Mickeynelster

This is possibly the only time that I would use a phrase by Kitch, but I have to admit that the old geyser says it best when he refers to T20 as “Swish Clunk” (spelling?)

Being a cricket player myself and watching cricket whenever I can, I have to say that I am very dissapointed with Test Cricket at the moment. Dont get me wrong, Test Cricket is healthy and at the moment a joy to watch, but I cant help to think that “Swish Clunk” is the downfall of many a Test Cricketer, with Kallis and Dravid the exceptions.

The reason I say this is the fact that for the last 3-4 months I cannot recall a Test going the full 5 days, except the Bangladesh series. Have the batsmen lost the ability to concentrate for longer periods of time? Do they still know where their off stumps are? Are they so obsessed with achieving high runrates? Or, are the groundsman to blame? Have the batsmen lost their skill? So many Questions.

My dissapointment is therefore not with all the positive results we are seeing, but the fact that we dont get a result on day five after tea.

Are we maybe the last generation that would be privileged enough to have seen the greatest cricketers, Ponting, Kallis, Tendulkar, Lara etc? In the future our kids would say that they cannot watch a batsmen that has a stike rate of less than 100 ,because it would be to boring.

I for one would like to see Test Cricket preserved, it is after all why its called Test Cricket, its a test of skill. Anybody can go and just swing a bat and get a lucky few.

Long live Test Cricket!!

Let’s rewind 15-20 years. One day international cricket was the next best thing after Coca Cola and sliced bread. We had the 1992 Cricket World Cup to look forward to. The the main reason being SA’s inclusion after a lengthy exclusion because of political matters.

We had a great side. As a matter of fact, the same side or should I say, the same squad that was picked for the World Cup was also the same squad for Test Cricket. Things use to be so simple back then.

Let’s hop onto the time machine again and come back to present. Today we have a squad for 20/20, ODI’s and Test cricket. A squad of players of roughly 20-30 players, each being a specialist at what he does. My question is this. Are we not over complicating matters by having so many players? David Warner was deamed to be only a T20 specialist. He proved everybody wrong. Maybe we should rethink a specialist T20 or ODI or Test player and go back to the way it was 20 years ago. If you are a professional player, you should be good enough to adapt to the different formats of cricket. Warner did. Amla also did.

I say, let’s have a group of 17 players to choose a Test, ODI and T20 team from. It could be good for continuaty, the players would get to know each other well and it makes it easier for the coaching staff. If a new player is knocking on the door, then he should proof that he is better than somebody in the SA squad.

Just a thought!

Cheers

I have a bit of time this morning, hence two psot within an hour.

I am currently watching Warner and Cowan putting India to the sword and I have to admit, I’m enjoying it.

I will however say this. If I was part of the Indian Cricket Councel, I would deduct all the Indian players salaries for this game. Why? They were bowled out for 160 odd, swinging wildly at most deliveries as if it was a 20/20 match. Nobody valued their wicket with the exception of one or two, maybe!

They then come out to bowl, and dish up the biggest load of crap. Half volleys here and half volleys there. You could see that the Ausie Batsmen ( not BATTERS) are getting under the bowlers skin because there was an altercation mid pitch already.

Have the Indians lost this test already or can they fight back? I doubt it!

After a week of Biff bashing and the headaches that the Stromers are giving their fans(I’m the biggest Sharks supporter), this even before a ball is kicked, I thought it appropriate to write a post that will  make my weekend a bit better.

The days of Ernie Els and the Goose are gone, even though Retief is playing some good golf again. Lets hope he can stay injury free.

Enter the new, young Guns that will carry the flag for SA golf, just as well and hopefully even better that what Ernie and Retief did.

The two lads in the very small picture is off course Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, both Major winners and most certainly the brightest two golfers currently in SA. We can’t forget about Trevor Immelman even though he is off the radar at the moment, and also Richard Sterne, who made a brilliant comeback after a lengthy layoff. We could throw a few more names into that hat.

With all these youngsters, we have a recipe to dominate world golf for the next 10 years at least. We have seen time and time again that we do very well in Rugby and Cricket even with football some 15 odd years ago, but we dont seem to do well when it comes to playing as a team when it really matters, ie. World Cups.

This is where Golf is so great. Its an individual sport and no matter how hard politicians try, they cannot enforce individuals into a golfteam the way they do with the other sporting codes.

I hope Tiger can come back strong, world golf certainly needs him.

I look forward to the golfing year ahead and I hope that our young golfing superstars would dominate. All I can say is, Rory, Lee, Luke and all the boys from Europe, watch out. The SA Boys are in town and they are hungry for thophies.

Cheerio, have a lovely weekend all, even Kitch!

I read articles and posts by a number of writers and journalists regarding the dwindling number of fans attending Sports events, especially Cricket Test matches.

I belong to a Gentlemens Club in Cape Town, and 99.9% of the conversations around the snooker table, whilst we sip on a pint, is regarding the good old days and the amount of people that attended sporting events. The reason why I mention the Gentlemens Club is the following:

Up until about 15 years ago, and I stand to be corrected, this club would compete against the Navy on an anual basis, wether it being golf, rugby, football, darts, snooker, hockey etc., acompanied by the relevant trophy offcourse. The old guys would go on about how many spectators you would see at these events, especially cricket even though it was a club game. Today we struggle to get a fullhouse at a test match.

My point is this, I believe that TV contributed to the fact that we don’t see that many spectators at Club Sporting events anymore. I know this because I still play 1st Division Club Cricket in Cape Town and we hardly see 20 supporters.

How could we, if possible at all, bring spectators back to sporting events, get our kids away from infront of the big screen and the X-Box? I enjoyed nothing more, whilst growing up, going out on a Saturday afternoon to go and watch my dad play rugby or cricket. Afterwards there was a braai and the kids would have there own little match on the field. Good old days!

Could we have that back, PLEASE?

I’ve been following the Australia/India Test series thus far with great interest, more so than the SA/Sri Lanka Series. The only reason for this being the controversy with the Umpire Decision Review System and the fact that the Indians refuse to use it because they do not know how to manage it properly.

I think it’s about time that the ICC stand up to India and enforce it on to them. How is it possible that one team has the right to “act” as if they are the gods of world cricket, whilst the rest just has to sit back and take it on the chin? Meanwhile wrong decisions are being made and careers are being destroyed.

I am by no means a Australia fan, but Hussey and Cowan got raw deals in the previous test and I hope that the Indians get what they deserve in this test, i.e a few bad decisions against them. Lets use the Technology.

Oh yes!, Happy new year everyone. Go the Sharks, Proteas, Bafana, the Bokke, the golfers and all the SA sport women and men. May 2012 be a great year