I'm happy to see what he is doing in Bloem. Technically he is not perfect (how he holds the bat and angle of bat face) but so wasn't Smith and so isn't Faf.
Even if quotas didn't exist, I think it's possible Abbott could still have made the same decision as he was competing for a spot with Steyn, Philander, Rabada, and Morkel. That's a tough bowling lineup to break into, and there was no way that he could have known that injuries would open up a spot for him.
Harmer's departure is very definitely as a result of quotas. The test spinner spot has effectively become one that needs to be filled by a non-white player otherwise it's going to cause problems trying to get the numbers right. So I don't think we'll see a white spinner play test cricket for a long time, unless they're the second spinner and have come in for one of the white quicks.
May well be. But it must be tough to know in Abbott's mind he will always be behind them no matter how well he bowls or if he is bowling better than them in a certain period like the world cup. How much love and backing are you feeling ? One of our best work-horses which will always be an under-valued skill like bowling 8 probing overs into the wind.
Been around a while though and isn't he captain of the A team?
They're probably going to have to load the T20 sides with non-white players as recent ODI sides have tended to have six white players. Although I'm not entirely certain when they start counting from - is it ever since the quotas were introduced or do they reset at the start of a new season? And if the latter, when would the new season start?
There are very few quota players in GLT20 tho
I hope they reject the Test status. FC status is fine. But would not mind the D/N here in PE.
The Sri Lanka tour wasn't really necessary. We would be sitting here with 4-tests and our traditional boxing day and new year tests. A real shame.
Yeah 6 is crazy
, they went on forever
I was just thinking about that, normally they play boxing day and then start on the 3rd of Jan at Newlands. So nothing has really changed for the worse when it comes to rest between games
YOu mean to say hosting tests in India during our proper cricket season was not necessary?
Justification for why that test is held in the first place. Apparently, wanting to have test cricket on Boxing Day was not good enough. This makes it a "first ever".
Silly really. The boxing day Test is an attraction by itself. I've been to a few with people who don't even follow cricket. People enjoy going to be apart of the festivities. I know the attendance hasn't always been fantastic so changing the format of the game to draw crowds might be the line of thinking.
It is PE though so need to give them something more than "boxing day test"... but the D/N thing should help. And there is the band!
And perhaps something more than "Boxing Day test against Zimbabwe". There could be a concern that there are a significant number of people who would have gone to see India but won't bother because it's Zimbabwe.