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Speaker 2: Take another pair, We'll get in there.
Speaker 3: It is out, The test is over.
Speaker 4: Couldn't smokes a beauty.
Speaker 3: It is out and hearing guys delivery has in user.
Speaker 5: To Bowl.
Speaker 1: On the Front Foot with Brian Waddell and Jeremy Cody
Speaker 1: powered by news Talk, said B at iHeart Radios.
Speaker 3: On the front foot again this week and talking about
Speaker 3: well let us direct one off with Afghanistan turned into
Speaker 3: a debacle or is it just bad luck? It appears
Speaker 3: a fully prepared ground and a trailer to get any
Speaker 3: played for five days? What is the responsibility? Like Jernka
Speaker 3: overtake England on the World Pitch Championship leather after an
Speaker 3: impressions test win at the Oval, the White Burns to
Speaker 3: the Emirates for the Worldy Coreittee chose a little change
Speaker 3: from the embarrassing encounter with England. What are their chances
Speaker 3: and does the World Test Championship lead a complete up people?
Speaker 3: Jeremy Coney and also Garth Galloway with us on this
Speaker 3: week's program, Jerry, the Test match in Afghanistan, what a
Speaker 3: Fesgo that was we know it rains, but I don't
Speaker 3: know that it was a good time of year to
Speaker 3: have a test, was it?
Speaker 6: Well, I told you last week you knows, and Garth,
Speaker 6: I told you last week.
Speaker 4: Was there was?
Speaker 6: It was just after the monsoon, wasn't it? And they
Speaker 6: had a chance of rain anyway.
Speaker 4: And obviously surprised them.
Speaker 6: But it became the highlight of my day, I've got
Speaker 6: to say, tuning in to see the latest development and
Speaker 6: a whole lot of people trying to get a ground
Speaker 6: ready for play. I mean, I'm just waiting for the
Speaker 6: epilogue now with Jabbagal Shrewn at the match ref. He'll
Speaker 6: consign the great annoyder ground I think to corporate days
Speaker 6: in dog training. I mean, in fact, they're the greater
Speaker 6: noid lack of authority, aren't they? Really?
Speaker 4: They were.
Speaker 6: They were surprised that beneath the grass it was clays
Speaker 6: and and and it was sort of required a complete
Speaker 6: overhaul of their drainage. They were surprised at the monsoon
Speaker 6: ends and they had had a temerity to rain. They
Speaker 6: were embarrassed they didn't have the right covers or now
Speaker 6: enough of them to cover the area. Poor old Ibrahim Zadran.
Speaker 6: He was injured before the game started. Wasn't he sort
Speaker 6: of out of the match before because he was doing
Speaker 6: some fielding training. Look, they had no equipment to deal
Speaker 6: with it, did they, And everybody tells you, but everything
Speaker 6: they left it too late. They got a new groundsman
Speaker 6: finally to arrive with covers, and they got some supersoppers,
Speaker 6: didn't they from the local cricket association, But they didn't
Speaker 6: arrive till after the evening of day two.
Speaker 4: They did try.
Speaker 6: I loved the way they got the electric fans from
Speaker 6: officers around the ground and none of the industrial ones
Speaker 6: were required to dry that ground.
Speaker 4: Up, and they did cut out and repair an area.
Speaker 6: I noticed that what was needed, though, was they had
Speaker 6: needed to cut the whole ground out and.
Speaker 4: Replace it all.
Speaker 6: They got a new band of laborism that was good,
Speaker 6: and then the greater lack of authority in Neider. They
Speaker 6: were now panicking, of course, and mid level management had
Speaker 6: rolled up their trousers to show their hairy legs and
Speaker 6: were encouraging. They'd got they'd been down in their cars
Speaker 6: and they had bought some sort of squeeges, some foam
Speaker 6: pads on special and they'd bought plastic buckets from Miter
Speaker 6: ten and they kind of they were urging them a
Speaker 6: new group to soak, squeeze, and then repeat. This was
Speaker 6: after day one and two, when there was not a
Speaker 6: drop of rain, you know, during the day's play. Some
Speaker 6: had brought rugs from home off the clothesline and they
Speaker 6: were going to soak the water up. Well, that made
Speaker 6: more mude.
Speaker 4: Look.
Speaker 6: John Clees could not have done better on one of
Speaker 6: his corporate videos, could he really not? Really? They had
Speaker 6: no scorers. Did they think Jonathan Trott and Garry Stead
Speaker 6: were going to do that? The journalists to ride and
Speaker 6: raster sit on wet grass in a tent. Six months,
Speaker 6: these joggers had had to prepare for the biggest match
Speaker 6: they had ever staged, and they contacted no one. The
Speaker 6: officials made mistakes. Two test grounds were offered to Afghanistan,
Speaker 6: but they were too far away for the Afghun fans.
Speaker 6: Even the Afghan skipper wanted the game move.
