Month: March 2019

Yesterday it was baseball’s opening day here in the states. It’s always a big deal of sorts, for those that pay attention. Every game is a sell out — or at least an announced sell out — and some of the teams playing won’t sell out another game the rest of the season. There are fighter jet flyovers and everyone around town, at least here in Minneapolis, is wearing MN Twins garb. It’s like, for one day, everyone is paying attention to baseball, and then they promptly forget about it for the rest of the summer, unless the team gets hot and makes the playoffs, of course. In that way, major league baseball’s opening day is like Easter Sunday. It’s that one day of the year when people remember that baseball is a thing that happens in the world.

Over in England, the County Championship starts its 120th season one week from today. The County Championship is the oldest domestic league in England, and for a long time was the marquee domestic league in all of cricket. But no more. It’s status continues to drain away because of the IPL and even the England Cricket Board’s other domestic competitions, like their one day cup and T20 “blast.” Because the County Championship’s format is the first class, four day game, it is still used as a feeder league for Test Cricket, but the counties themselves have put less and less emphasis on it with the shorter formats being their money makers. The matches, for example, are for the most part shoe-horned into late spring or early fall, with high summer left for the shorter formats. This neglect of the Championship has, in the short term and in the long term, done damage to England’s test squad. Some of it repairable, some of it not.

All of that said, it’s a great tournament — easily my favorite domestic competition — and definitely worth paying attention to. The format is pretty familiar: there are two divisions: Division 1 with eight teams and Division 2 with ten teams. Most years, the bottom two teams of Division 1 are relegated to Division 2 and the top two teams of Division 2 are promoted to Division 1. (Last season, Lancashire and Worcestershire were relegated, while Warwickshire and Kent were promoted.) These year, however, only one team will be relegated while three will be promoted, so going forward — starting in 2020 — there will be ten teams in Division 1 and eight in Division 2.

Each team plays every other team in its division twice, home and away. Teams get 16 points for a win, 8 points for a tie and 5 points for a draw. They also can earn bonus points for both batting and bowling. These bonus points are no joke. Last season, the Division 1 Champions, Surrey, received 79 of their 254 points from bonuses —  over 30% of their total.

The season starts, as said, on April 4 with a full slate of matches. In Division 1, Hampshire play Essex, Nottinghamshire play Yorkshire and Somerset play Kent. Meanwhile over in Division 2, it’s Derbyshire v. Durham, Northamptonshire v. Middlesex and Sussex v. Leicestershire.

One final note is that the majority of players on each team are English (or taking advantage of the Kolpak rule) while only a handful are what are considered “overseas” players. This is of course an attempt by the ECB to use the Championship as a place to groom Test cricketers for the England squad, but the overseas players do add a nice flair to the games.

And so, in total, a great league with a great format and a great history. The only real drawback is that the games, as far as I know, are not available for streaming in the United States (please post in the comments if I am wrong!). But, each team does a great job with video and there always lots of highlights to take in. It all starts next week, be sure to follow along, you won’t be disappointed. (Unless it rains. And, believe me, it will rain.)

Until tomorrow.

Today in Dubai the US Men beat the UAE  in a 50 over match by nine wickets — which is a real thumping in cricketing terms. Steven Taylor took a five wicket haul and scored 68 not out in the rain shortened match (yes, it rained again in Dubai). The result meant the US won the series 2-1, which made it a nice set up for their trip to Namibia and the World Cricket League Division 2 tournament.

That is a six team tournament that starts on April 20, with the final on April 27. (Talk about efficient cricket!) The top four sides from that tournament join Scotland, Nepal and the UAE in the Cricket World Cup League 2 and gain ODI status which no matter what happens is a big deal as it means the US will have the chance to play a lot more ODIs down the road.

The Cricket World Cup League 2 is a two year long tournament set to begin in July of this year. The top three teams of that league will advance to a World Cup Qualifier tournament in 2022, with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the 2023 World Cup to be held in India.

