gemmerbal

The circus continues... last night's suspensions seem to be related to the Mzanzi Parkie League. These idiots cannot get it right to host a "global" event - after we had succesfully hosted the IPL and the WC, I cannot understand why not. Or I do actually. Now, I wonder if Corrie and Kie are scapegoats as part of an attempted cover-up? My opinion of Thabang Moroe is such that this was the first thing that came to mind when I read this morning's press release by CSA. And here I thought it was related to our poor showing in India, and it was being attempted to get our administrative house in order so we can build a competitive team again. I must be on cheap drugs for thinking such a thing.

https://m.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/revealed-ottis-gibsons-fractured-relationship-with-csa-20190806

I played cricket with and am still mates with a former Windies player who told me that Otis was being pushed out because his vision was not in line with the dictatorship of Thabang Moroe and Chris Nanzani. Among others they are besotted with the idea of having Temba the next captain. Anyways, it was mentioned to me that what transpired between CSA and what was released to the media was also not accurate. Surprise surprise. Personally I had mixed feelings about Otis. I just had the feeling that we weren’t paying enough attention to developing our batting in the same way we did with the bowling. Benkenstein in any event was useless as a batting coach. I really hope they approach someone like Eric Simons or Gary Kirsten for this role of cricket director. Gazza has expressed his desire to return to international cricket and maybe by making him DOC it will be a win win for him and CSA in that Gazza wouldnt have to travel with the team as frequently as the head coach, something he expressed when talking about the details of his application for the English position. Other than Simons or Kirsten, I dont really think theres anyone else who really stands out as far as DOC is concerned. Hopefully the next couple of days will be more revealing and ultimately more confidence inspiring.

The cleanout seems to have begun. Hopefully they appoint qualified people to make educated decisions. Hopefully. This is CSA we are talking about...

Tata Corrie. https://m.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/cricket-sa-suspend-interim-director-of-cricket-corrie-van-zyl-20191029

this fred was killed in the second post...

corect, I think we were competitive for ONE session, other than that India dominated every single session of cricket played. Jassssssss

Jeeziz, Faf really wants to hang around after this pathetic showing. In my mind he was an absent leader, and he should go. They should also post Enoch Kwêvoël somewhere else, make Mark Boucher coach and appoint a young leader who can be mentored by Bouchie. Now is the time to appoint a strong character as coach, because we dont have strong candidates for the captaincy. Vark steaks, what a low we are seeing from the once mighty Proteas. Gutted...

You boys have the issue that you want to play super aggressive cricket like in the ODIs which has been your downfall, as was seen in the Ashes. Guys unable or unwilling to bat for a long period. I reckon the success in the WC might rub off on the test side and provide them with an advantage in the coming series. We on the other hand are like deer in headlights and we have zero confidence after this series and also the series loss at home against SL. Im not getting my hopes up. You may be correct in that it could be a low scoring series, but i dont see us being competitive enough. I hope i am wrong...

Biff hitting the nail on the head: https://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket/proteas/proteas-pathetic-former-skipper-smith-35417949 https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/19/pathetic-graeme-smith-slams-south-africa-bizarre-toss-india-10946570/

ive decided im no longer pissed off with the players, im pissed off with the administrators for not making sure we have a conveyor belt of talented players to choose from and a sound domestic structure where guys are scoring runs/taking wickets thereby applying pressure on our national players to perform or move out of the way. Faf has to go. Im sorry but he just seems uninspiring - to me as a supporter - and seemingly to the players as well. Temba cannot be captain, currently he doesnt deserve to be in the team (sure, not many of the 11 on the field do...) same goes for Markram - these guys have been earmarked as potential leaders, but they also dont inspire the same way a young GC Smith did; Biff had a very clear plan and thats why he was given the support - even though it resulted in some disliking him for being THAT confident in his own plan. As much as it pains me, we have to start fresh. get back to domestic structure, tell the national players to play there if they want to be considered for selection; stop accommodation all these T20 tournaments all over the shop, it weakens our domestic 4day structure by overburdening our players. pay them enough to not want to go. We are going to have to make some serious decisions otherwise we can just forget about it. God knows how the first 3 days of the Newlands Test vs The Poms sold out within 2 hours or whatever it was because Im not paying money to go watch this current lot.

