Cricket things that annoy you

[31550]

I wonder if the same people who dismiss District Cricket and similar as wheelie bin cricket (just because there aren't paid umpires), also use think that AFL football is the only 'real' Australian Rules football? Or worse, think that 'AFL' is the name of the game, rather than the name of one competition?
IMO 'real' Australian football is the stuff still sometimes played on suburban grounds, or at least played in the last century before the advent of the AFL.
The reason for the analogy is that I see 'cricket' going the same way. The game itself is being subverted by the peak bodies that now control it.

 

[Rabish Binney]

Pretty poor having the u16 out there tbh. I remember doing it when I was about 12 and giving a bloke out stumped when I wasn’t watching because of the pressure of being appealed. No idea if he was in or not but he seemed to think he was, but a junior shouldn’t ever be sent out to umpire even at square. Get them to do scoring if they need to do bits to help out

Opposition captain sounds like a good bloke, some of the shit blokes masquerading as cricketers out there wouldn’t be so forgi

In comps where you have to umpire yourself, young guys have to learn somehow.

Agree that its not easy for young guys however.

 

[corbies]

As a guy who plays wheelie bin park shit in a comp that somehow has umpires for every game, let me tell you you'd much rather be umpiring yourselves.

 

[31550]

In comps where you have to umpire yourself, young guys have to learn somehow.

Agree that its not easy for young guys however.

Best solution is adult controlling umpire and junior at square leg. If square leg decision is required, the controlling umpire will confer and decide after discussion. Don't leave it to the junior to make the call.

 

[Rabish Binney]

Mate, take a trip across the great dividing range.

See where Trent Copeland and Chris Tremain, Henry Hunt, and Don Nash and Peter Toohey etc learned how to play cricket, and ask if the guys who played with them are wheelie bin cricketers just because people out here live in towns of, in some cases, a few thousand people, up to 30, and there aren’t umpires falling out of every noodle bar willing to give up their Saturdays to stand in 38 degree heat for $14 an hour.

Agree Phat

I'm not 100% sure what the OP's gripe is about.

Used to work in an industry where I was transferred usually every 3-4 years to other towns with work. 90% of which were country towns (which was great as I'm a country lad originally anyway)

Some of these towns had only 300 - 500 people in them and the local footy and cricket associations consisted of around 6 other towns in that association.

Local sport in these places was is and remains everything.

We didn't have the luxury of cricket umpires but the standard was no less for not having them.

As an aside, I played for 2 years in the city at District level (only C grade mind you) but can say that some of the very best cricketers I ever played against where from country associations.

And in those associations, we umpired ourselves.

 

[Rabish Binney]

The fact that the cricket public never got to see the heights that the greats of the South African test could have achieved in the 1970's due to SAF banishment from test cricket:

A quick look at the list:

Eddie Barlow; 30 tests
Barry Richards; 4 tests
Graeme Pollock; 23 tests
Mike Proctor; 7 tests
Clive Rice; No tests
Denys Hobson; No tests
Peter Pollock; 28 tests
Vincent Van der Bijl; No tests

Could also add Alan Lamb, who was 17 in 1970. No doubt would have gone on to play tests for SAF. And there are more of course.

Just how good would have the SAF been throughout the early to mid 70's?. Imagine seeing Richards and Pollock bat together?

The Oldman saw Pollock hit 175 at Adelaide Oval in 1964. He said he was the best batsman he saw.

 

[Gough]

The fact that the cricket public never got to see the heights that the greats of the South African test could have achieved in the 1970's due to SAF banishment from test cricket:

A quick look at the list:

Eddie Barlow; 30 tests
Barry Richards; 4 tests
Graeme Pollock; 23 tests
Mike Proctor; 7 tests
Clive Rice; No tests
Denys Hobson; No tests
Peter Pollock; 28 tests
Vincent Van der Bijl; No tests

Could also add Alan Lamb, who was 17 in 1970. No doubt would have gone on to play tests for SAF. And there are more of course.

Just how good would have the SAF been throughout the early to mid 70's?. Imagine seeing Richards and Pollock bat together?

The Oldman saw Pollock hit 175 at Adelaide Oval in 1964. He said he was the best batsman he saw.

