explanation, apart from he has an annoying face.

However, I now have a reason to dislike him. Because he blatantly cheated in the final ODI between the Windies and England last night. Just as England are ticking along nicely through the middle overs, Sammy dives to his left to take a low catch. My first instinct was 'that's a decent catch'. Then I thought 'hang on, that's got to be the luckiest catch in the world ever as I'm sure it bounced out his hands'. Lo and behold, a quick replay clearly shows that the ball bounced out of his hands, onto his shoulder, onto the ground before Sammy scooped it up and claimed the catch. With a big grin on his stupid face. How a player can seriously claim a catch like that is beyond me.

So, Darren Sammy, the Giraffe Farmer deems you a cheat.

The family man…

So I was discussing cricket with one of my mates, and he mentioned about the renewed possibility (I think it’s now agreed) of there being a ‘super-league’ for South Wales cricket. This would involve teams from east and west, stretching from Chepstow to Ammanford, all playing each other in a competition to see who’s the best team in the whole of South Wales.

Initially I thought great: a stronger league playing a higher standard of cricket that would be a better feeder league for Glamorgan to call upon. And provide a clear pyramid for younger players and clubs to aspire to climb.

Then I thought about the impact it could have on that much overlooked component of the game, the family man.

If you’ve played senior cricket at any level, then you will know the sort. It’s the guy who’s been there done that. Possibly not in the shape of his life and possibly on a downward curve in terms of his cricketing abilities, but who has plenty of nous and experience to bring to the table.

It’s the family man who casually eases the young tyro quick behind square for effortless boundaries, or hops onto wide-uns to punish inaccuracy.

It’s the family man who trundles round the field, then plucks an awesome catch out of the air.

It’s the family man who bowls the military medium, on target balls that keep a hot-headed flashy batsman tied down, and who then gets slated for being crap in the dressing room once that batsman has got out slogging his wicket away in frustration.

It’s the guy with the experienced head on his shoulders who’ll dish out advice and who the skipper turns to when he’s in a jam.

Vital to the game, and hugely annoying to play against.

But is the family man going to be phased out as the new premier league puts extra demands on the levels of time and dedication that players have to give? While the league will be ‘amateur’, how many established club cricketers who have partners and kids are going to be forced out of playing at the highest amateur levels? Some could regard it as progress, showing that cricket is a ‘serious’ sport that requires a certain level of fitness.

My problem is that young cricketers can learn a lot from playing with and against these guys. It makes them learn the mental side of the game and learn it quickly before they get embarrassed at being found out. Judging by Glamorgan’s performances over the last 2 or 3 years, especially against battle hardened county sides full of old pros, surely we want our youngsters learning those tricks of the trade as they rise through the ranks? Surely the leagues should consider their actions before an important part of the amateur game is potentially forced out.