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11
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by PaulP -
I think the main reason you don't go hell for leather in Test cricket is because there's no need to. I would have thought that Test cricket allows for more judicious and conservative shot making, and thus batsmen don't need to take unnecessary risks. I think beyond that, Test cricket is more about the mental and strategic side of the game - over a maximum of five days, trying to understand the weather, pitch condition, opposition strengths and weaknesses, making decisions wrt declaration, sending in nightwatchmen etc. There's more to consider, more decisions to make.

I think the 5 day format also allows for the full range of skills to be on display. More variety in bowling, showing both defensive and offensive batting technique etc. From my limited observations the skills on show in the shorter formats are more limited.

I don't watch cricket much, but I would expect that there is some kind of cross pollination occurring, where techniques, skills mindsets in each of the formats spill over into the others, although at present it seems that the shorter formats seem to be spilling over into Test cricket, not the other way round.
13
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by PaulP -
Quote from: DJC – on
A major factor in shootings by US police/enforcement agencies is the prevalence of gun carrying by the public.  YouTube is full of clips of officers shooting drivers and drivers shooting officers after traffic stops.  Officers are expecting the worst and shooting first and asking questions later is self preservation.  That's not going to change without reform of gun ownership and that's not going to happen without a major change in attitude towards the Second Amendment.

A US National Library of Medicine study found that the incident rate for fatal police shootings in the ten high-gun states was 3.6 times greater than in the five low-gun states. As an aside, the study notes that USA has very high rates of homicide by police compared to other high-income countries ... and that's bleedingly obvious.

A former police officer was recently sentenced to 33 months in prison after being convicted of violating a black woman's civil rights by using excessive force in fatally shooting her during a raid on her home. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment and Taco's administration asked that the officer be sentenced to one day in prison.

The first paragraph is a fair point DJC, but these situations will unravel with greater frequency when you have untrained amateur goons, given crazy amounts of money, with little instruction and seemingly unlimited impunity, roaming US cities.

Study after study shows that guns make societies less safe, not more.
14
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by DJC -
A major factor in shootings by US police/enforcement agencies is the prevalence of gun carrying by the public.  YouTube is full of clips of officers shooting drivers and drivers shooting officers after traffic stops.  Officers are expecting the worst and shooting first and asking questions later is self preservation.  That's not going to change without reform of gun ownership and that's not going to happen without a major change in attitude towards the Second Amendment.

A US National Library of Medicine study found that the incident rate for fatal police shootings in the ten high-gun states was 3.6 times greater than in the five low-gun states. As an aside, the study notes that USA has very high rates of homicide by police compared to other high-income countries ... and that's bleedingly obvious.

A former police officer was recently sentenced to 33 months in prison after being convicted of violating a black woman's civil rights by using excessive force in fatally shooting her during a raid on her home. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment and Taco's administration asked that the officer be sentenced to one day in prison.

 
15
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by northernblue -
The Poms haven’t realized that there’s a big difference between bazball and positive attacking cricket.
Because of my age I see the 70’s/80’s Windies teams as the ultimate exponents of positive attacking cricket but I’m sure earlier teams had similar intent.
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by ElwoodBlues1 -
Quote from: Gointocarlton – on
As a person who know SFA about cricket, I have always wondered why a T20 or One Day Style of go the tonk is never applied in Test cricket. Or why players who are guns (bowling and batting) in the short forms are no good in the longer form. I guess the English team demonstrated it but I still cant work out the "differences" in skill set. Can the aficionados (Proff or EB) provide some simple dot points for me explaining or pin pointing the nuances (apart from the obvious length of the games) of Test and Short form Cricket.
In Test cricket you defend the good balls and score off the bad balls, in the shorter formats you are trying to score off every delivery. So Test cricket requires batsman to have good technique to defend the good deliveries unlike short format cricket where you can be a park cross batted slogger and still have success. Leaving a good ball is seen as a skill in Test cricket but a sin in the shorter formats, Australian batsman in the old days would spend some time playing County cricket or Lancashire League cricket as Professionals to tighten their techniques against the moving ball. There seems less of that these days as the County system employs less overseas professionals and is also favouring the shorter formats where the money is important. The wickets being produced for the different formats are also different with the shorter formats requiring flatter even bounced pitches with no movement" while ideal test matches start off with greeners strips initially that flatten out then turn later and help the spinners so every facet of the game is on display unlike the shorter formats where batting holds sway through the contest. The Sheffield Shield system in Australia has produced well coached players with good technique over the years and this is where the English have fallen behind in their love of the shorter format money spinning formats imho which of course are all in part connected to the IPL where players who do well in their countries domestic short format comps get picked up by Indian IPL teams.
Of course some players can play across the different formats with success but when a wicket favours the bowlers these days you quickly see who the real test players are. eg David Warner made the move from the short format game to test cricket and had success everywhere but in England where technique is king, but on the green seaming wickets he failed miserably.
Unfortunately the game is dominated by money now at all levels and pitches favouring bowlers are frowned upon and curators made accountable if games end early and the wicket requires serious technique and grit to survive on.
Bazball is an example of where short format cricket meets test cricket and vs mug nations its had success playing the style what your initial question alluded too but has failed vs the better schooled test nations like Australia and India who still teach solid technique at a young age.
Good technique is... solid basics like a balanced stance, head over the ball, and precise footwork(forward and back) with crucial mental attributes: patience, temperament, and the ability to concentrate for long periods to tire bowlers and build big scores.
18
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Name your team for Opening Round
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: Lods – on

You know what I meant :P
He won't be thrown straight to the wolves.
He'll be eased into the contest gradually.
If he lights it up early he may get a fair amount of game time.

But that's just my guess and when and how he's played will be up to the coaches.
It wouldn't actually surprise to see him start forward. ;)

I did?  ;D

2026 will be a new kettle of worms with a five man bench and we'll have to see how that pans out.  However, the players who spent most time on the pine last season were still >70% time on ground.  If Dean is good enough to play, then he doesn't need to be protected other than for possible endurance issues.  Forwards like Moir, Motlop and Williams tended to spend more time on the bench and Billy Wilson had a slightly lighter workload than our other defenders.

I'm not opposed to the idea of Dean spending time forward but I don't think that really helped Weitering's development. 
19
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by Thryleon -
Without the political hyperbole, Im amazed at the sheer number of innocent people who wind up in a confrontation with law enforcement and somehow end up losing their lives.  Personally, I assume these people are technically not doing the right thing, and have put themselves in a situation where they are drawing this reaction.  It might come across as "victim shaming/blaming" but im fairly confident no one set out to deliberately kill someone at the start of that process, its where it ended after the confrontation.

Either the cops there are OTT, or these innocent people are not so innocent and there is scope for a middle ground there, because not all incidents (and officers) would be the same.

Before we worry too much about the number of incidents, this is data without context.  The USA is a population of what, 350 million?

We get a disproportionate access to their media over any other nation so we hear more about their dirty laundry than most other countries, and you need to put these incidents in rates of incident per capita to make a meaningful comparison to anywhere else in the world aside from maybe the UK which comes in at an estimated 70 million odd, so 1/5th the size. 

Is their rate of incident really that much higher?

Im not wedded to an outcome there, just challenging people to think more critically about these things.  Two things can be true at the same time here too.  This officer may very well have murdered in cold blood, and this may not speak for anything but an officer who needs to be stood down.
20
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by PaulP -
America's record for killings by cops or other law enforcement officials is dismal, one of the world's worst, keeping company with Donny's much beloved "s h i t hole" countries.