My Two Cents

Thursday night local time (here in Indiana), England’s international cricket team will attempt to do something only two other English teams have done: win a Test match in Perth.

For my American friends who are new to cricket, this is something akin to trying to take out the Boston Celtics in the old Boston Garden. It just doesn’t happen often-at least, for England.

The pressure is so great for England to win because they have already lost two Test matches in this five-match series. If they lose one more, they will lose the Ashes series to Australia after three straight series wins.

You may very well say, “OK, Terry, everyone hates to lose, but surely winning three in a row, and four out of the last five, is something to be proud of? After all, you keep telling us this is like the Superbowl or World Series for these two countries.”

There is some truth to that. England has done marvelously well over the past few years … better than they had for quite some time. But, you see, this is The Ashes. And making it even more of a bog deal right now is the manner in which England has lost the first two Tests of the series. You see, they haven’t even been close.  There are many reasons for this: England’s batsmen have been in poor form for some time, and their problems all came to a head during this series; Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has had a superb series, bowling as well or better than he has in his career; and Australia’s ramped-up intensity as they are determined to get back to beating England again (previous to their recent woes, Australia regularly bossed the Brits and, in fact, the rest of the cricketing world, and they have been desperate to stop the losing slide).

There have been many critics putting in their two cents’ worth about how England can get back into this series and have a chance to tie or win it. There have been various suggestions to drop some batsmen because they are afraid of fast bowling or unable to play it … and yet many of these same batsmen have dealt with bowling at least as fast and as good as Johnson is displaying. English Batsman Ian Bell has had very little trouble with Johnson because he is A) in form and B) playing as he wants to, and not into how the Australians and their media are trying to goad England into playing. Several of England’s batsmen are having technical difficulties because they seem to be trying to play in a way that isn’t best suited for them. It’s almost as if the pressure of having won three Ashes in a row has them on edge, and more susceptible to crumbling.

So my own two cents worth? Here it is, in five simple bullet points.

1-England must play its boring, slow-grinding game. Don’t play shots or get aggressive. Stand there and duck and weave and defend and frustrate the Australian bowlers. So what if they don’t like it? Um….that’s kind of the point. They complain about it so much because it was working.

2-Bring in Tim Bresnan. Bresnan has been there, done that in Australia, and seems to have a talismanic impact on the England dressing room. He gets wickets when England needs them, and holds down the runs when they need that. He can also bat.

3-Bring in Boyd Rankin. He seems to have something that the Australians don’t like. He has done well against them in ODIs, and would do better than either Finn or Tremlett.

4-Think about dropping spinner Graeme Swann and keeping Ben Stokes. Just think about it. Not saying it’s a shoo-in. Stokes’ batting has been better than Swann’s and Swann has been played well by the Australians. Perth probably won’t do him any favors, although maybe the high heat will help. He is also a big help in the dressing room, and can field, so this one is a 50/50 for me. One thing I would advise against: don't prefer Monty Panesar as spinner here. Monty is actually my favorite cricketer for pure enjoyment, but the prgmatist in me sees he would not do any better than Swann should England pick a spinner, and his fielding would be a detriment (just as it was in Adelaide, where he drop a catch that could have really put Australia under pressure to make a lot fewer runs than they did).

5-Remember, England: Don’t listen to the hype. Mitchell Johnson’s success in Adelaide was mostly against the lower order, which was to be expected. Whoever the bowler is, just play your game.

So there you have it. My ideas. Laugh if you like.

Stress on the Trot, or, I talk about more stuff

Stress-related illness is not a lightning bolt. It is grinding drill. It doesn’t strike suddenly; it works away at you, like storm surf on a weak dam, until something gives way and the waves rush in.

                                                                                  

In the wake of Jonathon Trott’s announcement that he is, in fact, suffering from a stress-related illness, and is leaving the Ashes series in Australia and returning home to England, I have been thinking back to my own scrape with stress.

For me it came to a head at work, at what was actually the end of what had been a long and stressful transition which I had been overseeing. There should have been light at the end of the tunnel; instead there was encroaching darkness. I thought I was having a heart attack; I went to my desk and put my feet up for a while, though, and seemed to be OK. It wasn’t a heart attack. But what was it? A trip to the doctor confirmed a serotonin issue. Which was quickly remedied.

