Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Typhoon
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Re: Sport

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Typhoon wrote:9Wq5MHIRWqQ
clear headed and incredible reflexes, hit n giggle cricket can be entertaining.
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Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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was a bright point in a dull series, poor ole west indies are not a cohesive team at the moment.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Enjoying the Ashes, noddy?

(sorry, couldn't resist. I have been around too long seeing England teams thrashed in previous series, revenge is best served cold)
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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im glad you get to experience that finally :)

like most modern australians my missus cant stand cricket but ive been sneeking a bit of watching it in before bed because the timezone difference lets me see the period before the lunch break.

the funniest part of the excuses from cricket australia about our modern batsmen being t20 orientated is that we are crap at t20 aswell!
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Torchwood wrote:Enjoying the Ashes, noddy?
Repeated without irony this time.

England can only hope that Mitchell Johnson returns to his past wayward self in Adelaide. Pitches there tend to be as alive as the Dodo, and as England's batsmen seem to be useless, I do not hold out great hope.

The great thing about the Ashes is that it is so even over the long run - each side have won 31 series each.

Aussies are gracious losers, but terrible winners. They have not learnt that condescending graciousness is far more annoying to the losing side; thought colonial cringe had gone, but apparently not. That is apart from the Trott afair, Warner, Broad and it seems Anderson are great cricketers but complete pillocks as human beings.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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the ironic part of mitchell johnson was that he had a depressive breakdown during that previous english tour due to all the abuse he copped and had to give up cricket for while, i dont seem to remember the english press handling that quite the same way.

as for the australian press, the less said the better, i can only assume both sides of the murdoch empire have decided to make this all as exciting and overblown as they can in a desperate attempt to stop crickets decline into minor irrelevance.

warner and broad are alright, they are both complete twats but its natural to them and they take it aswell as they give it, so it all good and adds a bit of spice.

davey boy is a complete bogan (chav?) and the analysis on his unfortunate interview about trott misses the fact he would speak that way about himself or anyone else without blinking. i wouldnt be surprised if his sweet talk to the missus started with "oi cvnt".

anderson on your side and both watson and faulkner on ours are cringeworthy and repulsive, different to warner or broad they are more aware of what the lines actually are and are malicious in their approach, with dummy spits and spitefulness.

as for the cricket itself, i was surprised to see your double collapse and it certainly has given the series more hope of being alive but the rest of the pitches in australia are roads, so its the next few games that will show whats really going on and whos batting is the most fragile :)

cant say im looking forward to cooks grind em out snorefest approach on these dead pitches, it would be best if australia collapses and gets it over and done with in that case.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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o_O its not working out as expected, the aussie press is going to set new standards for cringeworthyness.

bright point is that the english do droll self deprecation better than anyone so ill stick to reading that hehehe.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Johnson may be fast and intimidating, but England were abominable. And how come Nathan Lyon can get the ball to spin and Swanny and Panesar can't? I am not sure I will watch any more, it's too painful.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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johnson is spraying it round as much as he ever did, cricket is funny like that, its all down to ignoring the ones that arent going to hit the stumps and the english are usually masters of that, cook is way out of form.

i really cant see him as that fast either, 140 to 145 with a occasional effort balls hitting 150 is pretty much bog standard australian fast bowler, traditionally thats not been considered scary fast, times have changed.

shame pattinson and cummins are broken down, they really can get it over 150 and with much more accuracy.

least you guys finally had some good performances, carberry and root both impressed.

must say i am looking forward to the WACA and really hope its the fast and furious version and not the flat and hot version, it makes for explosive bowling and explosive batting, warner can go off like gilchrist if the gods are smiling.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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no gloating from me, it was kind of sad towards the end.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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good news for the afghan refugees in pakistan and india who played cricket to fill in their time, they have made it to the final 10 of the hit-n-giggle (*) t20 world cup, which is an amazing display of punching well above your weight.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-world-t ... 81787.html
When Afghanistan have a good day on the field, there is something magical about it. They already inhabit a special place in cricket history, but their days aren't magic just because of history, it is the way they play and this almost preternatural feeling that on some days, nothing can stop them. Like the spirit of cricket is real, interventional and a member of their team.

Today was one of those days.
(*) unlike most sports cricket comes in 3 different flavours, t20 is the newest and shortest of them and breaks the cliches of cricket being a long, slow moving game, its all over in 2.5 hrs.
in comparison one day cricket takes 6-8hrs and test cricket takes 5 days and 30 or more hours.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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for some odd reason they are showing australian domestic cricket on american tv this year.

