Dixie does sport

If a contrived team of unrecognisable players wins their first game outside of their ambiguous geographical heartland, does anyone within their imposed fan catchment notice?

 No doubt about it, the GWS Giants did a great job to chalk up their first AFL win over fellow project team Gold Coast Suns.

The historic victory came at a cost, however, as playing the match in Canberra meant the massive fan base the AFL is attempting to infiltrate did not get the opportunity to associate with ‘their team’ in its finest moment so far.

The AFL has undeniably given the Giants a massive leg-up. Their huge investment in playing and support staff, the underwriting of infrastructure at Homebush Bay and Blacktown and a share in the duopoly on the game’s best talent shows the AFL want to make inroads out west.

Yet the same decision makers dropped a handball by not having the Giants’ stadium ready for their biggest chance to develop and expand their core fan base.

The perimeters and demographics of Greater Western Sydney are shaky to begin with. As a constructed region within a sprawling city, encompassing smaller cities, GWS was always up against it in getting people on board the western express.

Does the Giants win in Canberra do anything to develop their Sydney fan base?

Here comes the broken record. The fact the team is establishing its home ground at Homebush, on the eastern point of their boundary, does nothing to suggest a commitment to the region.

Even if this makes them inaccessible for most of the ‘community’ they claim to represent, not having the new stadium ready for the team’s most winnable game was another step in the wrong direction. Worse than Blacktown, Canberra was effectively no man’s land.

GWS is kicking goals on the field. However the league’s passive approach to giving the key population a chance to see their team reeks of an arrogant belief in their product, almost an ‘if we build it, they will come’ mentality. Gaining a share of the already flooded Sydney sporting marketplace needs more.

Fourth test, day three – Adelaide Oval: Australia (7/604 and 3/50) lead India (272) by 382 runs

I really am trying to like Virat Kholi. The 23 year-old showed his potential and flair with 44 and 75 in the lost cause at the WACA. Here in Adelaide, again coming in after his bowlers didn’t turn up and his vaunted batting partners went missing, he showed a heap of class waving the wand. The man can bat, and showed resolve in fighting against the dominant Australian side and won the day.

Kholi should really be liked by Australians. He talks the talk, fights the fight, and has now backed it up with the stick. That’s the way we like it. If it’s go hard or go home in a series over here, he’s probably the only Indian still wearing creams.

But as much as I admired Kholi’s strokeplay and steel, the hangover of another petulant, childish performance between balls leaves me failing to warm to the guy.

Kholi’s saying that’s his game, and that’s fine. You don’t have to be liked to be respected. Gavaskar, Miandad and Ranatunga are all players that stuck their nose up at bully Australia and lived to tell the tale.

Kholi’s different though. They were giving him a hard time, and he responded after his teammates left him for dead with his maiden Test hundred. You earn respect by taking the blows and fighting back. But Kholi gives it all back with his carry-on amidst the brilliance. He reminds me of a seven year-old who punches someone in the balls and then hides behind the teacher.

He dishes it out but can’t take it. Yesterday’s media conference was disappointing. Like in Sydney where an anonymous fan provoked him into a middle-fingered salute, here his bat-flailing and running to the umpire was because Ben Hilfenhaus said something inappropriate. Man up.

I don’t condone some of the sledging that goes on in cricket, but if Kholi wants to play the game he can’t then pick up his bat and ball when things don’t go his way.

If Kholi wants respect, he has two options; let his bat do the talking, or like Ramnaresh Sarwan and even some old chicken farmer from Zimbabwe, learn some better comebacks.

Australia v India – 4th Test, Adelaide Oval

Preview

Cricket is very much a mental game. One lapse in concentration, one poor decision, and the game can swing. But despite the fragility between their batsmen’s ears, there’s nothing more that signals India’s mental weakness than captain MS Dhoni’s suspension form the Adelaide Test for repeated slow over rates.

It’s a good rule. The expectations are loud and clear. Teams are expected to bowl 15 overs an hour, 30 minutes of overtime is strung on to the end of the day as leeway, and the man who flips the coin is responsible for making sure this stuff happens. If it doesn’t he gets fined. If it doesn’t again within 12 months, like Dhoni here, he is suspended.

With his batsmen in such ordinary touch, maybe Dhoni and his teammates were just trying their hardest to get the match to a fifth (or even fourth) day.

Dhoni can pack his bags and prepare for hit and giggle

But nothing highlights the lack of drive, initiative, spirit and fight from India more than the sluggishness between overs. Pushing through between overs builds pressure, and Dhoni has been hung out to dry by a team of weak pretenders.

He’s not a great captain. I’ve previously criciticsed his retreating tactics and lack of control over the big four. But I share the blame here, even extend it to the batting ‘superstars’ who have compounded their lack of runs with a lack of leadership here.

