Barty’s Weblog

I just spent two weeks in Australia on a mix of business and holiday. I must confess one of my main motivations was getting to The Gabba to watch the (once) mighty Black Caps take on the Aussies in the First Test. Even though the result wasn’t great, watching cricket at The Gabba was a great experience (its a fantastic ground for watching sport and television doesn’t do the ground justice).

The second part of our trip was spent on the Gold Coast. Its been 20 years since I’d been to the Gold Coast and that place has just exploded. While there I took the opportunity to catch up with one of Australia’s biggest entertainment distributors to discuss any opportunities in the Australian market.

After these discussions, its getting very very hard to ignore the much bigger market across the Tasman (especially since we already have infrastructure and staff in Australia running our www.gpstore.com.au site).

Australia here we come…

It was sad to see the Warriors great finals run come to an end last night… but Manly were red-hot. At least the grand final rematch next week between Manly and Melbourne should be a cracker.

Sea Eagles 32
Warriors 6

“After 16 years and 312 first-grade games, it was the end for a rugby league legend.” – NZ Herald.

Gillette time anyone?

The Black Caps scored a memorable victory in the first test at Hamilton yesterday — and its one that we shouldn’t forget in a hurry. England went into the game as firm favourites with the big guns like Harmison, Vaughan, Panesar and Hoggard back to bolster their ranks.

But poor Steve Harmison went from saviour to second-change in the space of 5 lovely days. In New Zealand’s second dig he came on after Collingwood (a part-time bowler), proceeded to concede 6 runs an over and bowled just 4 overs. He’s a heck of a lot better than that — but hopefully he’ll save his best for the Aussies and the 2009 Ashes!

Dan Vettori had a heck of the game with bat, ball and his captaincy. It was great to see Ross Taylor finally playing straight (someone passed the comment it only took him 23 years but hey — finally) and he looked all class in his 120. Jamie How looks in his element at the top of the innings (scoring 92 and 39). The bowling was also excellent with both Mills and Martin bowling beautifully and the spinners tying the English up in all sorts of knots.

Rarely has a New Zealand team been so sharp, for so long. They dominated all but one hour of the 5 days. It was brilliant stuff. Every moment of it. A great win.

Now how can anyone call test cricket boring with games like that? No really!

Lou Vincent yesterday joined the exodus from New Zealand cricket — he’s signed with the rebel Indian Cricket League. He joins Shane Bond, Andre Adams and Adam Parore who have joined the rebel league in the last 3 weeks.

NZ Cricket CEO, Justin Vaughan, labelled yesterday as a black day for the sport and they promptly revoked Lou’s contract. Erm? Wasn’t the day they stopped selecting Shane Bond for New Zealand pretty dam dark? Pitch black even?

Justin Vaughan also said New Zealand Cricket want players “who want to play for New Zealand”. One must wonder…. did Justin miss this recent article? The article where the NZ captain wants to join the tour of England late. Is it acceptable to be “pragmatic” for those contracted to the IPL… and not so much for ICL players?

There’s no doubt New Zealand cricket as a whole has become a lot weaker in the last 60 days. Thanks to both the IPL and the ICL. Testing times lie ahead…

Last night the Indian Premier League held their player auction as 78 cricketers were auctioned off to the eight teams. It was great for the players — most will be doing very well. But will it be great for cricket?

Some of the highlights include:

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni sold for US$1.5 million.
• Andrew Symonds (Aus) going for US$1.35 million.
• Brendan McCullum (NZ) and Jacob Oram (NZ) “sold” for US$700k and US$675k respectively.
• Stephen Fleming(NZ) got US$350k.
• Scott Styris(NZ) got US$135k.

Its interesting that Australia’s old guard weren’t so popular: Ricky Ponting US$450k, Matt Hayden US$375k, Glen McGrath US$350k, and Shane Warne US$450k didn’t exactly set the bidding on fire.

This player auction highlights just how much money there is for cricket in India. Kiwi fans must wondering… if you can earn money on this scale, just how committed would you be to playing for New Zealand? Fleming and Styris perhaps have given us a hint — in the past month, Fleming has retired from all International cricket and Styris from Tests.

The IPL was established to counter the threat from the rebel Indian Cricket League… but the IPL could also be a huge threat to the quality of test cricket worldwide. What’s the difference from a Black Cap retiring to play in India and an All Black leaving to play in Europe? Not a lot. Well, except that… NZ probably has enough talented rugby players to fill the holes. Cricket on the other hand.

So is the IPL going to be a win for cricket?

It’s a win for the players (and the Indian broadcasters!)… but is it going to be good for the game in the long run?

Well. Won’t Ian Smith and friends be eating their words? It was less than a week ago that NZ cricket was nearing a “crisis”. England had much more “depth” and “talent”… they were going to crush poor little New Zealand.

Thankfully England have dropped the scones. And what a mess. They’re running each other out (6 run outs in two games). They’re dropping catches. They’re shouting at each other. And they’re dropping even more catches. Poor Collingwood looks like he’s the captain trying to steer The Titanic. Bugger that.

On the Kiwi side, ain’t Jesse Ryder looking rather talented? He’s got a mix of great cricket shots (on both sides of the wicket) and an exaggerated straight bat in defence. Very promising. McCullum has hit some form, the bowlers are bowling well and fielding has been excellent.

Bring on game 3 at Eden Park on Friday night. More scones anyone?

Cricinfo released the official LG ICC Player Rankings last Friday and Shane Bond is now ranked the #1 ODI bowler in the world.

Now that’s a pretty damned cool achievement, but where’s the #1 bowler playing his cricket? Worcestershire. Yeah that’s not so cool. Since signing up for the rebel Indian Cricket League, Bond has been banned from playing for New Zealand.

Its very easy to work out who loses from this ban… cricket fans, cricket sponsors, cricket players and even cricket itself. What sort of sport could be so short-sighted as to ban the #1 player to protect itself? Just how good would it be to see Bond roaring in at KP, Colly, Virgil (Pietersen, Colingwood, Vaughan) and friends? It would have been great. Instead we’re treated to a ODI game and a sport that has been somewhat degraded. Not cool.

If the Indian Cricket League takes off, how many players will it take to “retire” before International cricket becomes a B-grade sport?

But hey, there is one winner out of all this. Worcestershire. Lucky them!

Former Kiwis skipper Stephen Kearney was named as the new coach of the Kiwi league team today, with Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett taking an advisory role.

Wayne Bennett was expected to get the job, but either way, you have to hope the NZRL board remembered to poll the players first, as they seem to choose the Kiwi coach these days!

Anyone else waiting for Roy Asotasi and David Kidwel’s public blessing before getting too excited about the new coach?

Well after listening to the commentators from the last 20-20 match 5-0 is what the NZ commentators are implying. 5-0. 5-zip. A whitewash. Is anyone going to bother watching the Black Caps take on the “world class” English team in the upcoming one-dayers?

Having listened to Smithy bag the experimental Black Cap side and lather layer after layer of lush-ass-kissing-praise all over his new-found English maties, one does have to wonder if its worth tuning into. Is it just me, or perhaps Smithy and his sidekicks missed the point… the NZ selectors were using the 20-20 games to blood some new players so they can learn for the… errr future? Aside from the fact that we do kinda suck at 20-20 matches (hey even Bangladesh beat us), surely its a little harsh and irresponsible to be bagging our youngsters so soon.

Smith and Crowe in particular do New Zealand cricket (as a sport) a disservice when they put viewers off from watching future games. Its going to be a real struggle listening to Ian Smith kiss pommy ass for the next two months…