Episode 174 - Test Cricket's War Cry - Two Slips & A Gully

Episode Transcript
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(01:52):
stay sing up. Hello everyone,and welcome back to another episode of
Two Slips in the Gully. I'mjoined by Aaron this evening. How I

(02:13):
are I'm very well, thanks mate? Been a great week of cricket,
hasn't it. It has been anastonishing week of cricket. We have lots
and lots to talk about, somuch, so much good things happening in
this week I mean, if you'rean Australian fan, it's really not a
great week, if we're honest,But if you're a cricket fan, it's
sometimes you have to you have tojust say, well, you know,

(02:36):
it was great for the game.Cricket was the winner. And I think
that's the theme that we're basically goingdown this this podcast and all guys,
Oh, absolutely, cricket has beenthe winners this week in a lot of
different ways. So we're going tostart off tonight talking about a very memorable
Test match between India and England isthe beginning of their series. What a

(02:58):
cracker that turned out to be.How good was it to be able to
sit there and we've got the dayNight Test on and we've got the India
England Test on and burn on Koand just flicking between the two and it
was just amazing and like both tests, you know, twists and turns everywhere
you looked. It was just amazing. It's what Test cricket is really all

(03:20):
about, and it's why people likeus are lifelong devotees of Test cricket because
this is what Test cricket can be. This with some of the arguments that
have been going around about the viabilityof the game. You know, we'll
talk about this more. Obviously.The other topic we're going to be talking
about is Australia versus the West Indiesand due to the nature of not only

(03:44):
the West Indies side, but alsoSouth Africa side they're about to be taking
out to New Zealand and the andthe reasons behind why those sides were selected.
Obviously players having to be unavailable forT twenty formats and stuff. The
viability of Test cricket has come undera wall of scrutiny over these last couple
of weeks. And what a perfectrebuttal Test cricket threw up in both games.

(04:09):
In both games, the England Indiagame gripping gripping cricket and the Australia
West Indies game even more so,you could not have asked for, you
know, the old cagey line thateveryone has said is on its last legs
and is you know, the youngyoung the Cubs are going to come up

(04:31):
and take the pride off. Andyou could not have asked for a better
response from the leader of the pridebeing Test Cricket going, oh you reckon,
we're on my way out. Youreckon, there's there's no call for
this. Kevin Peterson has come outand said that young kids don't want to
play test cricket anymore. Really,is that so no one cares about Test
cricket? Well, bang, havethis, bang have that absolutely great week

(04:53):
for Test cricket and we're going todive in and have a chat about it.
Well, when we're talking about thecredibility of Kevin Peterson, I think
anybody who understands the guy who heis there to create controversy and comment and
where we actually believes half the stuffhe goes on about his debatable we'll talk
about that later. All right,we'll get into all of the action that

(05:14):
happened right after this chapletfull all right, We're going to start with England versus
India, which was supposed to bethe final frontier for basball, where it
definitely just absolutely could not work andEngland had drawn first blood in what has

(05:35):
got to be one of the moreremarkable Test matches played I think between the
two sides. Yeah, Look,it was an amazing game of cricket from
start to finish. There was someman, it's everything you really wanted in
a game of chess cricket, wasn'tit. There was. There was great
boling performances, There were great battingperformances on both sides, some of the

(05:56):
fielding which just had to be seento be believed, some of the catches
that were taken, particularly in close, and a guy who we actually rate
pretty highly come to the four ina big way, Olli Pope. Oh
yeah, this is a real likemaking of the man game for Olipope.
And we've said that for a longtime that Olipope was a guy that could

(06:17):
play all the shots, but justdidn't know when to play him and get
himself into trouble. And this isarguable sometimes struggling to think other than maybe
the stokes heading the innings of abetter knock by an Englishman in the last
or twenty years. It was justamazing to watch the way and I mean

(06:40):
it shows the evolution how the gamesevolved as well that we talk about the
reverse suites and stuff like that,they're just like normal shots now. And
his mastery of those two shots wasthe big difference between him and everybody else
who played. People are going tothrow up the Joe Root double one hundred
from last Horn England went over.It was an absolute road. It was

(07:03):
a road and England were in thedominant position for the whole game. That's
immediately that double one hundred center upthat was part of it. England were
never under that sort of like theywere. Olipope came out in the third
innings and they were gone. Thegame was over. Like it was just
you're out here to just meekly fallover so India can roll. You maybe

(07:26):
me chase down a pitiful target atthe fourth innings and like if you were
not here for anything else other thanthat, you balls it up. In
the first innings you scored less thantwo fifty. They put on four hundred
and they've got a massive lead.It's just basically it's supposed to be a
procession and quite frankly, ashrnded Asiaare supposed to rollers over come up win

(07:46):
the game. And to fifty theygot in the first innings was fairly lucky
too. They're quite lucky to actuallyget that without Stokes getting the runs he's
got. They're done for one hundredand seventy and we're probably talking at a
totally different scenario. That's where theebbs and flows of test cricket is so
amazing, isn't it. England goneState comes out, plays a great knot
India going. They assert their dominance, you know, good scores all the

(08:09):
way through, come back out,their bowlers takeover. But he's the kicker.
It only takes one person. Well, actually it took two people,
because I want to give a ahell of a lot of credit to Ben
folks as well. He played theexact type of innings he needed to play,
the support Olipope to allow Pope toplay his game, and their partnership

(08:31):
was the turning point in that entirematch. Oh yeah, well, like
they were five for one sixty threeat one I was still trailing, so
that like that was it. It'snow okay, folks, the bowlers,
this is the point where we justroll through the rest and we've got you
know what, one hundred and eightyruns behind, one hundred and eighty seven
runs behind, whatever it was,so you maybe get to a score of

(08:52):
you know, five for one sixtythree, like India would be shocked if
they made two fifty Yeah, absolutelyshocked if they made two fifty four.
There instead they were all out forfour hundred and twenty and that was it.
It was the back of that partnership. And well not even just that,
Rahan Ahmed and Tom Hartley both werevery good deputies in that partnership,

(09:13):
getting twenty eight and thirty four respectively, and then just batting with Pope and
just you know, one hundred andninety six on a pitch like that,
going at a strike rate of seventyand against a high quality attack. And
then just moving forward from there totalk about Tom Hartley because after the Indians

(09:37):
first innings creditism that the English honestly, that's it's the course they are.
They are the world champions of eatingeach other alive because because at the end
of that first in things they weretalking about how bas ball was ridiculous and
Hartley's not test quality and what ajunk selection and raight rah rah, And

(10:00):
then Hartley comes out, was itseven for sixty seven for sixty two wins
the game? And did he didhe get three in the first one two
we've got two for one hundred andthirty one going to five and over,
so nine for the game. Butyeah, what a bounce back. You
know he would have been feeling goinggetting absolutely you know, peelage from pillar

(10:22):
to posts well, I made heprobably his first royal taste of the of
the vitriol, and his own journalistswill heap on him when you when you
have a bad day, I mean, excuse me. When all things are
considered, it's not really that bada debut, is it. They've dragged
him out of nowhere, throwing himinto the dust bottle of India. Give

(10:43):
him the new ball, bowling,open the bowling, opened the bowling as
well, and the Indians, asyou would, go, right, we've
got a rookie here. We're goingto go for you, mate, And
they did what was impressive. Therewas Gis while pulling a bas ball on
England the first he's he's a bitof a gun, that guy. You
can see why he's rated so highly. He probably threw away one hundred to

(11:07):
be fair, very rich, pantlike sort of dismissal. But yeah,
he's he's he's one we're going tobe worrying about for quite a few years.
I would imagine, just another oneoff the production line. They keep
producing these guys, don't they.Oh yeah, and it's the it's just
the factory that they've made themselves withall of the money that has been generated

(11:28):
from very frugal business making decisions.I know, I E. The I
P. L's, they've already gotthe market share of the ic C,
and it's just been it's compounded bythe fact now that they've got the big
dog in what has become the hotproperty of of global cricket being franchised T
twenty competitions. It's actually interesting.You have a look at I think in

(11:50):
the Roman around the world at themoment, playing a couple of games,
and I had to look at theirthe India A squad and you think all
of these guys have either played Testcricket, are stars in the IPL or
going to be stars in the IPL. That's something that Great Chapel identified very
early on about them when it waswhen they when they beat us, and

(12:13):
they shouldn't have beat us because theywere playing their their CEA strength side.
By the end of the tournament thatthe might have been their C strength side.
But like Muhammed Saraji made his debutin that series, had already taken
you know, one hundred odd internationalwickets at a very respectable rate because he'd
been playing a stack of India Agames. Should mn Gill had already scored