Dravid, Tendulkar and Sehwag have all captained India in Test cricket, know the rules and as professionals, with other senior players like Khan the cat and Very Very Sluggish, should have shown leadership in the field to prevent Dhoni’s demise.

Out-of-form opener Gautam Gambhir’s comments leading into the fourth Test typified his team’s attitude. Rather than focusing on redemption in Adelaide, Gambhir threw out excuses, going for the ’wait until you play us at home on our decks’ schoolboy stuff that rather than deflecting India’s batting hardhips, demonstrated their mental weakness.

Weak: India needs runs, not excuses Gautam

International cricket is, by definition, international. Man up and cope with different crowds (Kohli, Sharma) and different conditions (batsmen). It’s cold in England, it’s hot in the sub-continent, there are sheep in New Zealand.

I hope India prove me wrong, if not in performance, in effort at Adelaide. At present I think their minds, if they ever arrived, are already on a plane home.

Day Two: India (4/88 & 161) trail Australia (369) by 120 runs

The second day at the WACA showed talk of Australia being back near the top of world cricket is probably premature, but we’re still way ahead of hapless old India.

The difference in Perth has been the form of each side’s game-changing opener and the combination and discipline of the quicks.

David Warner is on par with Michael Clarke as the most important player in the Australian side. In eight Test innings he has played two extraordinary digs of great contrast; his valiant rescue effort in Hobart was as mature as his 180 here was belligerent. He’s world-class, get on board as he’s gong to win a lot more games for Australia when in form.

However, it’s not fair to embrace and encourage the way he plays and then open him up to scrutiny when it doesn’t come off. Skying one to point on 15 and your team ends up rolled for 150 and Warner must be allowed the Jesse Ryder defence*.

Phil Hughes would be the first to know that noone cares how you bat until you stop scoring runs.

Warner played a role very similar to an in-form Virender Sehwag in times past. The game was taken away from India after tea on day one and consolidated on day two. Unlike Sydney, the middle order missed out, making Warner’s contribution pretty much the difference between the two sides. Australia v.2012 and beyond needs individual match-winners, Warner can lead the charge.

Sehwag is Warner gone bad at the moment. His technique relies on balance, and since arriving in Australia it’s like he’s been struck with vertigo. 118 runs from six innings, and like the previously-suffering Ponting and Hussey, he’s relying on a lack of compatriots knocking down the door to retain his place.

While Australia collapsed somewhat to go from 0/214 to 369 all out, the damage had been done. Softer souls than me claimed it was a good fightback. A fightback would get them 200 in front and back in the match. The won a session, Test cricket has 15 of them.

Umesh Yadav is doing it on his own over here. Sharma beats the bat but is 2011-Siddle like in that he is rarely rewarded in the W column. Yadav is young, sharp, tough and clever; the makings of a future star. In contrast Zaheer, the leader of his bowling unit, is ageing, meandering, soft and weak.  Yadav’s balls to rissole Ponting and Siddle in particular were absolute pearlers. He’s the one guy in the team who can hold his head high.

Shaun Marsh and Brad Haddin are the question marks at the moment. Marsh is a strange one. I criticised his selection in Sri Lanka on the back of a streaky first class record and poor average. He showed me up. He’s now feeling his way after a back injury and runs in hit-and-giggle. Test cricket is not the place to find form, and Watson seemed poised to take the Sandgroper’s spot for Adelaide. Marsh needs to recuperate and then dominate Shield. I’ve turned, and think we need him somewhere in the six to win the Ashes next year.

Speaking of form, and Brad Haddin can join his mates Zaheer and Kohli in talking a better game than he’s playing at the moment. Another duck here, and the knives are out. The selectors essentially played their hand making Haddin v-c, he has Adelaide to repay the faith.

Day three is time for Kohli and Dravid to step up. Dravid is timing the ball well and then getting bowled, he’s overdue and I think still has it. Kohli needs to repay the faith. He averages 22 and has 11 Test innings behind him. Petulant kid or brash talent? Man or mouse? His fate is decided today.

What do you think of Australia’s batting at the moment? It’s better than India’s, but what’s the best mix for England and beyond. Where should Watson come back?

Day One: Australia (0/149) trail India (161) by 12 runs

“Stop bitching and start pitching” - Australian advertising guru Ian Elliot

Another day of Test cricket that promised a contest, but delivered a one-sided feast for Australia. The day was bookmarked by a couple of favours that went Australia’s way; they won a favourable toss and Ed Cowan received a wonderful non-DRS reprieve when he gloved a leg-sider late in the day.

In between though, the main factor was another weak, insipid performance from a remarkably overrated Indian team.

