Ashley Giles & the One Eyed Big Boyd

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Ashley Giles, Boyd Rankin

The six foot seven giant from Ireland, Big Boyd Rankin, has been brought into the England squad as injury cover. On the face of it, that sounds just fine. Boyd is a tall and genuinely fast bowler. However, he plays for Warwickshire – Ashley Giles’s county. A few twitter folks raised eye brows, a few were vicious in their criticism of the King of Spain (Ashley), while others thought it a fine choice and suggest that being so cynical is unwarranted.

I fell somewhere between, and thought I’d turn to cold statistics for support – in either direction. Firstly, let us look at the Big Boyd himself. 43 wickets, from 37 ODIs for Ireland at an average of 32.3 with an economy of 4.9. Pretty respectable. 90 wickets, from 76 List-A matches, at an average of 29, with an economy of 5.02. OK .. nothing really to go on either way. Solid, yet unremarkable. Clearly it must be his current form that helped.

Here are all the bowling statistics for 2013 List-A matches. So where’s Boyd? Oh .. he’s not in the top 50. It must be his first class form. Let’s check the 2013 first-class matches. Oh, he’s not there either. How strange. Mind you, the season is still new, let’s check last year. So here are the winners from 2012 List-A matches. Now this is really odd. He’s absent again. Final chance Ash, 2012 First-class matches. Bloody hell Ashley, what have you done? He’s not there either?!

Statistically, I can find ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for picking Boyd Rankin. Ashley Giles, this looks like a “Buddy Pick” and is a terrible decision that makes you look unbelievable one-eyed. If you wanted to pick a Warwickshire player, how about one who has taken wickets – you know, like Chris Wright?!

After a (very) rapid Chris Wright check, on those 4 lists, he is 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and one 3rd-from-bottom. Oh yes, he’s tall too.

AND spare a thought for Ireland … who incidentally Boyd didn’t play for last week against Pakistan … who might well need him more than England.

Sorry, but doing this has made me really cross – no Christmas card for you this year Mr Giles

ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT….
KIM has brought to my attention that he was injured for much of 2012, which his explains his absence from those lists. Kim also adds that, in terms of bowling strike rates, his 45.2 after 57 first-class games tops the pile. Onions (47) , Fin (49) are only other England contenders who have a strike rate of under 50 after more than 50 games. Impressive.

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Final Stats – England vs New Zealand – 2013

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Alistair Cook, Graeme Swann, Joe root, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Steven Finn, Stuart Broad, Tim Southee

So England won the test series 2-0 … go by that alone and you’ve missed a lot. New Zealand dominated 2 of the 3 previous test, albeit ones in the previous series, and in their country. But it is important to note that because without it, England may not have been so determined to correct the “wrong” that was their perceived failure to win in New Zealand. The fact was that, NZ out-played England for most of that series, merit-wise, they should have won by 2 tests to 1.

Anyhow, that’s the background, England were better this time, but not by as much as one may expect. The first test was very close until Stuart Broad’s mega burst where he took 5 wickets for minus 12 runs in two balls. Or something – that spell won England the first test.

In the 2nd test, England were in front for most of the game. The main point of peril was when Joe Root came to the crease at 67-3 … but then he made his first test ton and England were on top for the rest of the game and were not (quite) denied by the weather. Well played. Now let us look at who did what…

Joe Root top scored in the first test, add that to his ton in the 2nd test, and it’s no surprise to see him in first place. In his first 3 innings, Cook did very little other than start, but his rapid (by any standard) innings of 130 late on was excellent. Trott mate useful runs and annoyed us with a lack of positive intent, but deserves his 3rd spot. Bairstow’s runs are worthy of note because of the aggressive and exciting way he played. He should be fine to step in to cover for KP’s (or anyone else’s) absence. Bell had a nightmare, but don’t count his 4th innings dismissal aiming for quick runs … the other 3 failures though, are of more than slight concern – he needs to get some confidence from somewhere – the Champions Trophy would be fine! Prior’s form is of less concern because he played so well in NZ, and was built up so much before that series that failure was all but guaranteed … cricket likes to bite back from time to time. But, as you can tell, the only New Zealander to score more than 100 runs was maturing Ross Taylor, this says as much about their batting as it does England’s bowling. But underestimate them at your peril, in the next 12-24 months they will surprise a few teams.

Tim Southee bowled with the guile, swing, and control worthy of someone with far more experience, and most of his wickets were earned. Even though Bracewell wasn’t at his best, NZ have the makings of a proper pace attack, one able to take advantage of anyone’s mistakes, and in good conditions, win games. Kane Williamson looked much better, with the pressure off, as a 2nd spinner, than he did as their first choice, so NZ still have options there. England’s bowlers, however, all performed. Finn was the worst, taking 8 wickets at 20! Broad was excellent throughout and Swann was superb in the 2nd game. All of this bodes well for the Ashes … each bowler will have gained confidence from this series. The fact that all of England’s 4 bowlers played both games, injury free – unlike the impressive Boult, meant that New Zealand received no let-up at all, and the quality, pace, bounce, and turn of Swann, made the difference.