Speaker 4: And the costs. Think of the costs.
Speaker 6: Thirty forty people are TV, all the travel and accommodation,
Speaker 6: the journals, the umpires, the ICs, two teams traveling and
Speaker 6: accommodation come on it's mind boggling. So the ground will
Speaker 6: no doubt be consigned to sort of corporate days. I
Speaker 6: think borrowed gear and a few drinks after a slog.
Speaker 3: There's the sermon according to the Reverend Jeremy Coney on cricket.
Speaker 3: Could you please respond it doesn't rain in Dunedin, where
Speaker 3: you just called home for a long period of your life,
Speaker 3: did you look?
Speaker 2: It's hard to it's very hard to respond to that.
Speaker 2: Deary has completely stolen the show as usual. And I
Speaker 2: you know, I worry about his spring in Peckton if
Speaker 2: that's the highlight of his day waiting, you know, when
Speaker 2: it's been a long winter, hasn't it? Jerry, Oh, there's
Speaker 2: mate bring to negotiate. But what a sham was I
Speaker 2: think it's unfair to say they didn't have any They
Speaker 2: had spades because they dug up pitches and moved them
Speaker 2: into the outfield. Just comic, comedic scenes, really, weren't they.
Speaker 2: And I like the fact you've touched on Dunedin because
Speaker 2: of the of the eight test matches Wadds, as you
Speaker 2: well know, the eight that have been abandoned, two of
Speaker 2: them were in my precious to needed one in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty nine, and that was the game against Pakistan. John
Speaker 2: Wright was captain of the New Zealand side and they,
Speaker 2: I mean it just rained and rained and rained in
Speaker 2: Dunedin and they played on the last game, they agreed
Speaker 2: to play a fifty over match. And exactly the same
Speaker 2: thing happened nine years later when we were all in
Speaker 2: the commentary team commentating nothing until they agreed one.
Speaker 4: Of our better shows, one of our better ones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Peter Sharp was with us rip Peter. It
Speaker 2: was a good show. And of course Stephen boch On
Speaker 2: comments with you, Jerry, and that was that was the
Speaker 2: game against India.
Speaker 7: And I see just reading an article on precond for
Speaker 7: the Day that.
Speaker 2: Steve Dunn was involved in both of those matches the umpire.
Speaker 2: I was involved in both two because I was the
Speaker 2: assistant groundsman in eighteen nine and.
Speaker 7: The commentator in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 6: Oh, you've moved up significantly in the world. That's great,
Speaker 6: well done.
Speaker 3: Well, you used to grab anybody in those days, you know,
Speaker 3: grab the groundsman, bring him up there, put a mike
Speaker 3: around his neck.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean the first abandoned one was was eighteen
Speaker 2: ninety which is.
Speaker 7: And it was w G.
Speaker 4: I remember it, you do?
Speaker 5: You do?
Speaker 2: You were there w G. Grace's side, you know. And
Speaker 2: in that series England won the series two. Now that
Speaker 2: was the third Test, but they played thirty four first
Speaker 2: class matches on that tour the Australians in England.
Speaker 7: Thirty four first class matches.
Speaker 3: Well, that's what New Zealand used to do when they
Speaker 3: went by ship, didn't they In forty nine they went
Speaker 3: by boat and they were away for about eight months
Speaker 3: and they had the hard yards and then played pretty
Speaker 3: well as well. But it's interesting though it's only happened
Speaker 3: eight times, and how many Test matches? We had about
Speaker 3: two and a half thousand Test matches, So cricket's done
Speaker 3: it pretty well. I mean there have been other games
Speaker 3: that have been abandoned for other reasons. I was in
Speaker 3: that Test match or at that Test match in Durban
Speaker 3: when the game between New Zealand and South Africa was
Speaker 3: called off pitch and ground that were just unfit for play.
Speaker 3: They called off a test that never really got started
Speaker 3: because we had to get out of Pakistan in a
Speaker 3: big hurry back in two thousand and two when the
Speaker 3: bomb went off before we went down to Karachi so
Speaker 3: I don't know whether that can be regarded as one
Speaker 3: that's been abandoned, but it happens. But it's not a
Speaker 3: good look for cricket to try and feed these Test
Speaker 3: matches into a window where there's a monsoon. But they'll
Speaker 3: play the IPL and all these T twenty events at
Speaker 3: World during the best conditions. They never get washed out
Speaker 3: to any great degree. May reign in places, but you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's not a good look for cricketers who say
Speaker 3: it's the pure form of the game and we love
Speaker 3: it the most. But you sit there for five days,
Speaker 3: you could have played five T twenty tournaments in that time.
Speaker 7: Couldn't it. It's not a good look.
Speaker 2: And I think you know, from New Zealand's point of view,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about the World Test Championship,
Speaker 2: I guess the real concern from their point of view
Speaker 2: is they've had five days without any training and so on,
Speaker 2: and now they head to two tough tests against Sri
Speaker 2: Lanka in Sri Lanka with no preparation. So you know,
Speaker 2: it really has worked against them as they head into
Speaker 2: those two World Test Championship matches.
