Tag Archives: sydney-test

Monday musing – cricket, when is it too hot to play?

It is no surprise that English cricket captain, Joe Root was admitted to hospital last night suffering the effects of severe dehydration. Root spent nearly all day on the field yesterday during the fifth test at the SCG. He was so badly affected that he did not resume batting this morning and was replaced at the crease by Moeen Ali. What is surprising was that other English or Australian players didn’t end the day in hospital as well.

Sydney’s weather was described as a ‘scorcher’ yesterday, with the temperature in Penrith at 3.00pm hitting 47.3C degrees – the highest temperature recorded since 1939. The temperature at the SCG was not far behind at 43C but a ‘heat stress tracker’ at the ground showed a reading of 57.6C on the oval.

It is unfathomable to me that Cricket Australia would send the players out to play in such heat and allow them to remain on the field all day. This is an occupational health and safety issue that cannot be ignored. The Australian Open tennis tournament suspends play when the temperature reaches 40C, many enterprise bargaining agreements allow for employees to cease work when the temperature reaches 35C and I am aware of one football league that does not permit training or matches to be played where the temperature exceeds 30C.

The question remains why cricketers are treated differently to workers and other sporting participants? It seems ironic that it is quite permissible for cricketers to leave the field when it rains but don’t have the same latitude when it gets too hot. With the hospitalisation of an elite cricketer, Cricket Australia needs to take action to impose a temperature limit on all matches under its control.

Friday musing – ashes cricket, Mitchell Johnson, Jacques Kallis……

Chris Barwin HillsAt this time of the year cricket is the most dominant sport with tennis just kicking off with a build up to the Aussie Open.

The Poms have finally won a toss and sent Australia in to bat. I remember the old ABC cricket books used to have a section devoted to captains who invited the opposition to bat. It is not all that unusual these days, with Michael Clark getting away with it in the Melbourne test. I went along on the first two days and up until the second session on day three, the Poms held the whip hand. From there Australia wrapped up the match over the next three sessions, a big surprise. The prevailing philosophy is still to win the toss and bat and I think that Alistair Cook should have done so in Sydney, but time will tell.

Mitchell Johnson was again awarded the Man of the Match award and that makes it three out of four tests this series, but Chris Rogers & Nathan Lyon must have been very close as well with Brad Haddin again performing well. I understand Johnson has the best percentage of Man of the Match awards to tests played of any Australian test player. Not a bad achievement for a sometimes maligned figure in Australian cricket. I think in the past he has produced herculean performances dispersed with poor performances, but in this series he has been very consistent and does not seem to be spraying the ball around as much.

Speaking of Man of the Match awards, the news that Jacques Kallis was retiring did not come as a great surprise, but you would have thought he would have seen out the summer with Australia due to tour there next month. Kallis is certainly one of the best all-rounders of all time and compares favourably with Sir Garfield Sobers who is regarded as the benchmark for all-rounders. Kallis has the record for the most Man of the Match awards in test cricket with 23 from 166 matches. A true great of the game.

I always thought that Shane Watson had the attributes to be a very good all-rounder and at times he has shown us what he is capable of, but a fragile physique has mitigated against him. Test wise I think his bowling and catching ability are up there with Kallis, but unfortunately his batting falls a long way short.

Fingers crossed for the 5-0 whitewash of the series.

Have a good weekend and happy New Year!