Monthly Archives: July 2005

the end of one day cricket as we know it

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oh my god how does one find the energy to write anything about last night’s final, the delirium of sleep deprivation combined with the emotional exhaustion, the wringing of anticipation from one end of the match to the other – and in the very end one is given a tie. Stomach tied in knots, heart bursting from a blank, empty emotion with no value either way or in any familiar direction. O my god what a seductive game – and we will never see its like again. This was the last of the old-school 50 over matches.

The McGrath and Lee opening partnership is so fantastic, I simply love it. When Lee bowls a cricket game goes astray, it loses its way, off the rails, out of control, it gets the speed wobbles basically. Which means there’s an opportunity for someone to take control. McGrath is the master of it. In a repeating binary pattern of 6 balls chaos 6 balls complete control the two of them are mesmerising. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful thing in cricket than McGrath’s spell last night, never seen a more beautiful thing than that map they show of where his deliveries have pitched. I thought Flintoff’s was exquisite (and Harmison, he’s just frikkin built to bowl – he’s a huge obstinate shape that appears not to be designed with any function in mind but to bowl) but McGrath just took the pitch daubing to a new level. I was sitting there on my couch with a cat on me (the cat watches the cricket purring away with her eye’s closed – it’s too much for the little sweet pea to absorb) clenching my fists in the air and shouting to myself – I love you so much Glenn McGrath! Oh my god Glenn! The cat wasn’t disturbed, she understood perfectly. It all made the last over so surreal and unbelievable – how could he send down such a dog of an over? After Australia had England 5/33 the game started drifting by like a dream, clouds passing behind a daydream, at times the match future would appear as in a vision. Even immediately after the 5th wkt fell scorecards were flashing into view that showed, after several very insubstantial partnerships at the top, one single great extended line that defied all logical progression yet was inevitable enough that one always knew England would come close in the end. The tail end of the dream was presenting itself early on, but there was no hint of McGrath bowling a nightmare final over such as he did. The emotion of the tie is an emotion of its own. It has no resemblance to happiness or to sadness, its not anger or frustration (how can you feel anything like that after you’ve been given such an incredible game of cricket?). The frustration comes on now that the tour schedule gives us the NatWest Callenge series. I can’t believe we have to put up with 3 more 50 over games (however much they fiddle about with new innovations in the rules) between Australia and England before we get close to the commencement of the Ashes. Surely after this epic game they could just cancel the Challenge. Who has any further need for one day cricket after this? (Who has the energy for it?) – This was the pinnacle man. Bring on the tests.

I worry about Dizzy.

the ghost of Nasser

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It is sadly clear that Nasser Hussain is still a liability for England even though he now gloats in the commentary box instead of moaning on the field. He proved last night just why England were never going to be good again as long as he was playing. Every comment he makes is filled with hardline conservatism and an approach that goes by the slogan – never, under any circumstance, take any chances. In an earlier entry that grappled with the Ashraful issue I wrote of luck and batsmen that take chances well. Hussain is a polar opposite to Ashraful. Hussain was the luckiest batsmen in the world, he always seemed to be given chances – given not out when he clearly edged it, given not out by the 3rd umpire when the catch was clearly legitimate, out on a no-ball, edges flying just beyond stretching fingers. Yet he still couldn’t ever manage to score any runs. He should have been averaging well over 60 with the sort of luck he had. Instead he ran at 37.18. Because he had no idea of the concept of chance, and no idea how to take it – in fact he was/is morally opposed to taking it. Last night Collingwood and G. Jones had the chances going their way for a long time. Sky balls falling between or just short of fielders etc all night. It was obvious that the chance factor would shift – it would become to thin for them to be able to keep a grip on it and it would slide of elsewhere. But Nasser thought it all meant that England would win – things are going their way so things would forever be going their way. Like when he used to play Australia and instilled deep into his team’s psyche that they were only useless because things were going Australia’s way and would be forever – what can you do when fate is against you? There was no thought that maybe they could take some chance for themselves. So last night Hussain prophesises English victory based on the luck of Collingwood and G. Jones. The very next ball Collingwood drives hard to Symonds at cover, sets off for a run, realises that he has driven hard to Symonds at cover and the run thing is perhaps not such a fine idea, stops, tries to turn, slips, and is run out. Kind of unlucky. Symonds doesn’t miss chances like that. Nasser misses everything. As a hapless spectre haunting the English team’s chances still, his voice drifts over the airwaves and curdles English blood with its ill timed comment.