SillyCowCorner1
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Loving this.
Test cricket always comes and saves us from borefest of limited overs cricket./
Test cricket always comes and saves us from borefest of limited overs cricket./
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***Official*** Sri Lanka and Pakistan in UAE 2017
- Thread starter Firebreaker
- Start date
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
In an article in cricinfo.com a reporter asks : "How did we get here? How did we hurtle, from the dullest 11 sessions of Test cricket possible, to this stirring, heart-palpitating, dramedy of a conclusion? "
Here is what I commented there and repeat here. Please excuse the typos . . .
"How did we get here" asks the writer in his opening sentence refering to the incredible exciting end to what he refers to as the dull start and most of this test.
The answer is not far to seek. It is what this game was meant to be. A battle between a man with a leather ball trying to demolish a 'castle of frail sticks" and a man with a slim piece of willow trying to defend that castle and wherever possible hit that ball away from him and through the ten team mates of the man with the ball trying to stop him. The ground just melted away into the distance without boundaries.
It was a battle between equals on a piece of land that was no friend of either. It was just there. The only thing possible was for the best bowler of the visiting side to choose a stripwithin this piece of land where he wanted the stumps to be "stuck in" The rest was about a piece of willow versus a leather ball.
By making it over the years a contest between 11 bats 'thicker than they are wide' on grounds so small that a mi**** is awarded with the 'maximum' This was not possible intially until the ball was it right out of the stadium.
Cricket is close to a stage where we might be heading for 11 batsmen versus 11 batsmen facing bowling machines that are programmed to ensure the batsman is not 'inconvenienced' by any great movement in any direction.
You are surprised by the excitement of a Test match because you have not just allowed the game to be scandolously tweaked in favour of the batsmen. The track helping the dying breed of quality bowlers is so rare that we the Test matches that were for decades played over and ended within just three days are mocked by players and public alike as a sign of poor quality of cricket by the masters of those eras.
It is top class bowling that produces top class batsmen. All the great and golden eras of cricket were marked by one common element - great bowlers bowling on fair tracks.
Eras of poor bowling only profuce mountains of runs by mediocre batsmen whom we then proclaim as the greatest of all time.
The scribes need to know more abot the game of criket and its evolution if they want to comment on it beyond being mere cheer-leaders with fingers on the keyboard.
Here is what I commented there and repeat here. Please excuse the typos . . .
"How did we get here" asks the writer in his opening sentence refering to the incredible exciting end to what he refers to as the dull start and most of this test.
The answer is not far to seek. It is what this game was meant to be. A battle between a man with a leather ball trying to demolish a 'castle of frail sticks" and a man with a slim piece of willow trying to defend that castle and wherever possible hit that ball away from him and through the ten team mates of the man with the ball trying to stop him. The ground just melted away into the distance without boundaries.
It was a battle between equals on a piece of land that was no friend of either. It was just there. The only thing possible was for the best bowler of the visiting side to choose a stripwithin this piece of land where he wanted the stumps to be "stuck in" The rest was about a piece of willow versus a leather ball.
By making it over the years a contest between 11 bats 'thicker than they are wide' on grounds so small that a mi**** is awarded with the 'maximum' This was not possible intially until the ball was it right out of the stadium.
Cricket is close to a stage where we might be heading for 11 batsmen versus 11 batsmen facing bowling machines that are programmed to ensure the batsman is not 'inconvenienced' by any great movement in any direction.
You are surprised by the excitement of a Test match because you have not just allowed the game to be scandolously tweaked in favour of the batsmen. The track helping the dying breed of quality bowlers is so rare that we the Test matches that were for decades played over and ended within just three days are mocked by players and public alike as a sign of poor quality of cricket by the masters of those eras.
It is top class bowling that produces top class batsmen. All the great and golden eras of cricket were marked by one common element - great bowlers bowling on fair tracks.
Eras of poor bowling only profuce mountains of runs by mediocre batsmen whom we then proclaim as the greatest of all time.
The scribes need to know more abot the game of criket and its evolution if they want to comment on it beyond being mere cheer-leaders with fingers on the keyboard.
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
PS : I realise that the blame does not lie with those reporting on the game but mere reporting will not inform the public completely and plays little role in keeping the authorities from turning the game from a super exciting format that evolved over the first three decades of the game to its first Golden Age in the middle of the last decade of the 19th century and lasted till the world was rocked by WW 1.
We have had other great eras - all marked by great bowling but never before has those who run the game assisted by the writers and commentators to dull the public with the heady ****tail of sixes and boundaries, unrestricted bat dimensions, dead as dodo wickets on grounds about half the area that they were - all in the quest of the hundreds of millions that the doped follower of the game keeps fetching out as bowling skills die around the world and even a man of the caliber of Sachin Tendulkar comments on a very-good-but-never-great Zaheer as a marvel because he is of a rare species that can swing the ball on any surface.
There was a time when most grade teams would not hand over the precious new ball, even in the nets, to a bowler who did not move the ball in the air - that alone did not make you a rare let alone a great bowler.
straw man
Hall of Fame Member
Congrats SL, what a test match (or at least, last day of a test match). Highlights of the last day are worth a watch to see his Roundness in action.
Day 5 part 1
Day 5 part 2
Day 5 part 1
Day 5 part 2
Arachnodouche
International Captain
cough Deadly cough
vcs
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Butt moves a step closer to Pakistan comeback - ESPNcricinfo
**** it, bring back Asif as well.. I remember reading he bowled some good spells in FC cricket last year.
**** it, bring back Asif as well.. I remember reading he bowled some good spells in FC cricket last year.
a massive zebra
International Captain
Except these days SJS seems to post nothing but intelligently articulated negativity about the historical cricket knowledge among contemporary journalists and pundits. His posts used to be positive, engaging, informative, wise and even humorous. It is a shame to see a once great poster sink into the "things were better in my day" school of thought that has been so common among the elder statesmen of every generation since time immemorial.
Howe_zat
Audio File
Was SJS a better poster in your day?
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
He always belonged to that school of thought. But yes, I agree that he used to be more 'positive, engaging, informative, wise and even humorous'. Having said that let's not speculate based on just one post. He may still be the same person with the same outlook - maybe temporarily just a little bit pissed off after reading a random cricinfo article.
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
And lets face it. The state of current crapinfo can drive anyone to go all "things were better in my day". We have a whole thread for it, FFS. 
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
All SL selectors resigned so I don't know how the system works anymore - maybe he selected himself as vice-captain
a massive zebra
International Captain
I wasn't speculating based on one post. His recent posting history is full of similar rhetoric. See his previous post on a Mohammed Amir delivery, for instance. I used to think of SJS as the best poster on CW. Now he's just plain annoying.
a massive zebra
International Captain
Nicely spun, but as I'm only in my early 30s I like to think my day is now.
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
so am I but I do think there is a real dip in quality in current CW compared to the mid and late noughties heydays.
The actual quality of cricket is another matter though.
YorksLanka
International Debutant
Just read that Malinga not been selected for Odi's and surprisingly, Mathews not selected after failing fitness test as he still injured