Author: Matt

It was a busy morning at the office, and then I left at noon, and took the long way home, and then read on the patio, and so I missed the vast majority of the second session and nearly all of the third session. I didn’t watch on Willow and I did not check up on Twitter, all I did was pull up the (really phenomenal) Cricinfo app on my phone to see the score now and again.

And so it was not until much later in the day, when I scrolled through my Twitter feed, that I realized that something had happened with regard to a reversed Stuart Broad dismissal.

But I am not going to talk about that.

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This was England’s day. This is a team that can, when it wants to, quietly pummel their opponents into submission. And today England wanted to. Yes Cook and Pietersen fell before lunch, and yes the tail was exposed far earlier than anyone on the host’s side would have wanted, but it does not matter: this team – again, when it is firing on all cylinders – fucking BURIES opponents. They are relentless. But not in an aggressive way. They are confident and cool and quiet and they lull you to sleep until all of a sudden you wake up and you look at the scoreboard and their lead is insurmountable.

It really is something to see, this England, when they are in form.

Yesterday Australia was sailing along, tonight they are lost in a deep, dark pit.

Tomorrow’s first session will be key,  if Australia can take a couple wickets and bowl England out before lunch when the host’s lead is only, say, 325, then maybe Australia has a shot. But I don’t see that happening. England will declare with a 400 run lead sometime before tea – and that will be just simply too much for Australia to chase down on this wicket against the likes of Anderson and Swann.

And so I say to my Australian fans: sorry, folks, but this one’s England’s.

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Two images remain from today, one of a 19-year-old lad who may already have played the innings of his life and the other from a 38 year old man who has no more left to play.

-The Old Batsman (full post)

Ashton Agar leaves the field with Phil Hughes after losing his wicket for 98. #InvestecAshes. Photo:Visionhaus. pic.twitter.com/TpB90mGqiU

— Investec Cricket (@InvestecCricket) July 11, 2013

And here is Ricky Ponting leaving the field after his 169 * pic.twitter.com/oWbmzjb6Su

— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) July 11, 2013

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I think the Ponting photo might very well be my favorite cricket photograph ever.

And so what is there to say about a day like today?

It started off with England in the ascendency after rocking Australia under the floodlights yesterday evening, and then England went even further ahead as Australia drooped to 117-9, and then…magic. One of the more glorious moments in Test cricket’s long and storied history: Australia’s 11th batsman, 19 year old Ashton Agar, making his Test cricket debut in the simmering cauldron of the Ashes, walked out to the crease and batted for over two hours, scoring 98 runs, and making it, along with Mitchell Starc and DRS, Australia’s day.

The fact that Agar fell two runs shy of his century is both a story and it is not a story. I think it is the latter. If he had gotten out at 102 instead of 98 the match would be in just about the same position, more or less, and 98 is still the highest score from a number 11 making his debut.

And I think cricket pays far too much attention, at times, to what are at the end of the day meaningless stats. The difference between scoring 99 runs and 100 runs is so meaningless over a five day Test that it shouldn’t even bare mention. But it does, and I guess that is okay on occasion, as humans do need to find patterns in the chaos, and cricket is no different. But on this occasion I hope everyone forgets that Agar missed his century by two runs, and concentrates instead on what was a brilliant piece of batting from a teenager on debut – it could very well turn out to be match saving, and it could even end up winning Australia the Ashes. Let’s not let anything dampen what was an amazing day for the player. And the last thing I want is for Agar to think that he failed in any way; nor do I want the altogether trivial accomplishment of hitting 100 runs to get stuck in his head and hamper his development as a cricketer.

The good news is that most are celebrating his day, not pointing out the missed opportunity.

All said and done: Well played, son; well played indeed. You still have a lot to prove, of course, but I cannot wait to watch more of you.

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Meanwhile, down the road a bit, another Australian was having himself a good day in England:

And the players shake hands..Surrey declare on 395-8…and Ricky Ponting ends his First Class career under blue skies 169*

— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) July 11, 2013

Such a fitting end to a brilliant career. 24,150 first class runs, and he ends not-out with a match saving 169. Punter pushed the sun back into the sky, and gave himself one more day of summer…one more afternoon with the sun on his face, under perfect skies, scoring freely in Surrey white…

And as Ponting’s first class career was ending, Agar’s was launching into the stratosphere. A poetic end for what was a wonderful day for Australian cricket on the shores of England.

