Liam Cromar
Why we need in-game penalties for slow over rates
If the paying public isn't to feel short-changed, administrators need to consider effective ways of disciplining teams
Liam Cromar
02-Aug-2016
It's easy to dismiss complaints about slow over rates as the grumblings of a few non-representative malcontents. It's probably also true that many spectators are not bothered - at least not beyond brief shoulder-shrugging. Corruption, dead pitches, and (mis-) governance are certainly more pressing issues. Yet that isn't to say it's not a problem that shouldn't be fixed.
The way Tests are marketed works against spectators realising their loss. One is encouraged to buy a ticket for a day, not for the minimum number of overs scheduled for the day. The overs lost are almost imperceptible, unless one is keeping an eye on the progress. Even when overs are lost, the percentage of cricket reduced seems trivial. Three overs out of 90, the number that England failed to bowl on the first day at Lord's against Pakistan, is a mere 3.33%. Much ado about nothing?
A moment's consideration will, however, reveal the unacceptability of such short-changing. Would, for example, all in attendance at a football match be content if the players downed tools after 87 minutes? Would cinema-goers put up with the last four minutes of a two-hour film being chopped off? Would the audience applaud were an orchestra to pack up without playing the last few bars of the symphony?
Full postThe five-step model for Pakistan fans
It's hard not to be moved by a team that gives equal parts joy and sorrow, and is never for a moment dull
Liam Cromar
16-Jul-2016
No team stirs the emotions like Pakistan.
That's speaking as a neutral observer, or even a nominal opponent. There's no international team so capable of regularly provoking sentiment of every shade, from the wildly positive to the crushingly negative.
The path is well-trodden, sometimes in the space of a tour, or even a day's play. Indeed, so familiar are the feelings that I wonder whether one could come up with a universal model for followers of Pakistani cricket. Something along the lines of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' famous Five Stages of Grief, perhaps: Denial-Anger-Bargaining-Depression-Acceptance. Maybe this: Awe-Anger-Amusement-Despair-Respect.
Awe is the most natural reaction to witnessing the performance of Pakistan's bowlers, in particular. The bowlers have done their best to put the lie to the idea that cricket is a batsman's game - and what a best it has been. In England alone, they have stunned. Wasim and Waqar's surgical strikes in 1992. Shoaib Akhtar's ruthless pace in the 1999 World Cup. Amir and Asif wiping out Australia in 2010.
Full postHow super is the Super Series?
Is the splitting of points across formats in a series a good idea? Not quite, given the way it's being implemented
Liam Cromar
20-Jun-2016
Good administrators copy, great administrators steal. Does that make Andrew Strauss a great director, England Cricket, or merely a good one, with reference to the new-fangled Super Series, where points from games played across formats count towards the final scoreline? Since we're doling out points, he gets a few for paying tribute to the inspiration: "we've seen it done before, in women's cricket. I think it's been successful there."
Being ahead of the curve is nothing new for the women's game, which has determined to boldly go where the men's game has not - perhaps most notably in the case of the first World Cup. Forty-three years later, we may shortly see another attempt to take a successful idea from women's cricket and use it to address problems in the men's game, with news that the ICC is considering a 13-team ODI league tied to World Cup qualification.
In the case of ODIs, such a system is long overdue. While men's ODIs currently have some impact on qualification for the 50-over Champions Trophy and World Cup, through the ranking system, the fact that each country does not play the same number of ODIs in a given time frame as another makes a mockery of the situation. This was seen most acutely around the cut-off point for qualification for the 2017 Champions Trophy*: when Bangladesh's sustained upward surge pushed West Indies outside the top eight, there was much discussion of the possibility that West Indies, Zimbabwe and Pakistan would play a tri-series, leaving open the possibility of a late rankings boost. What a relief that it did not take place. A couple of poor Zimbabwe performances could have quickly prompted talk of backhanders, and had West Indies qualified, there would have been understandable backlash from the ousted Bangladesh.