That was years ago. Way behind me. Exercise and diet have helped me move on from it. But for Jonathon Trott, I don’t believe it will be that simple. I imagine it will take him quite a long time and effort to overcome this. But I think he will. Just look at the tenacity with which he fought it off for as long as he did. The scraping of then trench; the fiddling with the gloves; the whole routine, all the while everyone (myself included, sometimes) sniped at him about it.

It would be easy for us all to sit here and say that he should never have come on this Ashes trip. Trott knew he had a problem; by making the trip and failing due in no small part to his illness, he has endangered the team’s Ashes retention hopes. But it really isn’t that simple. Having read George Dobell’s excellent piece on this issue, it seems Trott has suffered setbacks due to this illness in the past, and has always been able to overcome them. Why would he think this time would be different?

It is also easy to blame the Aussies and their irresponsible media for, at least in part, contributing to Trott’s latest episode with stress. They should apologize, the thought may go, because they were being jerks to someone who was suffering from problems about which they didn’t know. But what should Trott have done? Announce publicly before he was suffering from a stress-related illness, and telling the media (and others) to leave him alone? Can you imagine the firestorm of ridicule? The headlines? “England Wuss Begs Aussies to Leave Him Alone.” And while my personal opinion is that much of the media and opposition players are guilty of being jerks and bullies, no apology is needed because Trott’s problem is, in the end, not of their making. Yes, Australia, you’ve nothing to do with Trott’s failures. David Warner’s unprofessional comments were just that. Trott’s flare-up could just as easily have been domestic cricket or the upcoming World Cup that would have brought it all to a head. It just happened to happen right now. The problem isn’t Australia: It is the constant demands of a high pressure expectation to perform at the top level, while one’s every move is held under a microscope, combined with other personal, private matters that may also be affecting Trott.

It was the same with my own stress attack those years ago. While the project I was working on was stressful, it was really the result of the waves of stress crashing against me for quite some time. What I was working on was actually quite helpful to the company, a big money-saver, and was having no negative impact on me at all. But it was going on at the time when those waves finally broke through.

So, to those players and media who are being blamed or feeling responsible for Trott’s problems: Before you start either A) strutting around because you’ve broken one of the “Pommie cheats,” or B) feel horrible and apologize, remember that you were fairly irrelevant. That should come as a relief to Aussie media and some players. But it won’t. In fact, unless I am being grossly unfair, it will likely be taken by some of them as the biggest insult delivered in this entire episode.

I Saw This Coming

Or, I make a poorly reasoned argument on England’s collapse and show how little I really know

Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20. And in making the statement in the above headline, I know I am opening myself up to that declaration from readers. Because I never really told anybody that I could see this coming, so I have no proof that I suspected what was on the horizon.

The “this” I’m talking about is, of course, England’s collapse on day two of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane. And collapse is what it was. Not necessarily a self-induced collapse, but also not necessarily a collapse initiated by superior bowling.

Have I confused you yet?

As quick as Mitchell Johnson might have bowled, and as well as he bowled, he’s no quicker than Dale Steyn or some other international fast bowlers. And Nathan Lyons definitely isn’t any better than any other spinners out there. England have faced similar—perhaps even better—bowling than this.

However, England’s collapse was not necessarily self-induced by panic or fright or lack of preparation, either. Johnson and the other Aussies bowled very well. Give them credit.

So, if the collapse was not initiated by necessarily unstoppable bowling, or by slef-induced panic, what caused it? Aren’t those the only options?

In a word, no.

Let me take a quick break and explain something about myself. I’m not the biggest sports fan in the world. I follow cricket. I have in the past followed baseball. But when I choose to follow someone, it’s usually a bad experience for both sides. The baseball team I have been a fan of since college? The Chicago Cubs. The English domestic team I follow? Surrey. So you see I have a history of following teams with less than stellar results. Because of that, I have many times seen false high hopes dashed by reality. Because of that, I have come to recognize the symptoms of an oncoming disappointment.

My explanation about England’s collapse? Their batting isn’t as good as everyone has always said it is. Sure, they’ve hit high points. Cook, KP, and Bell in particular have scored some big runs. And they are talented. But over the past couple of years many of the England batsmen have been shown to get out to poor shots to less than devastating bowling. Many times. Just not often all at the same time. And that’s what happened here. Plain and simple. They’ve all been passing form issues back and forth, and they have all come together at the same time for a perfect storm of bad batting. Prior has been shocking of late; Root’s too-quick move to open may have done for him as well; Cook has been disappointing and KP … well, you just never know which KP you’re going to get. This time all the bad things that can happen simply did at once.

