Australia v West Indies – Hobart Test, Day 1: No words

1st Test, Australia v West Indies, Hobart

Day 1, Stumps
Australia 4/438 (AC Voges 174*, SE Marsh 139*)

 

Drawing

 

 

 

About David Wilson

David Wilson is a hydrologist, climate reporter and writer of fiction & observational stories. He writes under the name “E.regnans” at The Footy Almanac and has stories in several books. One of his stories was judged as a finalist in the Tasmanian Writers’ Prize 2021. He shares the care of two daughters and likes to walk around feeling generally amazed. Favourite tree: Eucalyptus regnans.

Comments

  1. Malcolm Ashwood says

    OBP the windies are finished as a legitimate cricketing nation it is a tragedy when we think back to all there superstars and under,Clive Lloyds reign being arguably the greatest team of all time
    In so many aspects yesterday was the most insipid performance I have ever seen at test cricket level the lack of intensity and care showed a nation that has completely gone off the rails the knackery would have put up more of a effort

  2. Ripper song ER.

    Could it be that the Windies just haven’t kept up with the tide of marketing, money spinning and social media that has swept through world sport? They are still promoting themselves like an old 1980s TV commercial. And playing like one.

    An interesting comment was made during the commentary yesterday that the great success of the Windies in times past is the burden that they can’t carry. It’s weighing them down like an anchor on a convict ship.

  3. This is sad in so many ways. Saddest most is there seems to be no way back for the West Indies nations. Their pride in their cricketing prowess reflects the pride they have in themselves. What we saw yesterday was a total absence of self respect. And the evidence suggests it’s a spiralling condition.

  4. Umm, the Windies are proving as listless as we feared. The lack of effort in the field, the poor body language, the slow over rate, none augers well for the summer.

    Whilst on the bowling , why didn’t Marlon Samuels roll his arm over? Yes he has been called in the past, one of a litany of offences against him, but seeing how poorly they were bowling i was surprised that a chap with 40+ test wickets wasn’t called upon. Any answers ?

    Glen!

  5. maybe they need to go back to a few B conference level teams eg Lesser Antilles, Windward Isles, and play against Bermuda and the like. That will either confirm their status or reinforce either (a) a rebirth of the Windies as a force; or (b) a better fit for the geography of today, perhaps some greater Caribbean construct drawing on expats in Belize… playing in front of a packed stadium in Miami… getting the game into Cuba… drawing some life into the Brazil and Argentine slumbering giants.

    The Windies were a western construct that worked for everyone. For a while. Maybe empowerment at the local level across the whole Americas can create something for the 21st century.

    After all, there is nothing that says all Tests have to be against nation states…

    It in times like these I really miss the CLR James generation.

  6. If they put their foot on the accelerator the Aussies can eclipse the record for the Frank Worrell Trophy … 758-8 scored in Kingston 1955. If this match was played in the sub-continent they could go on well into Session 3 of Day 3 & beat Sri Lanka’s all-time test record of 952-6 … then bowl the Windies out cheaply, twice, on Days 4 & 5. That would at least guarantee the test goes for the full 5 days! And would make a complete mockery of this doomed series. ACB should have invited Bangladesh who we haven’t played in tests for coming up to 10 years in April, instead of the insipid WI, at least the modestly credentialed Bangladeshis would have fought tooth & nail, even if outclassed!

  7. Scott McIntyre says

    A poor Test match indeed and one which may, in fact, be counter-productive for Australian cricket by rendering S.Marsh undroppable in the short to medium term.

    The main interest for mine in the rest of the game rests in the comeback of James Pattinson who, with the retirement of Ryan Harris, is now the best bowler in Australia. Would love to see him get some rhythm going and start landing that killer outswinger.

  8. The People's Elbow says

    I reckon this says more about cricket than it does about the West Indies. Cricket is hardly the canary in the West Indian sport coalmine.

    Representation from Caribbean nations on the world sporting stage is actually doing very well *cough* Usain Bolt *cough* (and all but three of the top ten fastest men in the world are from the West Indies, and also accounts for four of the world’s top ten women).

    Look at the NBA – Tim Duncan (St Croix… but still) and Al Horford — along with those who have Caribbean lineage – Carmelo Anthony, Roy Hibbert, Andrea Drummond, Nerlens Noel and Andrew Wiggins. Look at some of those contracts and tell me why you wouldn’t stick at basketball ahead of cricket.

    And you can forget packed stadiums in the US – baseball has cornered that market. And with its proximity to the US and role models like Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz (current salary $16m), that’s not going to change anytime soon.

    You know what’ll maintain cricket’s pulse in the Caribbean? Twenty20.

    To quote James Carville, “It’s the economy, stupid”

    … and on top of that, NBA (and baseball, but particularly the NBA) is tapped into the yoof’s cultural zeitgeist in a way that Test Cricket is clearly not.

  9. So much going on, gone on.
    That’s it, Elbow.
    Why wouldn’t I play basketball?

    There’s a role here, too, of cricket’s short-sighted Big 3 acting to (relatively) impoverish all other cricketing nations/collections of nations.
    What’s Cricket Australia’s revenue? $300million?
    West Indies cricket..?
    You need competitors to hold a competition.

  10. Any body any wiser why Marlon Samuels didn’t bend, whoops, roll the arm over in Hobart ?

    Glen!

  11. Yes dips, love that song.

    Interesting historical context for Hobart combatants, with convict transportation to Van Diemen’s Land ending around the same time as slavery in, for example, Trinidad.

    Mother England.

  12. Agree with TPE with a side serve of PW.

    I think the West Indies have well and truly proved that if they wanted to they could be the best in the world at Test Cricket.

    We are chained to cricket’s origins in a way that the WI never needed to be.

    That small group of island states has punched above its weight in a game an Empire from a galaxy far far away foisted on it. Now that it has moved on to other more attractive and lucrative pastures we upholders of the Empire’s flickering flame don’t know how to digest realitivity. Our lens is modernity but the context is post modernity.

    The British West Indies is a colonial construct. The island Nations that play under the pseudonym West Indies are in reality part of the region known as the Caribbean (which also suffered from the tyranny of colonisation). The Caribbean is rich in history and great achievements including many music genres that have influenced popular music immeasurably.

    That the WI cricket team aint competitive at Test level today (and may never again reach the giddy heights they once claimed) is small beer.

  13. Phillip Dimitriadis says

    One word and 3 numbers sum it up for me ER: Marsh 182.

  14. Luke Reynolds says

    E.regnans. He writes. He theorises. AND he draws! Nailed it with that drawing Dave.

    U2’s ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ is a song that always gets me in. And I’m not a huge fan of the Irish superstars.

    That the Windies have come to this is incomprehensible to a child of the 1980’s.

  15. Well i now know why M Samuels was not called into the attack. He’d been under investigation for a dodgy action, with the result being a twelve month suspension. Surprise, surprise.

    He is really the poor man’s Carl Hooper.

    Glen!

  16. Thanks all.
    Fair points.

    You’d have to agree that this West Indies Test tour is a sorry state of affairs.

    A single warm up in Brisbane against young ‘uns.
    Leading into the 1st Test.
    And now they play only a two-day game in Geelong ahead of the 2nd Test.
    And then straight into the 3rd Test.
    I wonder about interest-levels for Melbourne and Sydney.

    And yet, Big Bash hype is interesting.
    In the franchise T20 model, the role of employee individual within an employer team absolves national teams (or conglomerates) of scrutiny. BBL teams seem to be less about teams, and more about collections of individuals.

    Why do players/ spectators show more interest in T20?
    Players = money
    Spectators = shorter investment of time? A better show?

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