{"id":73,"date":"2010-11-30T12:39:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T02:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wildcard.gnubies.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2010-11-30T12:39:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T02:39:41","slug":"the-bowlers-failed-but-so-did-the-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"The bowlers failed but so did the captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT’S the fourth day of a Test match, the first of a series that is the most important of the year for your country. Your team is 202 runs ahead at the start of play; the opposition has knocked off 19 runs of a 221-run advantage that your boys gained in the first innings.<\/p>\n

First thing out on the field, what would be your reaction as captain? To put as much pressure on your opponent by using the most threatening and intimidating fields possible or taking a milk-and-water approach that indicates an ambivalent attitude? <\/p>\n

Do you show faith in your bowlers by packing the slips cordon and keeping two short-legs to occasionally get in the face of your opponents? Or do you use a standard field, an indication that you are basically a bob each way man even in a situation when your team is clearly in an advantageous position?<\/p>\n

The Australian bowlers have copped a lot of flak for letting England nullify a 221-run first-innings deficit and allowing England to make a mammoth 1-517 in its second innings in the drawn first Test<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the Australian captain Ricky Ponting has escaped scrutiny in toto though the tactics he employed on day four were those of a coward.<\/p>\n

At the start of play on the fourth day, Ponting had two fielders on the boundary. For what? Was he trying to win or draw? He had 202 runs to play with, he had nothing to lose. <\/p>\n

Remember, Australia is the team which has to win back the Ashes; for England a drawn series will suffice. One cannot blame England for looking for such a result as the whole point of playing five Tests in Australia is to retain the Ashes. That is the prize, nothing else matters.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time that Ponting’s inability to captain the country properly has let the team down. It happened earlier this year<\/a> in England. He is far too cautious and often looks to his own interests<\/a>, rather than that of the team.<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that any remarkable new talent is going to be unearthed in some part of Australia soon enough to make a difference to the Australian team in the remaining four Tests; any new blood brought in will be much like the old. <\/p>\n

A trend of picking players based on reasons other than merit has been around for too long and mediocrity has crept in. Australia is fifth in the world Test cricket rankings and that is a good reflection of its strengths.<\/p>\n

Ponting is favoured by the selectors because he has become an administration man. He knows when to speak and when to keep his mouth shut. Some months ago, people were theorising that if Australia failed to regain the Ashes, he would be stripped of the captaincy.<\/p>\n

But that seems unlikely in the wake of reports that Michael Clarke, his deputy, is not exactly the flavour of choice<\/a> with the rest of the team.<\/p>\n

If Ponting regains the Ashes, he will stay as captain for the World Cup that begins in February next year. And it is also likely that he will continue to captain Australia until he chooses to retire – which may well be in 2013 after the tour of England. Ponting has said often that he wants another chance to win the Ashes in England, having lost two series in 2005 and 2009.<\/p>\n

But if he fails to regain the Ashes over the next four Tests, then there will be plenty of pressure from people to play him as a batsman only. He still has some of the magical touch that he displayed in his early career and is easily the best batsman in the team once he gets going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT’S the fourth day of a Test match, the first of a series that is the most important of the year for your country. Your team is 202 runs ahead at the start of play; the opposition has knocked off 19 runs of a 221-run advantage that your boys gained in the first innings. First … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The bowlers failed but so did the captain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,3,5,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ashes","category-australia","category-cricket","category-england"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=75","url_meta":{"origin":73,"position":0},"title":"What Australia needs is a new cricket captain","date":"December 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A MOUNTAIN of sorts has been scaled by the England cricket team by defeating Australia by an innings and 71 runs in the second cricket Test in Adelaide. The last time Australia suffered an innings defeat at home was in 1993 when the West Indies were the victors. The loss\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ashes"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=28","url_meta":{"origin":73,"position":1},"title":"Fast bowlers have lost their skills","date":"December 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"WHY are today's fast bowlers unable to attack a batsman's body? Why are they unable to bowl a decent yorker? Why do they just keep bowling up-and-down stuff when the wicket is one of the bounciest in the world? These are some of the questions that came to mind as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3245,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=3245","url_meta":{"origin":73,"position":2},"title":"Dhoni quits Tests: an era ends","date":"December 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"AFTER 90 Tests, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has called it a day as a Test cricketer. He will continue to lead India in the one-day and T20 formats, with a one-day World Cup around the corner in 2015. Dhoni was not a great captain but he had limited resources\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cricket"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=68","url_meta":{"origin":73,"position":3},"title":"Australia's cricketing disaster","date":"October 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"SHANE Warne, the Australian leg-spinner, was always keen to be captain of the national cricket team. Unfortunately, the Australian cricket administrators are obsessed with the idea that a man who leads the country's cricket team should also be a saint. Warne did not get the job because of his numerous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=64","url_meta":{"origin":73,"position":4},"title":"Why Ricky Ponting should be sacked","date":"July 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"RICKY Ponting is one of the best cricketers in the world to watch when he is on song. The man has played 145 Tests, captained Australia since 2004 and is a pugnacious fighter all the way. Despite all this experience and these attributes, Ponting does not deserve to captain the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2976,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=2976","url_meta":{"origin":73,"position":5},"title":"Why Geoff Boycott should stop lecturing the England team","date":"December 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"THROUGHOUT Geoff Boycott's cricket career, he was known as a player who was bothered only about himself. He did not care a fig for the team, nor for his teammates. In fact, he was even suspected of running out his teammates in order to save his own wicket. Now this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ashes"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}