September 14, 2024 • 38 mins
This week on On The Front Foot, Bryan Waddle and Jeremy Coney were joined by Garth Gallaway to reflect on a washed out test and assess the White Ferns team selected for the WT20 in Dubai.
They also discussed whether or not the World Test Championship needs an overhaul.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk, said B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Take another pair, We'll get in there.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It is out, The test is over.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Couldn't smokes a beauty.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It is out and hearing guys delivery has in user.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
To Bowl.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
On the Front Foot with Brian Waddell and Jeremy Cody
powered by news Talk, said B at iHeart Radios.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
On the front foot again this week and talking about
well let us direct one off with Afghanistan turned into
a debacle or is it just bad luck? It appears
a fully prepared ground and a trailer to get any
played for five days? What is the responsibility? Like Jernka
overtake England on the World Pitch Championship leather after an
(01:07):
impressions test win at the Oval, the White Burns to
the Emirates for the Worldy Coreittee chose a little change
from the embarrassing encounter with England. What are their chances
and does the World Test Championship lead a complete up people?
Jeremy Coney and also Garth Galloway with us on this
(01:28):
week's program, Jerry, the Test match in Afghanistan, what a
Fesgo that was we know it rains, but I don't
know that it was a good time of year to
have a test, was it?
Speaker 6 (01:39):
Well, I told you last week you knows, and Garth,
I told you last week.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Was there was?
Speaker 6 (01:44):
It was just after the monsoon, wasn't it? And they
had a chance of rain anyway.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
And obviously surprised them.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
But it became the highlight of my day, I've got
to say, tuning in to see the latest development and
a whole lot of people trying to get a ground
ready for play. I mean, I'm just waiting for the
epilogue now with Jabbagal Shrewn at the match ref. He'll
consign the great annoyder ground I think to corporate days
(02:13):
in dog training. I mean, in fact, they're the greater
noid lack of authority, aren't they? Really?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
They were.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
They were surprised that beneath the grass it was clays
and and and it was sort of required a complete
overhaul of their drainage. They were surprised at the monsoon
ends and they had had a temerity to rain. They
were embarrassed they didn't have the right covers or now
(02:43):
enough of them to cover the area. Poor old Ibrahim Zadran.
He was injured before the game started. Wasn't he sort
of out of the match before because he was doing
some fielding training. Look, they had no equipment to deal
with it, did they, And everybody tells you, but everything
they left it too late. They got a new groundsman
(03:06):
finally to arrive with covers, and they got some supersoppers,
didn't they from the local cricket association, But they didn't
arrive till after the evening of day two.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
They did try.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
I loved the way they got the electric fans from
officers around the ground and none of the industrial ones
were required to dry that ground.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Up, and they did cut out and repair an area.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
I noticed that what was needed, though, was they had
needed to cut the whole ground out and.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Replace it all.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
They got a new band of laborism that was good,
and then the greater lack of authority in Neider. They
were now panicking, of course, and mid level management had
rolled up their trousers to show their hairy legs and
were encouraging. They'd got they'd been down in their cars
and they had bought some sort of squeeges, some foam
(04:01):
pads on special and they'd bought plastic buckets from Miter
ten and they kind of they were urging them a
new group to soak, squeeze, and then repeat. This was
after day one and two, when there was not a
drop of rain, you know, during the day's play. Some
(04:22):
had brought rugs from home off the clothesline and they
were going to soak the water up. Well, that made
more mude.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Look.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
John Clees could not have done better on one of
his corporate videos, could he really not? Really? They had
no scorers. Did they think Jonathan Trott and Garry Stead
were going to do that? The journalists to ride and
raster sit on wet grass in a tent. Six months,
these joggers had had to prepare for the biggest match
(04:51):
they had ever staged, and they contacted no one. The
officials made mistakes. Two test grounds were offered to Afghanistan,
but they were too far away for the Afghun fans.
Even the Afghan skipper wanted the game move.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
And the costs. Think of the costs.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Thirty forty people are TV, all the travel and accommodation,
the journals, the umpires, the ICs, two teams traveling and
accommodation come on it's mind boggling. So the ground will
no doubt be consigned to sort of corporate days. I
think borrowed gear and a few drinks after a slog.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
There's the sermon according to the Reverend Jeremy Coney on cricket.
Could you please respond it doesn't rain in Dunedin, where
you just called home for a long period of your life,
did you look?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It's hard to it's very hard to respond to that.
Deary has completely stolen the show as usual. And I
you know, I worry about his spring in Peckton if
that's the highlight of his day waiting, you know, when
it's been a long winter, hasn't it? Jerry, Oh, there's
mate bring to negotiate. But what a sham was I
(06:06):
think it's unfair to say they didn't have any They
had spades because they dug up pitches and moved them
into the outfield. Just comic, comedic scenes, really, weren't they.
And I like the fact you've touched on Dunedin because
of the of the eight test matches Wadds, as you
well know, the eight that have been abandoned, two of
them were in my precious to needed one in nineteen
(06:30):
eighty nine, and that was the game against Pakistan. John
Wright was captain of the New Zealand side and they,
I mean it just rained and rained and rained in
Dunedin and they played on the last game, they agreed
to play a fifty over match. And exactly the same
thing happened nine years later when we were all in
(06:50):
the commentary team commentating nothing until they agreed one.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Of our better shows, one of our better ones.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, and Peter Sharp was with us rip Peter. It
was a good show. And of course Stephen boch On
comments with you, Jerry, and that was that was the
game against India.
Speaker 7 (07:10):
And I see just reading an article on precond for
the Day that.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Steve Dunn was involved in both of those matches the umpire.
I was involved in both two because I was the
assistant groundsman in eighteen nine and.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
The commentator in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Oh, you've moved up significantly in the world. That's great,
well done.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, you used to grab anybody in those days, you know,
grab the groundsman, bring him up there, put a mike
around his neck.
Speaker 8 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, I mean the first abandoned one was was eighteen
ninety which is.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
And it was w G.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I remember it, you do?
Speaker 5 (07:49):
You do?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You were there w G. Grace's side, you know. And
in that series England won the series two. Now that
was the third Test, but they played thirty four first
class matches on that tour the Australians in England.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
Thirty four first class matches.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Well, that's what New Zealand used to do when they
went by ship, didn't they In forty nine they went
by boat and they were away for about eight months
and they had the hard yards and then played pretty
well as well. But it's interesting though it's only happened
eight times, and how many Test matches? We had about
two and a half thousand Test matches, So cricket's done
(08:27):
it pretty well. I mean there have been other games
that have been abandoned for other reasons. I was in
that Test match or at that Test match in Durban
when the game between New Zealand and South Africa was
called off pitch and ground that were just unfit for play.