(12:33):
a massive double hundred, scored hundredsall around the world for India a before
really kicking on and getting it.So and that was the thing identified is
India are actually doing a very goodjob of exposing these guys to international standard
competitions, much more so than youknow how many times as Australia A or
England Day or New Zealand they playhardly. Well, we've been advocating for

(12:54):
it as long as I've been onthe podcast, and that's it. Well
we're going on a couple of yearsnow. I think they were about that
Cam Green, you'd made his debut, had played two games, two games
overseas and some of them weren't evenfor Australia. There were just two games
overseas. So yeah, and it'sjust it's just the factory that it's India
make talking about quality Indians. Whata fantastic showing it was from rabby tod

(13:16):
Asia as well, proving that evenin a beaten side that he is all
class and he's out for the nextTest too. That's a big out for
India either, and so is Kalera Hall as well. When's Koali back?
Is he back for the second.No, he's not back for the
second. He's missing the first twotests apparently for personal reasons. And whatever
those personal reasons are, they mustbe pretty significant because I couldn't imagine if

(13:39):
rat be wanting to shy away fromthis battle. Honestly, if they if
they're playing beach cricket in the nexttest, I would not be so rent
one kneel down the series. That'sthree big guns out already, missing Richard
partner as well. I can't imaginethe ICC is putting anything remotely fair for
the rest of this series. Andlook, the Australian in me is annoyed

(14:05):
because England won, because we lostour game and we always enjoy watching the
Poms lose. But honestly it wasreally good to see and like Australia has
done it themselves. We've done it. The media everywhere has latched onto this
new craze bas ball, and that'sone half the media is all about how
good it is for the game,and the other half is it's not going

(14:26):
to work in Australia. It's notgoing to work in India. Would look
to be fair, it was ahybrid version of basball, and then that's
actually what I think that bas Ballactually needs to evolve into They've put the
groundwork down, but there needs tobe a point where you can go right.
It is just stupid because if youto play the way that we're playing,

(14:48):
we need to we need to gothrough and I think that's what we
said during the ashes is win Englandfigure out when they put a gear box
in the bas Ball engine so it'snot just on off, there's second,
third, four, fifth, andthen they figure out a way to go
through those. They will run WorldCricket with the group of players that they've

(15:09):
got at there too, that battingunit, if they if they can figure
out a way, all right,we've lost you know, three for eighty.
This is a pivotal point of thegame. Let's settle down, got
two, two and a half,three and over, Let's just build a
partnership and then get to three fortwo hundred, and then all of a
sudden, in the blink of aneye, you could then be three for
three hundred, three for three hundred, or even four for three hundred at

(15:33):
that point after maybe, you know, and then really as soon as they
figure out how to do that iswhen that will unlock it. That'll be
like the cartoon moment where you'll havethe big divine light that will shine down.
And it was impressed that that waslargely what it was. That wasn't
foolhardy throwing spaghetti at the wall andseeing what sticks there. Actually wasaned in

(15:58):
well, and the captain led theway the first innings. That wasn't a
typical ben stage innings. He foughthard, he grounded out. He's sure
he played his usual shots and heshowed his usual belligerents and stuff like that,
but he had to fight hard forthat to get them to a decent
scorer in the first innings. Andthe fact that he did that I think
showed the guys in the dressing room, hey, well, he's prepared to

(16:21):
fight a little bit, you know, and he's the one driving this.
Does he want us to play alittle bit more sensibly? And they started
so well in that first innings too, I mean they were away of a
flyer and your fort he goes baseballagain. But as soon as they started
to lose some wickets are in trouble. What I ate. I still think

(16:42):
by the end of his career we'llbe talking about Jasper Boomer as the greatest
Indian fast ball forever. And Iknow we've got Capal Dev there in the
mix. Caple Dev wasn't as fastas what Boomer is. I don't think
there's any doubt that if Boomer stayshealthy that he will go he will be
the best. He might be mightn'tbe the same sort of numbers because Capital

(17:03):
Dev had a lot of longevity,he had a very long career and played
a lot of a lot of testmatches. Boombra may not achieve those same
sort of numbers. I would absolutelybe staggered if he gets to that sort
of level of long geb. Ijust can't see what he's doing. You
can see two hundred and fifty testweek. It's a twenty three or twenty
four. But as his career,the same as we make with the James

(17:25):
Amson AGM. If you're looking toyou know, over a twenty year stretch,
what would you take or if youhad to play a game, one
game or one series for your life, who would you take and Boomera If
you had to pick one Indian fastbowler to be part of a bowling attack
to win one game, you wouldtake boomro death every time. If you're

(17:47):
okay if you're setting up a dynastylike you can with those play computer games
where your cold career, Yeah,you probably take Keful Death because he gives
you a bit with the bat andyou know he's going to play for X
amount of years and do what hedoes. Same with you know, Dale
Stain versus James Anderson. You know, if you're going to take it over
a very long period of time,you probably take James Anderson because you know
you're going to get two decades worthof of elite cricket out of him.

(18:12):
But if you want to win agame tomorrow a hundred times out of one
hundred, I am taking Dale Stay. I mean, I think that's the
same argument with Jack mc boomery.He's just Oozer's quality is some of the
things I know as a coach.I look at him and I think to
myself, how do you do whatyou're doing? Because he defies physics in

(18:37):
the way that he delivers the balland have the ability to move the ball
both in the air, off thescene both ways. That's a hard skill
man. You know, that's youhave to be able to and you just
look at his it's all got tobe risked it must all be done by
the wrist and buy the fingers becauseof that action, there's no way known

(18:59):
he has any latitude for different deliverystyles and stuff like that, like slightly
round arm or anything that he isthe same all the time. It must
be those risks. Moving forward,before we move on to the Australia West
Indian series where we see the seriesgoing from here, We've got India in
the home conditions, but there area few Like we said, there are

(19:21):
a few guns short. Can Englandcapitalize and maybe when the next one as
a five test series, this oneisn't that five tests. I really can't
see India allowing that. And Isay that in the most cynical, hard
bitten way that you can imagine,because I really cannot see that the BCCI
are going to allow into the payon affair with it. I'm also going

(19:45):
it took two incredibly, incredibly specialperformances from Olipope and Tom Hartley, and
I just can't see that being theaggregate for the mean for the series.
You can't say been the norm,can you Like? India thoroughly outplayed them
until the like for the first halfof the game, and I just imagine
that that, you know, withAshvin in there, you know, with

(20:07):
joy Swell, with Rowart Sharma,like, they've got they've got batsmen coming
out of their ears that they canplug into the middle. They've got Washington
Sundar as well, they've got someI actually would be surprised they played somebody
like, Yeah, cool, they'vegot they've got players they can come in.
They're obviously going to be weakened inthe next in the next test.
But I just think that without thatdouble hundred, will just show out a

(20:32):
double hundred and without that, sevenFA in England get blown off the park.
And I think with normal with andI don't mean a DVD is respectful,
but I don't see Ollipope score adouble hundred in every game that they
play, and there you can imaginethat he's going to have a pretty good
series. Having said that, it'slike we've seen the Indians do their dirty

(20:56):
work in the past. Okay,I looked at that wicket and there was
clear there's clearly been more work doneat both ends closer to the stumps than
there was in the center. Yeah, okay, is this going to be
the way that they're going to goThey're going to produce these wickets that do
nothing in the center for the samebowlers and then once you're four or five

(21:18):
meters out, it's going to bea raging turner. I'm almost prepared to
bet money on it. But that'swhat's going to happen to Look, they
did it in the last years Englandplayed against them. They have played out
something that was relatively batting friendly.England gave them a bloody nose, gave
them a haymaker, you know,sop sopped in one of the nose of
the first Test. That everything wasa diabolical sampit for the rest of the

(21:41):
series. And I just think thatIndia are going to look at them and
going we're going to steal back outbatting unit as collectively a better batting unit
what England's got, which I thinkis probably a pretty fair analysis. And
their spin bowling stocks are infinitely betterthan what England's are, and they will
run the risk of getting rolled byan Ahmed or a Hartley again, knowing

(22:06):
that, knowing that if they giveAshwan a landmine like a minefield, he
will carve through. And you know, I honestly I do it would be
good to see, like I wishthat we would have done it, and
if we had picked the right teamand not crap the bed twice in a

(22:26):
series, we arguably could have doneit. But it would be good to
see India knocked off their perch becauseyou almost love it more than you see
England. As a proud Australian,I absolutely would rather to see India get
knocked off their perch than England lose. And because as an Australian cricket fan,

(22:48):
that is probably other than other thanAustralia winning whatever it is that would
be. It would be Australia winsEngland lose. That would be like one
A and one B in our priorities, And I hand on heart would say,
even if it was England, Indianneeds to be taken down a notch
because it's taken down a couple ofnotches because they do. They get up

(23:08):
to all sorts of Shenanningians and theysit there and go, well, it's
not against the rules. We cando what we like. And it's like,
well it is against the rules,but yes, you can do what
you like. And isn't it amazinghow whenever we have these tests where it
suits the seam bowlers. You know, we've had a couple of tests where
you know, seam bowls are runningmark over it was the last period of
time. The first thing they dois we don't complain about Elwick. It's

(23:30):
when this happens over here. See, that's the thing that annoys me.
And I'm not going to dive downthis rabbit hole. It's going to be
a very brief thing. When wedid so the South African test where they
had where it was a day anda half or whatever it was, groundskeeper
went up and said, yeah,may a stuffed up a bit, and
we went, yeah, you're stuffedup. That's not good enough. Everyone

(23:52):
went yep, not good enough.There was no controversy because everyone was on
the same page. The South Africanswent, yeah, may have underprepared that,
my bad rather sorry, like therewas no Oh, there's nothing wrong
with it. You just need tolearn to bat and that's what the issue
is. Yes, When usually whenthere is an issue with a pitch being

(24:15):
two seam bowler friendly in a scenebowling country, everyone will go well,
that to be ridiculous to see whenall over the place, where's the balance
between bat and ball? Not goodenough, and most of the time the
ground schemer goes yes, yeah,and there may be excuses around that.
There may be it was hella wetfor the week leading up which made things
difficult. It may have been,and that is a very legitimate excuse because

(24:36):
of the dropping surfaces that they mayhave been an error, which is what
the South African curator said on hispart. And so, but normally there
isn't a whole blow up about isit fair is it not? Everyone just
goes your stuff done and we moveon. Whereas the reason why there's controversy
with Indian ones is because a tomake a wicket spin, you actually need

(24:57):
to deteriorate it, so you can'tjust underprepare it. You have to over
prepare it. So it's not likeyou can accidentally make a raging turner.
And the other thing is that isthe most salient point about the whole thing
right there. And then when youdo go and make a raging turn and
everyone goes, oh, that's abit ridiculous, it's turning square from the

(25:18):
second ball, the Indians don't go, yeah, you're probably right our bad
where you should probably try and makeit more fair for all three disciplines.
They go, you can't tell uswhat to do learn about and play spin,
and so it's it's just and that'sand that's what it is. Everyone's
like, no one gets up inarms about the about the South Africa,
England, Australia wick it's been tooseen friendly. It's because no one needs

(25:41):
to get up in arms, becausewhen the few times that it genuinely does
happen, everyone goes ooops, yeah, right, okay, we'll cop that
one's sweet and we'll do better fornext time. Like and that's and that's
it. There's no you can't dothat, Yes we can. No,
you can't. Like there's no controversybecause everyone just collectively goes wrong, except
when we do it to India andwe go wrong and you go, no,

(26:03):
it's not how that's how dare you? You fast bowlers get and it's
just turns into a big thing becauseand and and that's the thing is basically
the life cycle of a pitch isseam bowler friendly, batting friendly, spin
friendly friendly, because that's the naturalprogression of a wicket. You can't go,

(26:23):
well, let's start off being spinfriendly, batting friendly, and then
make it seam bowler friendly at theend, because there's just no organic way
to do that. Exactly. Ifit starts spin foling friendly, it just
gets worse from there. Exactly,you can't reverse engineer. And that's the
thing that what I just it justinfuriates me to no end that no one

(26:45):
is saying that Indian wickets or subcontinentwickets can't spin. But do they need
to spin immediately? They spin atright angles and be bouncing no higher than
your shin on the first day,and and that's and that is the thin.
Yes, they should absolutely spin alot more than what you would get
if you went to Australia, wentto South Africa, went to New Zealand,

(27:07):
went to England, because that's partof the challenge. But the requirements
to making an international standard wicket isthat there is something, even if it's
just a bit of carry and likebounce, there needs to be something for
all three disciplines. It is arequirement to get a good pitch training.

(27:29):
And that's the thing that annoys meis India just flawed that and then in
a few times that it does gowrong anywhere else, they're the first ones
to go look look, look,see look why are you angry And it's
like, we're not angry because weknow it's wrong and we're dealing with it
exactly. And yeah, so that'sit. I'm climbing out of that.
I dug deeper than I wanted to, but we shall be back in this
rabbit hole shortly in the next segment. Oh, I don't think I'm not

(27:52):
gonna be winted to about pictchures,but I think we're probably talking about pictures
and maybe the second or third orfourth India England test. All right,
we're going to finish up here withIndian England. I think India are probably
going to go They're gonna look,they're going to go into a dirty little
bag of tricks and they're going totry and win. Next two test matches
show some type of apparently. Ithink they're going to go three in a

(28:15):
draw from me, I reckon they'llget it'll be three to one in a
draw. I think there'll be onejust just a road, just road,
because there always is. But Iespecially considering the players they've got out,
they're going to use the pitch toeven those odds. And as much as
I'm incredibly proud of seeing Olipope andis coming of age and I cannot stress

(28:36):
what a fantastic knock that is forEnglish cricket. That is, honestly,
I think that is outside of BenStokes winning headingly in twenty nineteen, that
is probably the best knock since theyear two thousand for an English batsman.
I'd probably go back even for that. Probably I would rate it on a
par with David Gowers one hundred andfifty that he made out here and one

(29:00):
on the Test match when we goingback seventy eight seventy nine, with the
entirety of English creer, I thinkthat's got to be a top five innings
by an English batsman. And Ikind of I've always had a soft spot
for Olipope because I look at theguy and you look at him back and
you go, wow, there's somuch to look at this guy go.

(29:22):
But he just had no clue andwe exposed him out and here a few
times, and just a little sidething before we go. Olipope's previous seven
innings is in India. Before thatone the other day, he hadn't scored
more than thirty, so it's evenmore credit to him. Yeah, and
well done. I just can't seeand if it happens, absolutely phenomenal.

(29:47):
It's one of the very few timesI think that I am actually barracking for
England, even though I don't reallywant to because I'm a nausey but I
do hope that they can capitalize onthis and that someone can get in there
and look. Credit to India.They've all the tricks and shenannigans they get
up to. They just win cricketgames at home and that's you know,
at the end of the day,They've got to play on the same wickets.

(30:08):
You know, there is no reasonwhy teams can't exploit the same things
that their cricketers are exploiting. Andthe thing is, their cricketers are so
good they exploit the wicket way betterthan anyone else. And it doesn't matter
which way you cut it. Thewicket is the same for everyone, and
India are just masters of executing inthose conditions. So I'm not taking anything

(30:32):
away from them, but what youcan just see from here, they're just
going to delve straight into that becausethey know now that there's no coaligue,
now there's no Ruhle, now there'sno ged Asia. On top of no
Rishab pht. They're down one nilin the series. Yeah, I can't
see there being another one hundred andninety six being scored by one batsman.

(30:53):
I would be thinking that one hundredand ninety six will be very close score,
a good team score, and youknow, in a backfight they might
be trepidacious. I mean a backfightin the third Test against US where Cuneaman
took six for stuff all and weended up getting But I just I think
they'll use the pitch even more soto even those odds because they don't want

(31:14):
to lose at home. They're proudof their record, they have every right
to be, and there's money involved, and absolutely so I do. I
would love to see England. I'dlove to see England go and just put
the foot on the throat and grabone more while they're you know, they're
a big injury and have India lookingat needing to win win three in all,
and I suppose they only need toto get too all. But I'd
love to see England go up tonil and really then start to boss the

(31:37):
series and put some pressure on wouldn'tit be interesting to see the reactions from
the Indians And they did happen likeeven if they go and do a dirty
in this one and at backfires onthem Hartley or ra him up when somebody
who bowls them out really cheaping,they lose again to nil. What's going
to be the ramifications of that.Yeah, but full credit to Stokes,

(31:57):
full credits to every one involved inEngland, and four credit to the Indian
side. It was, like Isaid, it was a game. It
was a test match that Test matchcricket needed and it delivered in spades.
It was tued and frowed and that'ssomething that doesn't happen a lot over in
India. Of India really gained theupper hand. They don't often give it
away, so, you know,fantastic work. And right after this we're

(32:20):
going to go and talk about whatI think could quite possibly be if the
ICC leverage it properly one of themost important Test matches of this decade.
So the Frank World Trophy has endedin a one all draw in one of
the most astonishing scenes in Test matchcricket that I've seen in a long time.

