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21
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by ElwoodBlues1 -
Quote from: Gointocarlton – on
Quote from: ElwoodBlues1 – on

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.
The above is really the guts of it right ?
Yep....problem is players get paid more to try and score off every ball under the guise of entertainment and a lot of punters want fast food cricket in the time poor world of modern living. Test cricket is becoming more of a novelty and some countries are prioritising short format cricket ie Sth Africa because they cant get local sponsors for the long game but can get Indian IPL owners to invest in the SA short format game so they can keep feeding players to the IPL.
England prioritised white ball cricket in New Zealand rather than having a proper warmup schedule in Australia and paid the price for a lack of preparation here for the Ashes.
24
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.
26
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.
27
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.

 
28
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.
29
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.