They called off a test that never really got started
(08:48):
because we had to get out of Pakistan in a
big hurry back in two thousand and two when the
bomb went off before we went down to Karachi so
I don't know whether that can be regarded as one
that's been abandoned, but it happens. But it's not a
good look for cricket to try and feed these Test
matches into a window where there's a monsoon. But they'll
play the IPL and all these T twenty events at
(09:12):
World during the best conditions. They never get washed out
to any great degree. May reign in places, but you know,
it's it's not a good look for cricketers who say
it's the pure form of the game and we love
it the most. But you sit there for five days,
you could have played five T twenty tournaments in that time.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
Couldn't it. It's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I think you know, from New Zealand's point of view,
and we're going to talk about the World Test Championship,
I guess the real concern from their point of view
is they've had five days without any training and so on,
and now they head to two tough tests against Sri
Lanka in Sri Lanka with no preparation. So you know,
it really has worked against them as they head into
(09:55):
those two World Test Championship matches.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Couldn't be worse.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
And before we move on to other things. Let's just
hear from the two coaches. Not surprisingly, Jonathan Trott and
Gary Stead both read from the diplomatic song sheet at
the postmatch press conference. When asked their views of the
washout situation, especially in the first two days produced fine
sunny weather but unplayable ground surface.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Well, personally, I was disappointed. We were very excited to.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
Play against the scene and and and sort of put
ourselves up against the challenge of that.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
The players have worked really hard.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
We've been here and had warm up games and the
matches and got ourselves accustomed to the conditions and weather
which is you know, very very unique here, so we
were excited.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Unfortunately, the weather's you know, played its.
Speaker 9 (10:45):
Part, and you know it's made it to feel for
us to get a game, and I think it's it's
the case of the time of year and to try
and play tests much this time of year is always tricky.
So yeah, at the facilities, obviously disappointed that we haven't
been able to play and and and the way that
the amount of water that's come down, it's it's unprecedented
obviously for this time of year or the last sort
(11:07):
of three days, but it would have been nice to
play some cricket.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
For sure.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
It's frustrating for us, I mean, and it was our
first Test match against Afghanistan and we were really excited
about that as well. They've been great competitors of ours
over the last few World Cups as well, and we've
had some great games of cricket for us. We have
the World Test Championship. It's just around the corner in
Tri Lanka as well, so the preparation towards that would
(11:33):
have been would have been really useful for us as well.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
The match timing and venue should not prevent both sides
meeting again in a Test if the conditions are better.
Speaker 8 (11:43):
I'd like that to happen. I don't make the decisions
around the future tours program and who tours, but I
said it right from the start of coming here at
Afghanistan have not just about every top team in the
world over now, so they're certainly a force and becoming
more and more of a force in world cricket. So
I guess that's something for the Afghanistan and New Zealand
(12:05):
boards to get their heads around.
Speaker 9 (12:08):
I think if you if you have one fixed venue,
then you can sort of iron out the sort of
issues that they would arise. I think that's always nice,
but I think this is maybe a result of not
having not played a lot of test cricket in the
past and still trying to find sort of a venue
that we can use consistently, so that would be nice.
(12:28):
All I know is the players have worked really hard
and this has been something we've had on the FTP
for a while and and really looking forward to. The
real sad thing is I think it was going to
be a really good pitch and it would have been
a good contest, which is a disappointing thing. And so
that's the most disheartening thing I suppose from all of
us is it would have been I think a good game,
(12:48):
whether we won or lost. I think a the players
would have learnt out of a lot in this format
of the game, which is the challenge going.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Forward in Red Bull cricket for if Ghalistan.
Speaker 9 (12:58):
But it's it's the occasion as well, the historic moment
of playing against your seeded for the players that would
have been very proud of that, and that's also very disappointing.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
This was the first of tests in Asia for US,
three more in India and two in tri Lannka as well.
So that's the most disappointing part for us is that
we've lost that I guess ability to be match hardened
and match ready when we go into our Test match
next week. But look, the guys are really disappointed. It
(13:27):
was an opportunity to play Afghanistan. It doesn't come around
that often and they have some unique sort of bowlers
in that as well. That's always good to get your
head around how you face them, and I guess the
way they play is a little bit different to other countries.
So it's always learning and what you can do whenever
you get those match situations.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, well that's the life of international cricketers. I mean,
when you reflect on how much it cost to get
the New Zealand team, therefore no cricket, you know, you're
talking over two hundred thousand air flights pretty much. It's
not a cheap place to go. Never mind, we will
see New Zealand hopefully. I haven't seen whether it's going
to be on television or not. The Test series against
(14:10):
Sri Lanka and they came out of that Test series
against England pretty strong. Jerry. That was a good performance
to win that third Test match for the two one
loss on the series.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
It was a heavy defeat for England really by eight wickets,
especially after day one wasn't it was two hundred and
ten or something like that. For three they were put
in again England in dark kind of conditions, gray overhead
and that sort of stuff. So it was a good
chance to bowl for the Sri Lankan bowlers. Didn't bowl well,
(14:46):
did they, but look hope got some runs.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
I guess.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
It does feel at times to me the English players
when they're out of form, which is inevitable in the game,
that the default setting is kind of to hit their
way back into form instead of the usual let's be
a bit more organized, show a bit of judgment, buildjic
(15:14):
innings carefully in order to spend a bit more time
at the crease and choose the shots on the day.
But they charged down the pitch and attack the new ball.
I mean, heavens above, what can go wrong? Yeah, So
their top order, their top three, probably the most frail
I think in their batting lineup. When New Zealand come
(15:35):
to play them, I'm not saying they're not dangerous, but
you've got a chance of getting them out the strong
part of the English side, say root Brook Stokes, Smith
is the middle is the middle and Routers obviously the glue.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
But no Sri Lanka.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
Sri Lanka fought hard. They were bowled out and that
they had what a deficit of about sixty was it
something like that, and then they bowled England out in
England tried to everything into the Thames and so they
were bold out in thirty odd overs and then you know,
well done Sri Lanka.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
To carry on.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
Sri Lanka have got good betting ones, haven't they. They
just didn't quite show it throughout that series.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Well, they're not a.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Great touring side as such. Other they don't seem to
play to the conditions. But you know they've got players
like Carusseil, Menders, Matthews, Chandermal and this guy Comindu Mendus,
you know, is averaging nearly eighty in test matches at home.
They're going to be really tough for the New Zealander's gap,
(16:41):
haven't they. I mean, Joe Root was I don't know
whether he was paying them a component or not when
he said whole play can't be number one every week
sort of trying to put a good picture on things.
It was an interesting thing for him to.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Say, Yeah, I think this is the thing with England,
isn't it. And I do think they have changed the
way they play their game a little bit. You know,
when McCullum took over and they were going at times
at five or six runs and over or even more
and the spars ball phrase got thrown about. It was
(17:20):
just kind of crazy attack. And they do seem to
have modified that in some ways. And if you look
at their run rates, I mean they were at four
point five and that second innings when they were bowled
out for one hundred and fifty six.
