Cricket stuff that doesn't deserve its own thread

[StephenZA]

Because I am a pedant I would point out that it was far more likely that it was English-speaking culture dominant in the Proteas at the time, given the role of people like Smith, Boucher, and Kallis, none of whom are Afrikaners.

I apologise I should have not said Afrikaans, I should have said South African white blokey culture... which is very dominant within sports team in SA.

And with regard to your point about getting a milestone, perhaps, but Ntini needed 30 wickets to overtake Pollock, he'd taken two in his final two Tests - can we really think it's acceptable to keep him in the team to break the record (also given that he already held a number of records, best bowling in a Test match, first SAn to take ten wickets at Lord's).

And Ntini claims he was dropped from the contract liost, that is a lie. He was given a contract for the 2010-11 season, which also makes me raise my eyebrows.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22652399/sa-board-retains-corrie-van-zyl,-graeme-smith-

Now I'm not saying that Ntini didn't face challenges that would make you or I blanche, but this really does seem like bandwagonning to me. And just as we can speculate that people only accepted Ntini because 'he had to be there' it is also possible that an extra effort was made to make him feel welcome.

I am not saying that he should have been kept on, I am saying I can understand and empathise why he would be aggrieved. I think he is saying what he felt now because quite obviously this is an opportune time to say it, but I would not call it bandwagonning. It is not like he does not have the exposure already. As regards extra effort to welcome him being made, it is possible that is true, but it would contradict my entire life experience in SA.

My simple point is nothing he has said or that I've heard reported recently surprises me, it saddens me, does not surprise me and it is rather more believable than not. Your experience may be very different.

 

[Marius]

I apologise I should have not said Afrikaans, I should have said South African white blokey culture... which is very dominant within sports team in SA.

I am not saying that he should have been kept on, I am saying I can understand and empathise why he would be aggrieved. I think he is saying what he felt now because quite obviously this is an opportune time to say it, but I would not call it bandwagonning. It is not like he does not have the exposure already. As regards extra effort to welcome him being made, it is possible that is true, but it would contradict my entire life experience in SA.

My simple point is nothing he has said or that I've heard reported recently surprises me, it saddens me, does not surprise me and it is rather more believable than not. Your experience may be very different.

I would guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I doubt Smith etc have white hoods in their cricket coffins, but perhaps they could have done more to make people who are outsiders to the culture, like Ntini feel included.

 

[StephenZA]

I would guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I doubt Smith etc have white hoods in their cricket coffins, but perhaps they could have done more to make people who are outsiders to the culture, like Ntini feel included.

I am also not trying to vilify anybody here, I think people are just people. Both Smith and Boucher have commented previously that they would/should have handled some of these issues differently. That can be said of all of us. SA is a diverse melting pot of strong cultures (even amongst the black communities) and the truth is we may pretend, but in my opinion we South Africans don't actually understand each other very well. And most of us are so focused on our own goals and issues that dealing with this stuff is difficult. SA has the same problems a lot of places in the world have, but it is enhanced by huge amounts of poverty, inequality and historical prejudice (on all sides) that is difficult to overcome.

 

[stephen]

South Africa is home to all sorts of cultures and sub cultures. It has extreme wealth inequality, the likes of which makes the USA look like a communist paradise. I'm frankly shocked that it's still a country given how ethnically and culturally diverse it is.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I can't be arsed to look. Is there a thread or mention of this 3 teams stuff (good word that) that's happening in South Africa?

 

[Daemon]

The loneliness Ntini faced does sound pretty sad. I think it?s super common in most sports teams. Maybe less so in club but anyone that?s been part of a school team will tell you that social groups form really quickly and some people become better friends than others. Like if you put Dravid and Gayle in the same team they?re probably not going to hang out with each other.

If it?s like the entire team getting together and leaving the poor fella out then it?s even more dire though.

 

[StephenZA]

I can't be arsed to look. Is there a thread or mention of this 3 teams stuff (good word that) that's happening in South Africa?

I just put something in the SA domestic thread. http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cri...uth-african-domestic-season-2019-20-a-61.html

 

[Marius]

South Africa is home to all sorts of cultures and sub cultures. It has extreme wealth inequality, the likes of which makes the USA look like a communist paradise. I'm frankly shocked that it's still a country given how ethnically and culturally diverse it is.

A fun fact is that if every white person in South Africa disappeared tomorrow wealth inequality would actually get worse.

 

[trundler]

That looks bad

 

[Marius]

View attachment 25522

That looks bad

And this looks good.

There may well be problems with systemic racism in SA cricket but to use photos to show some kind of racial split or animosity is just silly.

 

[Daemon]

Faf has literally been on tv kissing rabada and slapping his bum.

 

[Bolo.]

I would gues6s the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I doubt Smith etc have white hoods in their cricket coffins, but perhaps they could have done more to make people who are outsiders to the culture, like Ntini feel included.

Many people from every race have spoken out against the old boys club nature of the team at the time. Its a clique thing, not a racial thing

 

[Shri]

It's also a cricket thing. Sport is snobby af

 

[Starfighter]

Good scoring from no. 12

 

[longranger]

No love for the IPL? Seems like the WT20 being postponed gives the BCCI the window they need: September 26 to November 8 are the dates floating around in the media, with the UAE almost being confirmed as the location.

 

[Daemon]

Who was worse - Thirimanne in Tests or Kapugedera in ODIs?

 

[Howe_zat]

I don't remember Kapugedera at all. I feel like Sri Lankan and Indian cricketers of the 2000s were quite likely to play a bunch of ODIs with no world cup games if they're not quite good enough though, so some guy who never really made it in internationals playing 100 ODIs doesn't really shock me.

Thirimanne on the other hand I remember as having a ludicrous number of games where he looked completely out of his depth. He was Himannv's favourite player for a while, we were teamed up in a draft at one stage and he wanted to pick him, I had to explain that Lahiru Thirimanne is actually a very bad player and I felt like I was telling a kid that Santa's not real.

 

[Daemon]

It was kinda the opposite for me. I'd always noticed Kapugedera batting in the middle order for SL and never scoring runs. Thiri's terrible Test career sort of crept up on me. I think I only noticed it was horrendous a few years ago.

 

[Howe_zat]

Looking at the figures, Thirimanne had one of his better records in tests against India. Two fifties in five tests and averaged 22. Against England he played 8 tests and averaged 11, with a high score of 38.

 

[mr_mister]

i remember thinking Shoaib Malik was absolutely useless as a cricketer when i was a casual fan, always seemed to notice him not scoring many against us and lo and behold his batting average against Australia in both ODIs and tests is only around 26. but his career stats are decent enough.