Re: England in South Africa
I think the major problem with South African cricket at the moment is none other than the media. Say what you want about the pivotal role the media plays in sport, other than just coverage.
Look at the role the media plays in the cricketing in other competitive countries. Look at Australia, which is the first example that comes to mind. When we (the Proteas) were down under and beat them in the first test, the newspapers went out of control. Now obviously I don't know anything about the full reports and thus more, but the post-match discussions and South African discussion panels such as the Inside Edge team showed images of the newspapers capturing the headlines, and they all read along the lines of "Lee, Hayden, Symonds. Drop them now before they cause more damage" and "Questionable captaincy". Say what you might, but that just puts so much more pressure on the players, management and selectors. They lost that series, and look at the squad they brought to SA to beat us here. It consisted of 4 new players who all made big impacts on the series: Bollinger, McDonald, Siddle, and whatshisface who was that all-rounder who scored a century.
Here it's exactly the opposite. The last time Ntini did anything was when he took 3 wickets against Oz in the first innings of the first test. Now look at the pressure being applied on him after the first test, when there was speculation of dropping him. Arthur, on SABC News, after the first test draw against England, "No, there is no question of dropping Makhaya for Steyn's return. If Steyn is fit it will be a regulation swap with Friedel De Wet. Ntini has done an excellent job for us over the years and he is continuing to do so. He bowled excellently in the last match (3 wickets, economy rate of 4) and he did a great (Kepler Wessel's new favourite word) holding job (the opening bowler who is supposed to tie up an end and keep them from scoring, ?)."
Now how much pressure is on Ntini after that interview? Next to nothing. Did you read anything in the papers about his poor performance? No, not really, just a mention of his figures. What makes me angrier, is that after this from Arthur, they pick Ntini based on reputation, and how many overs does he bowl on Day 2 of the second test? England batted for about 50 overs, and our "excellent" bowler doing the "holding job" bowls 3 overs in the entire day, and goes for 25 off those 3. The English innings gets concluded with Makhaya bowling 24 overs at 4 runs per over. Ridiculous for test match cricket.
Another issue for me is Smith's decisions in the last two tests. Now I'm almost certain that it's not only him making the decisions, and that Arthur/management also play a pivotal role. Second test-match. Steyn bowls 3 overs with the new ball. He gets a good line and length, and Smith takes him off. Now I'm sorry but if you only give your opening bowler 3 overs then what the hell? Now you have Kallis bowling at 120kph with a 6 overs old ball. With all the respect I have for Kallis, he is just not going to rattle the opening batsmen with the new ball.
More pre-meditation later on. Smith does his old trick where he lets Harris bowl long spells at one end while he rotates the quickies on the other. He gives Ntini 5, takes him off, he gives Steyn 5, takes him off. He gives Morkel 5, Morne bowls beautifully and rattles both batsmen, you can just sense something is going to happen with this great line and length he has going. Play and miss, play and miss, play and miss, play and miss. But oh no Biff's watch says it's 5 overs past and Morkel has to go off and get replaced by Kallis.
Our team just does not have any plans for each batsman. To every batsman it's just outside-off level with top of off-stump with an occasional short and fuller delivery. England has a plan for most of our batsman. Duminy gets banged with short ones. Kallis as well. Amla gets set up for fuller deliveries because of the trouble he has with that trigger movement. Etcetera etcetera. This is why England are leading the series.
What are your thoughts on Duminy developing into an all-rounder? His batting has lacked these last few games, but I really see him fulfilling a similar role to the one Harris has at the moment. Duminy spins it the same amount, if not more than Harris. And how does Harris get most of his wickets? By just tying the batsmen down and letting them make the mistakes. Duminy can do the same I think. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. I for one am pretty certain that if Harris can get 3 wickets in 30 odd overs, then so can Duminy.
I love Boycott though. Like I said, our media and our commentators don't say anything about the shit that goes down, but Boycott says it like it is. A memorable quote from the old chap to end off my rant:
I think the major problem with South African cricket at the moment is none other than the media. Say what you want about the pivotal role the media plays in sport, other than just coverage.