My old man saw a lot of Pollock and says the same thing.

 

[31550]

The fact that the cricket public never got to see the heights that the greats of the South African test could have achieved in the 1970's due to SAF banishment from test cricket:

Quite interesting that cricket's controlling bodies took such a stand against the racist policies of the South African Government in the 1970s.

I mean, government racism and discrimination against religious minorities isn't a thing amongst any of the current Test playing nations today, is it?

 

[PhatBoy]

Agree Phat

I'm not 100% sure what the OP's gripe is about.

Used to work in an industry where I was transferred usually every 3-4 years to other towns with work. 90% of which were country towns (which was great as I'm a country lad originally anyway)

Some of these towns had only 300 - 500 people in them and the local footy and cricket associations consisted of around 6 other towns in that association.

Local sport in these places was is and remains everything.

We didn't have the luxury of cricket umpires but the standard was no less for not having them.

As an aside, I played for 2 years in the city at District level (only C grade mind you) but can say that some of the very best cricketers I ever played against where from country associations.

And in those associations, we umpired ourselves.

This.

We’ve had dozens of blokes go down to Sydney and comfortably hold their own in the higher grades and not even the cream of the crop from here either, in my time playing senior cricket. Many blokes just don’t take cricket seriously enough to have a go down there.

There’s others that did and never quite made it to the absolute top but still made a tonne of runs - my former chief of staff was the local under 20s captain when the Penrith first grade coach was here one day and saw him play and asked him to go and have a crack in Sydney: nearly 4000 first grade runs later and a handful of summers with the NSW second XI later he was a bee’s dick from a state cap.

These are the sort of players that come from comps or towns where there might be half a dozen ticketed umpires if that at any given time.

 

[PhatBoy]

Bear in mind this game HAD an umpire so by the strict definition it wasn’t ’wheelie bin cricket’ but it was in a comp that did periodically have to umpire its own games and never ever had 2 umpires in a game unless it was a final.

The first season I played first grade here it was an eye opener - the amount of sledging and stuff and the pace of the change bowlers etc.
my best mate from uni encouraged me to join the club we would end up playing for, and we had never seen each other play before. He was quick, and f**king angry. Ended up best man at my wedding.

Third game we played together he bounced this poor bastard and shattered his nose - plastered it all over his face. Basically gave the most cursory check to make sure he could get off the field ok then just stood at the top of his mark wiping the blood on his trousers from the ball waiting for the next poor prick to come out to bat. Ended up taking 7-26 or something ridiculous. ‘He should have gotten out of the way’ I think were his words.

 

[Rabish Binney]

Bear in mind this game HAD an umpire so by the strict definition it wasn’t ’wheelie bin cricket’ but it was in a comp that did periodically have to umpire its own games and never ever had 2 umpires in a game unless it was a final.

The first season I played first grade here it was an eye opener - the amount of sledging and stuff and the pace of the change bowlers etc.
my best mate from uni encouraged me to join the club we would end up playing for, and we had never seen each other play before. He was quick, and f**king angry. Ended up best man at my wedding.

Third game we played together he bounced this poor bastard and shattered his nose - plastered it all over his face. Basically gave the most cursory check to make sure he could get off the field ok then just stood at the top of his mark wiping the blood on his trousers from the ball waiting for the next poor prick to come out to bat. Ended up taking 7-26 or something ridiculous. ‘He should have gotten out of the way’ I think were his words.

Assume the batsman didn't have a Helmut Phat?

I only started wearing a lid in the last couple of years that I played (late 40's - that's the age not the year) .

Found at training that I was getting hit a bit by the A grade bowlers regularly (I was down in the C's then). Nothing serious, a few on the gloves; upper arms and in the ribs (which f*** hurt). The A grade bowlers smelt blood and I copped a lot of short stuff in the nets.....must be a fast bowlers mentality.

Came to the realisation that the reflexes weren't as sharp as they were 25 years ago, so a lid it was.

Got to admit though that I hated wearing one. Guess its something you get used to. Think if I was a young cricketer these days you wouldn't think about not wearing one.

