DRS - Saviour or Destroyer?

I have been unable to blog recently due to the amount of cricket going on around the world and every time there was something to criticise another incident worth abusing had occurred so I decided to have a look at the hot topic in cricket at the minute the dreaded Decision Review System or DRS.

This is one of my biggest concerns with cricket at the moment especially Test cricket the question which must be answered initially is if the changes will significantly improve either the standard or enhance the viewers pleasure? I would like to come up with reasons for and against but I am struggling as I only see cons with this latest piece of technology. The concept is all well and good and there are instances in other sports where this kind of system works but in cricket there are just too many times where it could be used so to limit each team to two is my first question?

The whole mantra of DRS is to eliminate the shocker get rid of the really bad decisions but the modern era consists of an elite panel of umpires all of whom are top officials and are very good at their job, the shocker had become less of an issue since the inception of this panel. So now we basically have two occasions where teams try and nick a wicket one which was clipping leg stump or hitting just on the line of the stumps it makes a mockery of the two men out in the middle who are robots constantly referring to the third umpire who has more to do these days in a Test match than the on field umpires.

Being in the top order now puts you doubly at risk, as Kevin Pietersen has recently stated, because it may be worth using a review to get the star player removed and by the time the middle or lower order are in there are no reviews left so less at risk. Also if two reviews are used up despite the system showing the batsman would have been out if the finger was raised initially (i.e. the ball was hitting the stumps but was an umpires call) the team using them have now been punished as they cannot use them later in the innings despite being essentially right in the reviews they decided to use.

Before it is enforced around the world by the ICC surely they must research if there are more wrong decisions previously than there are now. I would imagine it is few and far between so before spending fortunes on implementing this system would it not be better spent on rewarding players for playing Test cricket to lure them away from IPL cricket. All in all I think the only people in favour of DRS are spin bowlers who force batsmen to use their bat and I know many readers would see this as a good thing but it made for a pretty farcical series in Dubai recently where almost every delivery creating a possible DRS opportunity.

Let me just say I am not opposed to all technology introduced to cricket I think that the third umpire being used for line decisions was innovative and has proved a fantastic addition to the game of cricket because the majority of decisions are black and white it is either out or not, the same cannot be said for DRS. Another issue is all the time wasted while the decision is going on making what is quite a slow game even slower, I miss celebrating a wicket without thinking how many reviews each team has left and talking about decisions being right or wrong it is what makes cricket and sport great.

Same old England

It seemed as though we had gone back in time on the final day of the second Test match between Pakistan and England as the visitors collapsed in an all too familiar fashion for people of my generation. Clueless against spin along with a lack of grit or determination meant the result was inevitable. In a match which was controlled for the most part by England it was a pathetic effort in the last innings chasing a very modest total.

Pedestrian batting once again from Pakistan started the Test match and the 257 posted was below average with Stuart Broad picking up four wickets and proving he is an effective cricketer on all surfaces around the world. This being said how can the top four in an International team be bowled? It is the one dismissal that should never occur when you are in the top order it shows a lack of discipline, technique and more worryingly ability. Whilst on the subject, in the match going on Down Under where Australia were destroying India Shaun Marsh was somehow able to get bowled through the gate playing outside of the ball even though it had spun. To say he played down the wrong line would be an understatement it was as playing two balls at once and picked the wrong one.

England responded with a decent total and by gaining a lead made it very difficult for Pakistan to win from that position but after solid contributions from Cook and Trott the middle order is brittle to say the least. This should be explosive with the talent of players coming in but they cannot play spin at all. Even if they were told which way it would spin before the delivery they would struggle it seems. So it was left to a cameo from Broad again to revive England and get them up to a competitive score. It was Pakistan's turn to bat so no need to set any alarms for this as after watching each batsman bat with a strike rate of twelve you will be back to sleep in no time. I am not someone who is after all out aggressive cricket but when you are on top as a batsman you need to kick on and take advantage in order to make match winning contributions.

Just as a side note Panesar bowled beautifully throughout the match and it was because of the team selection although I still maintain that one of the middle order should have been sacrificed as they put up a fairly meagre total between them so it would not have made a difference to go with another bowler despite Tremletts injury. Now onto the debacle that was the England second innings the brainless attempt at chasing down 145 for victory.

It began with Cook working against the spin and a leading edge back to the bowler, this is supposed to be one of the most intelligent bowlers in the team. Followed by Bell, promoted to three as Trott had some sort of virus, and as a big Bell fan it pains me to watch him bat against good spin bowling but he was bowled playing on which essentially put him out of his misery. The main man in at four, the superstar, the hero but this was not to be again as Pietersen was out lbw to a straight ball yet he still had the audacity to review the decision. Morgan bowled second ball playing back. You cannot play back to quick spin it's such common knowledge it has been around for as long as cricket has so surely the rest of the team would be aware of this? Nope skipper out lbw playing back along with Trott out in the same fashion it was like watching the remedial class batting although they would easily have shown more intelligence.

The procession continued with more batsmen playing back and the game was over in no time another comfortable victory in the end for Pakistan who have outplayed England the whole series despite being a pretty average side themselves. The series in Australia has been just as one sided with a dismal display from India who are as abject at playing hostile pace bowling as England are at playing spin. The circus surrounding Tendulkars' potential hundredth International hundred is now threatening to become about as interesting as whether Carlos Tevez will ever play for Manchester City again.

The final Test begins tomorrow morning so we will see if England have learnt any lessons but judging from the previous two lacklustre attempts I wont be holding my breath.