Watched a bit of the cricket this morning, and what grabbed my attention was the chat after play was suspended. Eric Simons is such a knowledgable chap. He was basically saying that we shouldnt be in this “transitional” phase in the first place, as its not like we didnt know that at some point we would have to replace the likes of ABD, Kallis, Hash, Steyn and so on. And that guys should be hardened at domestic level and shouldnt be coming into the national side to learn their game. Hash also contributed in saying that the administrators should have been aware of this and that it reflects on our domestic circuit. And then of course Makhaya contributes with totally irrelevant remarks about tecnical skills or whatever. I had to privilege to be around Eric on occasion. Years ago he was the guest speaker at our annual awards and the one thing he said that has always stuck with me (funny enough it was a comment about a certain Mr Ntini) was about our bowlers being able to hit the top of off stump at least 4 out of 6 deliveries. His opinion was that that was their job and that there were guys in the national side when he coached that couldnt even do it 2 out of 6. And he said imagine you being at work and only achieving a 33% success rate at what you were employed to do, if that would he acceptable. That comment really stuck with me ever since. How often we see our bowlers nowadays straying down leg or being unable to bowl 4 good balls in the same spot? Anyways. The team for this game looks very inexperienced. Im curious to see if they will he opening the batting with QdK. Not sure that will work. Read an article about Quinnie’s success batting at 7 compared to when he bats at 6 or 5 and i still believe he should stay in that Gilchrist role. We simply have to find 6 batters ahead of him that are capable of providing some sort of base for him to attack off of. The pressure of coming in at 100/5 week in week out is not ideal at all. Hamza looks like a talented player. Stick him at 3 and give him an extended run. Dont piss him around in the batting order like they did with Stiaan van Zyl. Will also be interesting to see how Lungi goes in this test. He looks like a talented player, he’s shown glimpses and i hope he goes well. Big strong lad, good attributes to have, he must just get his physical conditioning sorted out. Nice sporty wicket supplied by the Indians. We cannot complain about the conditions like we did 3/4 years ago. Come on boys, show some heart, thats all we really want to see! ????????

Jacob Zupta appeals more than an Indian Spinner... jirrrrrrrrrrrr !@#$%^&*(^%$#

https://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/moroe-urges-fans-to-have-patience-with-the-proteas-20191014 Thabang already starting to make excuses, probably also trying to save their sponsorship deals.

local boy'tjie George Linde replacing Maharaj in the side for the last test, that is funny in so many ways... haha

so what was the point of ICC's 3month ban of Zim?

Amazing but not surprising

Disgraceful.

Haha, punny fun [emoji12] I often wonder why so many people took issue with Biff. I guess he’s brass nature put alot of people off, but in my view he could back up his bark more often than not. And i rate his captaincy and his tenacity. Based on statistics he is one of the most successful captains of all time. And as captain of SA he achieved a lot more success than any of his predecessors and ill go as far as to say his successors. Maybe they should adopt the batt toss like in the Big Bash. Haha... As ive tried to illustrate in one of my previous posts, the value of the toss can be negated to a degree by having a very well balanced side. And therein lies the conundrum perhaps. From memory Biff’s side won a hellava lot of games batting 4th. And if you look at the great sides from history, Aussies under Taylor, Waugh, Ponting, they could win a game from almost anywhere, winning or losing the toss. So i guess my point is if you have a decent side, the toss should almost not be a factor. It is difficult watching our current side yes. Markram, so much potential but he seems to lack the mental approach of test cricket. Same can be said of Kudu de Bruyn. Im not sure Enoch’s prodigal son Bavuma will become a solid test cricketer, he hasnt stamped his authority on the game yet, not in the way you expect from a middle order batsman. Nortje looks like a decent bowler, he showed glimpses of potential in his first spell yesterday. But i fear we will loose him to Kolpak as well, just a feeling. Which brings us to why we are where we are. And i say to you, go watch a domestic 4day game and then you will see why. Even better, go watch premier league cricket down at your local club, and it becomes even more apparent. Strength at the top comes from the bottom up. And while we have corrupt officials running the game that are unwilling to develop the game properly from grassroot level up, our strength as a national side will never be what it was. Its easier to force the numbers to please politicians than it is to lay the foundations for development to happen naturally. (Sorry for the politics).