Speaker 7 (17:33):
But they have changed.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
But you see Michael Vaughan saying that, you know, they
disrespected Test cricket and the way they played them and
it reminded me a little bit of the Second Test
at the Base in Reserve a couple of seasons ago,
you know, where England enforced the follow on New Zealand
got ahead of them and then Wagner picked up four
wickets and the second innings and England tried to be
(17:57):
really muscular, you know, he was bowling short bounces and really,
if they batted properly in that game, they should have
won that Test, so it's a I think it's it
is a concern for them when you see it. I mean,
I suppose if you ask yourself, would Australia have lost
that Test if they were tuning up against the side
like Sri Lanka, I think the answer is no.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
So you know, England are going to.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Entertain, They're going to be great to watch, but I
think the way they play, they will trip up from
time to time and I suppose that crats opportunities for
New Zealand.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
But again a significant loss for eng them because in
terms of the World Test Championship, it meant that Sri
Lanka were able to jump ahead again.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, it was the interesting thing Jerry about what Michael
Vaughan said came in the middle of that Test match
when they got almost arrogant, didn't they And he said,
don't take the mickey out of the game. They played
like it was almost the end of term cricket. Would
they play like that against India and Australia. I don't
think they would. It was it was a bizarre thing
(18:59):
to do, the way they battered and fielded in the
middle of that Test match.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Yeah, if you're not ruthless and the game, I'm afraid,
you know, it does turn around and bite you, and
you can maybe be made to look a bit silly,
a bit, and they did look slap dash, and I
think he was probably right there. And look, if you
(19:26):
hand the game to the opposition who have had two
losses as Sri Lanka had, they're more than willing to
grab it, aren't they. Harry Brooke interesting really, I don't
know whether you saw how he looked so visibly frustrated
when Sri Lanka and the first and thing's bowled a
little bit wide to him outside off and he went
out of his crease and he waved his arms about
(19:47):
and you know, set himself up as if he was
betting on about.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Eight stump and so on.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
Other teams will take notice of that, you know, just
let the ball go past seem pretty simple to me.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And he seemed to take the view how unfair.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
You know you're supposed to bowl straight at me so
I can smash you. So you know, it kind of
didn't work and England will learn from it. Don't worry
about that. Generally you learn more from your defeats, don't you,
And your personal failures. Yeah, I agree with Garth that
they have modified themselves a wee bit, that they will
(20:25):
adjust their game a little bit, but here they didn't
and so it's been possibly for them.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, they took the team to go to Pakistan now
and that has got a spinning component, not surprisingly, but
of course you've still going to have seamans in Pakistan
and then they'll be bringing your team out here and
it'll be interesting to know how New Zealand will fare
against them. Bearing in mind, you know, I say it again,
that's that tough series. Firstly Sri Lanka, they come home
(20:55):
for a bit of a breather and then off to
India again to play the three test matches in good
venues too. What they've got Poona, they've got Alonkadi and
I think Bangalore, so they're playing in pretty good test
met venues and we'll watch that with a.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Lot of interest.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
I don't know how much interest we'll be watching the
White fans in Australia and at the T twenty World
Cup they've picked aside, which is pretty much the same
that went to England and got thrashed. There's a lot
of pressure on women's cricket at the moment. I've got
to congratulate them on sending an under nineteen team to Australia,
which is good for the development of our future players.
(21:36):
But there's a lot of work to be done in
women's cricket and that is at the grassroots level here
in New Zealand. Doesn't it to develop players who can
emerge and become international players. They seem to pick young people,
they don't perform, but they still get picked to go
away on trips. There's got to be some work done
(21:59):
at the lawer level, doesn't he go?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, Look, I've watched a lot of women's cricket wide.
I think it's a great product done well, watching Australia,
England and in India, now South Africa, even Pakistan when
they came out here. We broadcast a game here in
christ Church where they were very competitive against New Zealand.
Sri Lanka starting to emerge, you know New Zealand have
(22:24):
been I mean, I watched a lot of the domestic
competition and I feel I have to put myself through
that so that I can comment on it with a
degree of knowledge that the reality is that the domestic
competition is weak. Sophie Devine has commented on that, and
I think it's a fair comment that she makes that,
you know, for New Zealand to be competitive in international cricket,
(22:47):
that the domestic competition is not lending itself to that.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
But I think, you know, I'm afraid this.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Group of players, and particularly the senior players, over a
long period of time, have have really struggled to be successful.
You know, their results at the tournaments have been poor.
They are just chambolic in England and that losing eight
games in a row over there on that tour, I
don't think, you know, when I look at the leadership
(23:17):
and the team around Divine Baits and Mealy Kerr to
a lesser extent, you know, these you know, there are
some very good individuals, but you know, I just look
at the culture of the side. What happens the way
that they lose. It happens in the domestic game a lot,
you know, if they're poor at chasing and sides fall
(23:38):
apart when they're under pressure. And when you look at
players like like Georgia Plummer who's now played quite a
lot of international cricket and really just continues to deliver
poor performances the same around you know, Maddy Green who
improved recently but seems to have gone back into into
sort of into mediocrity really. And then you look at
(24:01):
players like they brought back Casperrick, who I think is
a really good off spinner from from Wellington, wasn't packed
in the World Hup squad when they played over here,
So you know, there's a lot there's a lot of
experience in some of the older players. But I'm afraid
they're a very poor side and culturally I question it.
(24:23):
The younger players continue to get packed they did, they
don't deliver and I think they need also a lot
more from the senior players.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, I think that's the important thing. The likes of Baits,
Divine et cetera. Have got to deliver more, don't they,
durm do that are the ones that hold the side together,
and they've got to be consistently better. They're good players,
but they're not consistent, are they.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
Yeah, But you can't ask them to keep doing it
time after time after time after time, and and that's
the issue really as well. I mean, clearly it's a
very predictable team. You've said that it underlines the lack
of choice of replacements for to work quick, so that
(25:10):
comes back to the ground level of the game. But
Maddie green Brook, Holiday just kerve, Molly Penn, Hannah Road.
I mean there are just lots of as Garth has
just been saying, lots of people who have played a
lot are not performing now they've got no one to.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Replace them with. That's the issue.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
So they keep getting picked and we all know they've
got a very slim chance of getting through.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
They've got Australia and India in their group and.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Only two go through from each group and that's and
so look, we've talked about this ad nauseum, haven't we.
We've got to start at the lower level and work
our way up again until more people are coming through
from the from the first class and from club level
and so on.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
It's very simple.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Well, let's hope they've got that under nineteen side prepared.
I mean, they're not going to come through in a
hurry as under nineteen players, but they're getting the opportunities
and that is going to be important for the women's
game over the next few years.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Brian Waddell Jeremy Cooney on the front foot.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
If you want to have a view of anything on
the program, on the front foot send us an email
on the front Foot twenty at gmail dot com. That's
exactly what Christian did, and I'm not sure where Christian's from,
but it was an interesting one because it poses a
few points that we've been talking about the World Test
(26:43):
Championship and he suggests that he would like to see
the Test Championship and the style similar to the America's Cup.
The idea would be that the holder of the trophy
defend it against the challenger, and Test cricket over three
years is used to find that challenger. Under the model,
result against the champion wouldn't count towards the table during
that three year period, allowing the remaining six sides to
(27:05):
play home or away over the three years. I'm not
sure I totally agree with the holder being given a
free pass through. I'd like to see them all play,
but you know, let's have a look at the idea
of the World Test Championship. What do you think, Gath,
what did you think of Christian's idea?
Speaker 7 (27:26):
Interesting?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I suppose like you, what's the first thing that occurs
to me is the free pass for the holder over
a period of time. I think that makes it less interesting, really,
and you know science will change and fluctuate, so you
know that that three year pass that they get seems
to me to be pretty unattractive. But I like the
(27:47):
I like the way that Christian's thinking about it and
proposing new things. What I struggle with is, you know,
the World Test Championship seems like a real curiosity when
you look at the table and you think it's all
about win percentages. England have played sixteen games in it,
New Zealand have played six, as a Bangladesh Africa. You know,
(28:09):
it's a bizarre competition where there are uneven numbers of matches,
there seems to be a lot of inconsistency around who
the opposition is and it's all done on a win ratio,
so it doesn't feel it's a bit like trying to
follow the you know, the NPC and rugby and work
out who's you know, who's on top and way.
