You vs Chris Martin

[James]

and threads merged....

 

[Jakester1288]

Hmm. Interesting question. Martin can't bat at higher levels, but I bet not many people here could go in to bat, ball coming down at 150 clicks, swinging, bouncers that are too well directed and fast to get away from, that you have to take on the body.

He would do ok at club level, and I rate myself a small chance of getting him if I have a ball that is swinging. However, I bowl so slow (considering he is a fully grown adult, but I suppose I bowl to them in 4th grade) he could probably even hit me out of the park.

I reckon I will be a better batsmen than him when I am older as well, but he does an alright job as it is. He isn't in the team to bat, any single runs for him are a bonus.

When Mitchell Johnson bowled him in the first test, I actually felt sorry for the poor bloke, but he probably just laughs about it in the dressing rooms.

 

[Bahnz]

I remember that Paul Collingwood, who's probably about as good as an opening bowler in a club side, dismissed Martin without too much trouble, so I tend to think that Martin would be batting at number 11 in any form of the game. Just one of those people, as he said in the paper today, who can't pick up the ball quickly enough. Having said that my bowling is so palpably crap, that I don't know...maybe if I managed to get a yorker on line.

 

[Jamee999]

LOL, Collingwood is much better than a club bowler, he has an ODI 6-fer, 84 ODI wickets and 14 test wickets...

 

[Craig]

LOL, Collingwood is much better than a club bowler, he has an ODI 6-fer, 84 ODI wickets and 14 test wickets...

So does Scott Styris.

 

[Athlai]

Virus was a much better bowler a few years ago TBF.

 

[Craig]

Virus was a much better bowler a few years ago TBF.

He was picked for his bowling early on wasn't he?

 

[Athlai]

He was picked for his bowling early on wasn't he?

You are correct.

 

[Smudge]

Revealing interview in today's Sunday Star-Times. Here are the key points:

Martin is honest about his lack of batting prowess and that his New Zealand record of 25 ducks is partly because of a recalcitrance on his part when it comes to practice.

"I have, at various stages of my career, put quite a lot of work into my batting, but to be honest, over the past three or four months I haven't and maybe that's been shown in even less time at the crease.

"But the fact is, the quality of the guys bowling to me has been too much for me.

"I generally seem to come in facing a couple of fast bowlers with a new ball bowling more than 140km/h and that's just a level I can't battle with.

"Some days, I'll get through those first six or so balls and hang around for another 20, but lately that's something I haven't been doing."

Possibly, if New Zealand batted longer and Martin was coming in around the 120th over against an older ball and tired bowlers, he might actually go OK.

But then, there's his vision.

Like everyone with a New Zealand Cricket contract, Martin regularly has his eyes tested and 18 months ago a test revealed he had a problem.

"The guy said my eyes were fine and that he'd tested many New Zealand batsmen over the years with similar eyes, although they hadn't had consistent careers."

The problem was he wasn't gleaning enough visual information quickly enough.

"Essentially the relaying of information from my eyes to my reflexes and what I do with my body is a little bit slow," Martin explains.

"I don't react the way I should [he clicks his fingers for emphasis]. It does take me a while to cue into the ball and locate it."

Martin said he was given a few things to work on to improve his ability in this area "but maybe I'm an old dog learning new tricks and I was never going to get that sorted".

To expand on what he's talking about, Martin gives an example of a test the Blacks Caps use: rows of numbers flash up on a screen with seven numbers on each row. The numbers are on the screen for a fraction of a second and players have to recite as many as they can. Those with faster eyes can scan more numbers than those like Martin with slightly slower eyes.

"I can get five or six in the top line, but a guy like Brendon McCullum can do the whole top line and four or five of the second line; he can take in more information visually in that split second than I ever could.

"I'd love to have a day with Brendon McCullum's eyes he just seems to pick up the ball so quickly."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4792636a10133.html

 

[Goughy]

Revealing interview in today's Sunday Star-Times. Here are the key points:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4792636a10133.html

Interested by the use of the word "recalcitrance" in the opening sentance. That would suggest that there have been serious clashes between Martin and the Coach and captain over his batting practice. Is this true?

 

[GotSpin]

Put quite simply, Martin has a disgustingly terrible technique and any decent bowler with a bit of pace/spin would be able to remove him.

 

[thierry henry]

I dunno. I don't think he's as bad as people make out. I played First XI cricket for 3 years at school and even (*gasp*) got a trial for Auckland under-19s. When I went to that trial, one of the bowlers (who probably wasn't even that fast) was just too fast for me. He bowled me a bouncer that I literally didn't see until it was in front of my face, which I played by pretty much giving it a double-fist punch back down the pitch . He then followed that up with a length ball which bowled me almost without me playing a shot.

In other words, a relatively competent cricketer (school first XI, A-grade Under 18 club level, one of the best players in my indoor cricket team, have played my whole life, that sort of thing) was made to look WORSE THAN CHRIS MARTIN by a guy who was probably bowling about 80mph or less.

Therefore, I think it's quite possible that Chris Martin is a better bat than me- and I'd back myself to see off most of you

 

[Jigga988]

I heard from a firend that growing up Martin lived quite far from where he practised and could only get there through biking, because of this he never bought any batting equipment just a ball.

 

[Goughy]

I heard from a firend that growing up Martin lived quite far from where he practised and could only get there through biking, because of this he never bought any batting equipment just a ball.

I hope that is true because it is a great story if it is

 

[slugger]

slightly different from the chris harris story.. who took his cricket bat everywhere with him i herd..

 

[Flem274*]

The reason Harry was such a good fielder is because his older brothers never let him bat or bowl, just field. Thats the story in his book anyway.

 

[Jigga988]

another story like this comes from KP, he apparently played cricket in a park or garden or something like that... anyway, there was a pond on the off side where KP would bat so he could only hit on the leg side if he wanted to keep the ball dry. Thus, explaining his talented leg side play and his hit everything on the leg side mentality.

 

[JimmyGS]

another story like this comes from KP, he apparently played cricket in a park or garden or something like that... anyway, there was a pond on the off side where KP would bat so he could only hit on the leg side if he wanted to keep the ball dry. Thus, explaining his talented leg side play and his hit everything on the leg side mentality.

Interesting. Him and Ross Taylor must have been childhood friends.

 

[NZTailender]

another story like this comes from KP, he apparently played cricket in a park or garden or something like that... anyway, there was a pond on the off side where KP would bat so he could only hit on the leg side if he wanted to keep the ball dry. Thus, explaining his talented leg side play and his hit everything on the leg side mentality.

Haha, had a similar thing at our place. In our backyard the only decent pitch length was parallel to the house, and garden and trees took up most of the rest of the backyard, so the off-side was basically the house, resulting in on-side dominant play.

 

[Zinzan]

He wouldnt make our 4th XI as a batsman and id be pissed if i didnt go in ahead of him at any level. Its so painful to watch him bat, youd think all the experts around him would be able to do something for his batting, but it just doesnt get any better season after season.

Agreed, utterly hopeless even by no.11 standards. I honestly reckon he'd have more success just holding his bat in front of the wickets without picking it up.