Speaker 7: Couldn't be worse.
Speaker 3: And before we move on to other things. Let's just
Speaker 3: hear from the two coaches. Not surprisingly, Jonathan Trott and
Speaker 3: Gary Stead both read from the diplomatic song sheet at
Speaker 3: the postmatch press conference. When asked their views of the
Speaker 3: washout situation, especially in the first two days produced fine
Speaker 3: sunny weather but unplayable ground surface.
Speaker 5: Well, personally, I was disappointed. We were very excited to.
Speaker 9: Play against the scene and and and sort of put
Speaker 9: ourselves up against the challenge of that.
Speaker 5: The players have worked really hard.
Speaker 9: We've been here and had warm up games and the
Speaker 9: matches and got ourselves accustomed to the conditions and weather
Speaker 9: which is you know, very very unique here, so we
Speaker 9: were excited.
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, the weather's you know, played its.
Speaker 9: Part, and you know it's made it to feel for
Speaker 9: us to get a game, and I think it's it's
Speaker 9: the case of the time of year and to try
Speaker 9: and play tests much this time of year is always tricky.
Speaker 9: So yeah, at the facilities, obviously disappointed that we haven't
Speaker 9: been able to play and and and the way that
Speaker 9: the amount of water that's come down, it's it's unprecedented
Speaker 9: obviously for this time of year or the last sort
Speaker 9: of three days, but it would have been nice to
Speaker 9: play some cricket.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 8: It's frustrating for us, I mean, and it was our
Speaker 8: first Test match against Afghanistan and we were really excited
Speaker 8: about that as well. They've been great competitors of ours
Speaker 8: over the last few World Cups as well, and we've
Speaker 8: had some great games of cricket for us. We have
Speaker 8: the World Test Championship. It's just around the corner in
Speaker 8: Tri Lanka as well, so the preparation towards that would
Speaker 8: have been would have been really useful for us as well.
Speaker 3: The match timing and venue should not prevent both sides
Speaker 3: meeting again in a Test if the conditions are better.
Speaker 8: I'd like that to happen. I don't make the decisions
Speaker 8: around the future tours program and who tours, but I
Speaker 8: said it right from the start of coming here at
Speaker 8: Afghanistan have not just about every top team in the
Speaker 8: world over now, so they're certainly a force and becoming
Speaker 8: more and more of a force in world cricket. So
Speaker 8: I guess that's something for the Afghanistan and New Zealand
Speaker 8: boards to get their heads around.
Speaker 9: I think if you if you have one fixed venue,
Speaker 9: then you can sort of iron out the sort of
Speaker 9: issues that they would arise. I think that's always nice,
Speaker 9: but I think this is maybe a result of not
Speaker 9: having not played a lot of test cricket in the
Speaker 9: past and still trying to find sort of a venue
Speaker 9: that we can use consistently, so that would be nice.
Speaker 9: All I know is the players have worked really hard
Speaker 9: and this has been something we've had on the FTP
Speaker 9: for a while and and really looking forward to. The
Speaker 9: real sad thing is I think it was going to
Speaker 9: be a really good pitch and it would have been
Speaker 9: a good contest, which is a disappointing thing. And so
Speaker 9: that's the most disheartening thing I suppose from all of
Speaker 9: us is it would have been I think a good game,
Speaker 9: whether we won or lost. I think a the players
Speaker 9: would have learnt out of a lot in this format
Speaker 9: of the game, which is the challenge going.
Speaker 5: Forward in Red Bull cricket for if Ghalistan.
Speaker 9: But it's it's the occasion as well, the historic moment
Speaker 9: of playing against your seeded for the players that would
Speaker 9: have been very proud of that, and that's also very disappointing.
Speaker 8: This was the first of tests in Asia for US,
Speaker 8: three more in India and two in tri Lannka as well.
Speaker 8: So that's the most disappointing part for us is that
Speaker 8: we've lost that I guess ability to be match hardened
Speaker 8: and match ready when we go into our Test match
Speaker 8: next week. But look, the guys are really disappointed. It
Speaker 8: was an opportunity to play Afghanistan. It doesn't come around
Speaker 8: that often and they have some unique sort of bowlers
Speaker 8: in that as well. That's always good to get your
Speaker 8: head around how you face them, and I guess the
Speaker 8: way they play is a little bit different to other countries.