Speaker 7 (28:32):
It doesn't feel like the right format for me at
the moment.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Yeah, well, there are a couple of major points. I
think the America's Cup thing three years to find a challenger.
To me, I just think the holder plays those games
matches as far as the points are concerned, don't count.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
I don't like that part.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
You know, that means you played basically Christian seems to
have what how many sides?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Seven?
Speaker 4 (29:00):
He's got six teams.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
So he's actually for a start throwing out Bangladesh who
are currently fourced and he he's also throwing out Pakistan,
quite a senior side not playing very well at the moment.
I'm not sure, but so he would have in his case,
the winner of last year going through and playing basically
(29:25):
twelve series.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
You know, So.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
He's got a seventeen competition, hasn't he? Currently we've got
nine in their iteration at the moment. So his seven
series you play, you know, base six other sides you've
played twelve tests as a minimum, two test series that
don't matter at all towards the final. I don't think
(29:52):
we can do that. We're already complaining about teams not
playing enough against each other and quite often, you know,
we've got sides. If it was the current one, you'd
have eight series that didn't count because of the winner
and you're playing against them. And if you actually, I
think of New Zealand beat the current holder, you know,
(30:14):
which is Australia, isn't it that would matter quite a lot, frankly,
and we'll claim those points, you know, most of all
by beating the top dog. I don't know. I just
think six and the T six in a series, as
he says, that's fourteen percent of the tests that don't
matter because of the winner not counting their games at all.
(30:38):
And if it's nine, as we've got at the moment,
that's eleven percent of the tests mean absolutely nothing. And
it's a big chunk of tests to be meaningless, isn't it.
Teams already they could play anybody really in those games,
couldn't they. They bring in all the new boys to
play against the top team. It sort of undermines the
(30:59):
games a wee bit. And we're already complaining about, you know,
how long tests take. I mean, I don't know about you.
All sides playing each other is quite a nice concept
from Christian I think. But I'm going to ask you guys,
do you it's three years too long to sustain interest
(31:22):
at a time when people are complaining about the ODI
and the T twenty World Cup being too long.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
The amount of time they commit to test matches. Probably
you need three years because you don't get enough chance.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
But who's going to follow. People still going to talk
what about it?
Speaker 6 (31:38):
In some countries, what about all the fans if you
only have six teams or seven sides, sorry, if you
only have seventeens, what about all the fans that are missing?
All their fans are out of the Test competition.
Speaker 7 (31:54):
Is not an issue, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I think that that people are starting to look at
the format of it because and how it could change.
Because when you look at what's happening in this twenty
three to twenty five World Test Championship, India are going
to play nineteen games in it, England are playing twenty two,
Bangladesh played ten, Sri Lanka play eleven, New Zealand play fourteen.
I mean, it is just bizarre. Australia play seventeen, so
(32:19):
they're all inconsistent. Bangladesh, you know, in their ten matches,
they don't get to play against Australia, they don't play
against England, and they don't play against Pakistan. And you
just think, you know, it doesn't feel like a World
Test Championship.
Speaker 7 (32:39):
It's just a shamozzle.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
It's not a World Test Championship. We've known that as
soon as you say all sides don't play each other,
it's not a league. And that means that some sides,
as New Zealand did when they won it, enjoy easier
draws than other people. And that's what I think you're
saying there, Gath. They try and bring in this percentage
(33:01):
thing to cover the different number of games that teams play,
but that doesn't address the unicola about the more you play,
the better you get at that format. So that's not
fair really either. But the issue then becomes if every
side plays each other, which we'd all I think agree
(33:23):
a I've got to ask you, do you need a
final or do we just take the guy in charge
who's right at the top, and that's a league and
you don't have a final, it's just whoever's at the top.
You've played everybody, the winner's the guy at the top
at the end of it. Or do you play for
longer your sudden your cycle of playing moves out from
(33:45):
two years to three years at least, And therein lies
I think a problem. And if you shorten it, which
is what Christian is saying, instead of having nine teams
in it, and let's have only seven, then is it
a World Test Championship? So it doesn't feel like it,
(34:06):
and I would personally. I mean, at the moment he's
suggesting that one team. I like the promotion relegation aspect
he was suggesting. I think that's a good idea. But
at the moment, only three sides are out of this
competition Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan, and presumably they would be playing
(34:28):
each other and they would have been joined by to
others in his case, Bangladesh and Pakistan, so you'd have
another little competition going on to see who's going to
be at the top of that. The problem is about
those lower sides. They haven't got the cash, nor have
we really and that's why we're getting different numbers of games.
(34:51):
Only the wealthy ones can afford to have people for
that length of time in their country. Those lower teams
can't afford to hold test series at home.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
It's better that they travel away.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yes, it's one of those situations that there's a lot
of comment about what should be done, and I think
it's fair that what exists at the moment is not
the ultimate but the ICC. All they seem to worry
about is making sure they've got a final at some venue.
It happens to be lord's big crowd, big television, the audience,
big money that comes in without really thinking about what
(35:28):
the competition is offering to those fans who go along
and pay the money.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
Well, part of the problem is that the ICC are
part of the problem. They have World Cups every year.
Now every year they are taking an already hugely busy
schedule and making it worse.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yep, and that's the way the ICC thinks, I guess
coming out of India. The new chairman is another Indian
added to the leadership of the group. So it'll take
some time to get the ultimates outcome for the Test
Match Championship, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Chris down Thank you very much for your email and
(36:13):
if you good one like to comment or have an
idea to offer, then do so on the front foot
twenty to zero at gmail dot com.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
Nothing to add, No, No, that's been a good discussion.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I just look at it, you know, this table that
I've been looking at, and the competition's just bizarre, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (36:34):
Well, as far as New Zealand to concern wads, if
they are going to make this you know final, I'm
afraid it doesn't look great, does it?
Speaker 4 (36:45):
No, they really need to win.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
They've got I don't know how many points, I can't remember,
but they need five wins. I sort of sat down
and tried to work it out five wins and two
draws or six wins from the remaining.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
Eight games.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
So realistically, in you'd need to get two draws okay,
and a loss. Maybe that's the best they could hope
for out there, there's their two draws. Sri Lanka you'd
have to have two wins. That's going to be very difficult.
And England you're going to have to have three wins,
(37:26):
very difficult. So you know, if they get through that,
that's a fantastic performance.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Indeed, Yes, well, things to ponder for the New Ziaders.
They're fifty percent at the moment in third place, but
it's going to be hard to stay there. That brings
to an end another edition on the front foot. I'm
just going to go away, Gath and try and ponder
whether I can get a five day washout test to
keep Jerry interested during the day.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yeah, something to do.
Speaker 8 (37:56):
It was.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Like watching a series.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
I'm telling it's great, day after day week after we're watching.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, I thought it was so sad for SkyTV, not
even their equipment work that went on still pictures and
they had to drop out. Sorry for this interruption. We're
trying to get the connection back again and so the
rain had obviously got into their stuff. Never mind, Hopefully
when it comes to Sri Lanka, we will have fine
weather and it'll be able to get those two test
(38:28):
matches in the World Test Championship. Thanks for your time,
gasping forward to joining us again and you two as ever, Jerry,
thank you for putting time together to watch some of
those with weather goes.