My contention (and it is only my theory—yours will be different and maybe better than mine), however, is that this is more than bad form. The problems with England’s batting have been masked by the occasional high points, and winning ways that have as much to do with the poor form of opponents as the talent of England. Don’t get me wrong, the England players are talented; I just think we are fooling ourselves if we think they are more talented than anyone else. I see a lot of good batsmen out there everywhere, and a lot of good bowlers shared around, as well.

For me, the question is: How do we move on? Can our talented batsmen rise above the woes, better themselves and become consistent performers? Perhaps day 3 or 4 will tell, or perhaps the next Test. But one thing is certain: England is, in my opinion, probably more talented in the batting department than Australia when everyone is firing on all cylinders. Let’s just hope they will all be firing on all cylinders at the same time.

Aussies Being too Broad-Minded?

In the long stretch of time leading up to this Ashes series—two entire months—it has been apparent that one of Australia’s tactics was to get inside Stuart Broad’s head, and use his now-infamous “not walking” episode from the previous Ashes series as a point of attack. A way to get under his skin. They felt his fiery temper was a weak spot where they could get to him and lessen his effectiveness.

                       

This told me a couple of things. First of all, it said to me that the Australians feared the impact of Stuart Broad as a bowler. Secondly, it told me that they really didn’t think very hard about it.

Had they perhaps thought about it a bit harder, they would have realized that attacking him and calling him a cheat, among other things, would actually serve to, more than anything else, inspire him. I think that sort of thing is meat and drink to a player like Broad, and has inspired many others in the past. Events of day one in Brisbane showed the folly of the tactic; it really backfired. Broad slashed through the Aussie top order, ending up with five wickets on the first day. Of course, there was every possibility this tactic might work. It has in the past. Sledging has long been a part of the Aussie arsenal (and by stating that I am not saying it’s bad). The Aussies just made a couple of mistakes in implementing this strategy. First, they picked the wrong player. Maybe they should have gone after Joe Root or Michael Carberry, as the members of the England side with the least amount of international experience. Second, they assumed that they are still a good enough team to capitalize on it should the tactic work. This Australian team is pretty good, but it is nowhere near the quality of past teams. Even an Australia Ashes victory wouldn’t change that fact.

So for day two, maybe the Aussies should be less fiery and “creative,” and take more of a lead from Brad Haddin, the only batsman who stood tall as the rest of the team fell in ruins.

Ashes to Ashes, or Do I Smell Something Burning?

Well, my American friends, it’s almost Ashes time again! It seems like it’s only been a few months since … oh … wait.

Anyway, for the next few weeks, you are likely to see my blog, Twitter, and Facebook blowing up with news from “The Ashes,” and I realize that when I say “The Ashes” is almost here, you are probably wondering what I’ve been burning. But “The Ashes” has nothing to do with burning. Well, it does, sort of, but …. Well …. Um …. So I guess I ought to take a brief moment to explain “The Ashes” to any Americans (or others) not sure what talk of cricket and Ashes is all about.

                                    

The Ashes is the name of an ongoing cricket series between England and Australia. It is what is called a Test series (that means it is the longest form of the game—five days per match—played between countries that are full top-tier members of the International Cricket Council). The Ashes is like the Superbowl or World Series, except every two years instead of every year, and always between these same two countries.

It all started back in 1882, when a team from Australia defeated England in a cricket for the ever on English soil. A newspaper article took aim at the debacle with an obituary for English cricket, stating that “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” During a return visit by England to Australia in 1882-83, the effort to win was called an attempt to “regain the ashes” of English cricket. During their trip to Australia, the English team was presented with a small urn with what is supposedly the ashes of a burned wooden bail—little pieces that go on top of the stumps (those sticks stuck in the ground behind the batsman).

Traditionally, this series is played every couple of years. So, since the last series wrapped up just about two months ago, then it’s time for the next Ashes series. HAH! Confused again? Well, this quick turnaround is thanks to the crazy scheduling rampant in international cricket.

I personally blame Barack Obama. Thanks, Obama!

If you want to learn more, you can check the Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes