The Ashes 2nd Test - A Preview

in #cricket5 years ago

OK, I have to admit, that heading was a bit of a lie, because here we are on the eve of the second Test, at Lord's, a venue bathed in tradition and history, with Australia 1-0 up in the series, yet this Aussie really could not care less.

Ordinarily, I would have been champing at the bit waiting on every ball of an Ashes series, but this year, I can't help feeling let down by Cricket Australia, to the point that I just don't care.

Why? David Warner. Now before you jump up and down screaming that he's done his time, hear me out. Yes, Warner can be a matchwinner and yes, he has served his prescribed punishment, so why do I have a problem?

My problem with his inclusion, is not the inclusion itself, but what it represents. What it represents is pure, unadulterated hypocrisy at the highest level.

After the sandpaper scandal, Cricket Australia vowed to undertake a thorough and decisive review of the culture in Australian Cricket, from an adminstative level down to a player level. In addition to the suspensions of Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, National Coach Darren Lehmann fell on his sword and resigned as well.

Great, we thought, the "boys club" culture that is often criticised by some former players, particularly Brett Geeves (he shares some pretty insightful stuff around his time in Australian colours) will break down, and reported toxic personalities would be removed from the equation.

Just prior to the World Cup, however, the Cricket Australia central contract lists were announced, complete with Smith and Warner included. Now don't get me wrong, I agree that the players have served their bans, and deserve the chance to earn their place in the side again, but to immediately reward these guys with a lucrative contract, tells me that Cricket Australia was doing no more than pay lip service to their cultural review.

So what should have happened? Smith, Warner and Bancroft should have has to let their results do their talking for them. Let them play in the Sheffield Shield for a season, and mount their case for a recall over a metric crap-ton of runs. In essence, make them again earn the respect of their national teammates, and Australian cricket fans.

Warner, for me, is a particularly hard one to stomach being back in the side, as I firmly believe that himself and Lehmann were the ringleaders in the sandpaper saga. Bancroft, was the stool pidgeon, the rookie who didn't want to say no to his more senior teammate, and Smith as captain, is a classy batsman, but perhaps not a strong enough leader to manage a personality as big as Warner. Long have the rumours swirled around that Warner was a disruptive presence to team harmony, rumours that hark back to Michael Clarke's leadership days. Smith and Bancroft, I could forgive eventually, and I'll admit, Smith's twin centuries at Edgebaston to set up victory for Australia, would have normally evoked much joy (and quite a lot of ribbing of my English mates as well). But Warner, as long as he's in the Australian team, then I'm barracking for the opposition.

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In some ways I'm surprised that the authorities didn't sacrifice Warner. As you say, he didn't have a great reputation within in the dressing, didn't have many friends among opposition sides and had even pissed off the administrators by being one of the chief protagonists in the threat of striking over player contracts. It all suggested that this would be a great chance for the powers that be to get rid of a guy who was causing more problems than he was worth.

I think what changed their minds plain and simple was the horror show in terms of results that followed his and Smith's suspension. In a World Cup and Ashes year could Australian cricket in general afford to be so uncompetitive again?

As far as his recall goes, he won the purple cap in the IPL and throughly deserved his World Cup spot. He then performed very well in that tournament and earned his Test place.

The problem for any cricket board is that if you aren't going to give lucrative central contracts to your top players then they'll just go and play franchise T20 cricket around the world probably for more money. In fact, you could argue that that would have been the easy way out for Warner himself. He knew he was going to cop a load of abuse at home and abroad when he returned to international cricket but he still did it. The fact that he choose to don the baggy green again over sitting around sipping mai tais next to a pool and bashing it around a bit in the IPL or The Mongolian T20 blast or wherever else they play franchise cricket these days has got to be worth something to Australian fans

These are strange times that we live in. An Australian supporting the English cricket team and an Englishman suggesting leniency on David Warner :-)

Good grief. Is it end of days? Is this what the apocalypse looks like?

Thanks for the reminder about his role in the pay dispute. In a sense that's probably as close as he gets to a redeeming quality. When administrators tried to drive a wedge between national and state players, Warner dug in for his lower level comrades to make sure they were looked after as well.

As for deserving a recall, selecting anyone for 50 matches on T20 form is risky, but it paid off. Personally I think CA are sacrificing the One Day Domestic competition for the T20 Big Ba$h League. I think in particular a World Cup summer, more focus needed to be on the 50 over stuff.

While Warmer does have his fans, let's face it when he's in a destructive mood it's impressive to watch, the general public feeling is that Aussie fans would take some more short term pain to leave him out and let him run around the globe playing T20 in tournaments nobody cares about.

I don't think anyone would have worried if Smith got a contract for season 20/21, but this year just feels a bit too soon. Given Australians hold sportspeople to a very high ethical standard (and we're very critical when others get caught cheating), the feeling of being let down by these guys is still raw for a lot of fans.

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I think the initial punishments for the trio were handled poorly. 12 months for Warner was fair. Bancroft as the junior player, led astray by Warner should have been 3-6 months. Smith, not directly involved but not strong enough a leader to have stopped it, basically removed from captaincy and maybe 3 months.

Anyway, that's all history now, I guess time will tell if Warner will be a more positive influence on the team this time around. Aussies tend to forgive the crimes of those that succeed for the country, Warner will get all the accolades that Smith has if he puts in a match-winning performance.

Personally, I think the ban lengths were probably about right, though I think Darren Lehmann had more to do with it than was publicly admitted.

Where I believe CA has gone wrong, is by rushing everyone back into the fold. To read it as a mixed message. On one hand, there was public condemnation of the trio, and a promise to clean up the culture. On the other, by rushing them back, and not making re-earn the the respect of the cricket public first, the message seems to be that what they did wrong, was not violating the ethical standards of the game, but instead that they got caught in the first place.

For me, national results aside, this summer should have been one of toil at domestic level, to earn their redemption.

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