Cricket stuff that doesn't deserve its own thread

[Burgey]

That test team really shows the lack of consistent output by openers of late. Not bagging the blokes who've been picked, but I can't recall as poor a set of stats out of openers as a group for a long time.

 

[Daemon]

Did they always use calendar years? I seem to recall there always being confusion over the time period considered. This is much more straightforward.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah they used to mark the year off in September before the SH season started, then release it in January anyway.

 

[Daemon]

Yeah, dumb wasn't it.

Looking back at the thread ankit just bumped, it used to cut off in August. Why they needed 4 months to figure out the XI is beyond me.

 

[Starfighter]

For anyone (mostly just *****) who thinks that umpires' reluctance or inability for whatever reason to call no-balls with consistency when they occur (for example with Sandakan against England) is unimportant, well it can and indeed has been even without accounting for wickets which may have fallen off them. In the 1st Sl vs Aus test in 1992 SL overstepped 71 times, of which 34 of the 46 in the second innings and 19 of the 25 in the first innings were not scored from (attracting the one run penalty under the rules of the time). Australia, so far as I can ascertain, only overstepped 15 times. Since Australia's winning margin was only 16 runs it's pretty clear that the consistent, called no-balls from the Sri Lankans were absolutely vital to Australia winning the match.

 

[TheJediBrah]

For anyone (mostly just *****) who thinks that umpires' reluctance or inability for whatever reason to call no-balls with consistency when they occur (for example with Sandakan against England) is unimportant, well it can and indeed has been even without accounting for wickets which may have fallen off them. In the 1st Sl vs Aus test in 1992 SL overstepped 71 times, of which 34 of the 46 in the second innings and 19 of the 25 in the first innings were not scored from (attracting the one run penalty under the rules of the time). Australia, so far as I can ascertain, only overstepped 15 times. Since Australia's winning margin was only 16 runs it's pretty clear that the consistent, called no-balls from the Sri Lankans were absolutely vital to Australia winning the match.

but the technology to automate it doesn't exist and never will so what are you going to do?

 

[cnerd123]

Starfighter leading the charge in the new breed of waaaahing Australians I see.

Tangentially related though - I've been speaking to one of the umpires at the recent Thailand T20 Smash - a 10 team Associate Women's T20I tournament that just recently concluded. The amount of work expected of them is insane. I think it would be good if the ICC could hire specific admin staff to handle the paperwork and other administrative tasks that the Umpires and Match Referees are expected to handle. Just free them up to focus solely on officiating the game.

But hiring more staff costs more money and adds more complexity to hosting an event. Also got to think about how are you going to train up and qualify this admin staff. And how are they going to get experience outside of ICC events - atleast umpires regularly get experience at smaller local events, albeit with less admin work. Rarely a simple answer for any of these things.

 

[Starfighter]

I think the only person 'waaaahing' here is you matey.

 

[cnerd123]

You're the one having a moan about Dharmasena getting ICC Umpire of the year?

I told you there is more to umpiring than on field decision making. Maybe try wrapping your head around why that is? You don't have to like it to understand it.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

I suppose they go off between deliveries to fill in paperwork or something

 

[OverratedSanity]

Tbf, I don't think Dharmasena has been all that poor recently. He's no Simon Taufel but I can't remember him making too many howlers this past year.

 

[Daemon]

Starfighter leading the charge in the new breed of waaaahing Australians I see.

Tangentially related though - I've been speaking to one of the umpires at the recent Thailand T20 Smash - a 10 team Associate Women's T20I tournament that just recently concluded. The amount of work expected of them is insane. I think it would be good if the ICC could hire specific admin staff to handle the paperwork and other administrative tasks that the Umpires and Match Referees are expected to handle. Just free them up to focus solely on officiating the game.

But hiring more staff costs more money and adds more complexity to hosting an event. Also got to think about how are you going to train up and qualify this admin staff. And how are they going to get experience outside of ICC events - atleast umpires regularly get experience at smaller local events, albeit with less admin work. Rarely a simple answer for any of these things.

You're the one having a moan about Dharmasena getting ICC Umpire of the year?

I told you there is more to umpiring than on field decision making. Maybe try wrapping your head around why that is? You don't have to like it to understand it.

Are the pressures of admin and other ad-hoc management work so intense that their weary eyes can't look down the crease during the bowlers runup? Because that's what Starfighter was talking about.

