Probably shouldn’t have booked Hermes to bring it home.
No nets for me on Monday as I was not netting on Tuesday (ODI at Edgbaston), Wednesday (Over 50s match at Penkridge) or Friday (T20 at Edgbaston) so decided that a week allowing my finger to rest and hopefully recover would be sensible. I am also trying to be more relaxed about practising and giving my body more time to rest, and most importantly spend more time with family, who continue to be remarkably supportive. Basically I am hoping that less is more and that the best thing for me for the rest of this season is to focus on being as ready as I can be for the weekends and to spend more time resting.
As you will see a week watching rather than participating this week. The cricket schedule is madness really with so many games coming in such a short period of time. How the powers that be think people can keep going to watch when they have three, even four, games a week is beyond me. Even for me, starved of live cricket for the best part of twenty years it has started to feel repetitive. I am actually looking forward to The Hundred, so I can have a break from going to games!! A point I ended up discussing in some depth on Tuesday.
Monday started off with the extremely exciting visit by a Sky Engineer to fix an issue apparently they had created by not setting up the system network properly. Never have understood why workers tell customers how incompetent their colleagues have been. Still he fixed it and explained the reason behind the issue so I can resolve it if it happens again (which he said was likely as to cut a (very) long story short Sky Routers do not work so well with none Sky Broadband and they struggle with 4G and 5G Internet access which they are only just realising with the new set up BT have with the EE second router), although it took him some time to accept that an old man actually knew about 2.4MHZ and 5MHZ and Mac Addresses ….
Tuesday was an extremely pleasant day at Edgbaston for the ODI. Weather was as good as it has been all year, crowd atmosphere was brilliant and it was the best days cricket we have watched this year. Towards the end of the day the member I was sat next to asked me my views on The Hundred. Now I was a few beers in by this point but I refrained from unloading both barrels until I had asked him his position, and why. Then I unloaded them on him ……
I am far from against change or innovation, but change because you have had your nose put out and want to leave a legacy is childish and rarely ends well, and that is how I perceive The Hundred to have been created: ECB upset that the IPL has taken “their” idea of the T20 and become the unrivalled leaders, combined with a senior management structure with a desire to leave their mark on the world of cricket. I suspect they will, but not in a way they hoped for. Basically my opposition to The Hundred is best demonstrated by a series of questions:
- What does The Hundred achieve that adding say 4 international players to each T20 team wouldn’t?
- How will County Cricket continue to provide Test quality players when it isn’t played at the best times of the years and doesn’t include past and present Test players from around the world?
- Why introduce “newbies” to a form of the game that they are unlikely to play, or indeed see played anywhere else in the World?
- Why was the money not invested into making current infrastructures – Club Cricket, Junior Cricket, Ladies Cricket – better?
- Sport in this country thrives because of the supporters and the communities they come from, how can 8 franchisees get anywhere close to this?
Have yet to get any good answers, always happy to debate but I am genuinely concerned for the future of the 18 counties, the international team(s) and red ball cricket in general, which will in turn impact on club cricket. Cricket is, and always has been, about more than ‘just’ the game, and I don’t for one minute see how a franchise model will continue that relationship.
Wednesday I was as stiff as a board after best part of nine hours sitting down so I popped to see my Osteopath who first laid hands on me over 40 years ago! An ex cricketer himself (Barlaston) he has a really good insight into the stresses and strains the game can place on the body. The good news is that all the aches and pains are either related to the old injuries and issues which are all getting better, or muscular i.e. no new structural issues and more stretching and more game related training should see me improve. Interestingly he advised against standing at slip for the whole game, which is going to make for a challenging rest of the season as finger wise that is the best place for me, but it isn’t for my lower back and hips. He suggested 20 overs at slip, 15 overs cover/mid wicket then 10 overs on the boundary when we field first so my back isn’t too tight for batting, which he suggested 4 or 5 to allow me time to loosen up after the break. All made sense to me, but not always an option! The good news is that over time the aches and pains will subside as my body adapts and gets stronger, the not so good news is that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Reality is that the enforced rest in recent weeks will have been good for me, even though it doesn’t feel it most days as my body stiffens up!
