When I was a boy, Primary School went to grade eight and we played cricket every Friday afternoon in the summer and we had teachers who knew about the game. And then on Saturday morning after I had unpacked the fruit and stacked the shelves for Dad, I raced down to the oval to join in the cricket coaching school. These were run by grey-haired gentlemen who just wanted to pass on their knowledge. They’d grown up with Bradman, Hassett, Morris, Miller and co, so they knew what was required for success. They said if you bat side on and you bowl side on then that’s half the battle. And in those days, I was the only kid that didn’t have an Anglo Saxon name.
We haven’t seen much of that in Abu Dhabi. I reckon that’s the problem. These blokes never came across coaches who knew their stuff when they were kids and they just grew up with all these bad habits and now they can’t get rid of them. And back then our keepers were told to stay down and watch the ball not the bat. I guess no one told Haddin that when he was a kid.
All of this points to the fact that today, we have to teach our kids the way we were taught so that in 10 to 15 years time we have a decent team again. I’m thinking that the present system won’t do this. Every single bad habit you can think of was on display on the first four days including that massive gap between Clarke’s bat and pad which he’s always had. Now, the whole world just aims for it. Let’s hope that these two young blokes can guts it out tonight and restore some pride.
I just read a report on Cricinfo that says that the bowling stats for this match are the worst in our 137 year Test history. A while ago we hired that supposed spinning guru who was going to make our blokes unplayable on Asian wickets. Wasn’t that a waste of money. I guess it must help if you bend your arm ninety degrees.
Can we talk about how good Pakistan are? I think writers aren’t giving their dominance credit.
I agree, Bronty, that is a factor. They have been very good. But the basics matter. Playing batsman-keepers has been a problem for a long time. Finding rock-solid grinders to hld things together is also an issue. The whole media/Twitter discussion about Maxwell being excused because he plays a particular way shows how the T20/ODI/entertainment discourse is now taken as gospel. Cricket has changed. and many commentators are analysing from WITHIN THE NEW TENT. I think Lou has a greater sense of what cricket is than that.