Speaker 10 (38:42):
Good to see you guys, wonderful summer.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
For more from News Talks ed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on IRT Radio
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk, said B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Take another pair, We'll get in there.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It is out, The test is over.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Couldn't smokes a beauty.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It is out and hearing guys delivery has in user.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
To Bowl.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
On the Front Foot with Brian Waddell and Jeremy Cody
powered by news Talk, said B at iHeart Radios.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
On the front foot again this week and talking about
well let us direct one off with Afghanistan turned into
a debacle or is it just bad luck? It appears
a fully prepared ground and a trailer to get any
played for five days? What is the responsibility? Like Jernka
overtake England on the World Pitch Championship leather after an
(01:07):
impressions test win at the Oval, the White Burns to
the Emirates for the Worldy Coreittee chose a little change
from the embarrassing encounter with England. What are their chances
and does the World Test Championship lead a complete up people?
Jeremy Coney and also Garth Galloway with us on this
(01:28):
week's program, Jerry, the Test match in Afghanistan, what a
Fesgo that was we know it rains, but I don't
know that it was a good time of year to
have a test, was it?
Speaker 6 (01:39):
Well, I told you last week you knows, and Garth,
I told you last week.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Was there was?
Speaker 6 (01:44):
It was just after the monsoon, wasn't it? And they
had a chance of rain anyway.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
And obviously surprised them.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
But it became the highlight of my day, I've got
to say, tuning in to see the latest development and
a whole lot of people trying to get a ground
ready for play. I mean, I'm just waiting for the
epilogue now with Jabbagal Shrewn at the match ref. He'll
consign the great annoyder ground I think to corporate days
(02:13):
in dog training. I mean, in fact, they're the greater
noid lack of authority, aren't they? Really?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
They were.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
They were surprised that beneath the grass it was clays
and and and it was sort of required a complete
overhaul of their drainage. They were surprised at the monsoon
ends and they had had a temerity to rain. They
were embarrassed they didn't have the right covers or now
(02:43):
enough of them to cover the area. Poor old Ibrahim Zadran.
He was injured before the game started. Wasn't he sort
of out of the match before because he was doing
some fielding training. Look, they had no equipment to deal
with it, did they, And everybody tells you, but everything
they left it too late. They got a new groundsman
(03:06):
finally to arrive with covers, and they got some supersoppers,
didn't they from the local cricket association, But they didn't
arrive till after the evening of day two.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
They did try.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
I loved the way they got the electric fans from
officers around the ground and none of the industrial ones
were required to dry that ground.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Up, and they did cut out and repair an area.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
I noticed that what was needed, though, was they had
needed to cut the whole ground out and.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Replace it all.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
They got a new band of laborism that was good,
and then the greater lack of authority in Neider. They
were now panicking, of course, and mid level management had
rolled up their trousers to show their hairy legs and
were encouraging. They'd got they'd been down in their cars
and they had bought some sort of squeeges, some foam
(04:01):
pads on special and they'd bought plastic buckets from Miter
ten and they kind of they were urging them a
new group to soak, squeeze, and then repeat. This was
after day one and two, when there was not a
drop of rain, you know, during the day's play. Some
(04:22):
had brought rugs from home off the clothesline and they
were going to soak the water up. Well, that made
more mude.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Look.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
John Clees could not have done better on one of
his corporate videos, could he really not? Really? They had
no scorers. Did they think Jonathan Trott and Garry Stead
were going to do that? The journalists to ride and
raster sit on wet grass in a tent. Six months,
these joggers had had to prepare for the biggest match
(04:51):
they had ever staged, and they contacted no one. The
officials made mistakes. Two test grounds were offered to Afghanistan,
but they were too far away for the Afghun fans.
Even the Afghan skipper wanted the game move.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
And the costs. Think of the costs.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Thirty forty people are TV, all the travel and accommodation,
the journals, the umpires, the ICs, two teams traveling and
accommodation come on it's mind boggling. So the ground will
no doubt be consigned to sort of corporate days. I
think borrowed gear and a few drinks after a slog.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
There's the sermon according to the Reverend Jeremy Coney on cricket.
Could you please respond it doesn't rain in Dunedin, where
you just called home for a long period of your life,
did you look?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It's hard to it's very hard to respond to that.
Deary has completely stolen the show as usual. And I
you know, I worry about his spring in Peckton if
that's the highlight of his day waiting, you know, when
it's been a long winter, hasn't it? Jerry, Oh, there's
mate bring to negotiate. But what a sham was I
(06:06):
think it's unfair to say they didn't have any They
had spades because they dug up pitches and moved them
into the outfield. Just comic, comedic scenes, really, weren't they.
And I like the fact you've touched on Dunedin because
of the of the eight test matches Wadds, as you
well know, the eight that have been abandoned, two of
them were in my precious to needed one in nineteen
(06:30):
eighty nine, and that was the game against Pakistan. John
Wright was captain of the New Zealand side and they,
I mean it just rained and rained and rained in
Dunedin and they played on the last game, they agreed
to play a fifty over match. And exactly the same
thing happened nine years later when we were all in
(06:50):
the commentary team commentating nothing until they agreed one.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Of our better shows, one of our better ones.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, and Peter Sharp was with us rip Peter. It
was a good show. And of course Stephen boch On
comments with you, Jerry, and that was that was the
game against India.
Speaker 7 (07:10):
And I see just reading an article on precond for
the Day that.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Steve Dunn was involved in both of those matches the umpire.
I was involved in both two because I was the
assistant groundsman in eighteen nine and.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
The commentator in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Oh, you've moved up significantly in the world. That's great,
well done.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, you used to grab anybody in those days, you know,
grab the groundsman, bring him up there, put a mike
around his neck.
Speaker 8 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, I mean the first abandoned one was was eighteen
ninety which is.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
And it was w G.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I remember it, you do?
Speaker 5 (07:49):
You do?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You were there w G. Grace's side, you know. And
in that series England won the series two. Now that
was the third Test, but they played thirty four first
class matches on that tour the Australians in England.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
Thirty four first class matches.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Well, that's what New Zealand used to do when they
went by ship, didn't they In forty nine they went
by boat and they were away for about eight months
and they had the hard yards and then played pretty
well as well. But it's interesting though it's only happened
eight times, and how many Test matches? We had about
two and a half thousand Test matches, So cricket's done
(08:27):
it pretty well. I mean there have been other games
that have been abandoned for other reasons. I was in
that Test match or at that Test match in Durban
when the game between New Zealand and South Africa was
called off pitch and ground that were just unfit for play.