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A lot of people have very passionate opinions for or against the DRS. I don’t. But I have a waffling sort of milquetoast opinion that goes something like “it is important to get calls right, and technology can be a  great tool in which to do so, like it is in tennis and rugby, but I am not sure DRS is the right technology for cricket.”

Sure reviews can take a little of the “rock n roll” out of sport – but I think that is a worthwhile sacrifice. (But, man, those no-ball reviews make me see red…)

However, I will go one step further today and specifically address the Trott dismissal: if every aspect of DRS is not available, and side-on hot-spot view is a very important aspect, then DRS should not be used, and the on field umpire’s decision needs to stand.

Was Trott out? I don’t know. But for the third umpire to reverse the on-field call when every aspect of DRS was not available, well, that’s farcical.

Until tomorrow.

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14 wickets fell at Trent Bridge today in what was a thrilling day one of the first Ashes Test.

I will let Cricinfo’s ball by ball coverage do the talking, because they said it better than I ever could:

You can come out from behind the couch now. That was a typically visceral start to an Ashes series which has been stoked and prodded for months and duly caught fire on day one. Fourteen wickets fell, Peter Siddle roaring in and straining sinews for the Australia cause as England squandered the advantage of winning the toss, only for the hosts, a bowler down, to land thudding blows under the Nottingham floodlights. Australia’s top four are in the hutch and both attacks have proved their chops early in the piece. The batting was altogether more inglorious and this Test doesn’t look like going five days… but the sun is due to shine tomorrow and runs may be easier to come by.

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Now, 14 wickets in one day is by no means a Test cricket record, nor is it an Ashes record.

The biggest one day wicket total in a Test match was 27 on day two of the 1st Test between England and Australia at Lord’s in 1888. That is also the Ashes record, too, of course.

In more recent memory, 22 wickets fell on day three of the only Test between New Zealand and Zimbabwe in 2012 at Napier.

But still, today was a big deal and a fun day of cricket. And while some will bemoan the sloppy batting, to them I say that sometimes sloppy batting (or bowling, or both) make for fun cricket. As a neutral, I am quite happy with the start.

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For my American readers, I will try to put the 14 wickets in one day into context for you: in baseball it’s like two teams hitting 14 home runs combined over the course of a doubleheader.

That’s the best I can do. And I think it is pretty close.

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Tomorrow we do it all again. And that’s the best part of the Ashes. Today was just scene I of act I – we still all have so much more to enjoy.

Over the course of the last few months, I have talked a lot about how much I really do enjoy the One Day International. And that has not changed. But today I nearly fell over with joy on several occasions whilst just reading the ball by ball, not even watching the match itself. Test cricket is where it’s at, it’s where it will always be at.

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My prediction for the series remains the same: 2-1 to England.

More tomorrow.

I wanted to take a minute to further clarify a Tweet of mine from last night:

Yes, their money is green, but still disappointing to see that @ESPNcricinfo sells ad space to gambling sites. pic.twitter.com/QoZo1wUAcL

— Matt Becker (@limitedovers) July 8, 2013

Here’s the thing: those are agency ads. They rotate in and out based on time of day, location…etc. For instance, a little while later I saw ads for BringMeTheNews.com, a local Minnesota news aggregator. These agencies have a stable of hundreds of clients that pay a dollar or two a click to have their ads put in front of specific demographics. They then contact ESPN or Disney or whatever and negotiate price and impressions and CPM rate…etc, then the agency serves and rotates the banners – so it is all very “set it and forget it” for sites like Cricinfo.

(The above is all an educated guess). *SEE UPDATE #1*

What I am saying is, an Account Executive from ESPN or Disney did not call up bet365 and ask if them if they were interested in learning more about the advertising opportunities on Cricinfo. And I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the suits from Cricinfo, ESPN, and/or Disney really have no idea as to who all is advertising on their various sites.

But they should. And here’s why:

Cricket has a gambling problem. A nasty one. At every level. And in every country where cricket is played. And yet the sport still continues to suck on the big fat green gambling teet like it is going out of style. Just look at the advertising boards at the ground, the sponsors on players’ kits…etc.

It’s a problem. A huge problem. And it is ripping the heart right out of the game, for none of us can completely trust what is happening on the pitch in front of us anymore. The same way every time a cyclist comes out of nowhere to win a stage in the Tour de France, we all assume he is doping. Cycling’s heart and soul are gone, probably forever, and cricket, thanks to gambling, is getting there, too.

And who is supposed to be the watchdog in all of this? The media, journalists, sites like Cricinfo. But yet how can they be impartial in telling spot fixing stories if they are taking money from ad banners that list County Cricket betting lines where they was a spot fixing scandal not two seasons ago?