Despite the barefoot beer beat-up the day before, the WACA pitch had its good, even bounce, offering assistance to good bowling but true bounce and a quick outfield to reward good batting.

161 was a disgraceful effort from the tourists. Sehwag has lost his balance and can’t be given more chances. As with Australia’s struggles in recent series when Phil Hughes lost touch, Sehwag is putting India on the back foot in his team’s first batting session, and his mates are no longer good enough to recover.

Solid bowling was too easily rewarded. Gambhir and Laxman hung the bat, Dravid and Tendulkar were dismissed off staright, but boundary balls. For me the series was summed up by the dismissal of Kohli.

Kohli joins his teammates as someone whose reputation exceeds his output. He has banter, agression and fight, but gets it all wrong. The finger at the SCG and mouthing-off at Warner on day one didn’t show someone who was standing up to a challenge, rather a soft little twat who starts a fight before his friends inevitably hold him back.

Building solidly and beginning to fight back after Australia took the first session, Kohli punched an ordinary ball and was caught on point. With the long tail the four-pronged pace attack required, it was soft.

I can almost accept being out-of-sorts. Dravid was Test cricket’s highest run-scorer in 2011 but is now about as reliable as a Johnson-Starc warm-up ball. The wall has become a sandcastle.

Laxman is fighting hard. His set-up was all wrong in Sydney where his late look-up at the bowler was cleverly exploited by the Aussies. He’s trying, working, and still knicking.

Tendulkar is another case all together. The master may be the only one standing at the table but he shouldn’t be standing tall. Clarke, Ponting and Hussey more than capitalised when they had their opportunity in Sydney. In a team of misfits, India needs the in-form Tendulkar to carry them across the line. He’s doing half the job.

Then they had their turn to bowl, correct things, have their say on the match. Both Warner and Cowan were excellent. Like an in-form Sehwag, Warner has the game to take a match away from a suffering fielding side in a session. He did that after tea on day one. Cowan bristled along, Sean Penn to Warner’s Bruce Willis. 40 not from 58 balls is hardly the plonk-leaver I often define him as.

But India again offered nothing. I’m going to buy a cat and call him Zaheer. He bats as he bowls, almost saying “I’ll have a crack here and see how I go, if I don’t come off, no bother”. I’d rather have my Mum lead the attack. Sharma and Yadav have ticker but lack the support the young Australian quicks have recently enjoyed.

As for poor old Vinay Kumar, he was essentially thrown to the wolves. Apparently he can bowl, but at 125 km/hr with David Warner in full flight, it wasn’t pretty. Dhoni bringing him back nearing Warner’s ton showed the skipper’s headspace, he was praying for Warner to overplay nearing a milestone; buying rather than trying.

Day two and I expect more of the same. Kohli and Sehwag will have a lot of work to do, fields back as Warner, Cowan and co. aim to cash-in on a drying wicket under a hot sun. One team’s showing enterprise and enthusiasm, one’s showing absolutely nought.

3rd Test Preview

Another four years, another game of pass-the-buck from an underforming Indian team as they head to Perth.

Four years ago, India threw away a 69-run first-innings lead in Sydney, collapsing in the match’s final session to give Australia an extraordinary win. Yes, the umpiring errors didn’t help India’s cause, but it was another example of the prissy little world-beaters, backed by their board of control, crying poor and blaming everyone else rather than looking in the mirror. Despite all of the external errors, India’s weak second-innings lost that game.

An honourable (if failing) umpire was hung out to dry, the suits stepped in and hypocritically condoned Harbajan’s disgraceful behaviour, and India held the game to ransom. The team backed up the boardroom with a win in Perth, but diplomacy was dead.

India have again let a verbal stoush blinker the fact that they have been embarrassingly poor in this series to date. Coming in, Australia were the team under scrutiny; a loss to New Zealand, an ailing old guard and growing physio bill had seen the baggygreen’s ranking and reputation plummet. The aura was gone, cracks were showing: the great Australian cricket team was vulnerable.

Two Tests later and the cynicism has transferred from Melbourne to Mumbai. India are still hungover from their dreadful performance in England, but have again apparted blame at everyone but themselves.

Virat Kohli’s finger-pointing typifies India’s psyche. Touring Australia is not easy, particularly for an underperforming young batsman within an underperforming, star-studded batting line-up. Kohli claims members of the crowd abused his family, this has been disputed. What isn’t disputed is the fact that Kohli’s response was unprofessional, weak and childish.

Virat Kohli's likely reaction to reading this article

If crowd behaviour offends you, ask your skip to move you to another area, report it to the match referee. I’m not supporting verbal abuse. But I would prefer to have seen Kohli in the news for scoring some much-needed runs in the second-innings rather than an immature gesture that shouldn’t have been made.