And so lots of exciting things to come for the US men. The 2023 World Cup is more than likely out of their reach, but the chance to play as many as 20 ODIs in the Cricket World Cup League 2 is a prize in and of itself. Which makes the upcoming tournament in Namibia worth paying attention to.

The other five sides in the tournament are Canada, Oman, Namibia, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. As mentioned, the tournament kicks off on April 20 and it’s a round robin style tournament with each team playing every other team once. The US starts their tournament against on the opening day against Oman, then plays Namibia on April 21, PNG on April 23, Hong Kong on April 24 and closes out the group stage on April 26 against Canada. Five matches in seven days. Woof. Then it’s a 5th place playoff, a 3rd place payoff and a final, all on April 27. I guess this means that the top four advancing sides will be decided by the group stage, not by a knockout stage, which is probably the best way to do it in the end. For while we as fans miss out on a must-win-to-finish-fourth match for the US, every match of the group stage will be, more or less, a must win.

It should be a lot of fun.

I believe the games will stream on USA Cricket’s website. Be sure to tune in and enjoy the US men’s team play entertaining and meaningful international cricket for the first time in a very long time.

Until tomorrow.

The IPL has started. It will run like a virus scan in the background of our lives for the next few weeks. Tune in if you can, all the matches are available on Willow in the states. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it has its moments.

And today was one of those moments.

As Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler was chasing the target set by Kings XI Punjab, bowler R Ashwin committed the greatest cricket sin of all: he Mankaded him.

As Ashwin was running up to make his delivery, Buttler creeped out of his crease, Ashwin stopped short of bowling the ball and clipped the bails off of Buttler’s wicket. Out. And from there the Royals’ chase fell of a cliff, losing seven wickets for just 16 runs to lose by 14 runs. It was a perfectly legal move by Ashwin — there is nothing in the laws of the game that prohibit such a stumping — but it does, according to many, violate the hallowed Spirit of the Game. As such, there were confrontations on the pitch after the “incident” and Twitter went absolute batshit, with most people thinking the law needed to be changed yesterday, and that Ashwin should never be able to play cricket again (no one actually went quite that far, but people got close!).

There were other voices of reason who said that what he did was fine and that people need to chill out. Which is basically where I stand on the matter. Ashwin’s explanation that the move was “instinctful” confirmed my position. He wasn’t actively try to get Buttler out via some underhanded move, he simply saw him out of his crease and muscle memory took over so Buttler was out. All the pearl clutching across the internet over the move is a little silly.

Just another reminder that cricket is always full of surprises. And while the IPL can be a little much, it is still cricket, and cricket is always great. And it’s great because there’s something called a Mankad, and because there is an unwritten gentlemanly code that governs players’ decisions. Most sports have their share of unwritten rules — the phantom tag at second in baseball, etc — but no sport has as many as cricket, and no sport enforces them so vehemently. Cricket always stands out in a crowd — sometimes for good, sometimes for not. Today fell firmly into the former category. I like a sport that keeps you guessing what will happen next, and cricket most assuredly does that. What will tomorrow bring? Another Mankad? A 14 ball half century? A five wicket haul? A nonsense super over? A match won on the final ball? There’s only one way to find out.

Until tomorrow.

 

When you first discover cricket — in the same way that Columbus discovered America — you see it as this alien sport, untouched by the relentless American capitalist machine. But then as the years go by, you see the Americanism that you were trying to get away from start to creep in around the edges of the game. Rock music between overs, cheerleaders, shouting commentators, brute strength rewarded over nuance.

And the latest sin: names and numbers on the backs of kits in Test cricket.

The always astute James Morgan of The Full Toss blog calls the move by the ICC an attempt at even further Americanisation of the Test format:

What concerns me is that the move is based on two recurring and flawed assumptions: (a) that test cricket as it is isn’t good enough and must change, and (b) that the Americanisation of the sport, for want of a better expression, is the answer.