Speaker 8: So it's always learning and what you can do whenever
Speaker 8: you get those match situations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's the life of international cricketers. I mean,
Speaker 3: when you reflect on how much it cost to get
Speaker 3: the New Zealand team, therefore no cricket, you know, you're
Speaker 3: talking over two hundred thousand air flights pretty much. It's
Speaker 3: not a cheap place to go. Never mind, we will
Speaker 3: see New Zealand hopefully. I haven't seen whether it's going
Speaker 3: to be on television or not. The Test series against
Speaker 3: Sri Lanka and they came out of that Test series
Speaker 3: against England pretty strong. Jerry. That was a good performance
Speaker 3: to win that third Test match for the two one
Speaker 3: loss on the series.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6: It was a heavy defeat for England really by eight wickets,
Speaker 6: especially after day one wasn't it was two hundred and
Speaker 6: ten or something like that. For three they were put
Speaker 6: in again England in dark kind of conditions, gray overhead
Speaker 6: and that sort of stuff. So it was a good
Speaker 6: chance to bowl for the Sri Lankan bowlers. Didn't bowl well,
Speaker 6: did they, but look hope got some runs.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 6: It does feel at times to me the English players
Speaker 6: when they're out of form, which is inevitable in the game,
Speaker 6: that the default setting is kind of to hit their
Speaker 6: way back into form instead of the usual let's be
Speaker 6: a bit more organized, show a bit of judgment, buildjic
Speaker 6: innings carefully in order to spend a bit more time
Speaker 6: at the crease and choose the shots on the day.
Speaker 6: But they charged down the pitch and attack the new ball.
Speaker 6: I mean, heavens above, what can go wrong? Yeah, So
Speaker 6: their top order, their top three, probably the most frail
Speaker 6: I think in their batting lineup. When New Zealand come
Speaker 6: to play them, I'm not saying they're not dangerous, but
Speaker 6: you've got a chance of getting them out the strong
Speaker 6: part of the English side, say root Brook Stokes, Smith
Speaker 6: is the middle is the middle and Routers obviously the glue.
Speaker 4: But no Sri Lanka.
Speaker 6: Sri Lanka fought hard. They were bowled out and that
Speaker 6: they had what a deficit of about sixty was it
Speaker 6: something like that, and then they bowled England out in
Speaker 6: England tried to everything into the Thames and so they
Speaker 6: were bold out in thirty odd overs and then you know,
Speaker 6: well done Sri Lanka.
Speaker 4: To carry on.
Speaker 6: Sri Lanka have got good betting ones, haven't they. They
Speaker 6: just didn't quite show it throughout that series.
Speaker 5: Well, they're not a.
Speaker 3: Great touring side as such. Other they don't seem to
Speaker 3: play to the conditions. But you know they've got players
Speaker 3: like Carusseil, Menders, Matthews, Chandermal and this guy Comindu Mendus,
Speaker 3: you know, is averaging nearly eighty in test matches at home.
Speaker 3: They're going to be really tough for the New Zealander's gap,
Speaker 3: haven't they. I mean, Joe Root was I don't know
Speaker 3: whether he was paying them a component or not when
Speaker 3: he said whole play can't be number one every week
Speaker 3: sort of trying to put a good picture on things.
Speaker 3: It was an interesting thing for him to.
Speaker 2: Say, Yeah, I think this is the thing with England,
Speaker 2: isn't it. And I do think they have changed the
Speaker 2: way they play their game a little bit. You know,
Speaker 2: when McCullum took over and they were going at times
Speaker 2: at five or six runs and over or even more
Speaker 2: and the spars ball phrase got thrown about. It was
Speaker 2: just kind of crazy attack. And they do seem to
Speaker 2: have modified that in some ways. And if you look
Speaker 2: at their run rates, I mean they were at four
Speaker 2: point five and that second innings when they were bowled
Speaker 2: out for one hundred and fifty six.
Speaker 7: But they have changed.
Speaker 2: But you see Michael Vaughan saying that, you know, they
Speaker 2: disrespected Test cricket and the way they played them and
Speaker 2: it reminded me a little bit of the Second Test
Speaker 2: at the Base in Reserve a couple of seasons ago,
Speaker 2: you know, where England enforced the follow on New Zealand
Speaker 2: got ahead of them and then Wagner picked up four
Speaker 2: wickets and the second innings and England tried to be
Speaker 2: really muscular, you know, he was bowling short bounces and really,
Speaker 2: if they batted properly in that game, they should have
Speaker 2: won that Test, so it's a I think it's it
Speaker 2: is a concern for them when you see it. I mean,
Speaker 2: I suppose if you ask yourself, would Australia have lost
Speaker 2: that Test if they were tuning up against the side
Speaker 2: like Sri Lanka, I think the answer is no.
Speaker 7: So you know, England are going to.
Speaker 2: Entertain, They're going to be great to watch, but I
Speaker 2: think the way they play, they will trip up from
Speaker 2: time to time and I suppose that crats opportunities for
Speaker 2: New Zealand.
