Wednesday’s Soccer and Cricket

Socceroos and A-League

On Wednesday morning, 1116 SEN in Melbourne took a phone poll asking if listeners thought if many good Socceroos preferred to play overseas or in the A-League.

This survey was conducted due to Tim Cahill’s move from the New York Red Bulls to Shanghai Shenhua.

When I heard them taking calls and Andy Maher and Andrew Gaze talking about the issue on Morning Glory, my thoughts were that the situation is similar to what happens with baseballers and soccer players from Japan.

Since the mid-1990s, many Japanese professional baseball players have been crossing the Pacific Ocean to chase the dream of playing major league Baseball in America. The main reasons I believe why it happens are:

  1. They want to take new challenges in bigger competitions and see how their skills can be used.
  2. They get bored playing in Japanese competitions where managers focus much on winning rather than ordering proper games with attractiveness and power.

Many Japanese soccer players have moved to European clubs for fulfilments.

I thought that many Socceroos wanted a fulfilling career and new and bigger challenges overseas rather than playing at A-League.

Having researched the history of A-League on their website, many famous footballers from Europe and other parts of the world came to Australia to play for A-League clubs. The league seems quite strong and powerful.

But in between writing this article, I was listening to the 2:00pm sport news on SEN’s Harf Time during my lunch break, and was surprised to hear that the A-League has a salary cap like the AFL and NRL. Only the United States and Australia are ruled with a salary cap in professional soccer.

Then some Australian footballers play in other part of the world for big money. As the A-League has been established only for ten years, some soccer players had already played overseas, so maybe they are still contracted overseas clubs. Loyalty was not able to be established in the A-League?

But playing football (soccer) in Europe where the sport has been played for much longer years and have legends boosts skills in the competition where nations are competing.

Do you think the Socceroos should stay in the A-League or play in the other parts of the world for good experience?

For me, it is up to players because they are individuals and have different thoughts and values in their career.

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Pink Stumps Day XI – Charity T20 Cricket Match between St Kilda Saints vs Seaford Tigers

Earlier this week, the St Kilda football club website provided us details of the charity cricket match at Seaford including match broadcast by the local radio station, 3RPP 98.7.

On Wednesday, I checked the radio station’s website with program list, but no cricket match coverage was on the list. I was worried a bit even if the club had confirmed.

After visiting an international snow sculpture competition site, I tuned in the radio on my Android. An interview with Arryn Siposs was on talking about what he had been doing, new boys (McCartin and Goddard) and the Anzac Day clash in Wellington.

Having been a talented junior cricketer and being an experienced footballer and an entertainer at St Kilda, Adam Schneider was appointed a captain for the match, while newly appointed Football Department GM Jamie Cox was his deputy.

Schneider scored six runs, the radio reported and the match seemed good for the Saints.

However as I am not familiar with T20, I had no idea who score was presented. I thought that it was like footy – goals, behinds and points.

It was hard for me to keep up with score live…

At 6:00pm my tim(8:00pm AEDST), the live coverage was over without knowing the score. I was tracking down St Kilda App and social media platforms (the club official one and others for St Kilda fans), but unable to get details.

On Thursday morning, I visited the club App and Facebook pages attempting to get the score, but was not successful.

Later being at the employment program place, I started checking again on the computer. Googling “Pink Stump Day cricket 2015” and “Seaford Tigers” and finding the cricket club’s Facebook page, I still was not able to find details other than the Tigers winning the close game.

My curiousness never stopped. Re-visiting all the stuff (websites of the Saints and Tigers, their Facebook pages and St Kilda fans FB pages), I found score books. I analysed, but was not sure what they said because of lack knowledge of T20.

Then I found a picture uploaded on the Tigers’ Twitter showing the score board indicating: Seaford Tigers Cricket Club 9-149 and Visitors (St Kilda Saints) 9-161. It said that the Tigers needed twenty runs with two wickets reminding.

Finally Ash Mills hit two sixes in a row leading the Tigers to win.

I wish I could be there to watch the match and to make a better report. But it is interesting to keep up with the cricket match.

About Yoshihiro Imagawa

Love, passion and pride are seen on the footy that is the biggest part of my life. 1. St Kilda Club member: I am a passionate and crazy Sainter. Just hope we will win the second flag soon, especially after Dogs and Tigers having ended long premiership draughts. 2. The Osaka Dingoes Player and Public Relations Officer: Player number 44 that I chose to honour Stephen Milne with my wish being like a small forward like him. Lenny Hayes' hardworking attitudes are adopted on my trainings and practices. Nick Riewoldt's great plays are in my player audiobook too. 3. Writing: Here on the Almanac and also on the World Footy News. My skills utilise on great footy websites.

Comments

  1. Yvette Wroby says

    Hi Yoshi, I was there for the match, and the Tigers (who lost last year) won off the last ball which he hit over the boundary for 6, leaving them to win by three points. It was a great afternoon, attended by locals and lots of members of the Seaford Tigers.

    Take care

    Yvette

  2. Hi Yvette,

    Thanks for your comment and I’m glad that you enjoyed the cricket game. Did you watch the charity cricket last year too?

    Take care and have a good weekend :)

    Yoshi

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