In this week’s edition of Let’s Talk Sport the team the discuss The Ashes, technology in local sport, and the challenges of being in the spotlight. Oh yeah…and a bloke called Ajaz took 10 wickets!
THE ASHES
Righto boys, it’s been another big weekend in sport, but you can tell we’re all excited like kids in a lollie shop with the Ashes starting today…surely the greatest tradition we have in Australian sport. What does the Ashes mean to you blokes?
Nick: When you’re a child and you see those heroes on TV, it’s hard to capture what those people mean to you at the time. As time goes on you realise how important and special those moments are for Australians. An Ashes on home soil is the absolute pinnacle for sport.
You can look at the AFL grand final, or the grand finals of other sporting codes, but there’s something different about the Ashes, we hate the Poms, they hate us, and there’s something just unbelievably iconic about the whole thing.
Dave: Is there a moment that sticks in your mind…a moment when you fell in love with the Ashes?
Nick: One of the greatest balls ever bowled in test history was by Ryan Harris…
Tyler: This hurts me.
Nick: …against Tyler’s favourite cricketer of all time in Alastair Cook. That ball is absolutely etched into my memory, it was the perfect piece of fast bowling. And Mitchell Johnson’s famous Ashes series, just with his moustache, him lipping off at Kevin Pietersen…all those little sub-plots that make the Ashes so important. It all goes back to Bradman, Bodyline, history and tradition are what makes it so special.
Dave: Tyler, how does it rank with what else Australia hosts or competes in around the globe?
Tyler: I think it’s on par with AFL grand final day. The footy gets more viewers, because people can’t sit down for five days, but every cricket lover can’t take their eyes off it. Nick mentioned that moment with Harris and Cook, which still hurts me to this day, but I remember being about 11, getting home from school and watching Peter Siddle take a hat-trick on his birthday. I got to interview Peter Siddle a few years ago and I asked him what he was thinking before the hat-trick ball…and he said “all I was thinking about was coming in bowling fast”.
Nick: That was pre-banana days for Sidds…
Tyler: Yeah, it was, he was jacked up on steaks. That was the moment I fell in love with cricket and I got to speak to him about it which was awesome. What about you Dave?
Dave: I’m a bit older than you blokes, and there are so many. The obvious one is Warnie’s Gatting ball, that changed a series, probably changed the Ashes for the next 15 years. Steve Waugh’s last ball-of-the-day century, Lillee and Thomson pounding the Poms into submission, the list goes on. I was lucky enough to have an uncle who absolutely loved his cricket and he took me to the Centenary Test, when I was nine, in 1977, an he explained the traditions. He told me to remember when Rick McCosker walked out to bat swathed in bandages, after Bob Willis broke his jaw, because it would become an iconic moment that would stand the test of time. He was spot on my uncle Chris!
Tyler: What about Marnus Labuschagne the other year, he gets hit on the scone first ball, as the concussion sub, and bounces back up and looks at Jofra Archer with a look “I’m tough, I’m ready for this”.
Nick: Do you have blokes have an individual performance that stands out?
Tyler: Ben Stokes, Headingley, I still watch it all the time. He went into a mode and it was just incredible to watch…you knew you were witnessing something special.
Nick: Alastair Cook’s double century was application and concentration at its best.
Dave: Adam Gilchrist’s century, smashing Monty Panesar was pretty good, that was brutal…and notice boys…I’ve picked an Aussie!
Nick and Tyler: (laugh)
Tyler: The story with Gilly, 100 off 50 rocks, is that he went out to bat normally and he was waiting for a signal from Ricky Ponting, to go, or face out the rest of the day. He saw a signal, teed off, and then when he went into the rooms Ponting told him he had the wrong signal, he was supposed to bat out the day.
Nick: Before we move on, Steve Smith’s double hundred in England…he was batting on a different pitch.
Dave: Alright boys we have to move on, we could talk all day about the Ashes. We’re all in agreeance it’s the greatest tradition in Australian sport with the AFL grand final and Melbourne Cup not far behind.
TECHNOLOGY
A complete change of topic now. I was at the Pakenham Bowls Club on Friday night, the Lions were playing Berwick in Pennant, and they had the match live streamed on Facebook. It got me thinking about local footy and cricket, games are being filmed, stats are being taken, is this a good thing for local sport or are we going too far? Does it reduce crowds at the footy, take away from gates and atmosphere, or are there added benefits with all this?
Nick: I don’t think you can underestimate atmosphere at local sport, without it it’s almost pointless. You don’t go to local sport to necessarily watch the best, some competitions aren’t of the highest quality, but you go for the atmosphere and the community spirit.
I think live streaming works in this day and age, because it allows people to stay in touch with their local game even when they can’t be there. From a journos point of view, it’s brilliant, you can be at one game and keep an eye on another. But I can see both sides of the argument, maybe it’s keeping people away and making us all a bit lazy. I’m sitting on the fence a bit with this one.
