AFL coach gets 3 year ban for striking
The coach of the Cairns AFL team involved in a pre-meditated brawl prior to the start of the local grand final has been given a 3-year ban from any association with AFL football for striking opposition players. The decision was based on evidence provided by umpires in attendance on the day.
This ban would prevent him from coaching, playing, being an administrator of any type and even prevent him from attending matches for the whole 3 years. The AFL said the ban was more than would have been applied to a player as a coach is supposed to set a good example to the players and be somewhat of a role model.
The coach, Jack Love, expressed disappointment at the severity of the penalty and has announced that he intends to appeal the decision. There has been the inevitable talk of legal advice being sought.
So far, so good. The investigation is still underway and he may find himself having to face further charges of arranging a pre-meditated attack on other team players. When the final outcome is known, it will be reported her at club Kev.
I have sent the AFL my opinion and hope that they follow my suggestion of placing a life ban on the coach, banning other players for long periods of time and stripping the team of their premiership title.
De-registering the team is another option, but one that may affect innocent players who were not involved in the finals due to being injured, out of form or in lower grades. A good option would be to have apply a suspended de-registration. Any further trouble from that club would automatically result in de-registration.
A clear message needs to be sent. Violence will NOT be tolerated in our sport.
New ICC Champions format
The farce that was the first week or so of the ICC champions trophy needs to be changed. Australia v USA in cricket is not entertainment. I understand that the cricketing minnows need to play stronger teams in order to improve, but stepping up against the world's top teams is too difficult a task.
The ICC should look at dropping the 2 lowest ranked one day teams to play in a seperate competition with the minnows. This would then allow the top 8 teams to provide a showcase of cricket, rather than the one-sided beatings that are over before the crowd has a chance to get settled.
2 groups of 4 teams would play each other. The top teams then play the number 2 in the other group, with the winners playing the final. This would have the same number of matches as the current system, but reduce the incidence of one sided matches.
The 2 teams that fail to make the competition would play in a special competition against the top 6 non test nations. This would give the minnows a chance to play a test nation without being humiliated. Again, you would have matches that would keep spectators interest, rather than being over before half time.
The two teams that make the final of the minnows competition would then be granted status as a one-day international team and go on to play the likes of Australia, England, India etc.
A similar system shoul0l be implemented for the test teams. The last ranked team each 2 years, would play one home and one away test against the highest ranked non-test nation. The minnow would have to beat the current test nation to take it's place. A loss or draw would allow the existing test nation to keep their position.
When you have a system where a team, once chosen, can deteriorate to no better than an average club side and not be able to lose their test-playing status, then the system need to change.
It would be good to see the test playing nations being chosen based on ability, not how many votes they can manage to muster within the ICC. Kenya showed with their performance at the last world cup and the champions trphy, that they may be more deserving of a test spot than Bangladesh and may even give Zimbabwe a run for their money.
Kenya v Bangladesh, now that's a test match that I would love to see.
Port Power Pummels Previous Premiers
Port Power roared it's way to victory with a convincing win over the reigning premiers, Brisbane.
Port continued to get the ball out of the centre, with Brisbane rarely able to get the ball into their forward zone. Taking control in thge first quarter, Port shot to an early lead and lead by 15 points at the first break. With key forward Alistair Lynch being forced off the ground due to an injury he took into the game, Brisbane's attempt at 4 consecutive titles was looking shaky.
Brisbane fans were given some brief hope during the second quarter as the triple premiers staged a comeback, managing to bridge the gap and eke out the smallest of leads, going to half time with a 1 point lead. That optimism would be short-lived.
The third quarter was a bit of an arm wrestle with both teams going goal for goal for the first 10 minutes. The arm wrestle became more intense with neither team able to score a goal until the 20th minute, when Port started to break free and show their greater fitness and running. Four golas in 10 minutes had Port with a handy 17 point lead with only 1 quarter of the match remaining.
The first goal of the final quarter would be vital in terms of momentum and it took Port only 3 minutes to start putting nails in the coffin of the Lions. The injuries that Brisbane brought into the final started to show as they could not keep up with the speed and accuracy of Port Power.
Pickett, and Burgoyne seemed to be everywhere and ran the ball seemingly at will. Wanganeen chipped in with four goals in the second half and Port Powered away to an easy 40 point win.
Port get to celebrate their first premiership, Brisbane get to second guess the decision to take unfit players into the finals and the AFL get ready for Carlton's resurgence to take the title from Port Power next year. (Us one-eyed Carlton supporters can still dream).