They called off a test that never really got started
(08:48):
because we had to get out of Pakistan in a
big hurry back in two thousand and two when the
bomb went off before we went down to Karachi so
I don't know whether that can be regarded as one
that's been abandoned, but it happens. But it's not a
good look for cricket to try and feed these Test
matches into a window where there's a monsoon. But they'll
play the IPL and all these T twenty events at
(09:12):
World during the best conditions. They never get washed out
to any great degree. May reign in places, but you know,
it's it's not a good look for cricketers who say
it's the pure form of the game and we love
it the most. But you sit there for five days,
you could have played five T twenty tournaments in that time.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
Couldn't it. It's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I think you know, from New Zealand's point of view,
and we're going to talk about the World Test Championship,
I guess the real concern from their point of view
is they've had five days without any training and so on,
and now they head to two tough tests against Sri
Lanka in Sri Lanka with no preparation. So you know,
it really has worked against them as they head into
(09:55):
those two World Test Championship matches.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Couldn't be worse.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
And before we move on to other things. Let's just
hear from the two coaches. Not surprisingly, Jonathan Trott and
Gary Stead both read from the diplomatic song sheet at
the postmatch press conference. When asked their views of the
washout situation, especially in the first two days produced fine
sunny weather but unplayable ground surface.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Well, personally, I was disappointed. We were very excited to.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
Play against the scene and and and sort of put
ourselves up against the challenge of that.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
The players have worked really hard.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
We've been here and had warm up games and the
matches and got ourselves accustomed to the conditions and weather
which is you know, very very unique here, so we
were excited.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Unfortunately, the weather's you know, played its.
Speaker 9 (10:45):
Part, and you know it's made it to feel for
us to get a game, and I think it's it's
the case of the time of year and to try
and play tests much this time of year is always tricky.
So yeah, at the facilities, obviously disappointed that we haven't
been able to play and and and the way that
the amount of water that's come down, it's it's unprecedented
obviously for this time of year or the last sort
(11:07):
of three days, but it would have been nice to
play some cricket.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
For sure.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
It's frustrating for us, I mean, and it was our
first Test match against Afghanistan and we were really excited
about that as well. They've been great competitors of ours
over the last few World Cups as well, and we've
had some great games of cricket for us. We have
the World Test Championship. It's just around the corner in
Tri Lanka as well, so the preparation towards that would
(11:33):
have been would have been really useful for us as well.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
The match timing and venue should not prevent both sides
meeting again in a Test if the conditions are better.
Speaker 8 (11:43):
I'd like that to happen. I don't make the decisions
around the future tours program and who tours, but I
said it right from the start of coming here at
Afghanistan have not just about every top team in the
world over now, so they're certainly a force and becoming
more and more of a force in world cricket. So
I guess that's something for the Afghanistan and New Zealand
(12:05):
boards to get their heads around.
Speaker 9 (12:08):
I think if you if you have one fixed venue,
then you can sort of iron out the sort of
issues that they would arise. I think that's always nice,
but I think this is maybe a result of not
having not played a lot of test cricket in the
past and still trying to find sort of a venue
that we can use consistently, so that would be nice.
(12:28):
All I know is the players have worked really hard
and this has been something we've had on the FTP
for a while and and really looking forward to. The
real sad thing is I think it was going to
be a really good pitch and it would have been
a good contest, which is a disappointing thing. And so
that's the most disheartening thing I suppose from all of
us is it would have been I think a good game,
(12:48):
whether we won or lost. I think a the players
would have learnt out of a lot in this format
of the game, which is the challenge going.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Forward in Red Bull cricket for if Ghalistan.
Speaker 9 (12:58):
But it's it's the occasion as well, the historic moment
of playing against your seeded for the players that would
have been very proud of that, and that's also very disappointing.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
This was the first of tests in Asia for US,
three more in India and two in tri Lannka as well.
So that's the most disappointing part for us is that
we've lost that I guess ability to be match hardened
and match ready when we go into our Test match
next week. But look, the guys are really disappointed. It
(13:27):
was an opportunity to play Afghanistan. It doesn't come around
that often and they have some unique sort of bowlers
in that as well. That's always good to get your
head around how you face them, and I guess the
way they play is a little bit different to other countries.
So it's always learning and what you can do whenever
you get those match situations.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, well that's the life of international cricketers. I mean,
when you reflect on how much it cost to get
the New Zealand team, therefore no cricket, you know, you're
talking over two hundred thousand air flights pretty much. It's
not a cheap place to go. Never mind, we will
see New Zealand hopefully. I haven't seen whether it's going
to be on television or not. The Test series against
(14:10):
Sri Lanka and they came out of that Test series
against England pretty strong. Jerry. That was a good performance
to win that third Test match for the two one
loss on the series.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
It was a heavy defeat for England really by eight wickets,
especially after day one wasn't it was two hundred and
ten or something like that. For three they were put
in again England in dark kind of conditions, gray overhead
and that sort of stuff. So it was a good
chance to bowl for the Sri Lankan bowlers. Didn't bowl well,
(14:46):
did they, but look hope got some runs.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
I guess.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
It does feel at times to me the English players
when they're out of form, which is inevitable in the game,
that the default setting is kind of to hit their
way back into form instead of the usual let's be
a bit more organized, show a bit of judgment, buildjic
(15:14):
innings carefully in order to spend a bit more time
at the crease and choose the shots on the day.
But they charged down the pitch and attack the new ball.
I mean, heavens above, what can go wrong? Yeah, So
their top order, their top three, probably the most frail
I think in their batting lineup. When New Zealand come
(15:35):
to play them, I'm not saying they're not dangerous, but
you've got a chance of getting them out the strong
part of the English side, say root Brook Stokes, Smith
is the middle is the middle and Routers obviously the glue.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
But no Sri Lanka.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
Sri Lanka fought hard. They were bowled out and that
they had what a deficit of about sixty was it
something like that, and then they bowled England out in
England tried to everything into the Thames and so they
were bold out in thirty odd overs and then you know,
well done Sri Lanka.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
To carry on.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
Sri Lanka have got good betting ones, haven't they. They
just didn't quite show it throughout that series.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Well, they're not a.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Great touring side as such. Other they don't seem to
play to the conditions. But you know they've got players
like Carusseil, Menders, Matthews, Chandermal and this guy Comindu Mendus,
you know, is averaging nearly eighty in test matches at home.
They're going to be really tough for the New Zealander's gap,
(16:41):
haven't they. I mean, Joe Root was I don't know
whether he was paying them a component or not when
he said whole play can't be number one every week
sort of trying to put a good picture on things.
It was an interesting thing for him to.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Say, Yeah, I think this is the thing with England,
isn't it. And I do think they have changed the
way they play their game a little bit. You know,
when McCullum took over and they were going at times
at five or six runs and over or even more
and the spars ball phrase got thrown about. It was
(17:20):
just kind of crazy attack. And they do seem to
have modified that in some ways. And if you look
at their run rates, I mean they were at four
point five and that second innings when they were bowled
out for one hundred and fifty six.
