Im an Australian, someone that was absolutely born and bred cricket, played basically from when I could walk until late teens, where a particularly nasty ankle injury (non-cricket injury) meant I quit a lot of sport, played poker and became pretty much a house hermit... and am now reduced to watching cricket and bowling to a 7yr old nephew, anyway, some answers to some questions that never got answered, and some that did
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Originally Posted by Longy
I am a big cricket fan (my second sport behind football) but i will ask some questions anyway
Who was the best test team from any era?
Where does Kevin Pietersen rank in all time England batsman and currently in active players today?
Your Ashes prediction?
Its close between the West Indies in the 80's and the Australians in the 1995 through to about 2003. The West Indies lost a Test Match series 5-1 to Australia in the early 70's, and after that the team began using a lot of fast bowlers in their teams, which would intimidate a lot of teams. They were quite scary at the time, and it wasnt until a test series in 1995 against Australia in the West Indies that Australia won 2-1. That was the turning of the tide of domination and Australia crushed for about 10 years, only recently losing more test series. Now the best teams are pretty even between India, South Africa and Australia, with England a bit behind IMO, and the West Indies very poor after there best 3 or so players...
(For those who dont know, the West Indies are a combined team from the islands roughly between North and South America. The main island is Trinidad and Tobago, and other players come from islands such as Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Barbados etc... They have a domestic competition similar to the Australian domestic league with the States represented, and England with the counties, but each island is pretty much a team. Recently, domestic problems have arised from strikes from players, officials perhaps not acting in the best of intergrity etc... and talks of the islands splitting up and maybe a second tier Test competition arising, with the Island teams competing with teams such as Canada, Ireland, Netherlands etc...
I dont know that much about English history, but Pieterson is easily top 5 currently worldwide...
Australia win the Ashes 3-1
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Originally Posted by sumpy
What is the definition of wide?
What's with the fielding rules that change after a certain number of overs?
Is it true that it is considered rude to run out the inactive batter if he is out of the crease (essentially the equivalent of a pick off)?
A wide is a delivery that a realistic cricket shot cant be player against. The intepretation is varied between formats of the game, with limited overs matches more strict because of the limited time to score runs. Recently batsmen have used moving around the crease, the area they bat in, to manipulate the angle and length of the delivery, which has thrown the defintion of the wide into question to an extent...
The fielding restrictions were bought in to stop captains putting every man on the boundary to stop runs... Later on teams were forced to have only 2 men outside the 30yard circle to encourage attacking play. Sri Lanka, most famously Sanath Jayasuriya, having the infield in to hit over the field for runs. To compare, if every outfielder in baseball had to be inside the diamond, there would be big incentives to hit into the wide open spaces out wide, you might get out but the early runs can set up scoring rates for later on in the innings...
Yes, very rude as has been alluded too...
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Originally Posted by JaredL
Could you talk a bit about the strategy in test cricket? Do inferior teams usually try to win or just go for the draw?
I really like the rule that a team can stop batting and I can't think of another sport where the coach or captain has to make a similar decision.
Do you think any countries will gain test status any time soon? Do you think the US will ever get there?
Very difficult to bat long enough as a team to get a draw in a test match. Plus playing conditions can be so variable that plans can change based on the weather very easily. For example, in England when the sky gets cloudy the ball moves around in the air a lot more. This makes it harder to predict and as a result, more wickets usually occur compared to sunshine...
I cant see any team getting test status soon. However, a second division for tests, with maybe 8 teams a division isnt completely impossible, probably most likely...
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Originally Posted by Fonkey123
What is the funniest sentence based on cricket lingo that you can form?
This is one that I only read, not confirmation whether it was true, and was more of a great quipe then just lingo. About a bowler who didnt bowl very fast like a fast bowler, but not super slow like a spiner...
Bob Cunis, like his name, is neither one nor the other...
A beer company, Victoria Bitter, or VB, ran a series of adverts using funny cricket lingo in situations for 3 blokes living on a flat who watched the cricket, the one I remember most being someone throwing a mate a beer during the cricket and hitting him in the nuts, with the caption "middle stump" among others...
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Originally Posted by silentbob
Fair enough, but at least in a Test match, aren't yorkers worth the gamboool given that they so often lead to wickets?
I'm not suggesting that bowlers deliver yorkers every other ball, but one would think that they should be used more often given the relative risk/reward (maybe not in 20/20, perhaps in multiple-day matches).
Yorkers are worth in terms of gambool in terms of getting a wicket, but like certain NFL plays, if you use a strategy too often, it can be countered. In terms of countering a yorker, the batsmen will lower how much he lifts his bat before the ball is delivered, making it easier to get the bat down and block the ball from hitting the stumps...
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Originally Posted by AussieJack
All you need to know is Michael Clarke is the greatest cricketer ever and all of Australia loves him, he will be the next captain
Serious case of GTFO....
Michael Clarke is one of my most hated cricketers. A bit of a pretty boy and is banging a hot missus... Not even sure why I hate him, but Mark Waugh was a favourite when I was young and was almost a carbon copy, a bit soft mentally but a very pretty cricketer. The Arsenal FC of cricket maybe...