No Victorians in AFL Final
Despite having 10 of the 16 teams in the AFL competition, Victoria could not manage to get a team into the AFL Grand Final to be played tomorrow.
Brisbane will be trying to match the record with their 4th consecutive title and Port Adelaide are after their first. Whoever wins, the title will not be going near Melbourne.
Yet the Grand Final showcase is being played in the heart of Melbourne. Neither Brisbane nor Port Adelaide will get the opportunity to be playing in their home state. Port Supporters have a 720km trip, while Brisbane supporters have more than 1600km to travel.
Thankfully, both teams have been well supported, not only by their own fans, but the whole AFL supporting public.
As has been shown at the Olympic Games, Australians love their sport. The match will be a sell-out and the MCG will be full when the siren goes to start the match.
It may just be my Queensland bias, but I think that Brisbane can equal the record by recording their fourth consecutive AFL premiership. It won't be a romp, with Brisbane recording a victory by about 3 goals.
After that, it's on with next year and seeing the mighty blues win every match and take out the flag. Well, it's nice to dream.
England and West Indies to meet in final
The West Indies will play the home team, England, in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy on Saturday.
England won through, beating the Australians for the fist time in 5 years, cementing the Champions Trophy hoodoo for the Aussies.
After the usual good start, the England slow bowlers applied the breaks and held down the middle order. On a wicket that favoured batsmen, Giles gave up only 40 runs off his 10 overs, picking up the vital wicket of Ponting with Captain Vaughan taking 2 for 42 off his 10 overs.
With regular wickets falling the Australians could only post 259 runs. While a good score, the wicket had another 20-30 runs in it.
England chased well with Vaughan and Trescothick in a punishing 140 run stand. Australia's fast bowlers took a hammering with Lee being hit for 65 off just 8.3 overs. England looked in control for the entire innings and closed out the match with 3.3 overs to spare.
The Calypso Kings of Cricket, the West Indies had an easy win over the Collapso Kings of Cricket, Pakistan. After a shaky start, Pakistan recovered to be 1 for 65, before losing their last 9 wickets for 66. Only opener Hameed and Captain Inzamam Ul Haq managed to score more than 20. Ducks were plentiful, with 4 batsmen not bothering the scorers.
The low score was never going to be enough and the West Indies won with more than 20 overs to spare. After losing Gayle & Hinds early, Sarwan and Lara settled in to build a good score until Lara was struck by a Shoaib Ahktar bouncer and had to retire hurt. By this time, the result was academic and the West Indies cruised to victory.
In Saturday's final, the home team are favourites to win. England has shown a revival with young players coming into form and setting the scene for a resurgence in the old country.
Waiting for Grand Final Justice
Spectators at last weekend's AFL grand final in Cairns witnessed a disgraceful event as one team used pre-meditated violence as a match tactic.
After the playing of the national anthem, the two teams usually go into a huddle for the final words from the captain before players take up their positions on the field. The video footage clearly shows one team forming a huddle while the other team head straight toward their opponents and start a fight.
If it had been just one or two players who crossed to start a fight, it may have been seen as an isolated event. When virtually the entire team rush their opponents before the match, the evidence suggests the incident was planned.
Spectators commented to media reporters that they had heard in advance that one team was going to start an all-in brawl before the game. This is a further indication that the fight was a pre-meditated tactic by the team.
The fight included a broken jaw and concussions to players. Fights then broke out in the stands as upset supporters took out their emotions and frustrations on each other.
At the end of the day, the team that instigated the fight (one of many during the match) ended up winning the match. Scenes of the jubilant attackers celebrating while holding up the premiership trophy were appalling.
The AFL authorities are investigating the incident. While charges have been laid against a spectator, no action has been taken as yet regarding players and officials.
The club captain & officials should be permanently banned from any involvement in the sport and the team should be stripped of their immorally gained title. Anything less would be to condone pre-meditated violence as a legitimate tactic in the sport.
The media showed many things that occurred at the Cairns AFL grand final. One thing we didn't see was sportsmanship.
Pakistan & West Indies through to semi finals
In a match where both teams lost early wickets, Yousef Youhana and a late flurry by Afridi, proved to be the difference guiding the Pakistan team to victory in the 50th over.
Earlier, Dravid anchored the Indian innings after early wickets, but it took until bowler Agarkar for a partner to stay long enough to set a reasonable score for the Pakistanis to chase.
With a first over wicket, the Indian score may have been enough, if not for the big hitting by Afridi after Youhana had laid the steady foundation.