Speaker 7: But again a significant loss for eng them because in
Speaker 7: terms of the World Test Championship, it meant that Sri
Speaker 7: Lanka were able to jump ahead again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was the interesting thing Jerry about what Michael
Speaker 3: Vaughan said came in the middle of that Test match
Speaker 3: when they got almost arrogant, didn't they And he said,
Speaker 3: don't take the mickey out of the game. They played
Speaker 3: like it was almost the end of term cricket. Would
Speaker 3: they play like that against India and Australia. I don't
Speaker 3: think they would. It was it was a bizarre thing
Speaker 3: to do, the way they battered and fielded in the
Speaker 3: middle of that Test match.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6: Yeah, if you're not ruthless and the game, I'm afraid,
Speaker 6: you know, it does turn around and bite you, and
Speaker 6: you can maybe be made to look a bit silly,
Speaker 6: a bit, and they did look slap dash, and I
Speaker 6: think he was probably right there. And look, if you
Speaker 6: hand the game to the opposition who have had two
Speaker 6: losses as Sri Lanka had, they're more than willing to
Speaker 6: grab it, aren't they. Harry Brooke interesting really, I don't
Speaker 6: know whether you saw how he looked so visibly frustrated
Speaker 6: when Sri Lanka and the first and thing's bowled a
Speaker 6: little bit wide to him outside off and he went
Speaker 6: out of his crease and he waved his arms about
Speaker 6: and you know, set himself up as if he was
Speaker 6: betting on about.
Speaker 4: Eight stump and so on.
Speaker 6: Other teams will take notice of that, you know, just
Speaker 6: let the ball go past seem pretty simple to me.
Speaker 4: And he seemed to take the view how unfair.
Speaker 6: You know you're supposed to bowl straight at me so
Speaker 6: I can smash you. So you know, it kind of
Speaker 6: didn't work and England will learn from it. Don't worry
Speaker 6: about that. Generally you learn more from your defeats, don't you,
Speaker 6: And your personal failures. Yeah, I agree with Garth that
Speaker 6: they have modified themselves a wee bit, that they will
Speaker 6: adjust their game a little bit, but here they didn't
Speaker 6: and so it's been possibly for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they took the team to go to Pakistan now
Speaker 3: and that has got a spinning component, not surprisingly, but
Speaker 3: of course you've still going to have seamans in Pakistan
Speaker 3: and then they'll be bringing your team out here and
Speaker 3: it'll be interesting to know how New Zealand will fare
Speaker 3: against them. Bearing in mind, you know, I say it again,
Speaker 3: that's that tough series. Firstly Sri Lanka, they come home
Speaker 3: for a bit of a breather and then off to
Speaker 3: India again to play the three test matches in good
Speaker 3: venues too. What they've got Poona, they've got Alonkadi and
Speaker 3: I think Bangalore, so they're playing in pretty good test
Speaker 3: met venues and we'll watch that with a.
Speaker 4: Lot of interest.
Speaker 3: I don't know how much interest we'll be watching the
Speaker 3: White fans in Australia and at the T twenty World
Speaker 3: Cup they've picked aside, which is pretty much the same
Speaker 3: that went to England and got thrashed. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of pressure on women's cricket at the moment. I've got
Speaker 3: to congratulate them on sending an under nineteen team to Australia,
Speaker 3: which is good for the development of our future players.
Speaker 3: But there's a lot of work to be done in
Speaker 3: women's cricket and that is at the grassroots level here
Speaker 3: in New Zealand. Doesn't it to develop players who can
Speaker 3: emerge and become international players. They seem to pick young people,
Speaker 3: they don't perform, but they still get picked to go
Speaker 3: away on trips. There's got to be some work done
Speaker 3: at the lawer level, doesn't he go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I've watched a lot of women's cricket wide.
Speaker 2: I think it's a great product done well, watching Australia,
Speaker 2: England and in India, now South Africa, even Pakistan when
Speaker 2: they came out here. We broadcast a game here in
Speaker 2: christ Church where they were very competitive against New Zealand.
Speaker 2: Sri Lanka starting to emerge, you know New Zealand have
Speaker 2: been I mean, I watched a lot of the domestic
Speaker 2: competition and I feel I have to put myself through
Speaker 2: that so that I can comment on it with a
Speaker 2: degree of knowledge that the reality is that the domestic
Speaker 2: competition is weak. Sophie Devine has commented on that, and
Speaker 2: I think it's a fair comment that she makes that,
Speaker 2: you know, for New Zealand to be competitive in international cricket,
Speaker 2: that the domestic competition is not lending itself to that.
Speaker 7: But I think, you know, I'm afraid this.
Speaker 2: Group of players, and particularly the senior players, over a
Speaker 2: long period of time, have have really struggled to be successful.
Speaker 2: You know, their results at the tournaments have been poor.