Look at the role the media plays in the cricketing in other competitive countries. Look at Australia, which is the first example that comes to mind. When we (the Proteas) were down under and beat them in the first test, the newspapers went out of control. Now obviously I don't know anything about the full reports and thus more, but the post-match discussions and South African discussion panels such as the Inside Edge team showed images of the newspapers capturing the headlines, and they all read along the lines of "Lee, Hayden, Symonds. Drop them now before they cause more damage" and "Questionable captaincy". Say what you might, but that just puts so much more pressure on the players, management and selectors. They lost that series, and look at the squad they brought to SA to beat us here. It consisted of 4 new players who all made big impacts on the series: Bollinger, McDonald, Siddle, and whatshisface who was that all-rounder who scored a century.
Here it's exactly the opposite. The last time Ntini did anything was when he took 3 wickets against Oz in the first innings of the first test. Now look at the pressure being applied on him after the first test, when there was speculation of dropping him. Arthur, on SABC News, after the first test draw against England, "No, there is no question of dropping Makhaya for Steyn's return. If Steyn is fit it will be a regulation swap with Friedel De Wet. Ntini has done an excellent job for us over the years and he is continuing to do so. He bowled excellently in the last match (3 wickets, economy rate of 4) and he did a great (Kepler Wessel's new favourite word) holding job (the opening bowler who is supposed to tie up an end and keep them from scoring, ?)."
Now how much pressure is on Ntini after that interview? Next to nothing. Did you read anything in the papers about his poor performance? No, not really, just a mention of his figures. What makes me angrier, is that after this from Arthur, they pick Ntini based on reputation, and how many overs does he bowl on Day 2 of the second test? England batted for about 50 overs, and our "excellent" bowler doing the "holding job" bowls 3 overs in the entire day, and goes for 25 off those 3. The English innings gets concluded with Makhaya bowling 24 overs at 4 runs per over. Ridiculous for test match cricket.
Another issue for me is Smith's decisions in the last two tests. Now I'm almost certain that it's not only him making the decisions, and that Arthur/management also play a pivotal role. Second test-match. Steyn bowls 3 overs with the new ball. He gets a good line and length, and Smith takes him off. Now I'm sorry but if you only give your opening bowler 3 overs then what the hell? Now you have Kallis bowling at 120kph with a 6 overs old ball. With all the respect I have for Kallis, he is just not going to rattle the opening batsmen with the new ball.
More pre-meditation later on. Smith does his old trick where he lets Harris bowl long spells at one end while he rotates the quickies on the other. He gives Ntini 5, takes him off, he gives Steyn 5, takes him off. He gives Morkel 5, Morne bowls beautifully and rattles both batsmen, you can just sense something is going to happen with this great line and length he has going. Play and miss, play and miss, play and miss, play and miss. But oh no Biff's watch says it's 5 overs past and Morkel has to go off and get replaced by Kallis.
Our team just does not have any plans for each batsman. To every batsman it's just outside-off level with top of off-stump with an occasional short and fuller delivery. England has a plan for most of our batsman. Duminy gets banged with short ones. Kallis as well. Amla gets set up for fuller deliveries because of the trouble he has with that trigger movement. Etcetera etcetera. This is why England are leading the series.
What are your thoughts on Duminy developing into an all-rounder? His batting has lacked these last few games, but I really see him fulfilling a similar role to the one Harris has at the moment. Duminy spins it the same amount, if not more than Harris. And how does Harris get most of his wickets? By just tying the batsmen down and letting them make the mistakes. Duminy can do the same I think. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. I for one am pretty certain that if Harris can get 3 wickets in 30 odd overs, then so can Duminy.
I love Boycott though. Like I said, our media and our commentators don't say anything about the shit that goes down, but Boycott says it like it is. A memorable quote from the old chap to end off my rant:
Boycott said:
