South Africa 2010 offers the ICC a lesson: let crowds be themselves

The vuvuzelas of the 2010 Football World Cup might have drove us all mad at times, but as Jeremy Loadman explains they gave the tournament an identity, something that the 2007 Cricket World Cup sadly lacked.

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Nature vs Nurture: How Are International Cricket Stars Born?

Jeremy Loadman presents the unique case of how talent is nurtured in cricket. Unlike football and other sporting behemoths, international cricket rules the roost when it comes to building talent.

The maxim goes: to be the best, you must learn from the best. In most professions, the possibility of this occurring largely lies with the determination of the individual. Want to learn from the best rocket scientists in the world, you’d have your sights set on NASA; if reading classics is your thing, then it’s Cambridge or Oxford. If you want to play with the best footballers in the world you’d have your eyes set on Barcelona, or maybe Manchester United or Real Madrid. But if you want to learn from the best cricketers in the world, it’s not so straight forward.

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As the debate about the future of cricket rages on it seems all is in the air

In Australia the game of cricket (the national game) has been thrown into a period of turbulence that precious few seem to know how to emerge from – most conspicuously, the game’s administrators. Much debate about the future of the game, if not the overwhelming majority, centres on the apparent demise of the 50-over game and the rise of T20, however amongst all this there is one factor that receives comparatively little attention. Here’s a clue – the same side always wins.

In the past many would’ve said that Australians are too one-eyed to grow tired of a winning team it, but not anymore. It simply can’t be ignored that a drop in interest towards cricket shown by the Australian public over the recent international summer was in inverse proportion to the performance of the Australian cricket team. At least when they’re playing on Australian shores, the more easily they win, the less we care. Quite simply, the game in this country has become a victim of the national teams’ success.

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2009-10 Australian Summer: What did we learn?

As Australia move seemingly unobstructed towards a resounding victory in their third and final test against Pakistan – and the final test of the summer – it is time to look back over the performance of Australia, Pakistan and the summer’s other participant, the West Indies, and evaluate how it all panned out. With Australia all but certain to clean up Pakistan’s remaining seven wickets tomorrow, the home side will finish their two test series with 5 wins from 6 matches. Going from such numbers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was all rather one-sided; however, this summer has not been a throw back to the days of Warne and McGrath. Sometimes the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

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