Speaker 2: They are just chambolic in England and that losing eight
Speaker 2: games in a row over there on that tour, I
Speaker 2: don't think, you know, when I look at the leadership
Speaker 2: and the team around Divine Baits and Mealy Kerr to
Speaker 2: a lesser extent, you know, these you know, there are
Speaker 2: some very good individuals, but you know, I just look
Speaker 2: at the culture of the side. What happens the way
Speaker 2: that they lose. It happens in the domestic game a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, if they're poor at chasing and sides fall
Speaker 2: apart when they're under pressure. And when you look at
Speaker 2: players like like Georgia Plummer who's now played quite a
Speaker 2: lot of international cricket and really just continues to deliver
Speaker 2: poor performances the same around you know, Maddy Green who
Speaker 2: improved recently but seems to have gone back into into
Speaker 2: sort of into mediocrity really. And then you look at
Speaker 2: players like they brought back Casperrick, who I think is
Speaker 2: a really good off spinner from from Wellington, wasn't packed
Speaker 2: in the World Hup squad when they played over here,
Speaker 2: So you know, there's a lot there's a lot of
Speaker 2: experience in some of the older players. But I'm afraid
Speaker 2: they're a very poor side and culturally I question it.
Speaker 2: The younger players continue to get packed they did, they
Speaker 2: don't deliver and I think they need also a lot
Speaker 2: more from the senior players.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's the important thing. The likes of Baits,
Speaker 3: Divine et cetera. Have got to deliver more, don't they,
Speaker 3: durm do that are the ones that hold the side together,
Speaker 3: and they've got to be consistently better. They're good players,
Speaker 3: but they're not consistent, are they.
Speaker 6: Yeah, But you can't ask them to keep doing it
Speaker 6: time after time after time after time, and and that's
Speaker 6: the issue really as well. I mean, clearly it's a
Speaker 6: very predictable team. You've said that it underlines the lack
Speaker 6: of choice of replacements for to work quick, so that
Speaker 6: comes back to the ground level of the game. But
Speaker 6: Maddie green Brook, Holiday just kerve, Molly Penn, Hannah Road.
Speaker 6: I mean there are just lots of as Garth has
Speaker 6: just been saying, lots of people who have played a
Speaker 6: lot are not performing now they've got no one to.
Speaker 4: Replace them with. That's the issue.
Speaker 6: So they keep getting picked and we all know they've
Speaker 6: got a very slim chance of getting through.
Speaker 4: They've got Australia and India in their group and.
Speaker 6: Only two go through from each group and that's and
Speaker 6: so look, we've talked about this ad nauseum, haven't we.
Speaker 6: We've got to start at the lower level and work
Speaker 6: our way up again until more people are coming through
Speaker 6: from the from the first class and from club level
Speaker 6: and so on.
Speaker 4: It's very simple.
Speaker 3: Well, let's hope they've got that under nineteen side prepared.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're not going to come through in a
Speaker 3: hurry as under nineteen players, but they're getting the opportunities
Speaker 3: and that is going to be important for the women's
Speaker 3: game over the next few years.
Speaker 1: Brian Waddell Jeremy Cooney on the front foot.
Speaker 3: If you want to have a view of anything on
Speaker 3: the program, on the front foot send us an email
Speaker 3: on the front Foot twenty at gmail dot com. That's
Speaker 3: exactly what Christian did, and I'm not sure where Christian's from,
Speaker 3: but it was an interesting one because it poses a
Speaker 3: few points that we've been talking about the World Test
Speaker 3: Championship and he suggests that he would like to see
Speaker 3: the Test Championship and the style similar to the America's Cup.
Speaker 3: The idea would be that the holder of the trophy
Speaker 3: defend it against the challenger, and Test cricket over three
Speaker 3: years is used to find that challenger. Under the model,
Speaker 3: result against the champion wouldn't count towards the table during
Speaker 3: that three year period, allowing the remaining six sides to
Speaker 3: play home or away over the three years. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure I totally agree with the holder being given a
Speaker 3: free pass through. I'd like to see them all play,
Speaker 3: but you know, let's have a look at the idea
Speaker 3: of the World Test Championship. What do you think, Gath,
Speaker 3: what did you think of Christian's idea?
Speaker 7: Interesting?
Speaker 2: I suppose like you, what's the first thing that occurs
Speaker 2: to me is the free pass for the holder over
Speaker 2: a period of time. I think that makes it less interesting, really,
Speaker 2: and you know science will change and fluctuate, so you
Speaker 2: know that that three year pass that they get seems
Speaker 2: to me to be pretty unattractive. But I like the
Speaker 2: I like the way that Christian's thinking about it and
Speaker 2: proposing new things. What I struggle with is, you know,
Speaker 2: the World Test Championship seems like a real curiosity when
Speaker 2: you look at the table and you think it's all
Speaker 2: about win percentages. England have played sixteen games in it,
Speaker 2: New Zealand have played six, as a Bangladesh Africa. You know,
Speaker 2: it's a bizarre competition where there are uneven numbers of matches,
Speaker 2: there seems to be a lot of inconsistency around who
Speaker 2: the opposition is and it's all done on a win ratio,
Speaker 2: so it doesn't feel it's a bit like trying to
Speaker 2: follow the you know, the NPC and rugby and work
Speaker 2: out who's you know, who's on top and way.
