MS Dhoni at The Hundred?

The solution to bad umpiring? Hurrah! You reduce the number of DRS reviews to one!

SC Take: Did an umpire put a gun to Hazlewood’s head whilst he was making this statement? By taking power away from the hands of players, you’re empowering the umpires to preposterous levels and if these past 18 months have taught us anything, it’s that the standard of umpiring has gone down the drain. By reducing the number of reviews from 3 (or 2) to 1, you’re not really addressing the inherent problem, which is umpiring. There has been no evidence of late to suggest that the quality of umpiring will skyrocket if the umpires are put under more pressure; hell, there has been no change despite them being relieved of checking front-foot no-balls. You could argue DRS should just be used for howlers if they were a rarity, but gobsmacking umpiring decisions have become the norm. Thus, if anything, reducing the number of reviews will result in a drastic increase of wrong decisions. Also, hmmm, if ‘reducing howlers’ is all he cares about, I wonder why Hazlewood explicitly abused the TV Umpire for a DRS decision a few years ago.  

Anderson to open the bowling at GABBA in the 2021/22 Ashes?

SC Take: Jimmy Anderson is a man of his word and if he says he’s eyeing Ashes 2021, chances are that he will, one hundred percent, make it to the tournament. That said, though, one gets the feeling that he needs to be a tad realistic and needs to start taking the team dynamics into consideration. From an individualistic point of view, yes, Anderson would probably be able to make it to the Ashes next year despite him being 39 by that time. However, do England really ‘need’ his services? Do England really need a 39-year-old veteran who cannot crank up the pace  - and has proved to be unsuccessful in the past Down Under - to be ‘trying his best’ to create an impact during the Ashes?

The way I see, Anderson, by constantly making these claims about eyeing Ashes 2021, is putting the team into a position where they will ‘have’ to pick him - at least in the squad - because of his stature. Anderson’s reputation will make it impossible for him to be judged on merit because the moment you start questioning him - even if the criticism is right- people will get outraged and bring up his historical Test numbers. Perhaps, for the better of the team, Anderson would be better off voluntarily calling time on his career, for his reputation is giving him privilege that he’s unaware of and can never do away with. 

After being away from the international side for 10 years and 259 days, four balls was all it took for Fawad Alam to turn into a running meme. And, as a result, he’s been given a ‘not good enough for international cricket’ certificate by social media experts after one innings.

SC Take: Before getting into the point, could you imagine waiting for 10 years and 259 days and playing 12,742 balls in first-class cricket before finally getting an international recall, only to get out for a four-ball duck? C-R-U-E-L. I, for some reason, had a dreaded feeling Alam was going to get out cheaply the moment he walked to bat and well, I was right - unfortunately. I am, however, low-key appalled looking at the kind of reactions that have been coming in, on the back of Alam’s duck.  The entirety of Facebook and Twitter have already deemed him ‘not good enough’ after one failure - yep, one failure - and, all of a sudden, armchair experts have a problem with his stance which, according to them, makes him a walking wicket.