On that, one of my team mates never wore gloves.....and another wouldn't wear a thigh pad.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Quite interesting that cricket's controlling bodies took such a stand against the racist policies of the South African Government in the 1970s.

I mean, government racism and discrimination against religious minorities isn't a thing amongst any of the current Test playing nations today, is it?

Let’s not.

 

[PhatBoy]

Assume the batsman didn't have a Helmut Phat?

I only started wearing a lid in the last couple of years that I played (late 40's - that's the age not the year) .

Found at training that I was getting hit a bit by the A grade bowlers regularly (I was down in the C's then). Nothing serious, a few on the gloves; upper arms and in the ribs (which f*** hurt). The A grade bowlers smelt blood and I copped a lot of short stuff in the nets.....must be a fast bowlers mentality.

Came to the realisation that the reflexes weren't as sharp as they were 25 years ago, so a lid it was.

Got to admit though that I hated wearing one. Guess its something you get used to. Think if I was a young cricketer these days you wouldn't think about not wearing one.

On that, one of my team mates never wore gloves.....and another wouldn't wear a thigh pad.

Yeah this bloke was wearing a baggy.

My folks bought me a lid when I was a young bloke after I lost a second front tooth as a 12 year old and had some dental work but I hated wearing it, I couldn’t get used to looking through it and being a country kid I got sledged a lot for wearing it so i ditched it and never wore one again.

It cost me big time once, I was about 18 and hooked the quickest bowler in town for four, he bowled another bouncer and this one I wasn’t good enough to even see and it absolutely smashed my cheekbone, f**k it hurt: I still have a depression like a ball in it to this day. I didn’t rub it - it was the proudest and stupidest moment of my cricket life. He felt a bit sorry for me I think and said ‘are you ok’ and threw up a little half volley next ball and I hit him for another boundary - the next one I didn’t even see, and my middle stump went cartwheeling about 20 metres. I went and sat in the car nursing my jaw and cried for a bit. I was in agony.

I always tried to play with a bit of false bravado even though I was often shit scared, I think bowlers could tell it was a front most of the time. You can spot the real ones from the fake ones I reckon. I generally handled short stuff pretty well, though. As in, I could at least make sure I wasn’t in TOO much physical danger, at the very least.

I think that would change drastically at 41 if I were to play at any level higher than park grade now

 

[Gough]

I was an earlier adopter of the helmet, back when only p***s like me wore one playing club cricket but it gave me confidence when I batted, and went back and across and missed it which was more likely than not I wasn't going to wear it in the face.

 

[Pistol Night]

I was an earlier adopter of the helmet, back when only p***s like me wore one playing club cricket but it gave me confidence when I batted, and went back and across and missed it which was more likely than not I wasn't going to wear it in the face.

Unlike Viv that would get smacked in the jaw and somehow still stare at and intimidate the bowler

 

[The hands of stone]

By the same token, I was facing a left handed finger spinner bowling around the wicket on a very bouncy deck bowling back a length wide of off, and I went back and a long way across to cover my stumps as I left a ball that would've missed the stumps by half a foot. Ball flicks the knee roll of my back leg, and I hold my position - see, here's where it got me, that's how much it's going to miss the stumps - only for the muppet of an official ump to give me out for a ball that a) was bouncing over and b) was on an entire set of stumps wide of off. "Play a shot, mate!" yeah, but still.

LBW is always going to be a shit rule, because an LBW is an opinion. I played in a one day game with two official umps that had 18 LBW's fall across both innings without it being low and slow.

You get some absolutely shithouse LBW calls at all levels of cricket. People being pissed at being given out for balls they hit have a right to be a bit annoyed.

I tended to find even at the higher levels that most umpires were either inclined to give lbw or they weren't.
Most of them had umpired state level and even the odd international .
You sort of knew if you were in danger or not, batting wise.

At a local level I always thought the better umpires tended to almost not give them , almost batsman's benefit of the doubt to an extreme .

It's a tough gig

 

[peternorth]

The distinct lack of collars in cricket shirts

 

[BrownYouGun]

Untucked shirts

 

[Gethelred]

Yeah this bloke was wearing a baggy.

