Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
As some of you may have noticed one of the things that really pisses me off in England is the media having such a huge influence on things such as sport and politics. Journalists are generally a bunch of clueless morons who should have no input in anything of even remote importance.
My main early memories of cricket come from the late 1990s, the whimsical selection policies. Players in and out of the side. Back then it felt like more of an old boys network, with limited influence from the media - the management were weak enough to be taken in but the media was more interested in football most of the time anyway. In the last decade it seemed to me the media have increasingly trying to select the side, piling pressure on to players they didn't like for whatever reason. Fortunately Duncan Fletcher didn't seem to take much notice and now Andy Flower seems to be similar in that regard.
What irritates me now is we seem to have evolved to the point where numpties on Cricinfo are trying to impose their nonsense onto the consciousness of millions. Their pinup boy Ravi Bopara only has to pick his nose and strike gold and he'll be on the front page. Recently I've seen some total bollocks written about T20. An article I read in the last few days wrote how the bowlers input shouldn't be reduced in ODIs and become a batting exhibition like T20 (did they watch the ODI World Cup in India?!?) - just after an IPL where Narine, Steyn had huge impacts and the current world champions dominated because of their bowling attack, consistently limiting teams to 140-150. We have commentators (see the current SL v Pakistan ODI match) presenting their T20 hatred as fact.
With Cricinfo's financial clout these days I'm increasingly worried about their influence on the game. I don't expect individuals to be impartial but there seem to be persistent themes. Bopara, Hating T20 whilst still kissing up to the IPL as they employ many of the BCCI lackeys as writers. They are far too political.
My main early memories of cricket come from the late 1990s, the whimsical selection policies. Players in and out of the side. Back then it felt like more of an old boys network, with limited influence from the media - the management were weak enough to be taken in but the media was more interested in football most of the time anyway. In the last decade it seemed to me the media have increasingly trying to select the side, piling pressure on to players they didn't like for whatever reason. Fortunately Duncan Fletcher didn't seem to take much notice and now Andy Flower seems to be similar in that regard.
What irritates me now is we seem to have evolved to the point where numpties on Cricinfo are trying to impose their nonsense onto the consciousness of millions. Their pinup boy Ravi Bopara only has to pick his nose and strike gold and he'll be on the front page. Recently I've seen some total bollocks written about T20. An article I read in the last few days wrote how the bowlers input shouldn't be reduced in ODIs and become a batting exhibition like T20 (did they watch the ODI World Cup in India?!?) - just after an IPL where Narine, Steyn had huge impacts and the current world champions dominated because of their bowling attack, consistently limiting teams to 140-150. We have commentators (see the current SL v Pakistan ODI match) presenting their T20 hatred as fact.
With Cricinfo's financial clout these days I'm increasingly worried about their influence on the game. I don't expect individuals to be impartial but there seem to be persistent themes. Bopara, Hating T20 whilst still kissing up to the IPL as they employ many of the BCCI lackeys as writers. They are far too political.
