THE TRIG ISSUE

For the record (thanks, Nick):

Learning by degrees

Throwing has been the most emotional topic the game has known. Considering the fury of the argument, it might be imagined that batting was in peril and practitioners were constantly taking blows from some demonic chucker. In fact, batting has got progressively easier and therein lies the true scandal. Anyone following the saga about supposedly illegal actions could be forgiven for thinking that throwers have been running amok for years and are spreading faster than bad grammar. They could easily conclude that offenders perpetrate some terrible evil that needs urgent exorcism. In fact, most of them are gentle spinners seeking extra purchase on hard decks; they have never bruised a batsman, merely a few fragile egos.

Same old Spanky. AOTP. Good comments from Viewpoint and Jumbotail.

STRAIGHT-ARM ORTHODOX

Tim May and John Embury must be turning in their beds. (It'd be more than they turned it in a match. Cheap shot; sorry.) Here were a couple of ultra-correct off-spinners who must be muttering "Shit, if only we were allowed to do that!" Under their breath, of course.

Speaking of proper off-spinners; has anyone seen Jean-Paul Duminy bowl for Sorth Efrica? Now, there is a bowler in the true sense of the word, not your modern "bowler". No bend, no jerk, no mirage; just a correct action. Big tick for the couple of overs I saw. Ironic that he was bowling with Johan Botha.

BISHFUL THINKING

Bishen Bedi, has got rock all chance of seeing chuckers pinged in matches, but at least he continues to fight the good fight.

Anil Kumble has experience to test Aussies

Bedi dismissed former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga's claims last week that Muthiah Muralidaran was the greatest bowler ever and called for the off-spinner's action to be tested under match conditions.

"I don't know why the ICC won't make him do it. Bowling in a lab is different than bowling in a Test," said Bedi, "unaware" whether Murali would pursue a threat of legal action against him for questioning the validity of his action.

"To me, the ultimate is Shane Warne, period. Anyone with a legitimate action will struggle to pass Shane Warne."

Comments

[Tony T.]

Pssst! Anyone about?

By the way, Stewie MacGill is out with a knee injury.

[Ian Meckiff]

The fucker is a chucker. But, you know that already.

BTW, it takes a lot of skill to bowl straight breaks one after another. The surprise ball is the one that spins, probably as it should be. Warnie spinning the cover off it ball after ball is not the norm.

[Tony T.]

That's why his flipper was such a doozy. That's doozy.

[Tony T.]

And Ian, it was good to hear you on the wireless radio transmission during the Beautiful Bellerive By The Boats Test match. I especially liked your quote "Well, they've just decided to make it easier for bowlers, haven't they."

[Ian Meckiff]

Yes, that wireless radio is really going to bring the Taswegians into the 20th century. But I really meant they've made it easier for "some", I didn't mean bowlers. How could that be classified as bowling? Geeze, Geoff Boycott's mum is a chucker too by the standards of my day and she's never been called in a Test. Now, tell me there is no bias?

[Tony T.]

Mother Boycott's arm was at 16 degrees when she made chip butties.

[Ian Meckiff]

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22780054-5003413,00.html

[Bruce]

Does Brad Hogg get a guernsey then with Maggilla on the sidelines?

If Sideshow is fit enough perhaps we use him to hold up an end and go with the 4 quicks - an area that India cannot match up. We probably wouldn't need to juice up the wickets too much.

And I shall miss Boof Lehman. A highly astute cricketer but when he takes up his inevitable coaching position he may need to have a 'bad cop' offsider. He might not be the training taskmaster required for modern cricket success.

[nick]

Let's hope MacGill's appetite for the game matches his appetite for good red plonk. I think he's gone. 14 man squad for Boxing Day/Sydney - with Hilfenhaus, Hogg, Tait and Bollinger. Tait for Boxing Day, with Clarke and Symonds the spinners, Hogg for Sydney when Tait breaks.

ps : Good to see the G-Train motivated.

'The star forward said he made his decision to retire at the end of Round 22 after suffering a cold and “not feeling good” about himself'.

[nick]

Who has Ganguly got pictures of to get back in the Indian team? Match figures of 3 for not much in the First Test against Pakistan...what are the odds on that? Similarly, I reckon V.Slog has been eating at the same places as Magilla. If India don't pick Slog and Laxman they are mad.

Slog
Dhoni
Dravid
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Y.Singh
Pathan
Kumble
Sreesanth
H.Singh
Z.Khan/Nahra/RP Singh

P.Patel as Mascot
L.Favell as Coach
B.Bedi as Spin Coach
S.Gavaskar as Visiting Claimer Of Racism.