A review of the first Test: Pakistan Vs England

It was almost as if the England team were aware of my new blog in the way that they performed for three pretty pathetic days of Test cricket. They provided enough ammunition for me to write pages upon pages of criticism with chapters including 'Pietersen' or 'How not to play spin bowling?'. Before I lament England's lack of fight, skill or brainpower especially in the two batting efforts I just want to mention a couple of things regarding the bowling performance.

This was viewed as a strong disciplined effort from the England attack but the Pakistan batting lineup would refuse to play a shot to get out of a wet paper bag. Talent wise this may be the weakest lineup I have ever seen from Pakistan usually filled with flair and aggression they allowed England to bowl at them which, even though they were in control of the match, gave England the chance to slowly creep back into the game. To prove my point the supposed 'gun' player as he is often referred to, Younis Khan, was out lbw to Jonathon Trott who might as well bowl underarm on a pitch like that and also raises the debate concerning team selection but that comes later.

After scraping 146 ahead though, with the only demon in the pitch apparently jumping out occasionally to bend Saeed Ajmals' arm when bowling his new 'Tissra' delivery, you would imagine England would build a total to create an exciting finish to the Test match rather than me writing a blog post on the scheduled fourth day of play. Then began the procession of brainless batting allied with 'tactical' Decision Review System (DRS) referrals, which I absolutely despise. Created in order to eliminate the 'shocking' decisions it has only led to referrals being taken given the batsman or situation in the game. My opinion is there will be erroneous decisions throughout the course of five days of cricket be it through human error or in this case mechanical error as there were wrong decisions because of DRS so let us all just get on with the game. The side which plays the best cricket wins the game not the one which used DRS in the correct manner.

The term brainless batting I believe was coined for Mr Kevin Pietersen when on nought and your team in trouble how on earth can you be out caught in the deep hooking? It beggars belief, I have stood up for KP on numerous occasions but it has become a joke because when he has been out in this fashion previously his record has backed him up but when you can count the number of hundreds scored on one hand in the last God knows how many years it becomes more of a problem. Since the captaincy 'episode' there has not been the same swagger nor the same hunger for runs and if he is not careful he could well go from potential England great to the ego with the stupid haircut that helped win the '05 Ashes.

Continuing with this game though and Trott accumulated his mandatory runs to keep his average up without really threatening to take the game to Pakistan while Bell and Morgan have no idea which way the ball is spinning which makes the game that much more difficult. Even a reprieve when Gul took a wicket off a no ball could not save England (although the less said about Pakistan and no balls the better). The lower order huffed and puffed but they were fighting a losing battle after the top order showed such little application. It would be easy to panic now but that is not the England way nor is it their way to change the side too much but if ever there was a time to do it it would be now.

Prior to the Test match there was an argument amongst 'experts' that England should stick to their strengths and go into the match with four bowlers (a formula which has worked well for them I may add) and not make a horses for courses selection and maybe play an extra spinner. However, this is exactly what happened in Australia in the most recent victorious Ashes series when Bresnan replaced leading wicket taker Finn. Six batsmen is plenty in the sub-continent, despite the atrocious two attempts by England, all it has done is remove the responsibility to go and score big runs. If they cant get 350 in two innings with seven it wont make much difference only going with six and who should be dropped? Take your pick, England need to be ruthless and for me it is between Pietersen and Morgan with Panesar coming into the side.

A final point. England in recent years have prided themselves on how well prepared and organised they are as they go into Test series but the coach Andy Flower claimed the abysmal performance was due to lack of preparation. What exactly have they been doing for the previous three months then?

Plenty of cricket to come in the next couple of weeks which means plenty of scope for criticism!

An Introduction

As a passionate cricket fan watching this great game has sometimes become a chore. Are cricketing standards slipping around the world? Are shorter versions of the game ruining the very essence of cricket? Or am I just getting old and creating legends in my mind where in actual fact they were just average cricketers themselves?

Ask any cricket fan their favourite player and it will undoubtedly be someone from their generation which is why the argument about the greatest ever player is often skewed by generation gaps. A few parameters before I begin my crusade to reinvigorate International cricket, I am an England fan although my favourite player is Sachin Tendulkar for a variety of reasons but they will not be immune from criticism in fact a great deal of my criticism will no doubt be aimed at the England team despite their dominance in recent years.

Nor will criticism single out batsmen, bowlers or fielders. Everyone involved in cricket are in my firing line coaches, commentators, twelfth men and even the people in charge of the game who in my opinion are at fault for most things wrong with cricket. One of the great things about cricket, and sport in general, is that it is subjective and statistics can often be misleading but one thing is always true there is constantly someone doing something wrong thus essentially creating blog posts for myself.

It would be wrong of me to comment on every single game going on in the world as I feel I should have watched before criticising and I do not have that kind of time on my hands unfortunately. There will be subjects outside of this, however, which will also need addressing so this will prevent any lull between posts and of course there will hopefully be comments to provoke a response.

What prompted this blog though is in the current Test Match between Pakistan and England the batting side, England, were five wickets down at lunch in Dubai. This can often happen the first day of a Test Match but as has rightly been said in commentary the ball has not swung, seamed or spun! How can this happen? A spinner was introduced in the sixth over of the day and Cook was not ready for this? This is the subcontinent it's almost cliche to talk about how influential the spinners are but it wasn't just Cook, the England captain played a horrific shot, Trott was out to an inside edge, which is not unlucky playing the ball with the edge of the bat is full of pitfalls if it comes off the middle then he would have had four.

This ends the first post but I have a feeling this will be fun and better than therapy. Oh and don't even get me started on the shot played by Pietersen it's about time the 'star' player started to deliver instead of deciding what sunglasses to wear.


A failed cricketer

A review of the Pakistan Vs England Test to follow.................