NZTailender
I can't believe I ate the whole thing
George Worker has retired. Wouldn't say he's been too hard done by but probably deserved more limited overs gigs at various points.
M sure its gonna go over many folks' heads anyways.Wagner did a book. November 5.
From the book we will learn a lot about the nightlife in New Zealand knowing Wagner's love for bouncers.M sure its gonna go over many folks' heads anyways.
As I did with his career, I'll predict it to be a complete flop, fall off the shelves and miss the spine, damage the spines of other books on the shelves, and his career won't make the step up from newspaper articles (first class) to published books (Tests).Wagner did a book. November 5.
Can't blame the players for wanting to earn more money in their careers.I hope the NZ media make as much of an issue about this as they should do (but they won't), particularly on Allen.
The man was on RCB's bench for 3 years then dropped. It was likely Hesson that got him there in the first place.I wonder how much money Allen could expect to make. I guess he could get picked up in the Big Bash, maybe the UAE or SA leagues. He doesn't seem to have attracted a large IPL deal to date.
No, I can't (actually, I'm probably about to) - my main issue lies with the ICC. This situation has been coming for years, decades even, and they've done very little, if nothing about it. A proactive, forward-thinking international body should have done more with this situation. It's all well and good for India, Australia and England, whose players don't need to lean on too many franchise comps to earn their living well, but **** me, how long have we known this is a major issue for West Indies? Are we now the new WI? We saw the SA issue last summer, which yes was CSA's **** up but it still exists in an environment where it is allowed to happen.Can't blame the players for wanting to earn more money in their careers.
It'll flop completely to start with then become a bestseller in 4 years timeAs I did with his career, I'll predict it to be a complete flop, fall off the shelves and miss the spine, damage the spines of other books on the shelves, and his career won't make the step up from newspaper articles (first class) to published books (Tests).
And as likely as last time, I'll be completely and utterly wrong.
Why would the ICC solve anything? This is a feature, not a bug. We supply talent to their leagues like good little provincial nations, the Big 3 remain "the best in the world" and the suits in the right places make all the money in the world through mass market exploitation of multiple generations who can't put down Facebook (boomers), insta or tik tok.No, I can't (actually, I'm probably about to) - my main issue lies with the ICC. This situation has been coming for years, decades even, and they've done very little, if nothing about it. A proactive, forward-thinking international body should have done more with this situation. It's all well and good for India, Australia and England, whose players don't need to lean on too many franchise comps to earn their living well, but **** me, how long have we known this is a major issue for West Indies? Are we now the new WI? We saw the SA issue last summer, which yes was CSA's **** up but it still exists in an environment where it is allowed to happen.
As for Finn, I will do my best to follow none of his career and I hope he doesn't play for NZ, although I know he will. He's probably the most lazy, entitled cricketer that's ever wandered onto a cricket field in this country and been paid for it. He could have been anything, and played everywhere, including NZ, but he just wants to drink, play golf and wack a few. That's OK, can't blame him. But I can criticise him. Everything I hear is that he's a waste of talent, doesn't train hard, very likely played up the back injury to not tour Pakistan (I saw him playing golf very freely and propping up a bar in QT very soon before) etc. I could say NZ is better off without him, but sadly we're not. I hope he is an outlier in his generation, but again, I worry that he isn't.
We're in a massively precarious position now, and I'm not at all confident anyone at the wheel at NZC or the ICC is going to do enough about it. We now have Kane on a casual contract, Devon the same, Jimmy has turned them down in the past, Trent did too and couldn't be bothered playing a Test in the same suburb as him, CdG handed one back for a lame Big Bash appearance or two, then you have the hypocrisy of some of those guys being welcomed back in, but Munro, McClenaghan etc being blacklisted.
This has officially ventured into ****storm territory, and I don't think I'm overselling it.
England paid West Indies a touring fee this year. They already know they're in the **** because home tests between smaller nations and the big 3 are never competitive because test cricket isn't financially viable for anyone else, which is finally starting to hit the big boys in the wallet. It's probably too late but people are definitely aware of it at least.The only way to solve the business culture of cricket is to critically assess and implement solutions to our relationship with various aspects of our exploitative and addictive business and media culture and values in general.
But that sounds like academia and the S word.