BRING ON THE AUSSIES!

England’s Baffling Batting

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Angst, Compton, Cook, England, Fury, New Zealand, Sloth, Slow, Slug, Tortoise, Trott

Good day folks, before day 4 (or 3, if you don’t consider Monday’s washout) begins, I wish to complain. To complain about England and their mental approach to this; their second innings.

OK, they didn’t enforce the (or invite New Zealand to) follow on. With the weather around, I think they should have done so, but I do understand why they didn’t. Two main reasons, I think, (1) bowler preservation, and (2) the pitch isn’t really that bad at all – batting now will be easier than batter later on.

Now, that aside, my gripe is this. England have a big lead, the pitch is fine, the New Zealand bowlers are good, but not the most terrifying in the world. So England, in this position, against ANY attack, with the safety of a 180 run lead and a positive mindset, should be able to score AT LEAST one run per three balls faced. That is not asking a lot. Compton and Trott managed approximately half of that. Pathetic.

Compton’s misery maybe explained by him feeling the need to fight for his place. Even if that is the case, it shows a mental frailty that does node bode well for the Ashes. For me, that amount of nervousness and fragility will be seized upon by the Aussies and he has now batted himself right out of contention. One CANNOT be timid against Australia.

Trott’s go slow was even more ridiculous and had me gnashing my teeth. This guy is a high class batsman. He averages ~50 in test cricket, and has scored at a sniff under a run every other ball across his other 72 test innings (a strike rate of 46). His place is not in any doubt, his skills are not in doubt, his character is not in doubt. Until maybe now. If Alistair Cook (who has had a miserable series by his own high standards) can play positively and score so freely, at a much higher rate than usual – because of the situation – why was Trott only able to score at less than half his normal pace?! I honestly don’t know. He made me angry and I cannot fathom AT ALL any reason why he batted so poorly.

Compton’s crawling was poor, but possibly understandable, Trott’s can only be either selfish beyond normal reason, or an attempt at match fixing. It was that bad. Of course I don’t think think he is involved in any wrong doing at all, but I cannot contrive of anything else to explain one of the most bizarre innings I can recall.

Cone England, step it up in the morning or I’ll go to Paris for the French Open.

Xbox One – Microsoft’s Endgame

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Filth, Next Box, Rubbish, Stupid Microsoft, Xbox 720, Xbox One, XboxOne

Guest blog from a Charlie of HKCblog.

A lot of gamers seem to have little to no memory, so let me jog yours, or clue you in. A loooong time ago, Bill Gates had an idea. This was an idea for a set top box that would be a digital entertainment hub; a one stop shop, if you will, for watching movies, looking at TV, accessing the internet, communication, and gaming. He believed that this was the next logical step in fusing computers with entertainment and everyday life.

Mr Gates shopped this idea around to not only console makers, but to cable companies as well; but no one was interested. It was then determined by Micorsoft that if this vision of the future was to come into existence, they would have to do it on their own.

After a lot of research, it was determined that the best way to get the public to accept such an entertainment device was to gradually introduce them to the idea because at the time such a device was cost prohibitive and the infrastructure was not there. Keep in mind that at this time there was no Hulu, no Netflix, no console online gaming, no social networking… nothing. So they introduced the Xbox. Many people guffawed at the idea of MS getting into the gaming biz, and it seemed like they might not last because the Xbox Division was operating at a great loss. Microsoft’s keeping their head in the game was attributed to deep pockets at the time, but that’s not entirely true. They kept going while losing money hand over fist because the prize for them was not winning a video game console war, but rather to get consumers to accept a Microsoft made entertainment product in their living rooms… and it worked. Phase one was a mental success, not a monetary one.

A lot of phase two consisted of offering up movie services and various entertainment products in a digital medium. This can be seen in the Xbox 360. People began to accept the idea of subscribing to a digital service for content delivery. Microsoft tried, and failed, to introduce a physical medium of entertainment consumption via an optional HD-DVD drive, but they bet their money on the wrong horse. This part of the second phase would have to wait on a later date. Overall, though, with the Xbox 360, MS achieved wide acceptance and brand recognition with consumers who identified the Xbox brand with not only game playing, but social interaction and media consumption.

That brings us to today where phase three saw realization. A set top media box that’s a one stop shop for entertainment consumption, just as Bill Gates envisioned. This was the end game. Microsoft never had any long term plans to be in the gaming business… in fact they didn’t want to be in it in the first place. They just wanted to offer the backbone to the machine and rake in license revenue. And that’s why today’s unveiling of the Xbox One was all about TV and movies and media, and a little about games. It’s not a game machine, and they don’t want it viewed as such.

None of this information is secret or conjecture. It’s not from a personal company bias on my part. It’s all part of the public record that people seem to have forgotten or were not able to piece together. And all you irate Xbox gamers can’t really be mad because YOU were what was needed to to make it happen. Welcome to the future of media consumption in America.