Personally, I am of the opinion that the ICC just wants to sell more replica kits. No one — no one — gets blood from a stone quite like the ICC does. But James’ point is still a valid one: why do European sports see American sports as some sort of mentor to emulate? Playoffs, silly nicknames, camouflage ball caps, fireworks, rock music, basically everything that makes the game not about the game but about the atmosphere. It’s about distraction and $150 replica kits and getting seen on the jumbotron, and very little about what is happening on the field.

And that’s a shame. And so it boggles my mind that the people who run soccer and cricket and rugby look to America and say: we should be more like that.

Now, the main reason — at least the public reason — behind changes that can be described as Americanisations are that they will attract younger audiences. Fine. That’s a good reason to make changes. But I don’t think the changes the game is making will actually accomplish that goal. Cheerleaders aren’t going to fix what’s wrong with cricket, because there was nothing wrong with cricket in the first place. This relentless need for changes in cricket — especially in Test cricket — has always confounded me. It’s a great game with great pacing that still gets great crowds and great ratings. Stop messing around with it. It’s fine the way it is. And this goes for the other formats, too. The T20 didn’t need even further shortening, and the ODI is just fine how it is, thank you. Let the games breath, let small rule changes happen organically, and stop forcing changes down fans’ throats.

And, most importantly, and I can say this with some authority as I have watched American sports my whole life: Americans don’t do sport better. They simply don’t. The only thing we are really, really good at is creating superstars who dominate games and seasons and decades, who change the face of the sport they play. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant. Americans are great at that, but I don’t think superstars that are light years better than everyone are good at much other than selling a lot more tickets when they come to town.

Keep what makes you different, cricket, it’s the only way you’ll survive.

Until tomorrow.

Two events of note happened this past weekend.

First, the USA played their first ever Twenty20 internationals, taking on the UAE in Dubai. They were well on their way to winning the first one, only to have a rare desert rain storm spoil the day. I mean, come on, what kind of dumb luck is that? It rains literally only five days a year in Dubai. It’s like the universe is saying to the US: “maybe cricket isn’t your game, friends.”

Then they lost the second T20 by 24 runs thanks in large part to Shaiman Anwar — who just turned 40 on Friday — and his lightning fast 62 off of just 30 balls (in comparison, the highest American score with the bat was Steven Taylor (one of only two American born players on the starting XI, the other being Jessy Singh) and his 49 off of 40, which was just too slow for the quick hit pace needed to be successful in cricket’s shortest format).

Despite the rain and the loss, this past weekend has to be seen as a success for the US squad. Two full international Twenty20s under the belt is nothing to sneeze at. US cricket has come a very long way in the last few years, and these matches were surely an indication of that growth.

Up next for the US men is seven 50 over matches — one of which is against English County side Lancashire, who were recently relegated out of Division One — including one played already today that they won by five wickets. Standout performances in today’s match included Aaron Jones’ 81 not out and Steven Taylor’s 4-38. Taylor, for his part, took the first four wickets himself, including Anwar’s, who was restricted to just 13 off of 11 balls.

The other event of note was that Afghanistan won their first Test match in only their second try, beating Ireland by seven wickets in Dehra Dun, India, chasing down 147 thanks in large part to Rahmat Shah’s 76 and Ihsanullah’s 69. They didn’t do it very quickly — it took them nearly 48 overs — but they got the job done in the end. An historic win for one of cricket’s best stories.

Ireland, for their part, have also only played two Test matches, but unlike Afghanistan they have yet to win one, losing their first to Pakistan last year by eight wickets.

No matter what, it’s nice to see some new teams don the white kits and play with a traditional red ball.

A good weekend all around.

Until tomorrow.

