Michael Holding Ashes Review

[Sachinism]

At the start of the summer, a 3-0 scoreline wouldn’t have surprised too many. I certainly didn’t expect Australia to win a Test match. But when you look back at the series, and see how each game went, I don’t think 3-0 – and it could easily have finished 4-0 at The Oval – is a true reflection of how the teams played. I think Australia played a lot better than many expected AND England, in my view, were below par. To be honest, both teams were brought closer together by putrid pitches. For the most part, they were pathetic. Only Lord’s and Old Trafford could be considered good cricket pitches. A couple of years ago, the ICC condemned a pitch in Galle, saying it was too slow and the bounce too low. Well, we at Sky, during the broadcast, did a Hawk-Eye comparison between Sydney, Adelaide, The Oval and Galle. And The Oval was the slowest of them all. But you will see and hear nothing about that fact. To me, that is just plain wrong. People talk about home-team advantage, and being entitled to do whatever suits you. But it doesn’t permit you to spoil a game of cricket by preparing sub-standard pitches. Home advantage means you have your home crowd, you have conditions you’re familiar with. It doesn’t mean you alter the state of pitches to make the game ridiculous. I know England are not the only ones to do it, but it’s time to call a halt. England didn’t look anything like as good as they seemed when they won the Ashes in Australia in 2010-11. The series too lacked genuine quality. I wouldn’t even bother to compare this Ashes to what took place in 2005. As far as I’m concerned, that was the best Test series I’ve ever watched. When I was part of a series, I wouldn’t really watch, because I was emotionally involved. But watching that 2005 series, without having a preference for any team or any emotional involvement in the series … I don’t think I’ve seen better. BUT Compared to what they were in Australia, this England team was way below par. I think they’re a lot better than what they produced and, again, I put that down to playing conditions. There have been a few noises out of Australia, of how the bouncier pitches back home will bridge the gap between the two sides. I don’t think so. If anything, these English fast bowlers have a lot more potential in Australia than in England, where the pitches were not tailored to their strengths. I expect them to have a better time in Australia and I expect England to win again, but with better cricket being played. There has also been talk about Australia returning the compliment and doctoring their pitches for England’s visit. I’ve been going to Australia for a long time, as a player or a commentator, and I’ve not seen pitches change from year to year depending on who is playing. When you go to Adelaide, you know what you’re going to get. You’re going to a get a pitch on the first day that will give the fast bowlers a bit of help, before it’ll flatten out to a very good batting pitch. It will then turn on days four and five. Sydney has altered over the years, because they changed the soil, but Perth has been the same, and so has Brisbane. When England go there, there won’t be any surprises. They will get good cricket pitches. One can only hope the over-rates improve as well. I was part of a team that was criticised for being tardy, but in our defence, we had four guys with really long run-ups. There was also no stipulation at the time that you had to bowl 90 overs in a day, and we very rarely, if at all, sold the spectators short. Most Test matches didn’t last the full five days anyway. England, even with Graeme Swann bowling so many overs, dawdled along at 11.5 or 12 overs an hour. Yet, we’ve heard nothing about anybody being fined or suspended. It seems these regulations and conditions only apply to certain teams. I’m dying for the day when we’ll see a level playing field. I don’t know when that will happen, maybe when my grandchildren grow up. The regulations are in place. It’s a matter of umpires applying them, it’s a matter of umpires dealing with what they have to deal with. You see the same foolishness with all these players leaving the field every five minutes. The regulations and the laws are there, we need umpires to apply them, around the world, and not according to which team or country is playing. Bad light once again came into play, as it had at Old Trafford, but I have no issues with the way the umpires handled it. They have taken the bad-light situation and the ground conditions out of the players’ hands. Once the umpires opt to leave the field at any point in the game, they have to take the reading on the light meter. And once it drops below that, they cannot continue play, irrespective of the condition of the game or the circumstances. If you want to change the regulations and playing conditions, that’s a different matter. But once you have them in place, the umpires have to leave the field. They have got to be consistent. They can’t say: ‘Oh, this is getting close’. It might be exciting, and the crowd may enjoy the last three overs, but the umpires can’t take that into consideration. If the Ashes had been riding on The Oval Test and the umpires had stayed on the field, whichever team lost would have cried foul. I don’t think a standardised bad-light reading would work either. Background conditions are not the same everywhere in the world. Maybe they need to have a lower threshold, where they can play beyond what is now considered dark. I have no idea, because I don’t play cricket these days, but perhaps this is something the cricketers of the day need to look at. I read with interest of Pakistan’s proposal to play a day-night Test in the Middle East. I don’t believe in the concept, and we constantly see the problems of playing under lights. Test cricket should be played during the day. If you want to play day/night matches, you already have that – you have Twenty20 and the 50-over game that are played at night in coloured clothing. Test cricket, as far as I’m concerned, should be played in the day, with conditions not varying drastically from morning to evening. It’s sad that the last few headlines about the Test series will focus on the way the English players behaved afterwards. It was totally out of order, and juvenile. They need to look at themselves when they start behaving like that. They’ve made the news, and you don’t want kids hearing things like that. Kids tend to copy what they read, and what they hear about their so-called idols and heroes. Ideally, children shouldn’t have sportsmen as their role models. It’s great to look up to them and admire them for what they’ve achieved, and try to emulate what they did as far as working hard and maximising whatever skill sets you were given. But I don’t think you should have them as role models. Kids could do better by looking a bit closer to home. Their parents and teachers wouldn’t be a bad place to start. At the same time, sportsmen, like others in the public eye, have a responsibility to behave accordingly and set the right example. You’re not just blokes on the road that nobody knows and nobody’s ever heard about. You are someone that people look up to, whether they should or not, and you need to set an example. http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-article/putrid-pitches-quality-ashes/73602 Once again Mikey calls out biased officiating in cricket

[diga]

One can only hope the over-rates improve as well. I was part of a team that was criticised for being tardy' date=' but in our defence, we had four guys with really long run-ups. There was also no stipulation at the time that you had to bowl 90 overs in a day, and we very rarely, if at all, sold the spectators short. Most Test matches didn’t last the full five days anyway.[b'] England, even with Graeme Swann bowling so many overs, dawdled along at 11.5 or 12 overs an hour. Yet, we’ve heard nothing about anybody being fined or suspended. It seems these regulations and conditions only apply to certain teams. I’m dying for the day when we’ll see a level playing field. I don’t know when that will happen, maybe when my grandchildren grow up. The regulations are in place. It’s a matter of umpires applying them, it’s a matter of umpires dealing with what they have to deal with. You see the same foolishness with all these players leaving the field every five minutes. The regulations and the laws are there, we need umpires to apply them, around the world, and not according to which team or country is playing. http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-article/putrid-pitches-quality-ashes/73602 Once again Mikey calls out biased officiating in cricket

:giggle: Were Aleem Dar & Kumar Dharmasena were guilty of not reporting the slow-overrates in their post match reports?