What happened to Australia?

[Dissector]

Originally Posted by Mike5181

Intimidating ratings of current players

England

Cook- 1, Straus- 5, Trott- 4, KP- 7, Collingwood- 5, Bell- 4, Prior- 5, Broad- 1, Anderson- 4

Australia

Watson- 7, Hughes- 4, Ponting- 7, Clarke- 2, Hussey-3, Johnson- 6, Siddle- 7, Harris- 6, Hilfenhaus- 5

New Zealand

McCullum- 7, Ryder- 7, Guptill- 4, Taylor- 5, Styris- 6, Vettori- 4, Martin- 2, Oram- 2, Southee- 4

South Africa

Smith- 7, Amla- 5, Kallis- 7, Steyn- 8, Morkel- 7

Softcocks

Cook, Broad, Clarke, Hussey, Martin, Oram

On this scale Unadkat would probably rate a -10. I think the idea of "manly men" being better cricketers is most wrong though I do wish India would produce fewer cricketers who look like scared bunnies. Especially pace bowlers. Prasad, Agarkar, Sreesanth, RP Singh and now Unadkat. OTOH in the last couple of years we have probably been the toughest team in test cricket repeatedly fighting our way out of difficult situations. And that's what counts.

[Nnanden]

Some quality posts in this thread. Confidence in your own ability is so important.

[Goughy]

Originally Posted by Nnanden

Some quality posts in this thread. Confidence in your own ability is so important.

Separate to everything else, its impossible to disagree with that. A spot on point. It is what seperates the best from the others. All the things I have mentioned such as intimidation (and there are many ways this manifests itself), hardness, etc are bullets that chip away at the confidence of others. If there are no fault lines then they cant make an impression but it takes a special person/athlete to be able to have total confidence in themselves. I agree with you 100%. Self-doubt is a killer

[Goughy]

Originally Posted by thierry henry

Haven't read past the first post, but I don't get how a respected poster like Goughy very rarely gets called out for his utterly bizarre, downright creepy obsession with "manly men" that seems to permeate his opinion on every facet of life.

You know me so well and my opinions on "every facet of life"

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by thierry henry

Haven't read past the first post, but I don't get how a respected poster like Goughy very rarely gets called out for his utterly bizarre, downright creepy obsession with "manly men" that seems to permeate his opinion on every facet of life.

I can actually smell the irony in this post, fantastic

[Jono]

Originally Posted by sledger

You speak of these things as if they are mutually exclusive to one another, when in reality looks, attitude and confidence are all quite closely knit imo. I'm not suggesting that anyone's looks have any impact whatsoever in terms of their pure ability to master a certain skill set, but it may have a considerable influence on how one might apply oneself to a particular task etc... Though not strictly related to cricket, it's probably no coincidence that the people in the world who get the most successful or well paid jobs are those who are well turned out and have a certain presence. Presence is not something you can practice as such for mine, it's something you develop through your own confidence, which in turn is impacted upon massively by your image, how you perceive yourself and how you are perceived by others. As I say, it's not likely to have any impact whatsoever on your own ability per se (and I don't think Goughy was ever actually suggesting it was btw), but how you come across to others can drastically influence your success, and that can be said in any context, not just a sporting one.

Missing the point.

He posted a picture of a young Steve Smith FFS. Got nothing to do with aura or presence. He just made fun of the kid's looks.

[andyc]

Originally Posted by Jono

Missing the point.

He posted a picture of a young Steve Smith FFS. Got nothing to do with aura or presence. He just made fun of the kid's looks.

TBF he does look pretty funny.

[treamcast34]

In the past 15 years Australian rules football has gone from semi-professional to the down under equivalent of the EPL. If you are a sporting prodigy in Australia, footie recruiters will get to you before any other sport. When you consider that their kids generally play both cricket and football growing up, with the elite talents usually being good at both, I think it explains a lot. I have no doubt looking at the participation numbers, and some of the stories about Alex Keath, Shane Warne etc that they have lost a good few stars to their football.

It might sound silly but I saw a video on youtube of a couple of footie players bowling to Ricky Ponting about four years ago on a tv show; one of them was a huge man, bowled utterly express pace and had him jumping about a foot into the air to defend a short one, the other guy knocked him over twice consecutively and looked pretty freaking quick himself. Ricky Ponting was in his prime back then; it was impressive.

[sledger]

Originally Posted by Jono

Missing the point.

He posted a picture of a young Steve Smith FFS. Got nothing to do with aura or presence. He just made fun of the kid's looks.

Are you therefore suggesting that Steve Smith conveys a strong aura or presence?

[Jono]

No, because he's currently out of his league. Not because he has freckles.

I do believe though that Ferguson, who spikes his hair and looks like a mumma's boy, gave of an aura of "I belong here" when he first played international cricket.

He had the talent and the confidence.

[sledger]

Well, I can't really comment on Ferguson, as I've scarcely seen anything of him.

In the case of Smith, because cricket is a global game and the coverage is so widespread, everyone who is interested in knowing can find out his record, his capabilities, and work out a rough assessment of what his general ability is like. However, let's say your playing local cricket for your club side or whatever at a weekend, and on the opposition team there's a player who you have never played against before, or even seen before for that matter. If he's clean cut, about 6ft tall, carries himself with a purpose and just generally looks the part, you're going to have a greater expectation of him than say someone who looks ungainly, overweight, and gives the impression of being completely aloof. It is an undeniable fact. Obviously this doesn't have any discernable impact on this person's ability whatsoever, but how he is perceived by others can have a telling influence on how things proceed. As I previously mentioned, it happens in all aspects of life. For example if you are sitting waiting for a seminar or an important public speech and the guy giving it shows up looking immaculate in a tailored suit (prior to this you know scarcely anything about him) you're much more likely to think "oh yeah this guy is clearly on the money" and give him your attention and respect than if he showed up in ripped jeans and with a scruffy beard. I'm not really interested in whether this is right or wrong, but this is the case more often than not. In a sporting sense obviously you can build a reputation for yourself, and thus command the respect and build a presence that way, Warney and McGrath are both excellent examples of how you don't need to be physically imposing or whatever. But it is a folly to suggest appearance doesn't play a part in things like this at least some of the time.

[howardj]

Nothing now.

We're fine.

[Dissector]

Smith looking good for a 50 after Johnson and Watson come good. This has to be the worst-timed thread in the history of CC.

[Jono]

Going to start a thread "What happened to England" and post photos of Cook, Bell etc.

Long are the days when they had real men like Botham and Gooch etc.

[Dissector]

And of course Smith departs just after I write that post. Still it's hard to see how England can save this test with more than two days left.