Speaker 7 (17:33):
But they have changed.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
But you see Michael Vaughan saying that, you know, they
disrespected Test cricket and the way they played them and
it reminded me a little bit of the Second Test
at the Base in Reserve a couple of seasons ago,
you know, where England enforced the follow on New Zealand
got ahead of them and then Wagner picked up four
wickets and the second innings and England tried to be
(17:57):
really muscular, you know, he was bowling short bounces and really,
if they batted properly in that game, they should have
won that Test, so it's a I think it's it
is a concern for them when you see it. I mean,
I suppose if you ask yourself, would Australia have lost
that Test if they were tuning up against the side
like Sri Lanka, I think the answer is no.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
So you know, England are going to.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Entertain, They're going to be great to watch, but I
think the way they play, they will trip up from
time to time and I suppose that crats opportunities for
New Zealand.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
But again a significant loss for eng them because in
terms of the World Test Championship, it meant that Sri
Lanka were able to jump ahead again.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, it was the interesting thing Jerry about what Michael
Vaughan said came in the middle of that Test match
when they got almost arrogant, didn't they And he said,
don't take the mickey out of the game. They played
like it was almost the end of term cricket. Would
they play like that against India and Australia. I don't
think they would. It was it was a bizarre thing
(18:59):
to do, the way they battered and fielded in the
middle of that Test match.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Yeah, if you're not ruthless and the game, I'm afraid,
you know, it does turn around and bite you, and
you can maybe be made to look a bit silly,
a bit, and they did look slap dash, and I
think he was probably right there. And look, if you
(19:26):
hand the game to the opposition who have had two
losses as Sri Lanka had, they're more than willing to
grab it, aren't they. Harry Brooke interesting really, I don't
know whether you saw how he looked so visibly frustrated
when Sri Lanka and the first and thing's bowled a
little bit wide to him outside off and he went
out of his crease and he waved his arms about
(19:47):
and you know, set himself up as if he was
betting on about.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Eight stump and so on.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
Other teams will take notice of that, you know, just
let the ball go past seem pretty simple to me.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And he seemed to take the view how unfair.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
You know you're supposed to bowl straight at me so
I can smash you. So you know, it kind of
didn't work and England will learn from it. Don't worry
about that. Generally you learn more from your defeats, don't you,
And your personal failures. Yeah, I agree with Garth that
they have modified themselves a wee bit, that they will
(20:25):
adjust their game a little bit, but here they didn't
and so it's been possibly for them.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, they took the team to go to Pakistan now
and that has got a spinning component, not surprisingly, but
of course you've still going to have seamans in Pakistan
and then they'll be bringing your team out here and
it'll be interesting to know how New Zealand will fare
against them. Bearing in mind, you know, I say it again,
that's that tough series. Firstly Sri Lanka, they come home
(20:55):
for a bit of a breather and then off to
India again to play the three test matches in good
venues too. What they've got Poona, they've got Alonkadi and
I think Bangalore, so they're playing in pretty good test
met venues and we'll watch that with a.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Lot of interest.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
I don't know how much interest we'll be watching the
White fans in Australia and at the T twenty World
Cup they've picked aside, which is pretty much the same
that went to England and got thrashed. There's a lot
of pressure on women's cricket at the moment. I've got
to congratulate them on sending an under nineteen team to Australia,
which is good for the development of our future players.
(21:36):
But there's a lot of work to be done in
women's cricket and that is at the grassroots level here
in New Zealand. Doesn't it to develop players who can
emerge and become international players. They seem to pick young people,
they don't perform, but they still get picked to go
away on trips. There's got to be some work done
(21:59):
at the lawer level, doesn't he go?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, Look, I've watched a lot of women's cricket wide.
I think it's a great product done well, watching Australia,
England and in India, now South Africa, even Pakistan when
they came out here. We broadcast a game here in
christ Church where they were very competitive against New Zealand.
Sri Lanka starting to emerge, you know New Zealand have
(22:24):
been I mean, I watched a lot of the domestic
competition and I feel I have to put myself through
that so that I can comment on it with a
degree of knowledge that the reality is that the domestic
competition is weak. Sophie Devine has commented on that, and
I think it's a fair comment that she makes that,
you know, for New Zealand to be competitive in international cricket,
(22:47):
that the domestic competition is not lending itself to that.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
But I think, you know, I'm afraid this.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Group of players, and particularly the senior players, over a
long period of time, have have really struggled to be successful.
You know, their results at the tournaments have been poor.
They are just chambolic in England and that losing eight
games in a row over there on that tour, I
don't think, you know, when I look at the leadership
(23:17):
and the team around Divine Baits and Mealy Kerr to
a lesser extent, you know, these you know, there are
some very good individuals, but you know, I just look
at the culture of the side. What happens the way
that they lose. It happens in the domestic game a lot,
you know, if they're poor at chasing and sides fall
(23:38):
apart when they're under pressure. And when you look at
players like like Georgia Plummer who's now played quite a
lot of international cricket and really just continues to deliver
poor performances the same around you know, Maddy Green who
improved recently but seems to have gone back into into
sort of into mediocrity really. And then you look at
(24:01):
players like they brought back Casperrick, who I think is
a really good off spinner from from Wellington, wasn't packed
in the World Hup squad when they played over here,
So you know, there's a lot there's a lot of
experience in some of the older players. But I'm afraid
they're a very poor side and culturally I question it.
(24:23):
The younger players continue to get packed they did, they
don't deliver and I think they need also a lot
more from the senior players.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, I think that's the important thing. The likes of Baits,
Divine et cetera. Have got to deliver more, don't they,
durm do that are the ones that hold the side together,
and they've got to be consistently better. They're good players,
but they're not consistent, are they.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
Yeah, But you can't ask them to keep doing it
time after time after time after time, and and that's
the issue really as well. I mean, clearly it's a
very predictable team. You've said that it underlines the lack
of choice of replacements for to work quick, so that
(25:10):
comes back to the ground level of the game. But
Maddie green Brook, Holiday just kerve, Molly Penn, Hannah Road.
I mean there are just lots of as Garth has
just been saying, lots of people who have played a
lot are not performing now they've got no one to.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Replace them with. That's the issue.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
So they keep getting picked and we all know they've
got a very slim chance of getting through.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
They've got Australia and India in their group and.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Only two go through from each group and that's and
so look, we've talked about this ad nauseum, haven't we.
We've got to start at the lower level and work
our way up again until more people are coming through
from the from the first class and from club level
and so on.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
It's very simple.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Well, let's hope they've got that under nineteen side prepared.
I mean, they're not going to come through in a
hurry as under nineteen players, but they're getting the opportunities
and that is going to be important for the women's
game over the next few years.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Brian Waddell Jeremy Cooney on the front foot.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
If you want to have a view of anything on
the program, on the front foot send us an email
on the front Foot twenty at gmail dot com. That's
exactly what Christian did, and I'm not sure where Christian's from,
but it was an interesting one because it poses a
few points that we've been talking about the World Test
(26:43):
Championship and he suggests that he would like to see
the Test Championship and the style similar to the America's Cup.
The idea would be that the holder of the trophy
defend it against the challenger, and Test cricket over three
years is used to find that challenger. Under the model,
result against the champion wouldn't count towards the table during
that three year period, allowing the remaining six sides to
(27:05):
play home or away over the three years. I'm not
sure I totally agree with the holder being given a
free pass through. I'd like to see them all play,
but you know, let's have a look at the idea
of the World Test Championship. What do you think, Gath,
what did you think of Christian's idea?
Speaker 7 (27:26):
Interesting?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I suppose like you, what's the first thing that occurs
to me is the free pass for the holder over
a period of time. I think that makes it less interesting, really,
and you know science will change and fluctuate, so you
know that that three year pass that they get seems
to me to be pretty unattractive. But I like the
(27:47):
I like the way that Christian's thinking about it and
proposing new things. What I struggle with is, you know,
the World Test Championship seems like a real curiosity when
you look at the table and you think it's all
about win percentages. England have played sixteen games in it,
New Zealand have played six, as a Bangladesh Africa. You know,
(28:09):
it's a bizarre competition where there are uneven numbers of matches,
there seems to be a lot of inconsistency around who
the opposition is and it's all done on a win ratio,
so it doesn't feel it's a bit like trying to
follow the you know, the NPC and rugby and work
out who's you know, who's on top and way.