Cricket is a global game. It’s tendrils reach into all the far corners of the world, this giant world that is also somehow so small. And so as a fan, especially in our connected, modern age, you learn about countries that you never really gave a lot of thought to. And you learn not just about their sport, but about their culture, their history, their failures, their triumphs. And, thanks to social media, you get to know their people. You make friends. You humanize what was previously an alien world. The game allows connections that never would have existed otherwise. It is, in that sense, a real gift.

I used to write a lot about New Zealand. About their cricket, but also about their people.

My heart is broken this morning. I am glad the people I know in Christchurch are safe, but my heart is still broken for New Zealand.

One tidbit I learned about this lovely nation a few years ago is that, in 1987, at the height of the Cold War, New Zealand banned nuclear weapons. Sea, land, and air space became what are known as “nuclear free zones,” a status that is enshrined in legislation. They won’t even let nuclear powered submarines dock in their harbors.

I mention it because it reminds us that the people in New Zealand are a peace loving, progressive people. And because of that they will get past this, and be better for it.

Let us all pray for peace.

This is an absolutely bonkers story out of a lower Australian club league.

It seems North Suburbs of the Queensland Premier Cricket first grade competition declared their first innings at 14-1 in order to manipulate the final league standings. (Declaration is when a team says they don’t want to bat anymore. It usually happens when a team is way, way ahead and they are worried about running out of time to bowl the other side out.)

The team they were playing, University of Queensland, had racked up a score of 675-1 so North gifted them the innings bonus in order to avoid playing them again in the semi-finals.

This is not against the rules. A team, in First Class cricket, can declare whenever the hell they want. But after University complained, North were said to have violated, wait for it, “the spirit of the game” and University were only given 5 points for the innings bonus as opposed to the usual 12, so North they will play them in the semi-final, which North were of course trying to avoid.

Now, ignoring the fact UQ batted for 175 overs in a thinly veiled attempt to strangle the game into a draw which was somehow totally okay, this is one of those random cricket idiosyncrasies that confound folks that are new to the game, and fill old timers with joy at how the game never does cease to surprise. There a lot of rules to the game, like any game, but teams are always finding loopholes and it’s a real joy when one does.

But at the same time, what the heck? It’s not against any of the actual rules but it violated some random “spirit”? Oh, cricket, you are ridiculous most days, but on days like this you really do outdo yourself. I mean, we can’t expect the rule-makers to think of every loophole and proactively reach out to stop it, but what we can expect is for, well, the taste-makers, for lack of a better word, to not punish squads for violating a law that doesn’t even exist. I mean, it’s not cheating if it’s not against the rules! The best course would have been to clutch your pearls and then change the rules the next day, not punish the squad (and rather draconically, too, I mean, they also docked North 12 points from next season’s total!).

Oh, cricket. You never cease to amaze.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the “spirit of cricket,” I think it gives the game a bit of, well, politeness that you just don’t get otherwise. And I honestly cannot think of anything like the above happening in American sports. Teams cheat all the time and are caught all the time. And sometimes that cheating happens on a rule that doesn’t exist. But never have I witnessed a team punished for violating some touchy-feely “spirit.” It makes cricket stand out. I like that.

But still.

Cricket, what the heck?

Until tomorrow.

 

 

Today’s news in cricket will sound familiar to all sports fans: a committee of former players has some ideas on how to speed up the game, and make it more exciting for people outside the cricketing zeitgeist.

Today’s changes were announced by the MCC World Cricket Committee. An offshoot, it seems, of the Marylebone Cricket Club — the folks that run Lord’s Cricket Ground in London — that has no actual power but meets twice a year to discuss “prevalent issues,” make some headlines (and probably have some posh dinners) and then advise the ICC on the outcome of their discussions.

Their latest improvements for Test cricket include: a countdown clock, a free hit instead of a no ball (which would put Test cricket in line with one day cricket — basically when a bowler goes over the line with his foot, a no ball is call. In Test cricket, the bowler just bowls again and it’s like the toss never happened. But in one day cricket the batter gets a free hit which means he can’t get out but can score runs), and making everyone use the same brand of ball in Test matches.