Full postThank God it's not the Ashes
A year without England v Australia contests makes for a nice change of pace
Liam Cromar
19-May-2016
Can one desire too much of a good thing? If the recent history of the England and Australian cricket teams is anything to go by, then yes, a thousand times - which is coincidentally the number of times England have played Australia in the last 20 years.
At least that's how it feels. Calling England-Australia too much of a good thing seems unnecessarily kind. Though England-Australia contests are able to call on unmatched levels of context, possibly only rivalled in that regard by India-Pakistan, the cricket itself has all too often sunk under the whelm.
By the end of the last Ashes, many cricket lovers were burnt out with Ashes fatigue. It's not just the Ashes: across all formats, the recent exploitation of the golden goose of England v Australia warrants the intervention of the RSPCA. For out of the last 20 calendar years, only in 2008 did the two sides avoid meeting in any competition, whether Test series, ODI World Cup, one-off T20, or otherwise.
Full postWhat is nets?
Practice can mean a whole lot of things
Liam Cromar
27-Apr-2016
As philosophical questions go, "What is nets?" perhaps doesn't rank alongside "What is the purpose of life?", "Is there a God?", or "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Nonetheless, despite the familiarity of net sessions to virtually every club cricketer, the newcomer's query deserved a fair response. Where could one start? A few possible definitions presented themselves.
Nets is a foreign country: they do things differently there. Indeed, could batting in nets be much further removed from batting in the middle? No fielders; a different bowler every ball; no consequences for aerial shots. For sure, there is great value in being able to bat and bowl outside match constraints - but hidden dangers lurk for the unwary.
Indeed, nets is a great pretender. Indoor net conditions, in particular, frequently bear little resemblance to what the players will encounter a few weeks hence. The true, lightning-quick bounce is ready to trip up any incautious player down the line. Bowlers who have felt like Joel Garner will abruptly discover their back-of-a-length thunderbolts grounded by the soft surface, miserably lifting a matter of inches rather than feet. On the plus side for them, chances are that the batsman will still mistime it, since for the past six weeks he's been crashing every net delivery through cover, timing every shot without the need for the merest hint of finesse. Forget spring being a time of growth: many a batsman has found the width of his bat to miraculously shrink on the seaming tracks of early May.
Full postThe problem with West Indies' siege mentality
We've heard that it's them against the world, but is it really that way?
Liam Cromar
07-Apr-2016
In March, an Englishman made an ill-judged comment about the West Indies cricket team. It was by no means the focus of his discourse - a throwaway remark, indeed - but it was nevertheless a careless statement. It comes back to haunt him as West Indies use it to motivate themselves for an unexpected triumph.
The man, of course, was Colin Graves, the year was 2015, and the offending word was "mediocre". A West Indies rearguard to save the first Test against England, followed by victory in the third, ensured that the series was shared 1-1 - an impressive achievement, almost as sweet as an outright victory for a weakened squad.
Move on to another incident. Again, it's March; again, a notable figure makes some unwise comments about West Indies; again, West Indies, gripped by a remarkable rage, clinch an emphatic victory, with two balls to spare in a high-stakes World T20 clash.
Full postDoes sledging drive people away from the recreational game?
It would be illogical to say it is the sole reason, but it definitely contributes - and that's a pity
Liam Cromar
21-Mar-2016
"The easiest and most effective line to draw in the sand is to tackle any remark that is made about the other side."
This recent suggestion by Mark Williams, the MCC Laws of Cricket Advisor and Middlesex Premier League umpire, in a recent issue of the Association of Cricket Officials' newsletter, will no doubt prompt a variety of reactions. From umpires: scepticism about the practicality of enforcing such a standard. From players, especially long-time ones: something approaching derision, for is not banter, verbal sparring, even choice invective, a traditional part of the fabric of cricket?
Such appeal to the status quo is expected, and also unconvincing. Sledging, in its myriad forms, may have been a part of the game in its recent and indeed not-so-recent history. It does not follow that is either an inherent or desirable facet. It should be evident that what may have been acceptable in years gone by does not automatically equate to being so today.
Full postIndoor cricket at the Olympics?