It is a shame that Cricinfo has decided that money is more important than legitimate journalism; a shame for journalism and a shame for the sport.

And while I am sure the supposed “firewall” between advertising and editorial exists in one way or another at Cricinfo HQ, that separation is slowly but surely ebbing away – until soon enough it will simply no longer exist.

Therefore I call on Cricinfo to cease doing business with betting websites. I know their money is green, and I know that times are hard, and I am sure there is the aforementioned firewall that protects your editors, but for a site that focuses on cricket to do business with a gambling website is quite simply the wrong thing to do.

Do the right thing, ESPN, and stop running betting related advertisements.

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A hypothetical ethics question: if bet365.com approached you and offered you $1 per click to run banners, would you take it?

I like to think I would turn them down, but gosh…I don’t know.

SEE UPDATE #2

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I am not a gambler. I don’t like it and find it a waste of money – but more importantly I think it ruins the game. Fantasy football as one example: I never want to be “kind of happy” that Robin van Persie scored a hat trick against Arsenal simply because he is on my fantasy team. I want to be gutted. Completely gutted.

However, I am also not anti-gambling. If that is how you want to spend your hard earned, then go right ahead. I also have no family members or friends with gambling problems. I have no dog in this hunt, in other words, I just think cricket needs to break up with betting. Now.

UPDATE #1:

A couple things here. Reader Daniel points out that Cricinfo’s agency/network ads in Germany, where he is located, are even more egregious, as they are spam/scam related. He sent a screenshot over:

Also, a better term for this type of advertising is “network” – not “agency.” Though you probably got my gist.

Finally, regular reader Devanshu points out that the 365bet ads I posted a picture of above are not agency/network ads, but part of a larger partnership where “advertising for betting (is)…embedded as actual Cricinfo content” and linked me to Cricinfo’s site map which includes a link to a betting section.

This story obviously goes far deeper than I first thought.

UPDATE #2:

People from several sites (Alternative Cricket, CricketEurope, and Deep Backward Point) popped up on Twitter and mentioned that they had been approached by betting sites regarding advertising but have turned them down. Andrew Nixon of CricketEurope went on to say that they instruct their networks not to serve betting related ads.

Finally, Alternative Cricket said that while they agree with my sentiment, they disagree with my reasons. They turn down betting related ads (for not a little amount of money) because their core audience is young people in India and they do not want to be responsible for getting a kid hooked.

Are you listening, Cricinfo? There are bloggers out there who do this for free or for very little money and they are turning down betting ads…it’s high time you did so, as well.

Today Andy Murray became the first Brit to win the Gentlemen’s singles title at Wimbledon since 1936. It was a thrilling match, I must say, from start to finish. Both players ran each other positively ragged. And if it had gone the full five sets I don’t think either player would have ever walked again.

But my favorite part of the entire match was the final game of the match, for two reasons:

1. Djokovicz was down a break, down 40-love, and facing three Championship points. All in front of a decidedly partisan home crowd at Centre Court, with the whole of Great Britain supporting his opponent.

And so most of us would have been okay with him being a bit lazy, rolling over, and just letting Murray have his moment. But he didn’t. He fought back again and again, stretching the game out to its breaking point, before finally losing.

All hope of winning was lost, but he showed a spirit and a fight back that I think we can appreciate. It gave me a very deep respect for the player.

And with the Ashes set to start on Wednesday, I do hope we get the same sort of fight from the 11 men from England and the 11 men from Australia. It will be easy, during the third Test, in the hot sun, or facing another rain delay, to not give 100% of yourself to the game. For the sake of the series, let us all hope the cricketers remember Novak’s spirit this afternoon in London.

2. For the final game of the match, the ESPN commentary team did not utter a single word. They just let the match breathe. It was perfect And something that our friendly cricket commentators could learn from. There are times, of course, when they keep quiet, but most of the time they simply drone on and on and until every space in the match is filled with white noise. And those spaces, those moments of quiet and reflection, of a player leaning on his bat in the sun, as the new bowler marks his run, as the crowd murmurs a long, those are the moments that give cricket its soul.

Now, as someone new to the game, I must say that I learn a great deal from the better commentary teams, but goodness me just shut the hell up once in a while.

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Anyway, congrats to Andy Murray. Very well played and well deserved. I find it silly that it matters so much to people where an athlete is born, but I think I might need to stop fighting that battle sooner rather than later.