Maharaj hurt his shoulder trying to stop a ball off his own bowling. In my time playing club cricket ive seen many okes pull hammies, injuring shoulders and so on when they’re being carted all over the park [emoji23] Theres a rumor that theres some internal friction. On two occasions i saw KG and Fluff exchange a few glares. I must admit, our field placing has been suspect. When they were smashing us all over the place we still had 2 close catchers in, makes no sense. Kohli and Jadeja was hitting us for boundaries at will. At one stage we conceded 90 odd runs in 10 overs. Thats when Maharaj pulled up. What ive seen so far, our spinners arent getting their lengths right, not enough overspin like the indians, meaning the spin they do get is slow turn. And Maharaj and Muntasamy’s lines were poor as well. Yes this is a very sporty wicket and we were in with a chance but ive said it many times, VDP shouldnt tour to India. Nortjie also came on for a spell where they tried to bounce the indians out, which didnt work but they just persisted with that tactic. A proper swing bowler would have had a field day on this wicket. Steyn for example. And the most basic bowling principle of all when it comes to line and lenght is to hit the top of off stump. That we cannot achieve and it annoys me no end.

so basically you are also in favour for the toss to remain as it is currently. which I can also agree with. the toss is like a nightwatchman, you either like it or not, but its one of a host of nuisances that make this game so unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQGTXhqVmCQ Aussies won the toss, batted first and scored big, India followed on and WON the game. What happened there then? haha... what a game of cricket that was!

Cool, I’ll try and explain my reasoning, some might say I need medication or that I need to crawl out from underneath my rock, but that’s ok, I don’t mind being unpopular From the dawn of time, the toss has been part of almost every single sporting code. I believe it is an integral part of any contest as it adds to the drama and challenge and makes the victory so much sweeter. (Who remembers and easy victory? You attach a lot more merit to the hard-fought battle, against the odds…) The major reason stated by the law makers on why the visiting team should have the option to bat or bowl first doesn't make sense in my view, as tailoring a pitch to suit YOUR team is as much a gamble as winning the toss itself? Take the current series in India for instance: you really think the BCCI is going to alter the pitch preparation because SA will have first dibs on whether to bat or bowl first? I don’t think so. And why should they? Such is the challenge of playing India in India, and winning a series there SHOULD be hard. India will always have turning wickets, such is the nature of their country's climate, you cannot change or manipulate that, and that is why they generate great spin bowlers and force their pace men to learn skills like reverse swing etc. Thus, imagine if wickets all over the world were the same? Would Pakistan have produced the likes of Khan, Wasim, Waqar, Akhtar and so on, or Australia the likes of Lillee and Thompson. Let me not even start about the Windies: Roberts, Holding, Big Bird, Ambrose, Walsh. Look at what happened to Windies Cricket when their wickets started going to the dogs (yes I know there’s a lot more things contributing to their demise, but the poor wickets in my view doesn’t help in promoting the art of fast bowling in this instance) The toss also has an influence on team selection and by that token team selection also becomes more intriguing in that you have to select your best side to cater for any eventuality. Having a well-balanced side like we did during Graeme Smith's reign was the reason WHY we were the no1 test team at that time. And to India's credit (and I NEVER give them any credit), they have the best balanced side when touring abroad, that’s why they are nr1 at the moment. These are the things affected by the toss. Or at least that’s the way I see it. And to add some facts to my fairy-tale, as per Wikipedia, if you win the toss, your chance of winning the match is only 3% improved. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toss_(cricket)) I hope I made some sense. Your thoughts?

I like your idea. Some are saying the toss should be done away with altogether and the option should go to the visiting side. I dont agree with that. Your suggestion of alternating the "advantage of choice" prior to the commencement of each game makes it still relevant in that you can still choose wrong. But at least you had a chance to choose. I like that idea.

haha, ja i rememeber that one. Steyn Remover, veins pumping and those bloodshot eyes, I would also be scared haha. But nothing beats that clip of Donald/Boucher at Trent Bridge, where Bouchie dropped Athers and AD let go of some excess energy. That was one of THE most hostile bowling spells I've ever seen. That spell from AD at the Wanderers against Steve Waugh was also pretty intense.