Speaker 7 (28:32):
It doesn't feel like the right format for me at
the moment.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Yeah, well, there are a couple of major points. I
think the America's Cup thing three years to find a challenger.
To me, I just think the holder plays those games
matches as far as the points are concerned, don't count.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
I don't like that part.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
You know, that means you played basically Christian seems to
have what how many sides?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Seven?
Speaker 4 (29:00):
He's got six teams.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
So he's actually for a start throwing out Bangladesh who
are currently fourced and he he's also throwing out Pakistan,
quite a senior side not playing very well at the moment.
I'm not sure, but so he would have in his case,
the winner of last year going through and playing basically
(29:25):
twelve series.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
You know, So.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
He's got a seventeen competition, hasn't he? Currently we've got
nine in their iteration at the moment. So his seven
series you play, you know, base six other sides you've
played twelve tests as a minimum, two test series that
don't matter at all towards the final. I don't think
(29:52):
we can do that. We're already complaining about teams not
playing enough against each other and quite often, you know,
we've got sides. If it was the current one, you'd
have eight series that didn't count because of the winner
and you're playing against them. And if you actually, I
think of New Zealand beat the current holder, you know,
(30:14):
which is Australia, isn't it that would matter quite a lot, frankly,
and we'll claim those points, you know, most of all
by beating the top dog. I don't know. I just
think six and the T six in a series, as
he says, that's fourteen percent of the tests that don't
matter because of the winner not counting their games at all.
(30:38):
And if it's nine, as we've got at the moment,
that's eleven percent of the tests mean absolutely nothing. And
it's a big chunk of tests to be meaningless, isn't it.
Teams already they could play anybody really in those games,
couldn't they. They bring in all the new boys to
play against the top team. It sort of undermines the
(30:59):
games a wee bit. And we're already complaining about, you know,
how long tests take. I mean, I don't know about you.
All sides playing each other is quite a nice concept
from Christian I think. But I'm going to ask you guys,
do you it's three years too long to sustain interest
(31:22):
at a time when people are complaining about the ODI
and the T twenty World Cup being too long.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
The amount of time they commit to test matches. Probably
you need three years because you don't get enough chance.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
But who's going to follow. People still going to talk
what about it?
Speaker 6 (31:38):
In some countries, what about all the fans if you
only have six teams or seven sides, sorry, if you
only have seventeens, what about all the fans that are missing?
All their fans are out of the Test competition.
Speaker 7 (31:54):
Is not an issue, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I think that that people are starting to look at
the format of it because and how it could change.
Because when you look at what's happening in this twenty
three to twenty five World Test Championship, India are going
to play nineteen games in it, England are playing twenty two,
Bangladesh played ten, Sri Lanka play eleven, New Zealand play fourteen.
I mean, it is just bizarre. Australia play seventeen, so
(32:19):
they're all inconsistent. Bangladesh, you know, in their ten matches,
they don't get to play against Australia, they don't play
against England, and they don't play against Pakistan. And you
just think, you know, it doesn't feel like a World
Test Championship.
Speaker 7 (32:39):
It's just a shamozzle.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
It's not a World Test Championship. We've known that as
soon as you say all sides don't play each other,
it's not a league. And that means that some sides,
as New Zealand did when they won it, enjoy easier
draws than other people. And that's what I think you're
saying there, Gath. They try and bring in this percentage
(33:01):
thing to cover the different number of games that teams play,
but that doesn't address the unicola about the more you play,
the better you get at that format. So that's not
fair really either. But the issue then becomes if every
side plays each other, which we'd all I think agree
(33:23):
a I've got to ask you, do you need a
final or do we just take the guy in charge
who's right at the top, and that's a league and
you don't have a final, it's just whoever's at the top.
You've played everybody, the winner's the guy at the top
at the end of it. Or do you play for
longer your sudden your cycle of playing moves out from
(33:45):
two years to three years at least, And therein lies
I think a problem. And if you shorten it, which
is what Christian is saying, instead of having nine teams
in it, and let's have only seven, then is it
a World Test Championship? So it doesn't feel like it,
(34:06):
and I would personally. I mean, at the moment he's
suggesting that one team. I like the promotion relegation aspect
he was suggesting. I think that's a good idea. But
at the moment, only three sides are out of this
competition Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan, and presumably they would be playing
(34:28):
each other and they would have been joined by to
others in his case, Bangladesh and Pakistan, so you'd have
another little competition going on to see who's going to
be at the top of that. The problem is about
those lower sides. They haven't got the cash, nor have
we really and that's why we're getting different numbers of games.
(34:51):
Only the wealthy ones can afford to have people for
that length of time in their country. Those lower teams
can't afford to hold test series at home.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
It's better that they travel away.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yes, it's one of those situations that there's a lot
of comment about what should be done, and I think
it's fair that what exists at the moment is not
the ultimate but the ICC. All they seem to worry
about is making sure they've got a final at some venue.
It happens to be lord's big crowd, big television, the audience,
big money that comes in without really thinking about what
(35:28):
the competition is offering to those fans who go along
and pay the money.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
Well, part of the problem is that the ICC are
part of the problem. They have World Cups every year.
Now every year they are taking an already hugely busy
schedule and making it worse.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yep, and that's the way the ICC thinks, I guess
coming out of India. The new chairman is another Indian
added to the leadership of the group. So it'll take
some time to get the ultimates outcome for the Test
Match Championship, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Chris down Thank you very much for your email and
(36:13):
if you good one like to comment or have an
idea to offer, then do so on the front foot
twenty to zero at gmail dot com.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
Nothing to add, No, No, that's been a good discussion.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I just look at it, you know, this table that
I've been looking at, and the competition's just bizarre, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (36:34):
Well, as far as New Zealand to concern wads, if
they are going to make this you know final, I'm
afraid it doesn't look great, does it?
Speaker 4 (36:45):
No, they really need to win.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
They've got I don't know how many points, I can't remember,
but they need five wins. I sort of sat down
and tried to work it out five wins and two
draws or six wins from the remaining.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
Eight games.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
So realistically, in you'd need to get two draws okay,
and a loss. Maybe that's the best they could hope
for out there, there's their two draws. Sri Lanka you'd
have to have two wins. That's going to be very difficult.
And England you're going to have to have three wins,
(37:26):
very difficult. So you know, if they get through that,
that's a fantastic performance.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Indeed, Yes, well, things to ponder for the New Ziaders.
They're fifty percent at the moment in third place, but
it's going to be hard to stay there. That brings
to an end another edition on the front foot. I'm
just going to go away, Gath and try and ponder
whether I can get a five day washout test to
keep Jerry interested during the day.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yeah, something to do.
Speaker 8 (37:56):
It was.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Like watching a series.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
I'm telling it's great, day after day week after we're watching.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, I thought it was so sad for SkyTV, not
even their equipment work that went on still pictures and
they had to drop out. Sorry for this interruption. We're
trying to get the connection back again and so the
rain had obviously got into their stuff. Never mind, Hopefully
when it comes to Sri Lanka, we will have fine
weather and it'll be able to get those two test
(38:28):
matches in the World Test Championship. Thanks for your time,
gasping forward to joining us again and you two as ever, Jerry,
thank you for putting time together to watch some of
those with weather goes.
Speaker 10 (38:42):
Good to see you guys, wonderful summer.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
For more from News Talks ed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on IRT Radio
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