Bored Members - Guests | Media | White Bored | Interview | Bored Anthem - Songs | Boredwaani | Cartoons | Facebook | Twitter | Login

Not a very long engagement

by Gaurav Sethi

This is strange. You can be peering into Hayden’s past, yet it’ll be ‘Farewell Kumble, farewell Ganguly that stares back at you. That’s cricinfo for timing. Whole lotta screensavers but no careersavers are they?

Hayden’s 37+, but in international cricket years he's like an Indian cricketer in his prime.

Never mind that debut in ‘94, he only became a problem for bowlers in Y2K.

And now it’s barely 09, and he’s gotta go. Btw how many test years for Gilchrist – approx 8, sir.

And how many will Mr Cricket Hussey play – not exactly Hayden’s age yet, but at 33 his form is almost Matty. Hussey’s been in 3 years, and he’s no Ponting or Clarke or star player, else he would’ve been in ten years back. And when he skippered he also got rogered. That too by the Kiwis. Giving the Aussies the heebie-jeebies.

Time for Oz to look for more pups, with more bark, more bite. And not players who go soft after just 8-9 years in the biz. At least aspire to double digit years, if not twenty.

Or does it happen only in India?

10 comments:

Q said...

Not only India NC but Pakistan as well... it definitely happens there only and may happen in Bangladesh as well with the likes of Ashraful, Iqbal, Shakib, Rahim and the rest making their debuts in the teens..

With Australia handing debuts over the last decade to 30 and above it doesn't leave them with more than 6-8 years of a test career...

Somehwere I feel that the 70s produced a hell of a lot of test cricketers in Australia who all could not play test cricket at the same time. There was an overdose hence there seemed to be an assembly line with the next in line waiting his turn.

The reproduction trends of the 80s were definitely different.

straight point said...

carrying on from Q...now they are facing the crisis in terms of that young and old ones are not firing at the same time...

lets see if marsh, jr hssey can stake claim...

Gaurav Sethi said...

Q, Ashraful's their star player like Sanath was Lanka's.

tellme, after Anwar, Inzi aside, any really long playing Paki test regulars? reckon the test stalemate makes it worse.

Younis Khan 58 tests, 8+ years (1 yr no tests)

MoYo - 79 tests, 10+ years

Misbah - 10 tests, 8 years +, two debuts

Not gonna get into Malik and Afridi.

Good point abt the assembly line. Tho Gilli's wait for Heals to go was flawed. The trend contd - old age debuts, over the hill retirements. And then Ricky talks abt a lotta youngsters and not knowing what makes them tick.

Gaurav Sethi said...

sp, oz is clearly not a team. the youngsters are afraid to commit to attack. Obvious thru the Ind series.

ricky doesn't look as if he wants anyone to stake claim. he's both manipulative and insecure. i won't call him a captain.

Soulberry said...

This is probably the first time since Bradman you are seeing 1) defiance of the selectors and CA in such matters for you are suppossed to take the hint and pedal off into the outback and 2) for the first time we may see an Australian play overtly for records...that 10k+ run mark...and we may see Ausytralia helplessly watch from the sidelines.

I don't think anything like this has happened in Australia before...

Weren't such things supposed to be done by those Asian clowns with inflated bags of runs under their records?

Gaurav Sethi said...

sb, Hayden's light years away from that 10k mark, 1.4k more to go - what's keeping him? reckon it's ricky. appears from some of his comments he's deflecting focus on to the newbies.

Q said...

NC, I thought we were discussing the number of years a players career lasts - number of tests vis a vis the number of years of a career is a totally different discussion.

My point was that an Indian, Pakistani or even a Lankan and bengali will have a career span much longer than an Aussie due to the trend of subcontinental teams giving younger men debuts as opposed to Australia who blood their men at 30..

We had a discussion long back over at Well Pitched where we talked about how Indians and Pakis get promoted right away from u19 level whereas in Australia and England a nunber of years are spent on the domestic circuit after U19 cricket before international status is given..

If ur going to talk about the number of tests then an Australia will probably play as much in 8 years than a Paki would in about 15 years.. even when Pak was playing test cricket, it was ODIs that dominated a calendar year..

A Pak cricketer with a career spanning 10 years will end up playing 300-400 ODIs and about 80 tests, assuming he remains injury free and plays every game..

the same for an Aussie will be about 120-130 tests and maybe 200 ODIs...

Gaurav Sethi said...

Sure Q. Aim was to put a diff spin on it.

Likeness between emerging Pak and Aussie test teams, both low on test exp.

Esp if Oz overhauls further, drops Hayden, Ricky as skipper, think they can get better. Can see a good game between the two? In our minds at least.

Q said...

True NC.. a new man to partner Katich at the top, Ponting and hussey back to form, a young allrounder at 6, and a new worthy spinner (Krejza?) and Australia will be back to its old ways.. but it will take a while to find all of them...

If u speak of the mind then Pak thrashes the Aussies everyday ;-)

Anonymous said...

more got to do with the quality and talent than the geography and age!!