That last one I can get on board with. It makes sense. But the first two confound me.

For the no-ball/free-hit their reasoning is, first of all, “excitement!” Which I don’t get. It’s dumb. It’s not cricket. It’s a penalty kick. It’s the home run derby. But. I also, you know, get it. People like the free-hit. So, fine. Whatever. If it ends up reducing no balls then yeah, cool, ’cause no balls suck.

But their other reason is the same reason as the countdown clock: to speed up the game. The no-ball/free-hit will accomplish this if it actually reduces the number of no-balls (which, to be fair, it has done in one day cricket) but if there are just a bunch of free-hits to the same number of no-balls added than the games will actually be longer.

What won’t for sure speed up the games is the countdown clock.

Every sport on earth has spent loads of time and money and consternation on rule changes in vain attempts to make their games shorter. And none of them work. Ever. Basketball has countless time based violations and the last two minutes of its games still take a million years. Baseball wants a countdown clock between pitches. Football has clocks that tell the QB when he needs to restart play. And nothing works. All those sports still have issues with how long their games are.

But here’s the deal: the only sport to actually successfully shorten its games? Cricket. And they did it by fundamentally changing the rules of the game, creating the ODI out of first class cricket and the T20 out of the ODI. And now with The Hundred the games will be even shorter. And that’s really the only way to do it: take chunks out. Countdown clocks and time based violations have not worked and will never work. Look, for example, at soccer, the one sport that doesn’t have length issues. Because the clock just runs.

So, at the end of the day, it’s all nonsense. You will never effectively speed up any sport without lopping off innings or overs or quarters or periods, or just having a running clock. The latter won’t work without massive changes in how games are played, especially “fair ups” sports like baseball and cricket, and gridiron football where possession changes are not quick. But it would work in games like hockey and basketball. But cricket is the only game to actually crack the code of the shorter game time. So scoff all you want at The Hundred, but the ECB has found the holy grail of sport: if you want to make the games shorter, then make the games shorter.

Until tomorrow.

Today Major League Baseball announced that it was trying out some rule changes in the lower level Atlantic League this season. This is usually how it works: MLB tries them out in the minors and if they work, they try to convince the players’ union to accept them.

For the most part, the rules are designed to speed up the game and for more runs to be scored. Though MLB also makes a cheeky nod at “player safety” which we all know they care little about.

Anyway, two of the changes caught my eye:

• Home plate umpire assisted in calling balls and strikes by a TrackMan radar tracking system
• Require two infielders to be on each side of second base when a pitch is released (if not, the ball is dead and the umpire shall call a ball)

They caught my eye because they reminded me of cricket.

Cricket, of course, doesn’t have balls and strikes, but they do have the Leg Before Wicket which can be a difficult call to get right, which is why the ICC umpires have a similar ball tracking radar that they use when players appeal their on the field calls. And, for the most part, it works okay. And so I am anxious to see how it plays out this summer in the Atlantic League.

The second change made me recall the fielding restrictions in one day cricket.

Via Wikipedia:

ODI Power Play Rules:

• During the first 10 overs of an innings a maximum of 2 fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle.
• Between overs 11 and 40 a maximum of 4 fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle
• In the final 10 overs (41–50) a maximum of 5 fielders will be allowed to field outside the 30-yard circle.

Twenty20 Power Play Rules

The first six overs of an innings will be a mandatory powerplay, with only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Beginning with the seventh over, no more than five fielders will be allowed outside the 30-yard circle.

And, so, unlike Test cricket, and unlike how baseball is but probably won’t be for long, you can’t just put your fielders whatever you want in One Day cricket. The rules are there to, you guessed it, encourage big scores, which is what the people in charge assume people want to see. And the rule change in MLB is being made with a similar goal in mind (despite what they say about player safety), for the last few seasons teams have employed a “shift” where they stack infielders on one side of the field when a power hitter is at the plate. And I always kind of liked that, the game was changing, and the strategies were changing along with it. It was smart baseball. Good baseball. It showed that manages were capable of flexibility and creativity. But MLB was having none of that. They wanted to protect their big hitters. So there we go.

