General Cricket Thread ...

[prasen9]

Fantastic catch, Rajiv! A video to be saved forever for your family!

[prasen9]

The ICC is thinking of putting a limit on bat sizes. Is this really required? The logic is that they want a fair balance between bat and ball. If so, then maybe just put the limit for test matches. For LOIs, if you want to make the contest more fair, reduce some of the restrictions on the bowlers.

[prasen9]

An interesting article on pacing an innings in T20s: T20s getting set You just cannot afford 20 balls to get set. You have to hit from the beginning. I would like someone try a strategy of treating the first 10 overs as a slog over. Or at least maintaining the run rate right from the word go. This is why Dhoni is so often using up so many balls and then getting out without finishing things. He has not really figured out how to pace a T20 innings. Kohli is sometimes slow at the beginning too. Raina has the right tempo for T20s, imho. This is sort of the problem of having Dravid "use up the hot water" issue that we used to discuss before. It is just more acute now in T20s because the resources are so less.

[prasen9]

I grew up with a great cricketing dynasty. The great West Indies teams from 1978 to 1995. That pretty much coincided with when I started watching/following cricket as a child until I was a young adult. Then, Australia took over from 1995 to about 2009. India and South Africa, since then, have looked as if ready to take over and then faltered back. I used to think the next cricketing dynasty will emerge. But, it has now been about 8 years. Has cricketing balance changed fundamentally with coaches working in different countries, etc.? Or is this some random hiatus and a dynasty will emerge and reign over a decade soon?

[prasen9]

This De Kock guy is shaping up to be Gilchrist's worthy successor. Maybe even more consistent! And he is a phenomenal athlete.

Of course, the best batsman to keep wickets was Andy Flower. I thought for some time Prior or Sangakarra could have risen to Gilchrist levels wrt batting (while playing as a keeper). Sanga, of course, flourished with the bat even more but that was after he gave up his keeping. As a keeper-bat, Flower and Gilchrist were the supremes. Now, we are seeing De Kock rise to those levels.

[Sin Hombre]

T20 leagues and increased usage of statistics does make it harder for one team to consistently dominate.

QdK needs to move up the batting lineup for SA; he is their best batsman and should be coming in at #4.

[prasen9]

Agree. But, only if AB De Villiers is not playing.

And pitches seem to be more doctored these days. We have not seen a spinning pitch in Sydney in a long time while the white countries and WI have.

I think cricket should do away with the toss. Let the home team doctor the pitch as much as they want but let the opposition choose whether to bat or bowl first. We will have more fun.

[prasen9]

Bangladesh has surprisingly (or not so much) become competitive with the smaller countries (WI, SL) now. I guess it takes about 100 tests for a team to mature.

[Observer]

This De Kock guy is shaping up to be Gilchrist's worthy successor. Maybe even more consistent! And he is a phenomenal athlete.

Of course, the best batsman to keep wickets was Andy Flower. I thought for some time Prior or Sangakarra could have risen to Gilchrist levels wrt batting (while playing as a keeper). Sanga, of course, flourished with the bat even more but that was after he gave up his keeping. As a keeper-bat, Flower and Gilchrist were the supremes. Now, we are seeing De Kock rise to those levels.

Sangakarra > Dhoni ~ Gilchrist
Andy Flower unfortunately never got to play enough so I wouldnt compare him to the rest.

If you dont want to consider Sanga because he flourished after he stopped keeping wicket. I would still pick Dhoni over Gilly. They are similar in batting impact. Dhoni is more valuable because of the captaincy skills and is also definitely a better finisher.

[Observer]

Actually AB de Villiers is better than everyone mentioned above except perhaps Sanga. But then again he wasnt always playing as a WK just like Sanga.

[prasen9]

Actually AB de Villiers is better than everyone mentioned above except perhaps Sanga. But then again he wasnt always playing as a WK just like Sanga.

That is partially correct. de Villiers has performed the best while playing as a wicket-keeper in tests. I think he played about 25-27 tests as a keeper and averaged around 57. Sanga averaged much lower when he was playing as a keeper. Flower averaged around 53 while keeping in about 55 tests.

[Observer]

Averages have inflated overall quite a bit in the last 5-6 years so I dont like comparing averages across eras. This is still relevant because the averages in test cricket are not affected as much as they are in ODIs

[prasen9]

Averages in ODIs have inflated because of stupid rule changes by the ICC about the number of fielders outside and inside the circle, and power-plays, and no-ball power-plays and what not. In test matches, things should not have gone up that much. If anything more matches have results, it seems. That would indicate lower averages. Let me check the numbers.

[prasen9]

The ICC today rejected India's demand for 570 million $. They are offering $400 million. The Indian board should just break away from the ICC, make deals with individual nations with lucrative payouts to the stronger nations, pay significantly more to the top umpires, and just implement its own bilateral tours. They can negotiate individually with each nation how much they will accept to tour India and manage the rest of the money. The sooner a racist organization such as the ICC dies the better it is. I hope the BCCI will show some spine and just get out of the ICC.

(I know I am possibly in the minority here wrt this opinion.)

[Observer]

I dont know enough to be able to have an informed opinion. I remember reading somewhere that the English and Australian boards have valuations approximately half that of the BCCI. So It might be safe to assume that

value(All Boards - BCCI) significantly > BCCI

In which case it might not be easy to pull that off. Also it might be bad for the game of cricket which might ultimately lead to a net loss for BCCI.
Does BCCI actually have a way of asserting dominance here?