From: ABEGLEY@ccmail.sunysb.edu (Anthony M. Begley)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: TCCB & appealing
Date: 31 Jul 1992 14:46:59 -0500
Organization: State University of New York, Stony Brook
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
X-Unparseable-Date: 31 Jul 1992 15:46:23 -0400 (EDT)


               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 11794-2275

                                            Anthony M. Begley
                                            Materials Science
                                            516 632-8516
                                            31-Jul-1992 03:45pm EDT
FROM:  ABEGLEY
TO:    Remote Addressee                     ( _rec-sport-cricket@cs.utexas.edu )

SUBJECT: TCCB & appealing                                             



Dear chaps,

> IMHO, Mushtaq is the best spinner in the world today. He does not
> compare to Bedi and co. He is not better than Qadir. Not yet. But
> he is good.

Lots of debate recently about how good Mushtaq really is. All good natured
but as usual a very subjective decision when based on his relatively few
tests played. AS like many of us in the US I have never even seen him bowl
but that wont stop me from speculating about his ability anyway (in true
rsc fashion). 

> England middle order is not reading him at all. 

My one real problem is with the above. Please dont judge the quality of a leg
spinner by his record against England.

English players COULD and now CAN never read leg spinners anyway.
They certainly cant read Mushtaq, it seems, and they never read the great
Abdul 'the bull-bull' Qadir (who was heaven to watch IMHO).

Is Mushtaq good ? Only history will tell as with everyone else.
He certainly does not seem in Qadir's class though from what I have
read on the net/newspapers/radio. Thus, this is why I dont think he is
world class. Ian Salisbury had an excellent 1st test and apparently the 
Pakistani batsmen couldnt read him at times either !!

So lets face it -- even a good county leg spinner who isnt World class
can deceive the best batsmen. This is why its so fun to watch quality
batsmen like Gooch, Botham completely embarrassed at the crease by the guile
of the leggie.

> With
> Lamb and Botham gone, England have possibly the strongest batting
> today. They cannot come close to Fredericks, Greenidge, Kalli, Lloyd,
> and Kanhai, but who has a better batting side today ? Pak bowling is
> dominating the England batting and that is why I rate this Pak 
> attack so high.

I agree on paper England are very strong in their batting, of course at
the expense of a 5th quality (sic) bowler. Having Stewart keep
wicket helps a great deal. Now with Gatting back, and maybe Broad too
the trip to India should be fruitful (fancy Hick at #7).
The bowlers will struggle like buggery though.

I wouldnt agree that the Pakistani bowling is dominating England.
The 2 W's are certainly better than anything England have, I admit.
Mushtaq, maybe, but that still leaves 2 other medium pacers to fill
in the gaps. Seeing as Hick is having a wretched time England are
effectively batting with only 6 good men. 
Lets leave all the arguments till after the Oval, perhaps, and see how it goes.

> I think the attack will be decent by the time
> they get to India.

The inclusion of a fit Tufnell will help. Maybe even Foster if hes
getting wickets regularly and his back holds up.

> I think it is the other way around. England umpires may be more competent
> than others, but they are certainly no more impartial than an Aussie
> or an Indian umpire.

This is a perfect ending to our discussion on umpires. Why didnt I suggest
the difference between competent and impartial. I feel you have hit
the nail on the head here, so thanks. I agree.

> England is a better side than India. No question about that.

Yes, but the great joy about the game of cricket is that the underdog
can always lift itself to victory, i.e. any team can win any game against any 
other team. This is especially so in mickey mouse ODI's.

> Gatting incident stands out only for the apparent encouragement it
> got from TCCB. That sent a very bad message to the rest of the
> world. Rana was attacked for being biased, not incompetent. And
> Gatting was rewarded, not reprimanded.

Yes, I totally agree it was a terrible thing for the TCCB to do.
Dont worry, all of the real cricket fans in the UK did not agree with the
tabloids pro-English arguments and realised that Gatting was way out
of line on this occasion.
Its a shame that so many people are influenced by the TCCB in their thinking.
Although, Im not sure I blame the TCCB for everything. 

Could someone in England listthe members of the TCCB and their average age.
I dobnt believe any committee can be that old-fashioned and pro-colonialism
as has been suggested. Surely there is some reason there ? (or not ?)

One example was given by the new editor of the Cricketer magazine who sits 
on the TCCB. As you all know any editorial hopefully does not reflect the 
majority of peoples views. The excerpt certainly sounded very bad, though.
To his defence Inthikab (sp) deserved reprimanding seeing as the manager
is supposed to be removed from the pressures of playing test cricket and
thus should be more calm and responsible. Gooch had his right to complain 
about being linked with the incident, although I see no reason for him
to exercise that right when silence would have been much more sensible.

It has been suggested to do away with appealing for LBW's, i.e. for the
umpire just to give him out. Seems quite sensible to counter the terrible
intimidation the umpires have to put up with.
However, surely it would take some fun out of the average players game.
At school we used to like orchestrated appeals in the slip cordon.
It was fun, not intimidation.
Mind you, appealing from 3rd man or square leg used to make us laugh too !!
I think unless the umpires actually keep on complaining about being
intimidated then its OK. Umpires are well aware of bowlers chicanery & tricks
and recognize them as such. Indeed, too much appealing may go against the 
bowling side if an unconscious opinion is formed in the umpires mind that 
the bowlers are trying to hustle him.

Tony

PS I wonder where the Pakistani team were celebrating in Marlow for them
to lose to the MInor Counties !!  I dont remember it being that lively there !