(32:43):
And I can genuinely say, whichmay shock a lot of people,
I'm not even a little bit upset, not even a little bit didn't bat
and I live about it. Iwas at work for most of it when
when things were going on and there'sobviously people having on a bit of cricket
trage. You can go checking thescore, checking the scot and you don't
seem too fast about us. Andit's the best thing that could happen.

(33:04):
It's the best thing that genuinely,genuinely is that. As I said,
this has been such an important weekfor Test cricket given the constrictions it was
under, this is generally the bestthing that could have happened. I mean
from an Australian point of view.Okay, yeah, we retain the trophy,
so you know, we're not reallyout of out of sorts too much.
But everyone had written this West Indiesteam off from the moment it was

(33:29):
announced, and they lost in thefirst Test, but they fought hard.
They were completely outclassed with the bat, which is what undid them, but
they went toe to toe with theball with well, let's not beat around
the bush. It's the best bowlingattack in the world. There are teams

(33:50):
that come close. India come close. South Africa at the peak of their
powers come close. But considering thelongevity, what they've achieved over the you
know, they're all over what twohundred and fifty wickets. Now it's the
best bowling attack in the world.Not by a huge margin, but yeah,
fine enough, fine enough, youwould say that in general general terms,

(34:12):
the Australian bowling attack is probably thebest bowling attack in the world.
And this West Indies attack, we'vewhat forty debutants and no experience at all
and no runs behind them to goand defend, went toe to toe with
the best bowling attack of the world, took on the Australians in their home
conditions and beat them and like dida really good job in the in the

(34:34):
first game as well. Absolutely,like Test Cricket could not have like has
been pleading for a savior and WestIndies in general, and Shemar Joseph has
answered the call. He's quite acharacter, isn't he. Oh he is
outside of Stephen Smith, who Ithink is just I've just got a man
crush on. I love Steven Smith, but he's just he's my dude.

(34:57):
But Shema Joseph is like one favoriteplayer in the world right now, like
what an absolute warrior comes out firstgame by one hundred and forty five,
nipping it her everywhere, just knockingover the Aussie so fun. Oh,
Mitchell Stark is just gonna go andbreak your foot. That's all right.
Watch him limp onto the field inthe next day after everyone's like, he's

(35:17):
not going to be back, notgoing to be back. I'll just take
a cheek you seven and win thegame defending two hundred. Thank you very
much, like and then comes outand says, and this is the thing
that ICC needs to listen to,and it needs to listen to. It's
so hard. If the West Indiescome calling, I will answer, I

(35:37):
don't care how much money is throwingat meat. I will play for the
West Indies now immediately. It isreally easy to say when you're caught up
in the emotion of it all rightnow and you're staring at the face of
a massive, multimillion dollar IPL contractthat could change. But right here and
now, we've got a guy thata year ago was a security guard on

(35:58):
some island that is like what twohours charter boat to get to there's like
four hundred people living on it.And then he's here now beating the best
team in the world in their backyardand coming and saying, you know,
the whole thing about these poorer nationsis there's not enough money to go around.
They're all gonna end up playing franchiseT twenty cricket. Here is a
kid saying I want to play Testcricket. Stuff the money, I want

(36:22):
to play Test cricket. And thatflies in the faces as all the morons
like Kevin Peterson who have come outand said no one wants to play Test
cricket anymore. It's time to giveit away and acknowledge cricket for what it
is. Here is a kid flyingthe flag saying, nap, I want
to be a Test cricketer. Andthe ic C needs to latch onto this.
And if it's a real line inthe sand moment for Test cricket ice

(36:44):
field, if the ICC really caresabout Test cricket, they can go.
There is enough passion here. Pakistangave Australia the wobbles in the first series.
Like the first years of the summer, the West Indies came out and
beat this in one. You know, there has been some gripping being played.
There is obviously passion and desire forthis format and Test cricket is alive

(37:06):
from the point of view of thestandard of the game. Okay, you
can talk about crowds and all thatsort of stuff. We're still producing guys
who are the very best at theircraft playing test cricket, and quite frankly,
I think most people who most greatplayers would sayed Test cricket is a

(37:27):
pinnacle where we've lost our way.And the point you're making is so valid.
We lost the generation who went andplayed T twenty. Okay, we
need to rediscover that. We needto get that next generation rediscovering the passion
because hopefully they're saying that. It'snot all that. I don't think we
Your point is accurate, but Ithink your choice of words is wrong.

(37:50):
I don't think we lost a generation. I think we threw it away.
Possibly how many kids that have grownup in that generation where we're playing,
like in the mid twenty tens obsessedwith T twenty cricket, really wanted to
be super passionate about test cricket.But these nations saw the dollars for T
twenties and just and went there andyou know, didn't nudge them in that

(38:15):
direction and went the whole hob too. There was no, Like it hasn't
been a gradual thing, do youknow what I mean? Like some countries
have just jumped in boots and alland aren't producing really good first class cricket
as anymore because their first class systemshave been compromised by and look, let's
not be around the bush some itis a lot of it is a financial

(38:37):
reality. Is the first class cricketis just not economically viable, and it's
they're not wealthy enough that they canhave a financial dud, Like the Sheffield
Shield is a financial dud, doesn'tmake any money. It is piggybacked on
from international cricket because Australia gets theplate, lots of it and the big
beer, the big Bash. Thesame with like I don't know India's telecast

(39:01):
figures, but I can't imagine theRandi Trophy makes lots of money. It's
basically making all of its money offIPL and international fixtures. I imagine there's
still plenty of support, more thanyou would get. But in places like
Pakistan, like the West Indies,like Tri Lanka, they don't have enough
financial income to run first class,to run first class pre get out a

(39:25):
loss in keeping up an excellent standard. They've got enough money to basically keep
their franchise competitions afloat and whatever's leftover is whatever's left over. So I
get that. I get it's notjust as simple as all you've got to
do is just focus on it more. But I just I cannot quantify like

(39:46):
it nearly brought a tear to myeye watching that interview where he has said,
you know, I love my captain. For the first time I met
him was on this tour. He'sbeen really great for me. I love
playing for the West Indies. Idon't care how much money's thrown at me.
If the West End call, I'mplaying for them. And like,
this guy is going to get somuch money chucked that in from everywhere after

(40:07):
that performance and him to come outand if it changes, it changes,
like who's going to turn down moneythat could change his entire life. But
if he sticks to those guns anddoes a Mitchell Stark and plays for his
country like hats off, the rewardswill come anyway. I think the rewards
will come anyway, because I mean, you look at a guy like Jason

(40:28):
Holder, who very much was downthat path earlier in his career, and
he sacrificed playing ten twenties and stufflike that in order to be the Test
cap and everything like that. He'srewards to come in there because he's had
his time. He's gone, right, well, I've so, I've done
all I can do. I willstill play for you if I can,
but now it's time for me togo and earn some money. If they
all had that idea, I'm goingto make my bones at the West INDI's

(40:52):
and become a great international cricketer andthen the paydays at the end, at
the end of it all made I'mgoing to swun around the world for five
or six years playing ten twenty cricket, earning great munch. And that's the
thing that I just wish. AndI know it's not as simple as that,
because you actually have to cultivate thetalent. It's not as simple as
just flicking a switch. But ifyou become a really entertaining product like the
West Indies are out here all thetime making heaps of money like they there

(41:15):
was a big criticism of world cricketfrom the West Indies go and cricket boards
around the world filled their pockets offthe sweat of West Indian players because they
were the big ticket. And ifthe West Indies become you know, the
number four or number three team,if they can get up into that group
again, India will be chopping theguest the West Indies out here. Everyone

(41:36):
wants to watch the West Indies.Australia, we wanted to get that obviously,
we've had them out a lot,but we will be We'll be getting
and the more sort of thing,and then it becomes then your international board
then starts to make more money becauseIndia will pay big ticket dollars. England
will pay big ticket dollars to getand the teams out there, and then
you get parts of them. I'msure they get parts of the broadcast rights
and all that sort of stuff too. We can start getting these guys being

(41:58):
good enough to get into these bigticket series, then the money will come.
But I personally think the finances ofWorld Cricket need a massive overhaul.
Oh absolutely, And this is whereI'm talking about. The ICC needs to
recognize that this is a line inthe sand moment. Absolutely. We've shown
here that there are two young,upstart teams because that Pakistan side wasn't incredibly
experienced either. This West Indies sidecertainly isn't and you talk about it.

(42:22):
They've come out here and they've wantedto win. They're not just here because
they have to be. They've wantedto take it to it. They've got
passion to play and be good attest cricket. Find a way, find
a way to find some money tomake test whatever that might be. It
might not be. You're not goingto fix it all the next meeting,
but maybe that is a standardized icC payment. That's the start of it

(42:45):
going. It doesn't matter if you'repack Cummings or if your Shama Joseph.
You're going to get the same amountof money from us for playing test cricket.
Yeah, pack commers are going toget paid more by Australia because that
they're rich in the West Indies.But at least the very least when they
rock up the government, the governingbody says that you're a Test cricketer and
you're a Test cricketer, that's yourmoney, and then you get top up

(43:07):
from there like they're just they're justThis is the moment if there's really any
desire for the ICs, for theICC to take test cricket seriously and prolong
it outside of grudge matches between England, Australia and India, and then just
you know, we'll sprinkle in someother sides just to fill in the years

(43:28):
where they can't come out. Ifthey actually want it to be a vibe
like the World Test Championship, tobe a viable competition and to grow and
maybe see teams move up and downthose rankings. They haven't got a better
they have not had a better kickin the ass than this week to say
that Test cricket is still something thatpeople deeply care about and is entertaining and

(43:50):
will go and watch. That's anotherthing. I mean, that's one of
the big criticisms from other nations isa Test cricket has got to a stage
where nobody was going to watch it. Well, it's like all international global
sports these days. Your majority ofyour audience is sitting in their laundroom watching
it. We're usually on pay TV. That's where the money is, you

(44:12):
know, gate receipts and stuff likethat for Test matches. A insignificant portion
of the funds that are generated froma Test match. You've got your broadcast
rights, your TV rights, yourmerchandising girls, blah, blah blah blah
blah blah blah. There's a bigpot of money sitting there in each Test
match, each and every single one. You know, some of the metrics

(44:36):
state use to say, oh,well this is this isn't going well,
that's not going well. I thinkof flawed because I mean, you look
at India. They didn't have fullhouses in that in that stadium. The
other day there's make there one hundredthousand and seat stadium. But I guarantee
you they still make money. Yeah, absolutely, you know what I mean.
And we need to have a moreequitable sharing of the pie, and

(44:59):
we need to be been centivizing countriesfinancially by us saying here, you're going
to play a free test series againstthis person a Polish two tests. Yes,
oh my god. Yeah, wewon't go down that rabbit hole.
But yeah, here's this pool ofmoney. We're providing you the pool of

(45:20):
money, and out of that poolof money, we're paying for the grounds,
We're paying for the players, we'replaying for accommodation, we're paying for
all of this to bring those peoplehere. And then the ground itself and
the rights, the broadcast rights canbe shared between whoever. But US as
the ic C, we are goingto say, here's how much money we
have for you to play this game. It just needs to be a point

(45:43):
where the ICC and honestly England,Indian and Australia need to wake up and
realize that this is going to bethe case. Is it's going to cost
them money, Yes, to protectthe game. Yes. And the ICC
needs money to make sure that thereare other countries for you to play where
they're getting the money from generated bythe countries U three make up the most

(46:04):
of it. And see, andthis is the thing, and it's not
just India, but India are thebiggest perpetrators of it because they have the
most resources to do the most good. India, as in the BCCI,
don't actually care about cricket. Theycare about India and that's it. And
that's not to say that England andAustralia are any better, because they're not.

(46:28):
They're just not as blatant about really. But India couldn't care less about
the health of the game so longas the right people are getting the right
amount of money. And that meansthat they've got to have the right people
are getting the wrong amount of moneyfor the health of the game to increase.
Then India don't care because India areself sustaining. If World Cricket ended

(46:52):
tomorrow, they would just make allof their money playing BYPL. They may
even decide to start there. Ifthere was really that big a call to
test cricket, they might even dofranchise first class games to get you know,
they'll do a draft to get thebest Australian best out of there and
then do like an IPL Test editionlike they if they really wanted to get

(47:13):
they just they just wait for theICC to fall over and then rather than
having nations, all of the playersjust sign a test IPL deal and go
into test IPL franch orse they dothat, they don't actually care about protecting
the integrity of international cricket. Theycare about making money. And that is
not to say that as I said, England and Australia aren't any better,

(47:35):
but England and Australia aren't in thesame position to do the same amount of
good. But they need to bebetter as well. And maybe that is
the case of organizing to do multipletours. If you've got a big ticket
tour to go, or you needto go and play in one day cricket
somewhere over in India, why notgo and send even if it is a
two third strength Test side, togo and play some Test cricket against an

(47:58):
Island or against the Sri Lanka ora guess you know there is there are
lots of cricketers in your country andit might come down to the fact that
if you want the game to grow, admittedly you might not be ideal,
but if you need to send thebig dollar players oover to India for your
big dollar meaningless one day International fiveTest five game series like India's like,
we're going to pay big dollars,but you better not send us a half

(48:21):
aass team, Well, then sendthe best next team to make sure that
these other guys are still playing cricket. It just needs England and England,
India and Australia need to sacrifice toprotect the game. And this is this
is the week to proves that itis worth sacrificing because it's not just their
roaming around going look, well,this is just what we do in between

(48:44):
one days and t twenties. Aswe go and stand around the field for
five days and get beat, thereare guys out there that care about playing
Test cricket and care about winning Testcricket. And the ICC needs to look
at this and embrace it and golike they need to make Shama Joseph like
the post the child of the nextgeneration of Test cricket. This is a
kid that has the world at hisfeet. And he said, I will

(49:05):
play Test cricket for less money becauseI love it so much. Why don't
you? And and it wasn't justthe thing about the West Indies team too.
It wasn't just Shama Joseph, althoughhe's obviously standing. They had kids
basically playing in men's roles. Theirmiddle order had what free test matches between

(49:29):
them. It was just absurd Andthey all showed potential. I really like
that Kurt McKenzie. If they cankeep him again, it's all going to
be the guys that they've showed enoughpotential. They're going to get snabbled by
quite franchises. But if they cankeep Kirk McKenzie around, could you imagine
how would that team would be Whereyou say, you have you know Jason

(49:52):
Holder instead of a Greeves who isunobjectionably a better player. He's a better
baller and he's a better bat ifyou have him back there instead of Grieves
and maybe a Kira and Pollard nota rap what's his name? The keeper,
the real gun keeper? Oh,poor Nicholas Pooran coming out and being

(50:13):
sort of a big hitter at sortof five or six and just you know,
he's never played test. Credit you'replay test and he's just got a
technique. Do you look at thatgoing why? There's nothing overly outlandish about
it. You just played cricketing shotsand you hit the ball really hard.
Like That's what I liked about watchingthe young young guys coming through for the

(50:34):
West Indies. There's nothing. Theylook solid, there's a good basis here
for what we're trying to do,and yet inexperiences is an issue for him
at the moment. Probably not alot of first class cricket, but the
technical base of all of them lookedreally good. Yeah, and I just
yeah, And to be honest,I think the last couple of years,
probably since that yeah, two threeyears in Australian wickets are offering a lot

(51:00):
more since basically that Indian series wherewe lost. The wickets in Australia are
consistently offering a lot more across theboard. I was actually thinking about this
on the way over point the onewe made sort of it used to be
back in the day, if youmade runs in Australia, you knew you
were a good bat. And theygot through a period sort of like the

(51:20):
end of the two thousands all arebasically all the way through to basically twenty
twenty that runs weren't necessarily as difficultto come by. Yeah, the bat
well, because Australia at the backend of the twenty tens had some very
good bowlers, but the conditions thereweren't you know, the bounce was always
pretty true, you had plenty ofcarry, you know, the outfield was
really good. You know, ifas long as you weren't overwhelmed by how

(51:45):
fast the ball was coming in andyou could you know, you could play
a short ball. There's absolutely nogremlins in thet a reason why you can't
dig in and score some runs.It came down to some absolutely brilliant cricket
from the Australians to get of thesewickets. And in the last couple of
years I think there's been a littlemore pitch assistance. The kooka bar has

(52:06):
been doing a bit more been doingstuff off and a lot of that might
be the improvement of three very goodfast bowlers, but I just think in
general, I mean Pakistan and WestIndies had that ball talking a lot as
well. You know, England hadthe ball talk and a bit in that
last tour. Like I just thinkin general, it's now become a much
harder place to score runs. Imean, you look at the Australians.
That batting lineup didn't fire at all. You had a big knock from Head

(52:30):
and Warner, you had a coupleof meeting and knocks from Kowaja and Smith
and Marsh, but in general thatthat lineup didn't fire, not as a
unit at all. Kerry, Ican't forget Kerry Carry had a great knock
as well, but as consistently therewere chinks in that armor, whether that

(52:51):
be poor formed from the Australians,great bowling or pitch conditions. But the
thing is the opposing teams that weresupposedly well down on strength controlled that Australian
batting lineup. There was no puttingon five point fifty and then good luck,
We're just going to boss the gamefrom here. Even when the other
teams were out of the game,their bowlers fold them back into the game

(53:13):
by restricting the Australians to a manageablescore. There's no doubt over the last
few years the wickets in Australia,there's no idea about it, and I'm
quite I love it, absolutely loveit, because it means that when you
watch Travis Head scoring those runs thator even the daily Warner in that first
one, or Smith's ninety that helost in that they earned those runs.

(53:36):
You know, full credit to thembecause you've got to score the runs.
But you know, Adam Voges issitting there as one of the highest Test
averages of all time because he justscored an absolute mountain of runs on some
of the flattest wickets that I've everseen in my entire life in any country.
And that was here and he justabsolutely that week at a bell Robe.
I mean, it should have beencharging tolls on it. It was
that flat. Yeah, it wasabsurd and so and that's the sort of

(54:00):
period I was talking about it.It was just there was it was less
impressive. Oh you scored runs inAustralia, that's amazing and sort of the
mid thousands like, oh so youscored runs in Australia. Good talk.
Yeah, super proud of the WestIndies. I'm super proud of the fact
that they had everyone tell them theywere Rodney Hogg was coming out and they

(54:21):
were hopeless and they were pathetic,and I was just like, what,
what where do you get off callingthem that? At no point in this
series where the West Indies and like, okay, they're batting was a bit
was a lot pedestrian at times,but they were not hopeless or pathetic.
They thought and scratched and cawed andnailed and they made sure that right up

(54:45):
until the end they weren't out ofany of those games, and then for
the second one they got over thetop. I really think that there's big
future there now for certainly the WestIndies. I like what I've sewn from
Pakistan as well, because other downon numbers, you know, their first
three first string fast battles where itreally won't they besides shoot eating SHAHAFREDI I

(55:07):
mean, Harris Ralph decided he didn'twant to play for whatever reason, the
same Shah is injured, whatever ithappens to be. They look like they
have some potential as well. Idon't understand why we can't be getting even
where organizing tournaments of test matches,you know, where we bring four of

(55:29):
these lesser teams in, we buildthem in an in Australia for a month
or wherever for a month and playa tournament of test matches. Then they've
all got other things they need todo, Like they as soon as that
series finished between Australia and Pakistan,they were over in New Zealand for ten
twenty. The calendar is not longenough because the IPL is getting longer and
longer, and no one schedules anycricket in that time because they don't want

(55:52):
to. They don't want to saywell you can't play in the IPL because
they won't accept that. They'll justplay in the IP yeh, because it's
worth too much money. I dothink that there's like that you can't have
those non exclusion things. There's gotto be a point where it's like,
okay, so if you're playing inthe IPL, then send you next best,

(56:13):
you know, and there we playerslike a Mitchell Stark, like a
Pat Covens, like a Steve Smith. I'm sure people like Ben Stokes and
you know, players like that.Shema Joseph said it into that, like
there'll be players that go, allright, cool, I know, well
I made my I played half thegames, made a fair bit of coin.
I'm going to go I'll play testcricket. And if you're good enough,
if you're a Pat Cummins, you'renot worried about them not picking you

(56:35):
again for or a Mitchell Stark oranyone like. You know, Mitchell Stark
hasn't played in the IPL. He'ssaid no, get stuff to the IPL.
But years, for nearly a decadewhat the ramifications were for turning his
nose and we're turning his back onthe IPL only only the biggest payday in
history. So all he's like,if you you know, you turn your
back on the IPL, you mightnot get another gig. If you're good

(56:57):
enough, you do. They're notthat petty, and so their businessman made
their businessman may producing a product andthen one of the best products. If
you've got a Kagezo Robardo, who'sobviously a big ticket item in South Africa,
Look, we really need you tocome. You can you skip the
IPL? And I was like,well, look, I'll miss the I'll
come like at the last minute andI'll play all these IPL games and then

(57:22):
he goes, oh, you can'tleave, and he's like, well I
am. He's going to be backnext ipl. If his team goes,
well you're out, you can't play, the next team will pick him up
for a schoollion dollars. Like yeah, it's always going to be that way
for the elite players. Will alwaysbe that way for the elaid players.
And the way to become an eliteplayer is to become a wonderful Test cricketer.

(57:43):
Yeah, all right, before wefinished, I think with waxed lyrical
on the where the game can gofrom here and just what a phenomenal performance
the West Indies had and have theyfought and grip. But I think we
need to talk about the Australians becauseas I said, it wasn't a fantastic
summer for our batting. You knowwhat, do we what thoughts to be
got on the Australians moving forward fromhere? There's a there's a there seems

(58:04):
to be a bit of this elementof fragility in the in the batting order
at the moment, and I'm notsure what it is. Whether we've just
got guys who aren't meshing all atthe same time, whatever it happens to
be. I said, there's beena lot of criticism about the Cameron Green
experiment. It's not an experiment.He's staying there at number four and he's
going to be a great player.Okay, get over it, folks,

(58:28):
because that's what that's what's been laidout here. Ste SMI I thought he
looked really good in that for areally unlucky one that bounce back onto his
stumps, but I thought he waseasily the best outside of Steve Smith,
and that he looked really good.It looks really solid, and what we
really need to do is get outof his head and let the guy go

(58:49):
on play some cricket. I've gotbig concerns on Marnus. Marnus has soon
to have developed a very very nasty, little technical habit that's getting him the
all sorts of trouble. His eyesaren't lining up with the ball. You
can see that in the same mate. He's obviously everyone goes through dips and
lulls, but this is one ofthe worst summers by an Australian batsman in

(59:13):
history for a while, for along, long while. And look,
there is an argument, and Idon't necessarily believe this argument. I throw
it out there anyway, Marnus wasnever a good domestic cricketer and he's had
a real strong what three four orfive years maybe team? Is this the
ceiling have we seen? And he'snow thirty? You know the people have

(59:37):
worked him out a little bit?Is it now? You know there's does
he have the skills to get likeyou know, it's not like he came
off the back of like Mike classhe scored in ten thousand first class runs.
He was a punt yes, andthe punt ended up working out and
you know it was this just apurple patch where no one knew what he
was like. And then I don'tthink that's the case. I think he

(59:58):
is classy. I think he's proventime and again that he is like even
in the World Cup that he playedsome beginnings. I think this is just
a down period. But you know, at twenty nine nearly thirty, is
are we persisting with Marnus until wecan't any more? Or is there an
opportunity that maybe Marnus needs to goback and you know, maybe this is
where we go. All right,We've got three thousand people we can pick

(01:00:20):
for the one day side. Maybewe sent Marnus back to go and play
some shield get him ready for thenext trip to I definitely say Marnus back
to Serild. I really do,I pick he really needs to beginning in
the nets and having a good hardlook at where he's he's currently in the
one day international side. Yeah,well, I don't know what sort of
remedia or work and everything they dowhile they're in these camps. He has

(01:00:40):
an issue with how his eyes arelining up in relations with the balls.
Literally that simple you can put.It's not that hard to pull a technique
at Black Marnus's apart, because itall works in very very structured stage ways.
You look at Pete Marnas when he'smaking contact with the ball that his
eyes are literally right over the topof the ball at the moment he's probably

(01:01:06):
I reckon his alignments out about twoor three centimats. That two or three
cinamonis is a difference between you middlingthe ball and nicking it. And that
is and it's a hard thing.I may it may be something that's crept
in over a period of time andhe may not even be aware of it.
But I've been looking at that forabout a year now with Marnus,
particularly when the ball's quick, there'sbeen a yeah or thinkful. I think