My folks bought me a lid when I was a young bloke after I lost a second front tooth as a 12 year old and had some dental work but I hated wearing it, I couldn’t get used to looking through it and being a country kid I got sledged a lot for wearing it so i ditched it and never wore one again.

It cost me big time once, I was about 18 and hooked the quickest bowler in town for four, he bowled another bouncer and this one I wasn’t good enough to even see and it absolutely smashed my cheekbone, f**k it hurt: I still have a depression like a ball in it to this day. I didn’t rub it - it was the proudest and stupidest moment of my cricket life. He felt a bit sorry for me I think and said ‘are you ok’ and threw up a little half volley next ball and I hit him for another boundary - the next one I didn’t even see, and my middle stump went cartwheeling about 20 metres. I went and sat in the car nursing my jaw and cried for a bit. I was in agony.

I always tried to play with a bit of false bravado even though I was often shit scared, I think bowlers could tell it was a front most of the time. You can spot the real ones from the fake ones I reckon. I generally handled short stuff pretty well, though. As in, I could at least make sure I wasn’t in TOO much physical danger, at the very least.

I think that would change drastically at 41 if I were to play at any level higher than park grade now

I grew up on stories from my dad, concerning how he had to reteach himself not to play the pull shot after he'd top edged the ball for the nth time into the bridge of his nose and eyebrow, and how he'd wake up at the hospital, not remembering how he got there. I played in a game a few years back where an old bloke was just smoking them; left hander of a reasonable height, and our bowler for whatever reason kept serving them up. He was on about 60 odd before he misjudged one - was through the shot too early - and it got him full on the cheekbone. There was a hole where his cheek used to be; I can still remember seeing it before he got his hand in the way and his children took him to hospital.

Played the bloke later in the season, and he was still batting without a helmet.

It's something I'll never ever do. I don't care if it's inconvenient; I don't care if it's hot or if it's harder to see or you feel claustrophobic. It doesn't matter if you're playing a spinner or a quick; you are at all times able to top edge that ball into your face faster than you can react. It's even worse now, with people trying to play ramp shots.

Wear a helmet.

 

[Gough]

Once the cages came along helmets became more much user friendly, those old plastic visors were horrible.

 

[eddiesmith]

I play in a couple of comps that mandate helmets for batsmen and keepers standing up. Although one may only mandate for fast bowling when batting.

But I’ve taken blokes to hospital who don’t believe in helmets before and another keeper who had $10,000 worth of dental bills missing one from the spinner on a turf deck.

 

[Black Diamond]

Yeah I always thought it was a silly aspect that you didn’t have to get a foot back in the field of place first before touching the ball again. Makes no sense to me

Yeah, of your last contact with the ground was outside the boundary then it should be six runs.

Zero logic to the current interpretation and seems to be just because it looks cool.

 

[Black Diamond]

I play in a couple of comps that mandate helmets for batsmen and keepers standing up. Although one may only mandate for fast bowling when batting.

But I’ve taken blokes to hospital who don’t believe in helmets before and another keeper who had $10,000 worth of dental bills missing one from the spinner on a turf deck.

I can cop players not wanting to wear a helmet, but a keeper without a mouth guard?

I play hockey with guys who don’t wear them. Absolute madness IMO.

 

[PhatBoy]

I can cop players not wanting to wear a helmet, but a keeper without a mouth guard?

I play hockey with guys who don’t wear them. Absolute madness IMO.

I’ve never played a game of hockey in my life but used to have to cover it for work and I thought it was insane that there weren’t more sticks to faces or deflections up into jaws, mouths and noses.

 

[Black Diamond]

I’ve never played a game of hockey in my life but used to have to cover it for work and I thought it was insane that there weren’t more sticks to faces or deflections up into jaws, mouths and noses.

It is a lot like batting in that if you watch the ball you will naturally move or duck.

I can only recall seeing one player hit in the head/face playing 1st grade having been around the game all my life.

And while some of the swinging looks wild and tackling can seem risky, everyone knows what they are doing.

The real risks are being hit hard by the ball on the hand (Kookaburra Matt Dawson had part of his ring finger amputated before the Olympics) and the knee cap (players have had careers ruined this way).