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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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ABC | The Ashes: Australia beats England by an innings and 41 runs at the WACA to seal series victory

As I understand it, winning "The Ashes" is big deal in the sport of cricket.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Typhoon wrote:ABC | The Ashes: Australia beats England by an innings and 41 runs at the WACA to seal series victory

As I understand it, winning "The Ashes" is big deal in the sport of cricket.
its not a big deal in cricket per se - its the derby between england and australia so is importantish to those 2 countries, other countries mostly ignore it

this year was terrible, 15 days into the 25 day competition and england folded :/
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Aussies confess to tampering their balls
In an extraordinary news conference after the day’s play, Smith and Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft confessed to a plan to use sand stuck to tape to alter the condition of the ball in an effort to produce more swing
Wot?
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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its huge - biggest scandal of australian sport for a very long time, quite likely to bring down the team.

long story still long (hey its cricket!) is that the ball in cricket is not replaced like it is in other sports and deteriorates "naturally" (cough cough) over the game.

as the ball degrades it becomes easier for the bowlers (pitchers) to do funky things in the air or off the ground.

all teams cheat by throwing the ball at rough ground, wiping suntan lotion on it, etc etc but this is hard to prove so rarely penalised..

we got caught with sandpaper in our pockets and now the lavender has hit the fan - more long story is that some teams like pakistan have constantly been caught cheating on this and australia has always played the high moral ground, pretending we dont do it.

chickens, roost, pot kettle black, etc.

https://www.ausport.gov.au/news/asc_new ... an_cricket
Australian Sports Commission Chair John Wylie, the ASC Board and CEO Kate Palmer make the following statement in relation to events overnight concerning the Australian cricket team.

The ASC condemns cheating of any form in sport. The ASC expects and requires that Australian teams and athletes demonstrate unimpeachable integrity in representing our country.

The Australian cricket team are iconic representatives of our country. The example they set matters a great deal to Australia and to the thousands of young Australians playing or enjoying the sport of cricket and who look up to the national team as role models.

Given the admission by Australian captain Steve Smith, the ASC calls for him to be stood down immediately by Cricket Australia, along with any other members of the team leadership group or coaching staff who had prior awareness of, or involvement in, the plan to tamper with the ball.

This can occur while Cricket Australia completes a full investigation.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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I read up on baseball ball altering and it appears suspiciously simmilar range of tactics :) - roughing one side (light and fluffy) and/or polishing the other side (heavy and shiny) and bingo, ball moves in the air.

main difference in this type of cricket is the ball has to last ~500 deliveries so subtle things that take ~100 deliveries to work are pretty much standard practice... unless you are caught.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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right. And modern baseball has *almost* obviated all the old tricks by swapping out balls like candy. 7 tosses per ball now, unless it hits the ground- and it almost always pulled out of circulation. Guys like Joe Niekro and Gaylord Perry, even though it was only thirty years ago, may as well have pitched during the deadball era.

I saw that Steve Smith broke down in tears while apologizing.

That was not a reaction I was expecting to see.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:right. And modern baseball has *almost* obviated all the old tricks by swapping out balls like candy. 7 tosses per ball now, unless it hits the ground- and it almost always pulled out of circulation. Guys like Joe Niekro and Gaylord Perry, even though it was only thirty years ago, may as well have pitched during the deadball era.
tedious detail warning.

the cricket ball has a single pronounced seam and this creates "natural" swing in the air for the first ~50 deliveries as skillful bowlers with good wrist flicks and perfect ball spin and alignment can create aerodynamics using it - it will also deviate off the ground due to that seam creating a perfect storm of ball movement.

then the seam flattens out and the ball becomes dead, which is when the batsmen stop struggling and start smashing... until the tampering kicks in.

this dynamic of ball in control, then bat in control, then ball in control again due to cough cough tampering, followed by the totally dead ball at the end that leaves the bat in control is the heartbeat of the long game.

they dont have any scope for changing the ball without ruining it all.
NapLajoieonSteroids wrote: I saw that Steve Smith broke down in tears while apologizing.

That was not a reaction I was expecting to see.
the cynical are saying that waking up in the morning and realising you have ruined alteast 10 million per annum in salary and sponsorships is enough to make the strongest man cry.

the less cynical are saying that international cricket in australia operates on different levels to all other countries and sports in that the leadership worked out that traditional sports are dying and if you dont capture the next generation of young families - the mums and the kids - the sport will keep fading away.

they have put alot of effort in to changing the sport from a mans past time into family friendly and he has dropped a turd into that punchbowl, this means he has listened to many many lectures on just how hard he has screwed his future and he is quite a sensitive soul .. possibly to the extent of being slightly autistic :P

he truly was a phenomenal player - regular guys average 35-45, legends of the game averaage 50-55 and he was averaging over 60 at the time of the incident - once in a lifetime stuff.

the other main guy didnt cry or worry about it much - he is likely to just quit international cricket and join the gladiator circuit playing in the local t20 comps around the world and making even more money than he did before.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

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I believe baseball also has the myth of cloud cover/humidity causing more ball movement despite the protestations of the physicists.

the rest is all quite well documented now but professional bowlers and batsmen still maintain the myth is real and have done so for years.

some do say its because the temperatures and stillness are just right for the bowler to put the extra effort in that puts more tweek on the ball.
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