Speaker 7: It doesn't feel like the right format for me at
Speaker 7: the moment.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, there are a couple of major points. I
Speaker 6: think the America's Cup thing three years to find a challenger.
Speaker 6: To me, I just think the holder plays those games
Speaker 6: matches as far as the points are concerned, don't count.
Speaker 4: I don't like that part.
Speaker 6: You know, that means you played basically Christian seems to
Speaker 6: have what how many sides?
Speaker 5: Seven?
Speaker 4: He's got six teams.
Speaker 6: So he's actually for a start throwing out Bangladesh who
Speaker 6: are currently fourced and he he's also throwing out Pakistan,
Speaker 6: quite a senior side not playing very well at the moment.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure, but so he would have in his case,
Speaker 6: the winner of last year going through and playing basically
Speaker 6: twelve series.
Speaker 4: You know, So.
Speaker 6: He's got a seventeen competition, hasn't he? Currently we've got
Speaker 6: nine in their iteration at the moment. So his seven
Speaker 6: series you play, you know, base six other sides you've
Speaker 6: played twelve tests as a minimum, two test series that
Speaker 6: don't matter at all towards the final. I don't think
Speaker 6: we can do that. We're already complaining about teams not
Speaker 6: playing enough against each other and quite often, you know,
Speaker 6: we've got sides. If it was the current one, you'd
Speaker 6: have eight series that didn't count because of the winner
Speaker 6: and you're playing against them. And if you actually, I
Speaker 6: think of New Zealand beat the current holder, you know,
Speaker 6: which is Australia, isn't it that would matter quite a lot, frankly,
Speaker 6: and we'll claim those points, you know, most of all
Speaker 6: by beating the top dog. I don't know. I just
Speaker 6: think six and the T six in a series, as
Speaker 6: he says, that's fourteen percent of the tests that don't
Speaker 6: matter because of the winner not counting their games at all.
Speaker 6: And if it's nine, as we've got at the moment,
Speaker 6: that's eleven percent of the tests mean absolutely nothing. And
Speaker 6: it's a big chunk of tests to be meaningless, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Teams already they could play anybody really in those games,
Speaker 6: couldn't they. They bring in all the new boys to
Speaker 6: play against the top team. It sort of undermines the
Speaker 6: games a wee bit. And we're already complaining about, you know,
Speaker 6: how long tests take. I mean, I don't know about you.
Speaker 6: All sides playing each other is quite a nice concept
Speaker 6: from Christian I think. But I'm going to ask you guys,
Speaker 6: do you it's three years too long to sustain interest
Speaker 6: at a time when people are complaining about the ODI
Speaker 6: and the T twenty World Cup being too long.
Speaker 3: The amount of time they commit to test matches. Probably
Speaker 3: you need three years because you don't get enough chance.
Speaker 4: But who's going to follow. People still going to talk
Speaker 4: what about it?
Speaker 6: In some countries, what about all the fans if you
Speaker 6: only have six teams or seven sides, sorry, if you
Speaker 6: only have seventeens, what about all the fans that are missing?
Speaker 6: All their fans are out of the Test competition.
Speaker 7: Is not an issue, you know.
Speaker 2: I think that that people are starting to look at
Speaker 2: the format of it because and how it could change.
Speaker 2: Because when you look at what's happening in this twenty
Speaker 2: three to twenty five World Test Championship, India are going
Speaker 2: to play nineteen games in it, England are playing twenty two,
Speaker 2: Bangladesh played ten, Sri Lanka play eleven, New Zealand play fourteen.
Speaker 2: I mean, it is just bizarre. Australia play seventeen, so
Speaker 2: they're all inconsistent. Bangladesh, you know, in their ten matches,
Speaker 2: they don't get to play against Australia, they don't play
Speaker 2: against England, and they don't play against Pakistan. And you
Speaker 2: just think, you know, it doesn't feel like a World
Speaker 2: Test Championship.
Speaker 7: It's just a shamozzle.
Speaker 6: It's not a World Test Championship. We've known that as
Speaker 6: soon as you say all sides don't play each other,
Speaker 6: it's not a league. And that means that some sides,
Speaker 6: as New Zealand did when they won it, enjoy easier
Speaker 6: draws than other people. And that's what I think you're
Speaker 6: saying there, Gath. They try and bring in this percentage
Speaker 6: thing to cover the different number of games that teams play,
Speaker 6: but that doesn't address the unicola about the more you play,
Speaker 6: the better you get at that format. So that's not
Speaker 6: fair really either. But the issue then becomes if every
Speaker 6: side plays each other, which we'd all I think agree
Speaker 6: a I've got to ask you, do you need a
Speaker 6: final or do we just take the guy in charge
Speaker 6: who's right at the top, and that's a league and
Speaker 6: you don't have a final, it's just whoever's at the top.