India surrendered after they couldn’t get an early wicket on day two in Sydney. Field back, defensive bowling, a lack of intensity – what did they expect would happen? Australia’s hungry middle-order made the most of the opportunity.

Brad Haddin’s stoked the fire this week, stating that India ”can be as fragile as any team in the world if things aren’t going their way and they can turn on each other and the media turns on them pretty quick”.

In current form, Haddin may want to lock his glass house, but India’s reaction to the comments again summed up their mentality.

Brad Haddin needs to find his footwork, Zaheer needs to find a heart

Out marched Zaheer Khan, a great front-runner who turns into tin when things go against him, saying Haddin’s keeping “looked really fragile to me”. So there! Take that and your 2-nil series lead, you concrete-footed vice-captain.

It’s now time for India to stand up. With the amount of great players in their side, they lack leadership. Dhoni’s captaincy in Sydney was dreadful, maybe they couldn’t find a helmet for a day and a half and that’s why bat-pad was finally brought in at 4/450.

Dravid and Tendulkar are in reasonable form, Laxman, Sehwag and Gambhir have shown glimpses, and Kholi has a point to prove. Zaheer can back up his words on a suitable pitch in Perth. But talk is cheap, and the series is almost gone. It’s time for India to walk the walk.

Second Test, SCG: Australia defeated India by an innings and 68 runs to take a 2-0 series lead

It’s easy to forget that just two weeks ago we lost to New Zealand. New Zealand!?! Apparently some guy named Donnie Braxwell or something took six wickets, and our batting order contained three guys named old, out-of-form and Phillip Hughes.

Well a lot’s changed since then. After a confidence boosting win in Melbourne, it’s possible to say Australia turned the corner in Sydney.

Michael Clarke was undoubtedly the star, smashing an unbeaten 329 to break India’s hearts before removing Sachin Tendulkar for good measure. He is Australia’s best player and is growing into the captaincy and growing on the Australian public. Runs weigh more than words; it’s not a popularity contest, but if it helps him feel comfortable, good luck to him.

Australia has a history of picking popular captains who are (generally batting) leaders of their team. Clarke has been an indispensable member of the team for years, but was out-of-form when he inherited the big c. It had been 19 innings since a century when he started flipping the coin, and he’s responded in the way the team required, this was his fourth ton in 9 Tests since taking over.

Like an ageing brickie with an ailing back, Ricky Ponting’s eye has left him but his will remains. With 34 innings between hundreds, he no longer warranted a position, but rather was being selected on memories of past masterpieces. But we can’t drop Punter – remember Old Trafford 2005.

I rate this innings right up there with Ponting’s other classics. I’d written him off, and still consider him well past his best, but he was never going to be denied here. It seems Ponting won’t go quietly, heres’s hoping he will contribute a little more regularly as was hoped when he was relieved of the captaincy burden.

Then there’s Mike Hussey. Hussey was Australia’s top batsmen in 2011, and won the series in Sri Lanka by himself. He missed out against the Proteas and Black Caps, and there was a perception he was done and dusted. The pressure was on here, Ponting had consolidated his spot and Hussey was next in the queue to walk the plank.

This wasn’t backs-against-the-wall, chips are down stuff, but a great knock all the same. Hussey proved in Sydney that he still has much to offer.

While the batsmen took the glory here, for me it was the bowlers who set the game up. To dismiss the star-studden Indian batting line-up for 191 after winning the toss was an excellent effort. We were only recently discussing Australia’s inability to take 20 wickets, now that’s a given, we just need batsmen who can score more runs than our opponents.

Pattinson was brilliant, he is quick, imposing and relentless; an ugly fast bowler in a non-Merv way. His injury is his team’s loss but apparently there’s now depth. Ryan Harris off the bench is an unbelievable luxury, but another fall from him could spell his end.

Hilfenhaus has got his mojo back. He took another eight wickets in Sydney, and if his off-cutter to dismiss Dravid was a beauty, the leg-cutter to get rid of Laxman was from another planet.

Siddle is ‘the guy who runs in all day’. Unfortunately that’s his tag and unless Andy Bichel, his toiling predecessor and now selector sees a bit of lovechild in the man from Morwell, he could be the unlucky one when Pattinson and Cummins eventually return. He has done all he can though, his pace is up on last season and he is now able to dismiss top-order players.

In applauding Australia’s efforts, India were absolutely disgraceful here. More on that tomorrow. Australia aren’t completely out of the woods yet though. The top-order is still in doubt, Brad Haddin did the unthinkable and dropped a catch, and Nathan Lyon seems to lack the confidence of his captain.

But the lack of ruthlessness that saw them miss out in their previous series seems back. Australia turned the knife in Sydney, the pace barrage in Perth awaits.