What a delicious week of cricket has just passed.
The Big Bash has steamed into the play-offs with a mixture of high-class 20-over skills and stunning capitulations under pressure. One fan’s poison is the other’s meat (or vegetarian option), but either way the viewing has been terrific.
The 20-over season has been lengthy, stretching back to the World Cup qualification rounds in Geelong in September, with the final in November giving way almost immediately to the Big Bash, with some modest Test cricket interspersed to slip the clutch down a cog or three.
The steady return of crowds and viewers after the burn-out of the T20 World Cup has been heartening. Cricket remains the king of summer. During the last couple of weeks, Big Bash matches have had the feel of the late-season winter football codes with teams scrapping for play-off spots: every run, wicket and dropped catch affecting the flight schedules as fans follow their side to the finals.
Even the Heat-Thunder ‘Eliminator’ rain-out on Friday night featured its share of drama as the seemingly ever-present Sydney cricket-rain ruined what promised to be a thriller.
David Warner looked to have rediscovered his mojo after some underwhelming outings for the Thunder. Warner’s white-ball slogging form is his only form at the moment, the Boxing Day Test double ton looking the exception that proves the point of his decline.
Steve Smith has been in exceptional form for the Sixers, including back-to-back centuries last week.Credit:Getty
On the other side, Usman Khawaja has been, and was, exceptional. Will the Test selectors open with two left-handers at Nagpur? Maybe it’s time for Peter Handscomb to get back in at No.1 or No.2, as statistics prove the wisdom of a left/right opening combo. As ever, picking players for Test matches on white-ball performances is far from straightforward, but increasingly in the modern schedule – when elite players don’t seem to have time for Sheffield Shield games – there isn’t an alternative. Neither can players regain the ability to concentrate for long spells and stroke-playing discipline when all that is served up for remediation is 120 deliveries per team.
The late release of Australia’s Test players for the Big Bash has been a fillip. Khawaja, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Travis Head and Ashton Agar have made significant contributions to their teams. The frontline Test attack has rested and recuperated and Cameron Green’s finger almost healed, but the understudies have had only four-over spells at most.
The ideal preparation may have been a couple of tough Sheffield Shield matches in the dust and spin, preferably at the SCG battling turn, uneven bounce and reverse swing, but that is old school from a time when the best preparation for a five-day game was a four-day one.
What remains a mystery is the timing of the BBL finals and the Australian team’s departure for India. The team are scheduled to leave on Tuesday, with the Nagpur Test on February 9. You might think that within the corridors of Cricket Australia, the BBL department would have been in conversation with the high-performance people to make sure that a majority of players would be available for the Big Bash final on February 4 – or how about cramming the play-offs into a week and staggering the national team’s departure for India as they complete their BBL commitments?
After dominating Test series against Pakistan and South Africa, Australia now face a real challenge in India.Credit:Getty
Australian touring teams have done this before. One compromise from coach Andrew McDonald was to cancel the spinners’ “familiarisation camp” this weekend, which would have taken Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Agar out of the grand final qualification match between the Sixers and Scorchers.
The England T20 competition has a finals weekend at one venue, with two semis on Saturday followed by the dénouement on Sunday. Granted, it is a train or car trip for UK fans rather than a flight, but it is always a sell-out. It is a stand-alone event for which fans plan well in advance.
Will CA be happier with a profitable BBL finals or a series win in India? At present, they are compromising both. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to a Sixers-Scorchers grand final, which will sell out either of their home grounds, before settling in to watch some compelling subcontinental Test matches.
The WBBL commenced back in early October in North Queensland and was quietly going about its business while the men’s T20 World Cup took centre stage, but the women have given Pakistan a lesson in high-intensity and sustained pressure this week as they head for their own T20 World Cup starting in South Africa on February 11.
For Meg Lanning’s team, their recent series domination may have affirmed the class and depth of the defending champions, but the downside has been the shallowness of Pakistan’s threat. Shelley Nitschke’s coaching remit is straightforward in the skills department: her charges are exceptionally talented; harnessing their competitive fervour throughout the tournament is the challenge, especially at the sharp end when England, India and New Zealand will have mountains of motivation to throw at the Australians.
If that’s not enough for you, then there are four games in Canberra next week when the multinational Fairbreak Women’s XI take on the ACT in a celebration of 100 years of ACT cricket.
