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

I sometimes forget how popular cricket once was, because now it is is a minority sport in UK. Between the wars, cricket was the summer sport and everyone knew who the players were and it was widely played for recreation in towns and villages. Particularly in the north. Even in my lifetime, the Yorkshire league was said to be of a high standard.

With all that cricket being played, and with the benefits of avoiding working in heavy industry, it's possible that standards were higher than we now expect. Cricket wasn't professional in the way we think of it now- players had winter jobs- but the talent pool was much bigger. Anecdotes about whistling down a mine for a fast bowler are fanciful, but may hold a germ of truth.

The footage that exists of Larwood doesn't look like a medium pacer at work. As I've mentioned before, I think he looks like a- shorter- Brett Lee. And I remember when even in middle age, Devon Malcolm was still the fastest bowler in England, suggesting there modernity hadn't brought a democratisation of pace and that real speed is unusual and personal. Malcolm was a graduate of the Derbyshire leagues, not elite coaching.

I say this not to defend the past, but to suggest that the truth might not be found in a relatively extreme view..

+++ Sorry for spamming this thread, if a mod wants to move this along somewhere else to discuss, then please do so+++++

Bit out of the blue i know, but what's the feeling of Yashasvi Jaiswal being a potential India captain? And maybe the next one after Rohit?

andy wrote:Bit out of the blue i know, but what's the feeling of Yashasvi Jaiswal being a potential India captain? And maybe the next one after Rohit?

Rohit and Hardik are two captains in different formats. Jasprit and KL Rahul have been VC recently.

From the young batch, Shubman is likely to get the first go as captain when someone retires. Shreyas Iyer also has captaincy experience and if he makes Team in one format, he will be ahead of Yashasvi for captains place.

Yashasvi has not captained in FC or LIST A or IPL team as well. Imo in near time he is unlikely to become the captain in near future.

I think it was gavasker.who was laying into Hardiks captaincy on Cricinfo today ..wasn't impressed

sussexpob wrote:I think it was gavasker.who was laying into Hardiks captaincy on Cricinfo today ..wasn't impressed

Everyone wants to have a pop at Pandya these days, I think it's embarassing the stick he has recieved and the alleged in-fighting in the MI squad over the captaincy 'saga' Yes he hasnt been in great form but he hasn't deserved all the flak that has come his way....yes Rohit has been a good captain for MI but in last 4-5 years his run output in the IPl has been pretty poor to be honest

andy wrote:

sussexpob wrote:I think it was gavasker.who was laying into Hardiks captaincy on Cricinfo today ..wasn't impressed

Everyone wants to have a pop at Pandya these days, I think it's embarassing the stick he has recieved and the alleged in-fighting in the MI squad over the captaincy 'saga' Yes he hasnt been in great form but he hasn't deserved all the flak that has come his way....yes Rohit has been a good captain for MI but in last 4-5 years his run output in the IPl has been pretty poor to be honest

Indeed, Rohit has been so bad that it is not even worth selecting him in a IPL Fantasy league in last 4 or 5 years. His batting approach in power play has been poor. However, having won so many IPL trophies for Mumbai Indians, he kept his place. If MI management had dropped him as a player or captain, he would have moved to other franchisee. But his extended poor form with the bat and succession planning given his age probably made MI think tank to go for ex MI player Hardik who also won IPL in his first captaincy stint with GT. Jasprit Bumrah and SKY have been playing as VC in some formats. So this does upsets the seniority culture. There is a talk that Jasprit Bumrah, SKY and couple of MI players will opt to go into next auction. Perhaps they were okay playing under Rohit but not so under Hardik. Moreover Hardik also is not respected even in Indian cricket where top cricketers were considered and worshipped like super humans. He was in some controversy or other. One instance was a stupid comment in non cricket related talk show. Deepak Hooda also complained to state cricket association when he played with Kunal Pandya. There was news that they avoided import taxes on some luxury goods. Both Pandya brothers have been in wrong news. They fail to get that kind of respect which Sachin, Rahul, VVS etc got. So when some other negative news comes in media against them (and they do find ways to get involved in some or other controversy) they get it real bad from fans.

If Jasprit had got the captaincy, i dont think Rohit would have been upset. Jasprit is more liked in India as compared to Hardik by the fans as well for obvious reasons. Won't be surprised if there are major changes to MI team whenever the existing contracts of MI core players are due for renewal.

Maybe Bumrah will get the captaincy next year. This was a pretty catastrophic IPL campaign for Mumbai