[Professor Rosseforp]

Once again, Peter Roebuck is obfuscating, and dodging the central issue like an opening batsman on a greentop in the West Indies facing a quadrumvirate of lethal leather-flingers (sorry, I may have been reading too much Peter Roebuck).
The throwing issue, as far as spinners go, has little to do with being hurt by the bowler. Colin Cowdrey demonstrated that being hurt is not a major concern of batsmen, when he combatted the West Indian pace attack by letting the ball hit him, delivery after delivery, until they were forced to move their attack to the off stump.
The worst way to hurt a batsman is to get him out. And spinners, or one particular spinner, has got out a large number of batsmen with a questionable action. On previous occasions, Roebuck has admitted this may have happened, but was acceptable because Murali is a wonderful fellow. At times he has used the "optical illusion" argument, which is less popular nowadays, as it has been proven comprehensively that Murali's arm does bend during the delivery. Now he's saying, why complain when no-one is getting injured? This is shifting the argument from the central claim of Murali's critics: that in some deliveries (perhaps most), Murali's congenitally-bent arm flexes more than the permitted 15 degrees, from the bent position, just prior to delivery. In his earlier tests, before the rules changed, he bent more than the permitted 5 or 10 degrees.
These are claims as worthy of investigation as any Sherlock Holmes mystery, with the added imperative that they are happening in real life, not in fiction (sorry, too many Roebuckisms again).
P.S. Is the continued Roebuckism of "leather-flinger" a neat way of avoiding terms such as "bowler" or "thrower"??

[nick]

What hurts more - getting hit on the head and the body in your 1st and 100th Tests, or this : 1st Test v Aus at Kandy, 1999 [1459]
1 RT Ponting c & b 96
or this : 2nd Test v Aus at Galle, 1999 [1460]
2 MJ Slater st +RS Kaluwitharana 96
and how damaging was this : 1st Test v Aus at Galle, 2003/04 [1685]
1 A Symonds c DPMD Jayawardene 0
and even a triple centurion won't come back from this : Only Test v Aus at Sydney, 2005/06 [1768]
3 SM Katich c & b 2

Your Honour, I rest my case.

ps : 'leather-flinger' (n) : a romantic and ego syntonic description of a thrower.

[nick]

Your Honour, if his action is so good, why do so many concentrate on his character? Sure, he's a good guy, but so am I - they don't let me throw the ball at people...

His genius is his Darwinian adaptability. When a coach told him he was too small to bowl fast, the 13-year-old switched to off-spin. Under fire from Aussie officialdom, he turned to leg-spin. When a string of left-hand-ers began to thwart him, he turned the tables by perfecting his doosra. More recently he has added a slider. And he has developed astonishing stamina, averaging 331 balls per Test (Warne, no slouch himself, averaged 281).

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article2936956.ece

[Ian Meckiff]

Professor, thanks for the very insightful analysis. So often the debate about Murali descends immediately into an emotional one on both sides.

So, am I correct in assuming that the soap dodging pommy bastard is incorrect and, in your highly regarded opinion, the fucker is indeed a chucker?

[Professor Rosseforp]

Mr Meckiff: I am no expert, and was probably the world's worst cricketer at schoolground level -- but I have my opinions, for what they are worth, and I have watched plenty of cricket. I believe that Murali can bowl with a legitimate action, even if it appears ungainly. I think he is a great cricketing thinker. I believe tests have vindicated his early critics, by proving that he did exceed the legal limit of bending. I believe the changing of the laws gave him open slather to bowl however he felt, and he exceeds the current limit. I also believe he should be called when the umpire sees fit, and that when umpires did call him they have been proven to be correct. People don't get upset when they are called for over-stepping, so why worry about calling for actions which are illegal? If he were called for throwing, the controversy would sort itself out, as he would either stop throwing, or would be removed from the attack by his captain, who couldn't afford to give away all those extra runs.
So yes, he chucks frequently.

[Bruce]

or would be removed from the attack by his captain

That's where your argument breaks down Prof. What if the captain refuses to remove him from the attack? What if he has a shrill little hissy fit and threatens to leave the ground? Hence Murali keeps on flinging.

[Ian Meckiff]

Alas, the only umpire with the "balls" to call a chuck is on the outs at the moment because he dared to allege ball tampering against the Pakistani's.