The rules are a symptom of baseball’s move away from what many call “small ball” — moving the runner over, the suicide squeeze, the sacrifice fly, stolen bases — and toward games where every at-bat is either a ball, a strike, or a home run. Gone is the nuance. The creativity. The thinking.

Former Phillies shortstop and manager Larry Bowa had this to say (now about rule changes specifically):

“I think baseball is an exciting game, but I’ll be honest, I watched some games last year and got bored. You’d have eight walks and 12 strikeouts. I don’t like a man on third and less than two outs, and a guy is swinging like the count is 3-0 and he ends up striking out instead of, “Hey, the infield’s back, let me score this run. Let me put this ball in play.” I would like to see that come back a little bit.

Baseball is, more or less, starting to display a serious lack of traditional strategy.

And if you change a few words around in the above quote, you get a complaint about cricket that you hear every day. The game is moving away from nuance, and toward a game where every ball is either a six or a dot, and that the people in charge are fine with that, in fact actively encourage it via rule changes.

So that’s the thing. Cricket is not alone here. The same thing is happening to baseball. And soon similar changes will start to affect other sports, in the same way that what can only be described as “the dumbing down of humanity” has affected all entertainment (how in the world Celeste Ng — god bless her — can be described as high-end literature is beyond me) and politics (‘nough said). High minded thinking is no longer in vogue, and maybe never will be again. This is the world we live in.

Test cricket fans in a Twenty20 world.

Until tomorrow.

 

A bit of interesting news yesterday about a dispute between the West Indies cricket board and Sky Sports, which owns the television rights to the current England tour of the Caribbean.

When the deal was signed years ago, there was only one T20 on the schedule. When two were added, the Windies said they would need to charge Sky an extra fee per match for the broadcast rights. Sky was like no way dude. The games will still probably be broadcast in the UK, but it is a real financial blow for Cricket West Indies, as the matches’ broadcast rights are valued at, get this, $1million US each. Now, it’s no secret that there is way too much money changing hands in professional sport, but when you see the numbers in black and white like that, it really is jaw dropping. A million dollars!? For 3.5 hours of cricket? Amazing.

In comparison, and it’s apples to oranges, but local Fox Sports affiliate, Fox Sports North, pays about $250,000 for each Minnesota Twins game it broadcasts. And Minnesota is a small market. Some of the teams in the bigger markets command more than twice that.

It’s just a reminder that we are not fans, we are a product, sold to broadcasters and then re-sold to advertisers. When decisions are made that adversely affect what it means to be a fan of cricket — or any sport — The Hundred is one that springs to mind immediately — we need to remember: boards don’t care about us, as long as we keeping tuning in. The only way to affect change in sport is to simply turn it off, and then boycott sponsors. As long as we keep tuning in and buying Miller beer, then nothing will ever change that doesn’t directly raise the profits of the handful of plutocrats in charge.

*

In other news around the sport, the new European T20 league was formally announced today. Of course, it’s a little problematic: yet another T20 league where players can line their pockets by hitting a few big sixes, all while the first class game fades into the distance. And it’s not just the players that make the money, it’s the boards too. A domestic T20 league that attracts overseas players is a license to print money, something a little unheard of in modern day cricket. But there we are.

However, in this case, the league consists of one full Member and two Associate Members: Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, respectively. And so while the league willl make money, that money will go to boards that need it the most. Especially Scotland and Netherlands, two countries in desperate need of getting over the hump. And a nice shiny new payday will help. If the game is to grow, these leagues are a necessary evil.

Personally, I hope the matches are streamed somewhere where I can watch. These new leagues will define the future of the game, for better or for worse.

Until tomorrow.