Murray was born in Scotland, but he trains in Miami, and his coach is from the Czech Republic. Like all modern athletes, Murray is very much a global brand, a multi-national corporation. He has supporters the world over. Should it really matter so much that he was born in Scotland?

And when the pro-English nationalism works itself into a fervor again starting Wednesday, I hope the home fans remember that Kevin Pietersen and Jonathon Trott are South African, and that it is perfectly okay to stand proudly behind athletes that hail from a different side of a line in the sand than you do.

Okay, I’ll stop. Congrats to Andy, and congrats to Britain. Enjoy this, soak it all in.

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There has been a lot of “meh” on the Internet regarding the upcoming Ashes series – mostly revolving around the fact that Australia are in shambles, while England’s form of late can only be described as “a little better than mediocre.”

But I, for one, am excited.

And not because I am a fan of either side, or because the matches will be on Willow here in the states, but because it is a five-Test series, and we just never get those anymore.

The most recent five-Test series was England in Australia, 2010-2011, two and a half years ago. Before that it was Australia in England, summer of 2009, four years ago; and before that it England in the West Indies in late winter/early spring of 2009, four and a half years ago.

And those are the only five-Test series that have happened since I started following the sport in April of 2007 – three out of a total of 98.

Meanwhile, there have been 37 (!!) two-Test series.

And so I hope my more jaded readers allow me to geek out over the Ashes, because in my time as a cricket follower, the five Test series is a truly rare event, and one that should be paid attention to.

Five tests, 10 innings, 25 days…there is no more interesting or captivating event in sport. There are ebbs, flows, rising actions, falling actions, love stories, heroes, goats, villains…it is five, five-act Shakespearean plays spread out over six weeks, all linked together thematically and lyrically.

I can’t wait.

Just a short while ago, it was nearly impossible to watch cricket live and legally in the United States. We were forced to watch dodgy pirated streams, or highlights on YouTube, or follow the ball by ball on Cricinfo.

Oh my how much has changed.

Which is why a year or so ago I started the World Cricket Internet Schedule for US Viewers. It is exactly what it says it is: a guide as to which matches are going to be streamed legally on the Internet, where to watch them, and when (all times eastern) – specifically for those of us living in the States. And tonight I took the time to update the schedule for the entire summer, from the Tri-Nation series in the West Indies that starts this week through to the end of the Ashes – (I have yet to add the England vs Australia one-dayers, but I will get them up there soon.)

And there is a lot coming up. In fact, there will be International Cricket live and legal online for 37 of the next 60 days. That’s right, nearly two thirds of your summer could spent doing nothing but watching cricket. Sounds alright to me…

The tournaments include:

– The aforementioned Tri-Nation (West Indies, Sri Lanka, and India) series in the Caribbean
– South Africa in Sri Lanka
– India in Zimbabwe
– The Ashes

ESPN3.com will be showing the first two series, and they have really picked it up with regard to broadcasting cricket – so it must be working for them, which is great news for us fans.

Some other notes regarding the guide:

– If you are planning to take a vacation and don’t want to miss anything, the longest gap between matches is August 14th through August 20th
– Ireland has a packed International calendar – and Cricket Ireland might very well stream some of their matches online – I will get them added as I find out
– As with everything else in life, the guide is subject to change

Do check it out – and cheers!

Yesterday, during the Champions Trophy final, I received this tweet:

@limitedovers In fairness, within cricket circles the sport is already 42% laughingstock.

— Burton DeWitt (@bsd987) June 23, 2013

I am taking him out of context, as were discussing ESPN’s decision not to put the final of the Champions Trophy on television, just online, but I think his point still stands: most cricket fans (far more than 42% surely), even the most ardent ones, think cricket is a joke, a parody of itself, and yes, a laughingstock.

We all love to hate cricket. Love to poke fun at it. Love to feel all sheepish when we tell people we are cricket fans.

Yesterday was no exception.

The tournament itself was a meaningless ICC cash grab, the organizers refused to put a reserve day in the schedule so the final HAD to happen on Sunday, the match was shortened to a 20/20 but with ODI rules, and the rain turned the entire game into a farce.

But.

It was a great day for cricket.

Gary Naylor said it best:

@TestMatchSofa Even the dullest form of the game in an inconsequential tournament in a match hit by weather is still fantastic. Cricket eh?

— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) June 23, 2013

That is something we all tend to forget: it’s a great game.