Thursday I had a rare totally spare day. We don’t walk the dogs on a Thursday, Sands went to her mothers but took my parents with her for the first parents lunch for a couple of years, so I went all rock and roll: iced my knees and finger, lay on the sofa, watched movies as was no live sport of any interest and then got the now familiar WhatsApp that due to players self isolating (hope everyone is OK) the 4s had no game this week, so a weekend with no game as Sunday I had tickets for the IT20 at Headingley. The weather wasn’t exactly conducive to sit in the garden either, in fact I can’t remember last time I did and as for when we last had a BBQ???
Friday we were back at Edgbaston once more for the T20 v Worcestershire so no nets, more beer and another portion of Fish and Chips adding to my ever expanding waistline. Was the second good game in a week though. When the sun shines, the beers flow and the company is good there really is not better way to pass the time.
Saturday with no game I was drawn back to Play Cricket and some statistics, before firing up the BBQ and opening a few cold ones. Last week I wrote that the 4s gave away an average of 27 extras per match. I was asked two things in relation to this: are these broken down by type and how does that compare to the opposition. First question, yes and no. Play Cricket is not always fully completed so it would give an inaccurate view if I used the breakdown, but no real surprise the general pattern is Byes, Wides and then No Balls. Second answer 13, so 14 less than us.
To put this in some sort of context I thought I would look at the average runs per batting position for ourselves and our opponents.
Position Opposition Ours
1 31.5 12.9
2 8.1 12
3 44.4 9.6
4 15.9 10.1
5 19.4 4.9
6 14.7 14.6
7 12.6 6.4
8 9.6 3.2
9 10.7 0.5
10 14 1.1
11 4.75 0.2
For the record the Opposition only batted to 11 on 4 occasions, we have batted to 11 on all but 3 occasions but the difference in average (13) would make the extras we give them our joint second best batter. By way of context, we negate our Number 1 Batters average contribution ie we bat with the equivalent of 10 players having ‘taken out’ our second best contributor!
Whilst I was at it I looked at my own batting. My season to date average of 15.76 is far from impressive, but over the last 7 innings it is 20.14 so an improvement I am happy with given the amount of work I have put into stance, head position, playing the ball later and generally feeling more comfortable at the crease. I have not been out LBW in the last 6 innings which is good, but have been bowled 3 times so I still need to work on knowing where my wickets are. My average when not playing for the 4s at Penkridge is 18.78, again probably indicative of better wickets and a little more pace on the ball. The fact I have been caught 7 times and bowled twice would support that as well.
Sunday as I was going to Headingley for the day I thought I would post the diary early again. I was going to go on the train as I was meeting a few people and a good drink was planned, but guess what? Northern rail cancelled the trains on Saturday as too many staff either had COVID-19 or were self isolating. Not an issue, but I have had more plans cancelled in the last three weeks die to COVID-19 than throughout the whole pandemic and to think that Monday is “Freedom Day”!!?? No idea how Boris thinks we all going to get back to normal when so many people will be stuck at home or in hospital. And it is also WG Graces Birthday!
And finally …… I forgot to mention that I played for Barlaston 4’s recently against Forton. What a lovely ground and club. Ground was in good condition, lovely location and all the opposition players, organisers and supporters were most welcoming. Was a good game as well. Spent a very enjoyable couple of hours standing at slip as we bowled them out for 134 in just under 40 overs. A few came close, including a half chance which would have been OK if I was at second slip not first, but other than that it was uneventful – especially for my finger! Walking off I was somewhat surprised to be asked to open the batting. Not that I hadn’t done so before, although not particularly well (1 and 0), but because the last game I played I was at 5 and we had a bit of a returning legend playing for us who had opened in recent games. Batted as well as I have all season (possibly not saying much) and after an early wicket said legend and I put on around 50. I was 4th out for a pleasing and well constructed 41 and it was the most comfortable I have felt at the wicket all season – despite two blows to my right hand adding more bruises to the collection. Was a good feeling to have contributed, done what was required from me and laid the foundation for the win. Top scorer in the match, it was a pleasant (and let’s be honest novel) feeling to be congratulated by team mates and opposition on a good innings, and I must confess a huge relief that I was able to show there was still life in the old dog yet!
That’s all folks, hopefully have some cricket to write about next week. Can’t promise no other statistics though I am a tad fascinated by them as you will have seen! Anyone fancy doing a sponsored Foden to raise some money for the NHS?
Stay safe and I hope all those with COVID-19 recover quickly and those self isolating don’t get it.
Thank You
Gray-Nicolls are generously supporting this diary and my return to cricket for the 2021 Season.