Overreaction Monday | Bad Boy Bouncer and a mandatory Shane Warne header
Overreaction Monday - Dec 21 edition
|SportsCafe
We are back and how! In a week India posted their lowest-ever Test total, you would've expected cricket fans to don their overreaction hat and crucify the team but sadly none of that really happened. Instead, most of our reactions came from the Aussie shore and that's no less ludicrous.
Bouncers should be banned
After a number of concussion cases on the tour already, there were suggestions in the Aussie media that bouncers should be banned from Test cricket and bowlers should find a way to deal with their craft, sans the deadly tactic!
SC Take:Â The reason I started with this instead of many other ridiculous suggestions is that I wanted to be sensitive to a serious topic. The concussion cases this season, especially Will Pucovskiâs 9th Concussion, opened a Pandora's box. Yet many former superstars including Sunil Gavaskar even made some ridiculous suggestions like why a player would be allowed a substitute if they canât play short balls properly. I donât think that we even need to resort in this time and age, but the question raised by the Aussie media needs a clear answer.Â
Firstly, the bouncer has been a legitimate tactic that has helped the sport by more than one angle. It has made the sport interesting but the danger endures. But it is beyond my logic that why the experts, those who are calling for a ban on this fundamental identity of the sport, are not asking the ICC to appoint independent medical professionals to check for concussions and make it a compulsion to abide by it. You see the sport has come a long way to address the issue but if the protocols can be followed, it will become an example for others. Bouncing out the bouncers from the sport is not the solution but finding the right solution is the perfect solution. Cricket can go on the way it has and there will be fewer problems for everyone to deal with.
Cringemaster Warne at it again
Shane Warne has called for ICC to swap the red-ball with the pink-ball for all Test matches and not just for the Day-Night Tests, calling the red-ball âpatheticâ with the exception of the Dukes.
SC Take:Â Has there ever been a week when Shane Warne didnât make a ridiculous statement, to begin with? Over two decades of the following cricket, I canât certainly remember one. After backing Marcus Stoinis for a Test spot for close to three years, he even called for Marcus Harris in the side, of course, because Harris is a Victorian. That aside, I canât really make sense of the latest statement that red-ball should permanently be replaced by a pink-ball.
As a matter of fact, Test cricket has hardly even been in good health as it is now. Last yearâs Ashes was a spectacle as were many closely-fought Test matches this English summer. Whenever India and Australia meet in the middle, you are always in for a close tussle, as is India and South Africa or South Africa and England. Pink Ball surely adds to the spectacle but it has its own demerits, at least from a figurative standpoint, which needs to be chalked out. Virat Kohli had given a fantastic answer to the same last year and it is better for someone like Warne to sit back and enjoy the red-ball magic and not hanker by using too many superlatives.
BBL Protocol breach
After a protocol breach during the Big Bash League game, Chris Lynn and Dan Lawrence were asked to use a different change room and were not allowed in the team dugout. They are also required to maintain distance during on-field celebrations and are not permitted to join the team huddle.
SC Take:Â It is simply a hilarious decision. I mean, I get it bro that what you want to achieve by doing this? But hey, can you not be a little prudent and logical about it? A breach in the protocol is a serious crime, especially the amount of effort it takes to host a cricket match currently, so allowing them to continue in the first place is the biggest problem.Â
But what kind of social distancing sorcery this is? You are either in it or not, there canât be a middle ground like this? Also, by doing so, the Big Bash League has definitely pulled off another rubbish news out of its courted chamber where stunts take centre stage than actual sports. But this particular news was fiercely unbelievable and definitely the biggest drama they have ever done. Because you can't really keep two players out of the game if they are on the field.
Indian raging after Michael Clarkeâs comments for 36 all-out
Just after India were 36/9 and posted their all-time lowest Test total in Adelaide, everyone was scathing in their assessment and didnât miss an opportunity to question the Indian teamâs approach. Former Australia captain Michael Clarke stated that he could barely believe what he just saw, albeit he later added about the time his team was under a worse situation. Indian fans, however, had none of it.
SC Take: Well, if my memory serves right, it was Vernon Philander, running with low-strung energy, and made Newlands dance to his tunes. Cricket was so terrific from a South African perspective that day in 2011. Oh well, just an additional bit of information. The Australian skipper, who goes by the name of Michael Clarke, had just put up a couple of runs while witnessing the side collapsing to 21-9.
It was 2011 and you expect the then skipper to remember everything in great detail. But No, the Indian cricket fans wouldn't do a bit more research. Clarke had clearly stated after the stated that his team was in a similar situation in the past and he thanked Nathan Lyon for helping them cross past 26 - the lowest total ever posted in Test Cricket. If the fans who are blaming Clarke will have the patience to listen to the entire comment, it will be hugely beneficial for their own knowledge.