Tyler: I think it’s fantastic for cricket, but I don’t like it for footy, because I love going to the footy. Sometimes I go the footy and don’t even care who’s playing, I just go and want to see a big crowd there, particularly local grand finals.
Nick: Cricket is not reliant on gate takings, where football is reliant on gate, bar takings, canteen, social functions, that type of thing. Cricket is the lazy man’s game in a way, you can just sit there and watch it and do nothing, but in football you’re not surviving if all people did was sit on the couch and watch local games all winter…your thoughts Dave?
Dave: I think there’s a bigger picture here, particularly with football, there’s a perception that if you don’t get your games filmed, you’re falling behind other leagues in regards to professionalism. Obviously, it helps with tribunal and things like that, leagues are ticking off on OHS, but there are other things as well. Local leagues are taking things a step further, getting stats done professionally like Champion Data do in the AFL, and what the idea is there is that it will all become a library of football leagues from around the state. If you want a centre-half-back who takes contested marks, you can scour the state for the player you want.
Nick: From a recruiting point of view, it’s a great tool…
Dave: Exactly, and if you’re league is not involved the professionalism will fall behind. The balance at the moment is trying to get these things implemented but make it affordable…it’s not cheap and there’s only so much money going around. The biggest benefit is for coaches, they won’t have to put in the exorbitant number of hours they currently put in…the stats will all be done for them.
ROLE MODELS?
More generally now boys, in this week’s test team we have Steve Smith and Dave Warner – who have been through “sand-paper gate” but Tim Paine misses out for his misdemeanours. We’ve had Tiger Woods do what he did and plenty of other sports people around the globe let themselves down. Should we be more forgiving of our sports stars…or harder on them because of the role models they are?
Tyler: It’s a fine line, because what Tim Paine has done is not great, but in general I think we let our sports stars get away with too much. If I did the things that they did, in some of the scandals, I wouldn’t have a job to come back to on Monday. If I did what Jordan DeGoey has been accused of doing…you wouldn’t want me back in the office. I don’t think Paine should be playing, I’m glad that he isn’t…Nick disagrees…but I think they get away with things too much.
Nick: Boys, we have to ask ourselves the question…is what these people are doing a criminal offence? Jordan DeGoey, his is a legal matter, but what Steve Smith and David Warner did was against the spirit of cricket, it wasn’t a crime, it wasn’t a life-or-death situation that impacts a person’s life personally. I think everyone deserves a second chance, but the question is does DeGoey deserve a second chance, on top of another chance. In the case of Tim Paine, I think public humiliation is enough punishment for him. Was it hidden or concealed? Not being open and transparent is the issue I have with it.
Dave: We spoke about technology before; today’s sportspeople have to be aware of the environment they’re walking into as professional athletes. We had similar things happen years ago, with the St Kilda schoolgirl and many other things…but they’re all humans and we all make mistakes. In the world of political correctness, if you stuff up at that level you are going to pay the price.
Nick: Michael Clarke, his comments around the Tim Paine situation were fascinating, basically admitting that if he was playing today, he wouldn’t be captaining Australia if some of the private things he had done came out publicly.
Tyler: That’s the entitlement I don’t like Nick, and that’s why I don’t like it. Can Cricket Australia say “You were exonerated Tim Paine; we still want you to be captain of Australia” …and then turn around the next day and promote females in their sport.
Nick: Are you disappointed with Tim Paine or Cricket Australia?
Tyler: Both, it’s just the entitlement thing that gets me.
10-FA
Alright boys, interesting discussion, but let’s move on. New Zealander Ajaz Patel became just the third cricketer in Test history to claim 10 wickets in an innings. How big a deal is this in the statistical world of cricket?
Nick: What’s even more fascinating is the story behind it, Patel doing it in Mumbai, and being born in Mumbai. It’s an amazing effort, but what’s even more amazing is that he takes 10 wickets, New Zealand get bowled out in two hours and he has to go out and bowl again. In all seriousness, it’s something we don’t see too often and it needs to be celebrated.
Dave: Is there a comparable achievement in other sports? What is a comparable achievement when something has only happened three times in the history of a sport?
Tyler: Maybe these days…kicking 100 goals might become comparable…
Nick: What about a hole-in-one? I’m not sure…but in AFL I can’t think of anything comparable.
Dave: In golf…shooting 59 would be the comparable achievement…and maybe 150 goals in the AFL is the sort of thing we’re talking about here. Bob Pratt (1934) did it, so did Peter Hudson (1971) …so a third time in history would probably be comparable.
Tyler: Do you have to be a spinner on a spin-friendly deck to do it Dave?
Dave: Well; history would say that only a spinner can do it. Jim Laker and Anil Kumble, the other two bowlers to do it, they were spinners as well. Well done boys…enjoyed the chat…let’s do it again next week!
