Hawaain Shirt at a Funeral

Times Square and Central Park await

    Three quotes from the world of cricket stood out for very different reasons this week. The first two came from the two most expensive signings in the IPL on either side of the final and both offered valuable perspectives on both the tournament and the format, but neither made me turn cold in the way the third one did.

    National bias and jingoism aside, there are many reasons to enjoy Australia’s Test and One Day captain Pat Cummins and his take on life, the universe and cricket. Many of his countrymen (not so much the women) find his awareness of climate change and discomfort with vast sponsorships from oil companies ‘soft’ and hypocritical given the hundreds of thousands of miles he flies every year. I think it takes guts to speak up.

    But it was his reflections of T20 captaincy and the role that analysis plays in it that made me smile. Leading a T20 team was new to him before this IPL although winning the World Test Championship and the 50-over World Cup as captain meant the Sunrisers Hyderabad weren’t taking an outrageous gamble appointing him captain.

    Occasionally he made unexpected decisions which did not follow ‘the data.’ And the aggressive manner in which his team played (with bat and ball rather than oral or body language) had not been seen before. They flopped in Sunday’s final against the Kolkata Knight Riders but it was a glorious, often spontaneous journey to get there.

    “I think data and analytics is there as a tool to use but it's just one factor in the decision-making process. In T20 you play a lot of games, but no two games are exactly the same. It's different wickets, different oppositions, different forms so data can only take you so far. I think there's still a strong place for gut feel and intuition,” he said of his captaincy style.

    “…No two games are exactly the same.” Read that with the emphasis on ‘exactly’ and suddenly he could be saying: ‘…It’s a very repetitive format and most games follow two or three basic patterns.’ IPL teams all have analysis teams and, by and large, produce the same data and reach the same conclusions. By throwing a little bit of unpredictable human ‘hunch’ into the match situation, Cummins may have given his team an edge.

    After the final Cummins’ Australian team-mate, Mitchell Starc, reflected on a tournament which started horribly for him when his first eight, wicketless overs were smashed for 100 runs. Things didn’t improve much in the middle of the tournament but by the end he was sensational winning the man-of-the-match in the final for his 3-0-14-2 for KKR.

    “Not every day is a good day. You're never as good as people say you are and you're never as bad as people say you are. I think staying level is a good part of it. I think T20 is a great leveller. You can have some good days and two days later you can have a shocking day.” It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that matters.

    The third quote chilled me and made me feel like I was wearing a Hawaii shirt to a funeral. Departure for New York is in 48 hours and, daunted as I am by the travel time, there’s plenty to look forward to. There are rolling adverts for the T20 World Cup in Times Square – fancy that.

    New York is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, it says so in every guidebook and on every website. Jim, an old school friend I haven’t seen for over 20 years, has lived there for many years and assures me that the “significant Asian and Caribbean population will fill the stadium for every game.” That may happen for South Africa’s games against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but the Netherlands? Jim has invited me for a ‘barbecue’, so there’s that to look forward to as well…     

     A weakened South African team has just been thrashed 3-0 in Jamaica by an equally weakened West Indian team, both without seven of their best players. It was the first time a West Indies have blackwashed the Proteas in a series and they did a proper job of it. Not one of the three games played in Jamaica was even close.

    What did we learn? Not much but there were a couple of unambiguous pieces of evidence which don’t require much analysis. Quinton de Kock has been in poor form since the 50-over World Cup last year and, having threatened a belated return to form in the second game last week, played a filthy slog against left arm spinner Akeal Hosain having just hit three balls for 6, 6, 4. Sure, keep going, don’t slow down, it’s the modern way. But smart shot selection still matters.   

    He scored 104 runs in six innings in Australia’s Big Bash in December, 213 runs in 12 innings in the SA20 and just 250 in 11 IPL innings. He scored 64 in three games against the West Indies, including 41 in that second game.

In six IPL matches, Anrich Nortje took seven wickets and cost 13.36 runs per over before he was dropped by Delhi. Against the West Indies he claimed two wickets in two matches and cost 73 runs. He is bowling horribly. It will be very hard for the Proteas to be competitive without either in top form.

    And finally, the chief executive of England’s PCA is leaving his position to take up an easier (and better paid) job with the MCC. He spoke to the Guadian’s chief cricket writer, Ali Martin. His thoughts on Test cricket? 

    “The ECB will tell you India and Australia are committed to it, but broaden it out to the other boards, I’m not sure they’ll say the same, purely because of the economics. I don’t know if I’m excited or scared. In time the Ashes could become a standalone event, like the Ryder Cup,” said Rob Lynch.