(01:01:29):
we really picked that up in thatthe Ash series over here where he got
found out quite a lot by MarkWood, My Mark Wood. And I
think the other thing with Marnus aswell, like the beginning of his career
he had to have been the luckiestcricketer ever born. Oh yes, and
there are times he got dropped,and I think maybe we just we got
a really good purple patch of formfrom Marnus. He had a bit of

(01:01:51):
luck going his way. Now thatit's a combination of getting a little older
teams are used to him, he'sgoing through a bit of a dip.
The lucks run out, And Idon't think Marnus was ever destined to be
a guy that averages mid to highfifties. I see Marnus definitely somewhere in
that forty five to fifty sort ofguy. And I just think that's it's
just cricket is it's leveling out.It's getting Marnus to the mean and where

(01:02:15):
he's going to be. It's goingto be like, let's be around Bush.
He's been bad. He needs tofigure it out, whether that be
getting out there and playing some oneday cricket or getting there some more red
ball reps under his belt. Butthe concerning thing as well is that he's
getting out the same way all thetime. He's nick enough Smith Smith opening
the batting. What do just thinkabout Smith opening the batting? I'm always

(01:02:40):
going to be torn about this becauseI'm probably not on the level of man
crush that you have for Steve Smith. Probably not far away though. Yeah,
well I thought it was a Iwas I wasn't pretty good innings the
other day. I just felt therewas and missing. There's something missing with

(01:03:01):
him opening the batting. I'm notsure what it is. Whether it's just
a personal feeling, it just doesn'tfeel right for me to have him doing
it, or whatever it happens tobe. He looked a lot better technically
in that ninety one. He suredid. His feed were moving well,
and he's always going to have thatMarnus type issue as well as that he

(01:03:21):
needs to make sure his eyes arein line. His eyes, then the
hands follow his footwork. We don'treally care about his footwork, but with
Steve Smith, it's about the eyesand about the hands. He booked it
with Smith. Smith copped a coupleof really good balls that he played really
poorly, like that LW one thathe got in that was Paul that was
it was a good ball, buthe overplayed his hand. And I think,

(01:03:43):
well, if you blame that inan orthodox way, that's a standard
forward defensive shot. But I thinkSmith has been like Smith has been a
lot more assertive, Like he playeda couple of really nice hook and pools
to get off the mark early.He's driven really well through the covers,
played a couple of nice on drives, and then we're just I think,
just getting out, just trying tobe a little too pushy. And I

(01:04:04):
think that's sort of your like,I don't know, it's been like you're
replacing David Warner, so like we'dlike you to get out aus he's gonna
sit there and drop bank because that'swhat was he does. We don't need
you to be Dave, but wedo need you to be a little more
proactive than what Smudge has been atfour. And I think maybe he's taken
that to heart and maybe looking tobe all right, Well, if he's

(01:04:26):
going to sit here and weather thestorm, I'm gonna just I'm just going
to maybe treating it like a oneday innings and a little bit and just
overplaying his hand. I'm not fussed. I think that after the loss there
was this big thing about all Australiadidn't respect the West Indies and we toyed
around with the lineups too much.I think that overall, Yeah, there's
obviously the big argument being Bancroft,but it then comes down to what do

(01:04:49):
we rate more Green versus Bancroft,And arguably there I think it's probably forty
nine fifty one. You can makethe argument you play ban and you let
Green go and develop and shield andcome back into a middle order spot when
there's a middle order spot ready forit. But that being said, you
know, is Green in the topsix bats of this country. We're looking

(01:05:12):
at his shield form, he's nolike, he's no lower than seven or
eight, Like, there wouldn't beseven better bats than Cameron Green. And
they've gone with the fact that inthe last Test Marnus Labershane was the youngest
player in that Australian site at twentynine and two hundred and something days.
So they went with the guy thatis good enough to play test cricket who's

(01:05:34):
twenty four as opposed to the guythat might be good enough to play test
cricket who's thirty two, as wellas as much as I was on the
bandwagon that I definitely think that Bancroftdeserves a crack, and I'm still not
convinced that he still didn't. Idon't think we got it that wrong picking
cam Green. I just think we, unfortunately, we didn't play well enough

(01:05:56):
and the Windies did, which iswhat our batting unit fed. I liked
what I saw from Smith. Iliked he as being assertive. I think
that he was trying to make hismark on there, make the position his
own, and maybe overplayed his handfor a couple of balls that he probably
should have respected a little more earlyin the innings. But you could see
once he got into you know,twenty thirty and that ninety one, even
with Shema Joseph, he wasn't fussedby Sima Joseph. He was just batting,

(01:06:20):
is doing his thing. I don'tthink we're going to have too many
dramas with Steve Smith. I justthink maybe it's might all right just put
the brakes a little. You're notDave. You know, it's a test
a game. We don't need yougoing at seventy strike right, you can
afford to work your way into alittle bit obviously not chewing up so much
strike. But we also don't needjust throwing the bat you know, just

(01:06:42):
find that happen and then that'll come. He'll get that with more reps opening
the batting. As you said withCam Green, I'm not fussed with Green.
I'm I'm happy to about the houseon that Green will end up being
good enough to bat in the toporder for Australia. The other thing that
I was a little concerned about anda little annoyed, and I suppose it's
hard to be too annoyed because it'sworked for them for the last eighteen months

(01:07:05):
is I thought that some of MitchMarsh's dismissals were a little reckless, and
that's not you know, it's nothis fault. We were four down for
stuff all But when you're four downfor stuff, or do you need to
be throwing the hook shot at literallyeverything and then getting five down for stuff
for look, yeah, this iswhat he brought him, let's be honest.

(01:07:30):
And it's not like get him outof the side. It was just
a little bit of okay, likeI get it, this is what you
do. But maybe again again,maybe we're the saying that basball criticism.
Maybe go through the gigs. Yeah, okay, you what he hit everything
for four, but we're four forwas it were four for eighty at that
point, maybe four for seventy,and then he bowls him a bouncer hits

(01:07:51):
it for four. He've already gotlike I think he already had six off
that over. He hit two offhis legs. He hit a pull shot
for four and they bound him again. Heady got six off the over.
We're four to seventy. Just duckthat one. I do think it is
a bit of compulsive for that.Yeah, and that's fine, and it's
it's just it's a minor criticism.It's not a you cost us the game,

(01:08:12):
Mitch marsh But nobody cost us thegame. Shama Joseph took the game
from us. That's what happened atthe end of the day. I mean
we did edit. They were properlywell, No, it was the down
the league side was the first innings, wasn't it. So all of Shemar
Josephs you'd say were genuine dismissals.He it wasn't like someone did something proper

(01:08:32):
dumb to get out and he justgot He just got him out, like
Marsh's dismissal. And the second thatwas a great ball that he had to
play out that bounced a bit more, took an edge, went to slips
like it was just yeah, thatone where he's gone for the other pool
shot and it was just got toohigh on the bat and he spooned it
up to chemar Roach And I'm justlike, in that position, that is
such a bad shot, and like, I get it, that's what we

(01:08:55):
got you in for. You've madeyour mark in this side by going you've
seaball hit ball. But I justI think that it's a it's an easy
cop out to have, especially whenyou've got Travis Head who was in the
exact same boat. When you couldyou know, five and six could put
on two hundred runs in the blinkof an eye, or could get out
for forty playing dumb shots. Ithink it's an easy cop out to go,

(01:09:16):
oh that's the way I play thatthere does need to be a little
bit of you know, responsibility,and at four for under one hundred.
Maybe there's a you know, whenthe ball's doing a bit, there's a
bit of more responsibility put on andpicking those shots like the ones that are
well wide of offstune, you know, full length drive, all of the

(01:09:41):
drive that through the covers all day, all day. But yeah, short
balls. The only way you getout to short balls are the way that
you got to get out to shortballs by misshitting them. So just yeah,
that was that was all. Ijust think. Yeah, there's a
I think maybe just a shmidge ofarrogance came through the Australians, especially with
Head and March, and it's justthe thing is, but they are in

(01:10:05):
red hot hard to pull it backin the gear. We could go to
the New Zealand next well at theend of the next month and Head Marsh
would both put on a partnership oftwo hundred and fifty to play exactly the
same way. So I'm not I'mnot saying they need a change or get
out, but I'm just you begrown ups about it. Maybe just just

(01:10:29):
have that little extra you have thatsort of member or right now, it's
not even a it's not even ashould I shouldn't. I maybe just go
I've got what I need out ofthis over. And it's not even a
don't second guess yourself, Go Icould hook that, but I'm not going
to as opposed to should I orshouldn't I, just make a conscious decision
that when you're written that much ofa whole, nah, look risk verse

(01:10:50):
reward. Let's just let's just goI've got six off this one. Let's
get through the over. You knowhe'll be coming towards the end of his
spells soon, you know, Andjust work out a bill, get to
the next ten, get to thenext ten, as opposed to having that
oh should I play a hook shot? And before down, just just have
that confidence in yourself going, I'vegot enough runs off this over for now.