If the collisions don't leave you befuddled, the rules will
Liam Cromar
29-Feb-2016
Cricket dependency can be a pitiful sight to behold. While club cricketers with a second sport to fall back on can normally function during the winter months as contented and even useful members of their community, it's a different matter for those for whom cricket is the one and only. The prospect of having to survive till spring without a cricket fix can, in the most serious cases, prove an almost unbearable burden.
Not surprising, then, that some committed souls seize on any possibility of feeding the cricket habit during the off season in the vain hope of maintaining a semblance of form and thus, come April, "hitting the ground running". Come to that, any sort of metaphorical forward movement would be desirable - jogging, walking, or even crawling.
Nets are the most common manifestation of this relatively harmless intent. Why stop, though, at mere net practice? Why not go one step further and get match practice? While your bitter rivals in Next Village CC slumber in front of the log fire, why not steal a march on them, turning out on Sunday evenings to hone team skills, mental and technical, in the "pressure-cooker situation" of games held in cavernous draughty leisure centres, fielding "tracer bullet" straight drives off the zero-absorption rock-hard playing surface?
Full postThe mark Chanderpaul left on me
His retirement has not only marked the end of an era in batting, it marks for some of us the snapping of the final link to childhood
Liam Cromar
09-Feb-2016
Chanderpaul. Even the name has a slight ungainliness about its three syllables. It does not have the flowing seductiveness of "Lara". You can try and smooth it by softening the ch- to the sh of champagne, of shimmy, of chassé. But within my head it is Tony Cozier's distinctive tch- that marks its ground, that hunches slightly, that frowns and knuckles down: this name means to stay. The ch- of chisel. Of charge. Of champion.
Wait: champion? Too brash a word for Shiv, surely, but he was just that: indeed, he was the highest scorer for West Indies in their triumphant 2004 Champions Trophy final, and averaged 63.50 across their four matches in that competition.
To state the obvious, with Chanderpaul it was always the stance rather than the shots that stuck in the memory. Yet his stance, the development of which Christian Ryan has done a superb job of chronicling, would have remained a mere quirk, destined to be only occasionally recalled and derided, had it not been allied to such consistent, near-phenomenal success.
Full postWhat do you call an allrounder in club cricket?
Nomenclature is tricky business, particularly when you aren't in the upper echelons of the game
Liam Cromar
23-Jan-2016
"So what do you do? Bat, bowl?" A question to new faces that rings out across the land on pavilion steps, in sweaty changing rooms, and around the slip cradle; one that I've both posed and been asked many a time. Theoretically both interrogator and respondent have the same interest: ensuring the captain has best knowledge of the team. As a captain, you want a simple, honest answer: an objective description of abilities, calibrated to the standard of play in today's game: "I bowl seam-up, skip, normally first change, sometimes manage to bring the ball in a bit. Can swing the bat but don't expect me to hang around at the crease - normally bat eight in the Worcester League - div two, that is." Preferably an A5 printout detailing recent performances, batting and bowling averages for the last three seasons, and comprehensive assessments from two ECB-qualified coaches would be helpful.
Funnily enough, this doesn't tend to be provided. As a newcomer, you have both a desire to contribute what you can to the team, and the fear of letting the team down by conceding 34 from the final over. Better not over-egg your abilities, so there usually is, at best, a definite ruling out of one discipline: "More of a batsman, really. Don't worry about giving me a bowl, it'll end badly." More common is a weak, self-decrying suggestion of indiscriminate ineptitude across all departments - "Don't mind where I bat, can turn my arm over if you want, don't expect too much, haha… well sort of medium pace really, try and get it in the right areas…" - which, unfortunately, doesn't really help anyone, leaving the captain as much in the dark as he/she was at first. "Something of an allrounder then, eh?" says the skipper, fishing for information while trying to sound complimentary.
Oh, help. No. No. Definitely not. Allrounder is the worst possible label, implying as it does proficiency across the board - the exact opposite of the lack of talent that should be inferred. This suggestion must be rejected at all costs.
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