Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Hafeez wins his fourth T20 player of the series award. Only Kohli has more.

he should win beard of the year too if there is any justice in this world

dan08 wrote:If Moeen wins it from here, then that will be the end of Sarfraz's career.

That was an astonishing error

Suspiciously astonishing?

No worse than Tom Curran's drop. If the Pakistan miss was suspicious, why not that one?

Curran looks like someone who has a job gelding bulls in rural Texas but has got involved with the mob because of his trashy wife's indiscretions in an early seventies film directed by Sam Peckinpah. By the way.

it looked like he was waiting for Mo to get back in before whipping the bails off

I'm sure he wasn't and that he was just fumbling around because he hadn't got hold of the ball properly... but it took him ages, and he looked completely unhurried. Even mo looked as though he knew he was dead in the water and for a moment didn't look as though he was going to bother trying to get back in his ground, until he suddenly realised how long it was taking Sarfraz to stump him

fielders drop high balls all the time, but that stumping just looked weird

Morgan suggesting that the way the home series was facititated this summer is psychologically damaging. It did seem too much to ask of the players, like living on a perpetual tour (but a bit worse).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/54612260

and yet it didn't stop them from shooting off, pretty much immediately, to play for mega money in the IPL, under presumably the same or similar 'untenable' conditions

Commie talk.

England going to SA in November, so that'll be more of the same.

Got to feel for the lad. As people all over the world eye up the very realistic possibility of once again having their personal freedom to leave their house taken away from another 3 months and losing their whole livelihoods to boot, its definitely worth sparing a thought for those earning 2 million quid a year having to isolate in a 5* resort complete with swimming pool, sauna and a resident 18 hole golf course. Got to be tough on the mental health, that.

As Durham says, if these players were tired then why are they at the IPL? Morgan himself just accepted the voluntarily responsibility of captaining KKR this week, which is a bizarre choice to take if he was indeed folding under the pressure of the normal day job. My bet is players will get very tired before the South Africa tour, but will make miraculous recoveries before the Big Bash starts.

Is touring away changed by social bubbles? I cant imagine in the short, sharp tours of the modern day players have time to spare to go for a wander, and in most countries id imagine their high profile means its not advisable nor safe to wander around outside the hotel anyway. So Id think there is very little difference away from home. And home would just become away tours.

Personally think players should be able to pull out, but for every game they miss on an England contract, is a Franchise tournament they also have to miss. Id be pretty angry if players start opting out of England tours while playing every franchise league out there.

I suppose the vast majority of people are locked down with their families, whereas these players are locked out from their families. I think Morgan could think again how his complaints look to the general public (especially regarding the IPL), but it doesn't feel like he is doing anything other than giving a sincere account of how his experience felt.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:I suppose the vast majority of people are locked down with their families, whereas these players are locked out from their families. I think Morgan could think again how his complaints look to the general public (especially regarding the IPL), but it doesn't feel like he is doing anything other than giving a sincere account of how his experience felt.

No player in Morgan's squad went into a biobubble until 16th of July. They spent 18 days inside for the ODI series v Ireland. After they all left the biobubble, we know this because (a) The squad for the rest of the limited overs summer wasnt announced until 18th August (b) no player who was in the test bubble was included for the Pakistan games on purpose (c) the players involved in the Ireland and Pakistan games were playing games for counties between 4th and 18th August.

Given they were playing for counties inside the 2 week quarantine, its safe to say it no longer applied. County cricket was not played in a bubble, and we can see from Archer/Roots isolation from the squad they came back after only 7 days. The squad therefore either went back into the bubble on the 18th at the earliest, or more likely 7 days before on the 21st; its impossible to know which, but looking at the ECBs actions with players rejoining the bubbles, 7 days seems to be the mark.

Interestingly, for anyone in Morgans position playing in IPL, he would have had to serve a mandatory quarantine period in order to play. But the IPL agreed to forgo this for anyone playing in the England v PAK/AUS series that overlapped. This quarantine would have started after the first T20I v Pakistan.

So all in all Morgan is complaining that:

He had to isolate for 18 days for the Ireland series
He had to isolate for 9 extra days for the rest of the summer

On the flipside, he had 5 and a half months gap between ending his last international and joining that squad. Time that he spent with his family no doubt at home, considering it was the only legal alternative.

After staying at home being paid vast sums to do nothing, I am not sure its that outrageous terms of employment to expect people to have a little over a week away from their family, or a couple of weeks. He'd have probably been happy to get away from them after 5 months stuck inside with them, I know I would have been. After 4 months of watching Frozen I was considering paying someone to kidnap mine.

He'd almost certainly have spent more time at home with his family to the end of the season than any key worker. Of course, the key worker gets 8 quid an hour and risks their life.... he gets 2 million a year to play in a biobubble where everyone who gets near him is tested 14 times an hour.

how much would a player play a back to back test in normal times at home get to see their family? ten days of play, 2 days before and in-between to prepare. Its more than one of his biobubbles, and about the same as the other. Its hardly outrageous.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:I suppose the vast majority of people are locked down with their families, whereas these players are locked out from their families. I think Morgan could think again how his complaints look to the general public (especially regarding the IPL), but it doesn't feel like he is doing anything other than giving a sincere account of how his experience felt.

I have absolutely no doubt that he is being sincere. No doubt at all. On the bright side though, being isolated from his family will give him ample time to count his money, so not a complete write off. Long time retired and all that

Look I haven't seen the entire Morgan interview : but judging from the remarks in the link Arthur posted it doesn't strike me that Morgan was actually saying "poor me". Seems that he was saying some players may at times find the whole bubble environment too much (certainly the Test squad was locked up for a lot longer than he and his crew) and that this might present problems going forward. And further that if this is the case a player should not be criticised for declining a tour.
I don't think this is unreasonable. Obviously if a player bookends a couple of commercial franchise tournaments around declining an England tour that would not be a good look ; but there is no sign that Morgan is advocating that behaviour.