Speaker 6: You've played everybody, the winner's the guy at the top
Speaker 6: at the end of it. Or do you play for
Speaker 6: longer your sudden your cycle of playing moves out from
Speaker 6: two years to three years at least, And therein lies
Speaker 6: I think a problem. And if you shorten it, which
Speaker 6: is what Christian is saying, instead of having nine teams
Speaker 6: in it, and let's have only seven, then is it
Speaker 6: a World Test Championship? So it doesn't feel like it,
Speaker 6: and I would personally. I mean, at the moment he's
Speaker 6: suggesting that one team. I like the promotion relegation aspect
Speaker 6: he was suggesting. I think that's a good idea. But
Speaker 6: at the moment, only three sides are out of this
Speaker 6: competition Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan, and presumably they would be playing
Speaker 6: each other and they would have been joined by to
Speaker 6: others in his case, Bangladesh and Pakistan, so you'd have
Speaker 6: another little competition going on to see who's going to
Speaker 6: be at the top of that. The problem is about
Speaker 6: those lower sides. They haven't got the cash, nor have
Speaker 6: we really and that's why we're getting different numbers of games.
Speaker 6: Only the wealthy ones can afford to have people for
Speaker 6: that length of time in their country. Those lower teams
Speaker 6: can't afford to hold test series at home.
Speaker 4: It's better that they travel away.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's one of those situations that there's a lot
Speaker 3: of comment about what should be done, and I think
Speaker 3: it's fair that what exists at the moment is not
Speaker 3: the ultimate but the ICC. All they seem to worry
Speaker 3: about is making sure they've got a final at some venue.
Speaker 3: It happens to be lord's big crowd, big television, the audience,
Speaker 3: big money that comes in without really thinking about what
Speaker 3: the competition is offering to those fans who go along
Speaker 3: and pay the money.
Speaker 6: Well, part of the problem is that the ICC are
Speaker 6: part of the problem. They have World Cups every year.
Speaker 6: Now every year they are taking an already hugely busy
Speaker 6: schedule and making it worse.
Speaker 3: Yep, and that's the way the ICC thinks, I guess
Speaker 3: coming out of India. The new chairman is another Indian
Speaker 3: added to the leadership of the group. So it'll take
Speaker 3: some time to get the ultimates outcome for the Test
Speaker 3: Match Championship, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Speaker 3: Chris down Thank you very much for your email and
Speaker 3: if you good one like to comment or have an
Speaker 3: idea to offer, then do so on the front foot
Speaker 3: twenty to zero at gmail dot com.
Speaker 7: Nothing to add, No, No, that's been a good discussion.
Speaker 2: I just look at it, you know, this table that
Speaker 2: I've been looking at, and the competition's just bizarre, isn't it.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, as far as New Zealand to concern wads, if
Speaker 6: they are going to make this you know final, I'm
Speaker 6: afraid it doesn't look great, does it?
Speaker 4: No, they really need to win.
Speaker 6: They've got I don't know how many points, I can't remember,
Speaker 6: but they need five wins. I sort of sat down
Speaker 6: and tried to work it out five wins and two
Speaker 6: draws or six wins from the remaining.
Speaker 4: Eight games.
Speaker 6: So realistically, in you'd need to get two draws okay,
Speaker 6: and a loss. Maybe that's the best they could hope
Speaker 6: for out there, there's their two draws. Sri Lanka you'd
Speaker 6: have to have two wins. That's going to be very difficult.
Speaker 6: And England you're going to have to have three wins,
Speaker 6: very difficult. So you know, if they get through that,
Speaker 6: that's a fantastic performance.
Speaker 3: Indeed, Yes, well, things to ponder for the New Ziaders.
Speaker 3: They're fifty percent at the moment in third place, but
Speaker 3: it's going to be hard to stay there. That brings
Speaker 3: to an end another edition on the front foot. I'm
Speaker 3: just going to go away, Gath and try and ponder
Speaker 3: whether I can get a five day washout test to
Speaker 3: keep Jerry interested during the day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, something to do.
Speaker 8: It was.
Speaker 4: Like watching a series.
Speaker 6: I'm telling it's great, day after day week after we're watching.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought it was so sad for SkyTV, not
Speaker 3: even their equipment work that went on still pictures and
Speaker 3: they had to drop out. Sorry for this interruption. We're
Speaker 3: trying to get the connection back again and so the
Speaker 3: rain had obviously got into their stuff. Never mind, Hopefully
Speaker 3: when it comes to Sri Lanka, we will have fine
Speaker 3: weather and it'll be able to get those two test
Speaker 3: matches in the World Test Championship. Thanks for your time,
Speaker 3: gasping forward to joining us again and you two as ever, Jerry,
Speaker 3: thank you for putting time together to watch some of
Speaker 3: those with weather goes.
Speaker 10: Good to see you guys, wonderful summer.
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