In the other match, South Africa started well with a century opening stand. A century by Gibbs and solid 40's by Smith and Rudolph helped South Africa to a solid score of 246. Sarwan, Lara and Chanderpaul lead the West Indies to victory with an over to spare, making it the second ICC competition in a row where the West Indies have knocked the South Africans out.
In the semi-finals, Australia and England meet on Tuesday with West Indies and Pakistan playing on Wednesday. The final will be played out on Saturday. Bearing in mind we are talking about England, I should add, weather permitting.
Australia too good for Kiwi's
This report one day late due to illness.
Australia proved to be too good against the New Zealand team that has traditionally given the Aussies a run for their money. Bowling first, the Kiwis got off to a good start with Nathan Astle scoring 18 runs at almost a run a ball.
Once Astle had been caught in front by McGrath, wickets started to fall regularly, with the Kiwis at one stage being 8 for 124. A record 9th wicket partnership made the Kiwi score a bit more respectable as they managed to reach 198.
The score may have been respectable, but it was unlikely to be enough to hold off the Australians. New Zealand started well, managing to remove the dangerous Gilchrist in the opening over. Any thoughts the Kiwis had of stealing a win were dashed as Symonds batted with brilliance, scoring 71 off just 47 balls. Martyn chipped in with 60 runs from 71 balls, leading the Aussies to a victory with more than 12 overs to spare.
In the game last night, England started well against Sri Lanka. Trescothick anchoring the innings with 64 runs before the rain came down with England at 3 for 118 with 18 overs left to play. The match will continue tonight (weather permitting) with England having plenty of wickets in hand for a final onslaught.
Dropped catches were the story of the Sri Lankan fielding as 3 chances went down. This may come back to haunt the Sri Lankans as the England batsmen cut loose toward the and of the innings with wickets in hand.
South Africa should be too strong for an improving West Indies team in the match starting tonight.
Pakistan and West Indies easy victories
Bangladesh failed to put any pressure on the West Indies opening batsmen, letting them set a score of 169, that Bangladesh was never going to match. Gayle fell just one run short of his century, with Hinds not far behind with 82.
Wickets fell regularly throughout the Bangladesh innings with Dillon taking a bag of 5. Although the tail wagged a bit, the loss of the first five wickets for just 26 runs left Bangladesh with no chance to match the West Indies score.
Kenya could not hold their form and wilting under the onslaught of the much better Pakistan team. After an early wicket, Kenya put on a 65 run stand. Once that stand was broken, the Kenyans collapsed to be all out for a paltry 94. Afridi knocked over 5 wickets for just 11 runs. Pakistan quickly matched the Kenyan score in just 18.4 overs.
Again we had two matches that did nothing to promote interesting and competative games of cricket.
The real cricket starts tonight as New Zeand and Australia face off.
Sri Lanka easy victory over Zimbabwe
Sri Lanka cruised to victory over Zimbabwe in last night's ICC champions match.
Zimbabwe batted first and lost wickets regularly up to the 27th over, with the 6th wicket falling with just 85 runs on the board. Luckily all-rounder Chigumbura managed to keep the Sri-Lankan bowlers at bay to bring up the only half-centuryt of the match as the Zimbaweans limped to 191, just falling short of surviving the full 50 overs.
Sri Lanka started the chase shakily, with both openers gone as the team reached double figures. Atapattu steadied the innings with a well worked 43, while the other Sri Lankans got middling scores that allowed the team to cruise to victory without showing any stand-out performers.
The Kenya v Pakistan match was won by the weather, with play abandoned. Thankfully, each match was scheduled with a rest day in case of a wash out. Although Pakistan is expected to win, I'm sure both teams are praying for sunshine. Kenya is proving to be on par or better than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and many (me included) want to see them get as many chances to prove themselves as they can.
The other match tonight is West Indies v Bangladesh. Another ho-hum easy win against Bangladesh coming up. The real action starts Thursday when New Zealand and Australia are the first strong teams to meet head to head.
Australia smashes USA
The world champions made easy work of dispatching the severely outclassed USA. Yesterday I predicted and Yankee Doodle Demolition and that's exactly what the Aussies dished up.
With 300 balls to make as many runs as possible, the Seppoes lasted less than 150 before all their players were back in the pavilion, with only 65 runs on the board. The only player to get into double figures was Massiah. (He's not really the Massiah, he's just a naughty boy)
It was obvious that the USA players had serious flaws in their technique, which the Aussies exploited ruthlessly. 4 wickets were leg-before as the batsmen walked across their stumps and then failed to make contact with a ball traveling 20 km/h faster than they would be used to seeing.
