Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

[noddy]

Babe Ruth and Jimmy Anderson agree on quite a bit.

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[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Babe Ruth and Jimmy Anderson agree on quite a bit.

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It's a shame they pulled that babe ruth clip; I was going to point out the little archaisms in there.

[noddy]

If i pulled up 3 videos from 3 famous swing bowlers, each would have a different claim as to which part of the action was the most important - many highlight different wrist angles much more than this guy, who is a textbook swing bowler with the classic approach that they teach kids.

the tension - and I believe baseball must have the same thing - is between differences which cause more swing and differences which are easily spotted by the batsmen.

Jimmy is famous for all his deliveries looking much the same and tricking them by it behaving differently, as opposed to another guy who might swing it wildly but its mostly obvious which delivery he is doing.

[Nonc Hilaire]

So why is it called cricket?

[noddy]

I had no idea, wiki suggests their is a bunch of old european words for sticks from the english/dutch/french that sorta sound right.

A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest definite reference, it was spelled creckett. The name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, or the French word criquet meaning a wooden post.[3] The Middle Dutch word krickstoel means a long low stool used for kneeling in church; this resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.[7] According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase").[8]

It is more likely that the terminology of cricket was based on words in use in south-east England at the time and, given trade connections with the County of Flanders, especially in the 15th century when it belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, many Middle Dutch[9] words found their way into southern English dialects.[10]

what is interesting is how the first cricket bats look exactly like hockey sticks, as do the first golf clubs.

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so, somewhere back in the dim dark past is a proto type game with a bent stick and wooden ball that turned into golf, hockey , cricket and baseball.

the scots turning it into a slow walking, solo sport like golf says something about the scots

[Nonc Hilaire]

I would have guessed croquet or croquettes.

[noddy]

I would have guessed croquet or croquettes.

both words which seem to come from that same yeh olde european word group.

I looked up croquet, it also used to use a hockey stick type thing !

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

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[noddy]

interesting analysis.

most of us spectators have loved this resurgence of bowler dominated test cricket, that period in the early 2000's in which it was batting dominated you didnt bother watching the whole game, just kept half an eye on the score until someone got out, then paid attention until the new guy either got out or settled in.

now, the game is in flux all the time and a good bowler can tear the other team apart, its much more riveting viewing.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

What of the casual fan?

I imagine some of the complaining, which I only sort of grasp, is commercial related; and a large portion of it is "back in my day" complaining.

[noddy]

casual fans dont watch a lot of test cricket - its the 5 day format for tragics,

casuals generally watch that 2hr format , T20 which most of the posts have been about and thats very batter orientated and focused on a dead pitch, with a dead ball that leave the bowlers quite neutered.

this actually is another part of why test bowling is so much better now - the bowlers have been forced to develop extra tricks and skills trained in the format which punishes them, so they end up over powered when the ball and pitch have life in them.

the commerical aspect is complicated - the TV and venue hates the 5 day games finishing in 3, but the game is more alive and generating more excitement in the hard core fans.

test cricket is an absurdity - 6hrs of play during an 8hr day for 5 days and results are not garunteed , draws are common on dead pitches or bad bowling teams.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

RIP Shane Warne

[noddy]

not a huge shock in the sense of him being a party animal that burnt the candle from both ends and in the middle - his lifestyle was the text book method for heart attacks.

yet still a huge shock, a once in a century player that changes how the game is played, takes a dead style of play from the pre professional past and make it vital part of the modern game.

nobody had bowled slow back of the hand for decades before he made it compulsory - everybody has a wrist spinner now and they all copy him.

people that hated watching cricket would stop and watch him - he knew the game was a public performance and he milked every moment of it like a theatre performer.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

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[NapLajoieonSteroids]

To this outsider, T-20 is a lot more accessible so far.

I've had trouble selling it to other baseball fans.

[noddy]

I love Wagner, he is , as the video suggests, a real character.

in baseball terms, he spends most of his time in one corner of the legal strike zone (maybe up near the armpits?) - on the edge of getting called no ball for it, but mostly getting away with it.

even tho the batters are expecting it, they just arent used to it, so make mistakes.

[noddy]

To this outsider, T-20 is a lot more accessible so far.

