Inside Cricket July 2015

What should I be commenting on? The recent, aborted bid to overthrow the leadership of world cricket? A revolution is brewing, after all. Or perhaps the heated debate over Pietersen’s exclusion from England’s team. Nemesis dooms the rebel to a lifetime of admiring only himself. We wait to hear the final “plop”. No. I want to make a belated tribute to a real revolutionary and a true rebel. Richie Benaud. That’s right. Those who only ever knew him as an elderly commentator might think that’s a risible description of the man, something like saying John Howard was an unacknowledged giant of hip-hop. Revolution is about change for the better. That’s what Richie was about. He showed the world what rebellion and revolution can achieve when it’s done with the right…

Before last season, if anyone was familiar with the name Andrew Fekete, they might have been art connoisseurs, because the first man to make the moniker famous was a Hungarian-born Brit, an abstract expressionist painter, poet and writer who died at 32 in 1985. At the start of last season, the most curious thing about Tasmanian fast-bowler Andrew Fekete’s name was that, against all probability, it gave fellow Aussie cricketer Mark Steketee a partner in rhyme. Fast bowler Fekete, a 30-year-old from Tasmania via Victoria, deserves a break – not the kind that almost ruined his career in 2013, but rather the sort of recognition a talented, hard-working fast-bowler should be getting. Hopefully, his shock sweep of all the big Cricket Tasmania awards at the end of the last Shield…

ASHES FLASHES After the first three Tests in England in 1989, Steve Waugh averaged an awesome 393.00 (177 not out at Leeds, 152 not out and 21 not out at Lord’s and 43 at Birmingham). He averaged 126.50 in the six-Test series. Coincidentally, Australia’s Charles Turner and Glenn McGrath and England’s Sydney Barnes have an identical bowling average of 19.34 in Ashes Tests in England; Turner in eight Tests, McGrath in 14 and Barnes in seven. Another Aussie, Terry Alderman, came close, averaging 19.33 in 12 Tests. All 11 England players bowled against Australia in the 1884 Oval Test. The most successful bowler was the regular wicket-keeper Alfred Lyttelton who took 4-19 with lobs while W.G. Grace kept wickets. Only two batsmen have aggregated over 2000 runs in Ashes in…

…AS LONG AS THE CRICKET ISN’T FRENCH! A new T20 competition has been started in Europe to raise interest in the game on the Continent. Called the Mediterranean Premier League, the competition has the noble aims of enhancing the status of the game throughout the Continent, and creating some history of its own. Having the various ancient peoples of that melting-pot of a landmass agree on anything is no easy task – just ask the European Union. But the MPL has been crafted to appeal to people of all European nations and sensibilities. The competition will include all existing teams, at all levels, from club through to national. Currently, numbers appear to be somewhere between six and 12 teams, which will compete in one match a day over four, or…

Southern Stars and Konica Minolta Queensland Fire all-rounder Jess Jonassen is no dill, as a cricketer or in any other matter. Apart from being the current WNCL Player of the Year, she is studying for a law degree. Jonassen was the most shocked person in the room at the Australian State Cricket Awards this year, when she won the coveted award from a strong field. She attributed it to “the most consistent year I’ve had,” but that is, typically, an understatement. Though she describes herself as a bowling all-rounder, Jonassen has dug the various national and State sides she’s played in out of trouble, and won them games, consistently with the bat as well over the last few years. But with ball in hand, Jonassen is a very skillful purveyor…

Australia’s resurgence in 2013-14 was sudden but emphatic, because they had a top-class attack and an astute captain. On the other hand, England plummeted to the depths because they had some waning stars and a captain who is tactically naive. While England has spent the last 12 months obsessing over who should be the new cricket director [which turned out to be Andrew Strauss] and whether they need another coach [Peter Moores sacked yet again and Trevor Bayliss installed], they should’ve been concentrating on sorting out the captaincy situation. With Michael Clarke in charge of a strong attack in 2015, England can’t beat Australia, at least while Alastair Cook is captain. Nevertheless, England don’t seem to have too many options other than promoting Joe Root. That’s the dilemma facing them:…