Apparently, its just not cricket to call them as you see them when you're an umpire these days.

[Tony T.]

I reckon Prof sums it up about right.

Still, seamlessly meshing together Prof's comment that Murali "would be removed from the attack by his captain" with Bruce's question: "What if the captain refuses to remove him from the attack?" we arrive at Nick's link to Simon Wilde's drivel: "Sri Lanka had a weak attack, so a spinner who could average almost four wickets a Test, as he did in his first four years, was worth having." As I said, seamlessly; there lies the rub.

There can be no doubt the Shree powerbrokers knew Murali's action was dodgy. But there can also be no doubt they knew a winner when they saw one. So they, including Piggy Ranatunga, devised a plan to brazen out an issue they knew would someday come to a head. In short: flagrant cheatery.

As for the rest of Wilde's wild cock-eyed ramblings. The sporting world has made a fine art of turning a blind eye to misdeeds if it will help winners.

And every time Murali felt a little glum, all he needed to do was think of his bank balance and how it would continue to grow as long as he kept getting wickets, protected by the Shree cricket mobsters.

And and just because "Murali, you see, has never been a quitter" doesn't mean I have to like him; doesn't mean I have to admire him; doesn't mean I have to respect him or his so-called genius; doesn't mean I have to accept he has a lot of wickets.

And and and can I be the first to claim a new term for spouting over-descriptive, flowery bollocks: Talking Roebuck.

Mike Coward: "The wonderfully idiosyncratic club game was played in dusty Uttar Pradesh, under orange hued skies, just outside of bustling Lucknow on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Ganges? (With apologies to Kipling.)"

Tone: "Stop talking Roebuck."

[Ian Meckiff]

Oh, and don't drop your soap in the shower either. You might get "Roebuck"-ed.

[Tony T.]

Like it, Centurion, nice one.

[RT]

Darrell Hair was on Sydney radio last week in a long interview, and took calls. Damn good radio it was too. One thing struck me, after not hearing him talk, he has a great voice for radio, mellifluous is probably how Roebuck would describe it, the flowery worded twat.

Everyone who called in was supportive and the interviewers were saying it for him, so it was all good anti-chucking stuff. He went through his poorly received $ pay off bung and sounded credible.

Looks like he'll be back umpiring in around April but can't see him posted to any sub-continent matches.

[os]

I was on my way to the Polling Booth last saturday and Jim Maxwell had Bish on. Being a stirrer and knowing what would happen, Jim asked Bish about Murali. Bish didn't hold back and gave Murali both barrels of the duck fucker.

[David Barry]

Just on a technical point: As the Laws currently stand, if a bowler is called for throwing in an innings three times, he cannot bowl again in the innings.

[Bruce]

Help me out here fellas.

I just read a Foxsports article that indicated the Aussies will play 21 tests in 2008. Looking at the fixture I can only find 18.

I think I can account for the miscount on the basis of getting the pre/post christmas dates for different tours wrong and the demotion of the West Indies from 4 to 3 tests.

But that is still a mountain of cricket to get through and god knows how many ODIs and T20 games. Wear and tear will probably end up adding to the selection turmoil.

[Tony T.]

Spewing I missed the Hair interview. I might have to see if I can hunt it down from the 2GB arch-hives.

And hearing Jim MAXWELL! with Bish (honorary Strayan) would have been gold, too.

Bruce, that much cricket will wear and tear ME out. I'd better start hoarding supplies.

[Professor Rosseforp]

Good point, David Barry -- let the umpires start calling!
Bishen Bedi was a beautiful bowler to behold when on song. That lovely left-arm loop, which depended so much on Bedi's rolling hip action.
He took on many of the world's best batsmen, with no physical intimidation of speed, and no discernible spin. His minuscule variations in speed, his slight deviations in loop, his delicate changes in length, minor alterations in positioning from the stumps -- all gave batsmen something to think about. His test average does not reflect his ability to tie down opponents, including brutal hitters like Richards, Botham, Lloyd et al. In fact, they became so used to reducing all risks, that it became harder for Bishen to get them out. He is the last true slow bowler (as opposed to spinner) that I can remember in international cricket, and what a jewel he was.

[Bruce]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/bedi-points-finger-at-harbhajan/2007/12/01/1196394689334.html>The Bish is having a go at Harby now.

Is he on the AGB payroll or something?

[Tony T.]

He should be. He should also be awarded status as an honorary Strayan Living Legend.

[Tony T.]

Sorry, Strayan Living treasure.