Sure there are days when we all, myself included, want to call it quits as cricket supporters. The spot fixing scandals, the corruption at every level, the seemingly endless parade of meaningless and morally bankrupt T20 tournaments…

But at the end of the day, we are here for a reason: because it’s a great game. Every format brings something different to the table and has the capability to thrill and entertain.

Once the rain delays finally subsided yesterday, I found myself permanently glued to my computer screen. The game is just simply great entertainment from start to finish. Even when everything including mother nature was conspiring against yesterday’s final, it still delivered.

But maybe cricket is great to watch not in spite of the fact that it tries so hard to make us hate it, but because of that fact. Cricket is a coldhearted lover that we keep running back to. Because we think we can change them. Settle them down. Make them love us back with as much passion as we love them.

One more chance, this time it’ll be different.

Or maybe not.

Maybe the game has existed for all these years, in all these formats, on all these continents for one simple reason: it’s a great game.

Sometimes we all need to take a step back and remember while we are all here in the first place. For me, yesterday was one of those times – and I hope it was for you, too.

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One thing I did learn yesterday, was that Indian cricket supporters have their convictions, and they stand by them no matter the outcome. I knew that already to an extent but when I tweeted that India would now forgive Dhoni and Ishant after the Morgan wicket, the response was fast and furious to the contrary:

I tend to forgive the athletes on the teams I support rather quickly, but Indian cricket supporters do not. It speaks highly of their passion for the game and their team. A passion I both respect and admire.

As @fwildecricket put it yesterday, it was great to see India win, as they are “(t)he beating heart of world cricket.

I could not agree more.

Congrats to India and their supporters. And congrats to all of cricket. A great day.

On Thursday night, I watched Game 7 of the NBA Finals – well, I watched the second half anyway – and this morning I am watching the Final of the ICC Champions Trophy.

I am not going to compare and contrast the two sports – they are so diametrically different that that would be a silly and churlish exercise. Like comparing Beethoven to Katy Perry.

But I want to make a note about the fans at each game. First: the NBA.

It was Game Seven of the Finals: the Miami Heat, who for really ridiculous reasons are the NBA’s most hated franchise, against the San Antonio Spurs, who became the darling of all the neutral fans mostly because they were not the Miami Heat.

All of that added a real flavor to the game, and plus it was game seven, one of the greatest events in sport, and it was the Finals, and it was Lebron, the greatest player of his generation.

But, the fans in Miami, like all fans in the NBA, still needed to be told when to cheer. Like sheep being herded into a pen.

I mean, when your team is up by four with three minutes to play and the other team has the ball, you shouldn’t need urging from the PA Announcer and the electronic scoreboard to chant “DEE! FENSE! DEE! FENSE!”.

But NBA fans do, for some reason, and I think that is just plain dumb.

And some might say that the Miami Heat are the exception, that they have really terrible fans, and while that might be true, every NBA team prompts their fans to cheer certain ways at certain moments. The same is true in baseball, and gridiron football.

It takes all of the rock n’ roll out of sport. All of the spontaneity. And, I dare say, a great deal of the fun. It turns the fans from a living, breathing part of the game, into a group of corporate automatons.

My American friends often ask me “why cricket?” – and while the answer changes daily, today the answer is: because cricket fans don’t need to be told when to cheer and when not to.

All of that said, it was a cracking game. If the NBA was always that entertaining it would be bigger than the NFL and the Premier League combined.

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Watching the Champions Trophy this morning and I have to give credit to the fans: Edgbaston has a party-like atmosphere, despite all of the rain and start/stop nature of the game. They have been patient, engaged, and loud.

And also: 90% Indian.

When the USA Men’s Soccer team plays a home match against Mexico, or a Central or South American squad, the crowds are decidedly for their opponents – unless the game is in the northern half of the country.

But that is expected, because soccer is not that big of a deal in America, and we have a large immigrant population. But cricket was invented in England, and while they also have a large immigrant population, it does not change the fact that the game is no longer England’s…it is India’s. And the makeup of the crowd today in Birmingham is emblematic of that fact.

The future of the game lies in Southeast Asia, and not in Northwest England.

But today is today, the future is not here quite yet, and England is having a real go at India’s top order, and this might just be their day.

England beating India in a limited overs tournament final, in England, in front of decidedly Indian contingent, shows how healthy the sport really is.

**UPDATE** Of course, India ended up winning in thrilling fashion, so the sentence should read: India beating England, in England…etc.

And that’s not even mentioning that the match is being broadcast live and legal on ESPN3 here in the USA.

Despite everything, and I know most of you will disagree: it’s been a good day for cricket.