It’s all getting a little silly really.
Firstly, on Thursday, NSW named wunderkind Phillip Hughes and New Zealand swashbuckler Brendan McCullum in its team to play Victoria in the Twenty20 domestic final on Saturday.
On hearing this news, Victorians one and all were outraged that NSW would claim a Kiwi as one of their own. McCullum has become the Russell Crowe/Crowded House of cricket.
Clearly disgusted, Andrew “Roy” Symonds, labelled the move by NSW as “un-Australian” — Sam Kekovich would be proud.
So Melbourne’s Herald Sun splashed the idea this morning that perhaps the Vics could target Adam Gilchrist or Shane Warne to play in the final to counteract McCullum.
But why stop there?
Viv Richards could hit the ball. Sir Garfield Sobers once hit six sixes, he’d go alright. Bring Dean Jones back perhaps?
And what about the poor blokes who will miss out due to McCullum’s inclusion? One of Simon Keen or Ed Cowan will carry the drinks knowing that a Kiwi took his job. Perhaps Symonds is really an economic protectionist after all!
And a potential inclusion of a Warne/Gilchrist/Sobers/Grace would rob a Victorian of his spot in a finals team that he had played in all year.
It’s all a bit like junior cricket. Getting a talented cricketer, who hasn’t played one game, to play finals so you can win while the kid who couldn’t bat nor bowl nor field — a liability really, but a good kid — misses out — destroying his confidence and sense of “fairness in sport” for the rest of his life.
So is it (Twenty20) cricket? Or is that the point?
4 Comments
I think it’s poor form by NSW. A rule should be in place that stipulates that a player must be signed before the start of the tournament much like SA with Tanvir and WA with Gul.
I can understand why NSW are doing it though given that it doesn’t matter who wins the final but a McCullum needs to play at least one game with NSW to be eligible to represent the Blues in the Champion League Twenty/20.
Look I think Cricket or 20/20 Cricket is a very bad joke,I know a lot of people these days don’t have very long attention spans,why not just play baseball I find that more interesting that 20/20 jokes
It is terrible that the rules allow it to happen, and that NSW would want to do it anyway.
I totally disagree with NSW being able to poach players from other countries to play in their Twenty20 side. We have plenty of undiscovered talent in Australia. For example, look at David Warner; had it not been for Twenty20 and state one dayers his talent would not have been discovered. Giving a young player a national/international platform to showcase their talent may be just what they need to kick-start their career. How else will they make their way into the various state teams or Australian team?
Cricket Australia needs to take a big hard look at itself. Surely they must realise that Australian cricket is in a bad state at the moment? Surely they want to discover new talent that will see Australia back where it belongs as the # 1 cricketing nation? The solution is to give as many of Australia’s up and coming players a chance to prove themselves as possible. You always find gold where you least expect it.