I cant imagine anyone that wasnt born into it getting into test cricket - the only folks who might are ones trapped in a room full of indians or anglosphere types who keep it on the TV all the time and dont have any choice.

unless you have played the game , that second level of enjoyment isnt there and 5 days of ups and downs and subtle drama is a huge commitment.

I've had trouble selling it to other baseball fans.

yeh, most cricket fans go into a parochial knee jerk on baseball, I cant see it being much different - they are too simmilar to be enjoyed as seperate sports I spose and the fans just worry one growing means the other shrinking.

[noddy]

for cricket tragics, the problem with T20 is it doesnt have alot of ebb and flow - a team either executes its plans or it loses.

so a game that isnt a close game tends towards being a blowout - the close games however are really good and everybody is operating at the edge of their skill levels

in test, you can have one team down in the dumps, losing for 2 days, then a series of dramatic events brings them back into the game and they win - its very hard to know who is really winning sometimes until the 4th or 5th day, even the last ball of the last over.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

What is the deal with the wicket keeper? Does he call pitch selection? Is a team somehow penalized if the ball passes him without contact?

[noddy]

What is the deal with the wicket keeper? Does he call pitch selection?

best catcher, super fit so he can do squats non stop all day and take soccer goalie style jumping catches,

pitch selection in the minutea is usually left to the bowlers instinct, or the experienced bowler positioned next to him for such a purpose.

pitch selection in general is pre-planned with video sessions on each batsmen and their weakness, and each plan of attack will have a different field setting the captain will deploy, which sends a signal to the bowler which types of pitch are wanted for this moment in time - generally their is a choice between 2 or 3 possible pitches that make sense against the field chosen, which keeps the batsman guessing.

the keeper can notice things the others dont see, and raise it with the captain - if its interesting enough they will discuss the new plan with the bowler.

Is a team somehow penalized if the ball passes him without contact?

their is a 2 page answer to this that covers all the gory details - the short answer is yes, if the ball runs to the boundary it is a 4 , and if it falls short, but far enough from a fielder to allow it, normal runs can be taken, these are not registered as runs for the batsmen but runs against the fielding team called "extras" .. for which the keeper is usually held responsible.

gory terminology includes wides, byes, leg byes and dead balls for various technical details on the nature of the keeper missing the ball.

[noddy]

India, the land of slow bowlers has its first proper tearaway quick 95+ mph guy in the modern era, its going to be interesting to see how he goes.





the current series between Aus and Pak is one of the most boring in memory, dead pitches, low energy batting, the sort of thing that even test cricket tragics complain about.

one bright side has been occaisional moments of brilliance, like this Starc hitting the stumps behind a confused batsman who doesnt know where it went.

the batsman is in full boredom mode - putting both legs and the cricket bat out in front of the stumps, and not trying to hit the ball, just bunt it carefully, with zero risk of getting out.

the ball is delivered with the outswing action, but swings in - "reverse swing", then jags off in the opposite direction off the ground.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

What's the penalty if the bowler sprints in but doesn't actually release the ball?

[noddy]

their are legitimate reasons for the batter or the bowler to pull out of a delivery - an insect to the face, or a bit of rubbish/spectator moving in the eyeline.

the "spirit" of the game also allows an occaisional pullout for a brain fade and some bowlers and batters will exploit this to put the other off - including tit for tat moments in which they both do it after it eachother.

if the umpire decides this is tactical and not real - they will punish the offender with a run penalty (5?) and warn them they might get ejected if it continues.

doesnt happen very often - the gamesmanship of doing it once or twice at a critical moment is well established and nobody pushes it beyond that as a rule.

if it was near the end of the game and the batting team needed to get some big hits in to win, and Warne was bowling, 100% chance he would break his delivery at a critical moment, smile and apologise.

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their is another can of worms with the non striking batsman running from his side befor/during the delivery stride and if he is allowed to be run out by the bowler breaking his delivery.

traditionalists (Eng/Aus) say they cant because nobody wants to see people get out that way and it ruins the game.
ruthless modernists (India mainly) say yes, the non striker is cheating and its the bowlers right to stop them.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

[NapLajoieonSteroids]