(01:11:12):
Let's just live to fight another day, leave to fight. And then
when you're sitting there going all right, we now I've gone from four for
eighty to four for one eight Andyou're like, all right, that's a
much better landing plan now I could. I'm good. Now I'm on sixty
seventy myself, the bowlers are tied. Now I can throw the bout at
everything. Like not just having thatsort of awareness around the situation. It's

(01:11:32):
not so much second guessing what youshould and shouldn't do, being confident enough
to go I could hit this forfour, but to play it safe,
I'm just going to duck it.Yeah, lessons loan mate hopefully, but
all three we've got what We've gottwo tests in us there, I think
so. I think it's another twotests series. That's another thing that we

(01:11:55):
miss out on a lot. Weshould be looking to cultivate a massive we
missed. We missed the olden generationof New Zealand cricket where they actually could
have stood up and beaten us properly. And in that whole period with the
South e Bolt, Williamson, Era, Ross Taylor, all those guys.
Two tools. Anyway we can,we can be standing, we could be

(01:12:18):
sitting here discussing scheduling and for allnight. I just think that basically we've
made the point. This is overto you ICC. Test cricket has shown
you what it's about. It's timefor you to respond and say, hey,
yes, we're going to look afteryou. We're going to do that.

(01:12:39):
We're going to make decisions that areactually in the best interests of Test
cricket, because Test cricket is thepinnacle of our game. All right,
I'm going to surprise you. Therewasn't planning on doing this, but the
results came in early enough for meto do it. So I'm going to
rattle through the Alan water Metal results. So I'm going to start from the

(01:13:03):
bottom. The we the w BBLPlayer of the Tournament, Shamari at Padua,
BBL Player of the Tournament Matt Short. No argument to Betty Wilson Young

(01:13:25):
Cricketer of the Year, Emmita broBradman Young Cricketer of the Year, Fergus
O'Neill having a real strong season forVictorians'. Yeah, and you can back
to Men's Domestic Player of the Yearand he guesses Cam Cameron Bancroft. Women's

(01:13:51):
Domestic Players of the Year All playersElise Vallani and Sophie Day. Men's T
twenty Player of the Year Jason Berendorf, Oh, nice one for the ball.
Better get over he better get overto the World Cup betting, get

(01:14:13):
over the World Cup. Men's ODIPlayer of the it's Mitchell marsh Okay.
Women's Player of the Year Ash GardenerElise Perry, no argument. Women's T

(01:14:34):
twenty Player of the Year Elise Perryconsidering it's her weakest formatan take that we
had a Shane Horn's Men's Test Playerof the Year. Was he Nathan Lyon

(01:14:54):
considering he missed the Well, that'shuge, well done, Garretts the Belinda
Clark Award Female Cricker of the Year. You're on fire. Come on,
don't stop now, Ashgard Oh gone, I've gone twice. I can't be

(01:15:15):
wrong three times? Can I?She has to win something Alan Bordher Medal.
Was it Mitchell Marsh? No?Really, Mitchell Marsh coming in replacing
Cameron Green in the Ashes and haswon the Alan Border Medal. No.
Wow. And by the length ofthe straight one hundred and twenty three votes

(01:15:42):
for Mitchell Marsh. Pat Cummins,who I thought would be the Alan Border
Medalist, was one hundred and fortyfour. We know that Alan Border Medal
is obviously all three four months.So yeah, and so Mitch Marsh obviously
missed a stack again through the Testyears, but has had an excellent white
ball year. It's well done toMitch Marsh. Look, this is going

(01:16:08):
to be the final point before wewrap up. Like he has been much
beligned, I myself have torn shreadsoff him for his lack of you know,
his lack of execution, his lackof consistency. And I've said it.
I don't think I've said it onthe air or not where if I've
said it just in passing to somefriends. I cannot think of another sportsperson

(01:16:29):
in any other sport that has hada prolonged run and you know was was
bad. He was. He wasaverage in the one day and T twenty
formats, but he was a badTest cricketer. Has a year and a
half off comes back and is atthe peak of the game in three formats

(01:16:51):
like he is one of the bestwhite ball cricketers in the world. And
he is definitely a devastating red ballcricketer. And I have not seen in
any I have seen promising players getstart to get it right likes Osbon Khwaja
has shown that he in his youngerdays that he could be that guy.

(01:17:14):
We never got to see it upuntil very recently. Mitchell marsh with the
occasion of beating up on like they'rein three innings two hundreds against the world
beaten England side and a fighting ninetyagainst South Africa in the first Test over
there, and outside of that hisTest career, there is nothing to show
for it. And then he's comeout and he's just whatever it is in

(01:17:35):
that eighteen months he's had off fromthat winter tour to the West Indies for
the one day is something has clicked, whatever he's figured out, whatever he's
felt comfortable himself, whatever words ofwisdom he was given. It is the
most astonishing turnaround. I've never seena player that has had a prolonged run
of mediocrity where there was just nothingto show for the investment that you put

(01:17:58):
in there to come back in theirearly thirties and just absolutely kill it.
Congratulations Mitch Marsh. Like I know, it would have been absolutely devastating being
brewed in a boxing day Test tocoming back to the winning the Allen Boarder
Medal and deservedly so so well done. It's a phenomenal turnaround. You're doing

(01:18:20):
exactly whatever one wants. You're justcoming out. You're playing good cricket.
When you have a bad day,there's not too many of them before you
have a good day, and that'sall you want from your cricketers. You
just want your cricketers to bounce backfrom bad days and before before the break,
there were just bad days and nowthat's good day, good day,
good day. Oh, a badday, but you know that, you

(01:18:41):
know the day is coming back.Yeah, you know there's going to be
a good day around the corner.And his level of consistency is probably the
big thing I think is that he'snow reached a level of consistency of performance.
And it's not only that it's consistency, but it is also execution,
like if he was like even inthe day before he was dropped, he
was averaging mid thirties with the bat, which is not bad. He was

(01:19:04):
an okay ish option with the ball, a guy that you wouldn't you wouldn't
expect the bowl ten overs, buton his day he could. But on
others give them three or four orfive like Jadu wig or two. You
were upset with his production in onedays, but he was never elite.
If we got that sort of productionout of Mitch Marsh when he came back,
he'd be okay with that, justconsistently getting you what you need.

(01:19:26):
But he hasn't just done that.He has elevated himself to being one of
the premier talents in the world anddoing it consistently. It is the most
astonishing turnaround I have ever seen.I have not seen a single sportsman that
that comes to mind that has hadjust such a prolonged run of ineptitude,
have a break, come back andgo from barely making the grade to being

(01:19:51):
the best in the world and notsaying you know, I'm paraphrasing, but
yet what I mean, so welldone. I couldn't even bloked. It
does serves the award anymore from whathe has shown for Australian cricket after like
it wouldn't have been would not havebeen easy to be Mitch marsh over the
last few years because everyone one oftheir pound of flesh, including us so

(01:20:13):
and congratulate, congratulations, make congratulationsto all their winners there at the Allen
Border Medal tonight and that will dous for this evening where there's plenty more
cricket to talk about. There's aone day series coming up. We'll see
if the Windys can can continue thereto run of strong form. They did
beat the Poems, so I'm actuallylooking forward to just seeing these guys getting

(01:20:34):
out there and competing again because theycan't. They have this country with a
love to play cricket. Yeah theyhave, you can see it in them.
They're well led by Craig Brathway.Yeah look, I really I'm just
looking forward to seeing some more entertainingcricket from these guys. All right,
guys, until next time, enjoyyour week. We'll be back with plenty

(01:20:55):
more cricket news by for Now SportsSocial podcast Network. Let's join Steve Live
for the build up. What's yourprediction. I've been watching this team for
a very long time, Gary,and I can tell you now the score
will be three one, There'll beour annoying corners and the French lad will
score aheader very specific Steve. It'sbet builder from life score betpal. You

(01:21:17):
can combine markets from thousands of optionsto create your own bed or if you
can make up your mind shoes fromthe pre build quick bet options, which
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Episode 174 - Test Cricket's War Cry

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 174 - Test Cricket's War Cry