In any case I think it's clear that of late the umps have been told to focus more on calling no balls. Just wondering how long it'll last before they stop doing it again.

 

[cnerd123]

Starfighter was just having a moan because an umpire he perceived as being unworthy won an award, and he perceived him to be unworthy because of a few missed no-balls. He's not even bothering to wrap his heard around what being an umpire at the International level entails, he just wants to have a whinge and feel justified in doing so.

And yea it was made public that the ICC has instructed umpires to focus more on no-balls and will weigh that higher in their assessment criteria. It's not just a case of umpires getting lazy or letting things slip. They're constantly evaluated on their performance, and naturally will put more effort towards the aspects of their jobs that are weighed more heavily in their final assessments. They are graded after every game and every series, and if that grading criteria doesn't put much weight on a certain aspect of the job, then that's what they will pay less attention to. It's just human nature, and this is a stressful and demanding job.

Easy to just dismiss all umpires as lazy while typing away behind your keyboard tho, I understand that.

 

[Daemon]

Imagine getting assessed for the work you perform and are paid to do. Unheard of levels of stress.

 

[cnerd123]

Imagine getting assessed for the work you perform and are paid to do. Unheard of levels of stress.

they deal with more #pressure than Indian cricketers do tbqh.

 

[Starfighter]

While you get your knickers in a knot *****, I wasn't even thinking of Dharmasena. I simply came across a blog post where that 1992 match was brought up and thought it was a point worth noting. I just thought of you because you're so defensive over the issue, and have proven so again.

 

[Starfighter]

It wasn't even Dharmasena in the Sandakan example due to something called 'neutral umpires'. It was S Ravi.

 

[cnerd123]

While you get your knickers in a knot *****, I wasn't even thinking of Dharmasena. I simply came across a blog post where that 1992 match was brought up and thought it was a point worth noting. I just thought of you because you're so defensive over the issue, and have proven so again.

Eh I can't read your mind. You waah'ed about Dharmasena winning and then went off on your broken-record of a waaah about no-balls right off that, completely unprovoked. Hardly unreasonable for me to connect the two. Naturally I'm going to step in to bring some balance back to this conversation since no one here actually seems to understand or care about umpires or umpiring in general.

But yea cool if you've managed to wrap your head around the fact that umpiring is actually a lot more than just calling no-balls then my job here is done. Plenty of good umpires out there make mistakes. They're human after all. And it's genuinely a thankless job - if you umpire 600 balls in an ODI and make 2 mistakes, everyone will focus on those 2 mistakes, and no one will applaud you on getting the remaining 99.67% of your job correct. And the average fan isn't even remotely aware of, like, 50% of what your job entails - all the stuff that goes on before, during and after the game that matters a huge amount to the ICC and member boards, but means jack all to the average fan.

 

[Daemon]

Eh I can't read your mind. You waah'ed about Dharmasena winning and then went off on your broken-record of a waaah about no-balls right off that, completely unprovoked. Hardly unreasonable for me to connect the two. Naturally I'm going to step in to bring some balance back to this conversation since no one here actually seems to understand or care about umpires or umpiring in general.

But yea cool if you've managed to wrap your head around the fact that umpiring is actually a lot more than just calling no-balls then my job here is done. Plenty of good umpires out there make mistakes. They're human after all. And it's genuinely a thankless job - if you umpire 600 balls in an ODI and make 2 mistakes, everyone will focus on those 2 mistakes, and no one will applaud you on getting the remaining 99.67% of your job correct. And the average fan isn't even remotely aware of, like, 50% of what your job entails - all the stuff that goes on before, during and after the game that matters a huge amount to the ICC and member boards, but means jack all to the average fan.

They don't have to make any decisions on a large percentage of the remaining deliveries (besides calling no-balls which they haven't been doing).

None of the rest of what you say is exclusive to umpiring as a job. Most jobs are thankless.

What they face that most others don't is public scrutiny. And for that they are compensated accordingly.

 

[OverratedSanity]

This "thankless job" thing is nonsense. The entire discussion was about Dharmasena getting an award.

Besides, even if it's true that they face more scrutiny over their mistakes they also face little to no consequence for their blunders relative to many other jobs imo. It's a fair enough trade off. Unless the bcci puts enough pressure to end your career, but that doesn't happen that often and on the occasion it did it was long overdue .