When the Aussies came on to bat, they knew they had to score their runs in under 12 overs to push their net run rate above the Kiwi's. It was never in doubt as Hayden, Gilchrist and then Ponting smashed the USA attack to the boundary with monotonous regularity.
Only 47 of their allotted 300 balls were required to reach the 66 runs they needed for victory. At the end, we are all left echoing Ricky Ponting's thoughts. What's the point of having these minnows in the competition?
South Africa walks over Bangladesh
As expected, the South Africans showed the reality of Bangladesh's lack of class in last night's ICC match. The Hapless Bangladeshis were skittled for a paltry 93 runs.
You know you have trouble with your batting line-up when only 2 batsmen make double figures. You also have trouble when extras is one of your best scorers.
South Africa had no trouble knocking off the runs required to win, passing the Bangladeshi score with more than 30 overs to spare. The ICC decision to give the final test spot to Bangladesh over the Kenyans has been widely criticised as a decision that was based more on political considerations that cricket ability. The performance of the two teams since that decision has backed the view that the spot was not based on merit.
There is a huge gulf in ability between the test and non-test teams. The 2 non-test sides in the ICC Champions Trophy are Kenya and the U.S. With the U.S. playing the best team in international cricket over the best part of a decade, it could be a very short game, or one where new batting records are set. The Seppoes had better get ready for a Yankee Doodle Demolition.
As Wisden states on their preview of the match, "some things are in the realm of possibility, others things merely probable, but the USA beating Australia is not one of them."
Collingwood all class
Obviously, this post is not about the AFL, where Collingwood football club had another disappointing year. This is Paul Collingwood the English cricket player. Yesterday, I mentioned that England showed poor progress against an under-strength Zimbabwe, but overnight, Collingwood lead the way with a sparkling 80 runs in good time to boost the England total to a much more respectable score of 299.
As suspected the England bowling attack cut was too strong for the Zimbabwe batsmen and the poms cruised to an easy victory by 152 runs. Gough took care of the openers, with Flintoff and Harmison cleaning up most of the other wickets.
While India despatched the Kenyans with ease, Kenya stood up and showed some grit to hold out against the Indians, when a crushing defeat looked likely. Ganguly and Laxman lead the Indians to a 290 run total with a 161 run partnership for the second wicket. Kaif and Dravid then chipped in at the end of the innings to add a further 77 runs at almost 10 runs per over.
The Kenyans were never likely to come close to India's total, and it looked like the match would have an early finish with Kenya losing early wickets. At 6 for 74 before the half way point of the innings, few would have expected the Kenyans to hold out for the full 50 overs. Ouma and Patel both scored over 40 runs apiece coming in well down the batting order.
The other big scorer for Kenya was the extras gifted by India. An astonishing 42 runs were added to the Kenyan's score due to 19 wides, 4 no-balls and 10 byes and 9 leg byes. The leg-byes are expected, but the other 33 runs are a luxury that India cannot afford to give away, particularly when they play some of the stronger teams.
Tonight, South Africa take on Bangladesh. Although out of form, South Africa should still win convincingly.
ICC Champions Trophy
The ICC Champion's trophy kicked off overnight from jolly old England.
As usual for the home of the Poms, the greatest feature of the day was the rain. Luckily the powers that be had the foresight to realise that the weather in wet old England was likely to interfere with the games and arranged a reserve day for each match.
In the matches that started, England was drawn to play the severely out-of-form Zimbabweans. The rain delayed play by several hours before England managed to make the field and stumbled to 198 runs with 5 wickets down before play was stopped after 38 overs. While the run-rate of 5.2 is reasonable, when the quality of the opposition is taken into account, England should clearly have done much better. If not for opening batsman, Vikram Solanki, who held the English innings together with a solid 62, the story for England could have been highly embarrassing.
In the other match played, New Zealand showed that the United States still has a long way to go before becoming competitive in international cricket. A 210 run slaughter by the New Zealand team exposed the deficiencies in the bowling attack and the fragility of the batting.
Tonight, we see the conclusion of the England v Zimbabwe match as well as India taking on the surprise packet from the last world cup, Kenya. England should manage to keep Zimbabwe at bay with a bowling attack that should be too classy for the inexperienced batting line-up. India are unlikely to be troubled and could hand the Kenyans a crushing defeat.
While the ICC Champions Trophy is on, this blog will keep bringing you cricket, cricket and even more cricket. Club Kev, where too much sport is barely enough*.
*Original slogan stolen from Roy & HG.
