Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

[deags]

Interestingly, I was listening to ABC RN this morning on my way to work. The sports guy was talking about a bit of backlash in India against Kohli's behaviour. Apparently one of the most high profile Bollywood actors has called him out.

[LP]

You do realise that there are 9 Australian players ‘retained’ by IPL teams as well as some coaches.

Given that CA has required our World Cup squad to attend a training camp that clashes with the IPL and there is an overlap with the Sheffield Shield, the number of Aussies involved seems surprisingly high.

That explains why two dozen of our best T20 cricketers didn't receive a bid, how many is in our WC squad again?

All sorts for excuses can be made for this, but the reality is Test and other International commitments have never stopped bids before because players only get paid if they actually play. These days guys could be in Mumbai playing IPL today and back for the domestic comp on the weekend.

Money talks!

And it's not just the IPL, T20 comps are becoming ubiquitous even privatised. Players can be in three different countries playing games in just a fortnight. Punter and Slater even joked about Ben Cutting's Frequent Flyer Pts on last nights Big Bash telecast! It puts pay to the idea they don't really make much money, with all the comps I heard players like Lynn made as much as $5M / $6M in a calender year, speculation was that his recent spate of injuries cost him more than $3M in lost earnings. Why would they play for Australia, the only country that can match these T20 wages for it's Test cricketers is India!

Put it this way, 3 years ago Lynn could have earned 1200% less by being Australia's Test Captain!

[DJC]

Interestingly, I was listening to ABC RN this morning on my way to work. The sports guy was talking about a bit of backlash in India against Kohli's behaviour. Apparently one of the most high profile Bollywood actors has called him out.

Yes, Naseeruddin Shah has had a crack:

“Virat K is not only the world’s best batsman but also the world’s worst behaved player,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“His cricketing brilliance pales beside his arrogance and bad manners... And I have no intention of leaving the country by the way.”

[DJC]

That explains why two dozen of our best T20 cricketers didn't receive a bid, how many is in our WC squad again?

All sorts for excuses can be made for this, but the reality is Test and other International commitments have never stopped bids before because players only get paid if they actually play. These days guys could be in Mumbai playing IPL today and back for the domestic comp on the weekend.

At this stage, about 75% of the foreign player allowance has been used:

11 Aussies
9 Kiwis
8 Saffies
7 Windies
5 Poms
3 Afghanis
1 Bangladeshi
1 Nepali

And no Sri Lankans - definitely something dodgy there 

[Professer E]

Shah has a big pair.... Kudos for telling it how it is.

[laj]

Reckon they're top 6 have been better, they may have bowled better but the main difference, interestingly, has been tailend batting. Ours bat to no.11 while their last few go out for bugger all. Our 8-11 must've made 150 runs more this series, alot in lower scoring games.

[Bear]

I think if Ashwin plays, given the pitches are going to be flatter in the next 2 tests, we might find it tough... but there isn’t a lot between the two teams in our conditions.

[LP]

Reckon they're top 6 have been better, they may have bowled better but the main difference, interestingly, has been tailend batting. Ours bat to no.11 while their last few go out for bugger all. Our 8-11 must've made 150 runs more this series, alot in lower scoring games.

Yet from perilous circumstances India have made around 250 twice, when they should have really struggled to make 200.

I think if we had delivered three sessions of good bowling we would have won Adelaide as well, am I being unfair?

[Professer E]

Their openers have been crap as well.  Overall the Indian batting has been almost as inconsistent as ours,  just a few guys have gone on.  Haven't been impressed by 6-8 (Pant  or the previous no.  6), none have batted according to the match situation.

Indian bowling has been most impressive,  got lengths wrong, like most sides in Perth.  Sharma is a pest of a bowler,  bowls a load of tripe at times but ends up with wickets.  Bumrah looks like he'll take a lot of getting used to,  they're not picking him up.

[laj]

Yet from perilous circumstances India have made around 250 twice, when they should have really struggled to make 200.

I think if we had delivered three sessions of good bowling we would have won Adelaide as well, am I being unfair?

Our bowling went really flat during India's 2nd innings in Adelaide. Fortunately we knocked their last 4 wickets over for 4 so we chased just 323. We may have got that if Finch reviewed his dismissal given we lost by only 31 runs.