I have been haunted by its similarity to this famous photo
On the surface, the only parallel between the first photo – Vettori and Moles watching a rained out ODI at Christchurch – and the second – General McArthur and Emperor Hirohito facing up to the press after Japan’s capitulation at the end of the Second World War – is the angles of Vettori’s and McArthur’s respective elbows.
Perish the thought, but could the developments of the past few days deepen the parallels?
There’s been a lot of excitement over Usain Bolt’s cricketing efforts. It seems that the world’s fastest man is not too bad with the bat or the ball. Could he be the saviour of West Indies cricket?
I’ll tell you what’s really needed – a time machine. Recent research suggests that our distant ancestors were much better than the best of us. Apparently, Australian Aborigines from 20,000 years ago could outrun Bolt. And could no doubt bowl a vicious toe crusher off a long run up. Also, your average Neanderthal women was about as strong as a Homo Sapien bodybuilder with Tendulkar’s stature, so would have no trouble sending balls over the boundary. (They were probably better bloggers too and didn’t take two week vacations from posting.)
I found these pictures of what are clearly extremely ancient cricket balls:
Klerksdorp spheres they’re called, discovered in South Africa. They are 2 million years old and made of iron compound. Our antediluvian cricketing ancestors, or whatever alien race brought cricket to earth, were hard case!
The report in the Dom Post this morning that the players don’t want Andy Moles as coach anymore is a megaton hit to Moles’ position, I would say. This isn’t just mutterings of dissatisfaction, as we’re used to under other coaches. By all accounts, this is mutiny.
Apparently, Moles has not been doing his job. That is, he hasn’t been coaching the team, with Vettori taking on that responsibility. Who knows what’s really been going on behind the scenes, but given what we see of Moles, that doesn’t strike me as unlikely. However, I think it speaks most about Moles’ shortcomings as a coach that such a mutiny could be instigated. There was strong dissatisfaction with Bracewell by several players, but it would have been unthinkable for the team to band together and complain; he was just too much in control.
NZC has issued a press release ‘confirming’ Moles as coach, whatever that means. Which is a fairly good indication that there is indeed a crisis. And there was precious little defence of Moles in the press release.
It’s not looking good for Moles. But what can he do? Surely the last thing he wants is to end his time in New Zealand the same way he did in Scotland?
The biggest day since we settled on a black uniform and I’m away from my computer and can’t blog. I’m still on the road, so I’ll just quickly post my impressions.
Semi v. Pakistan Fantastic!! Such an assured performance, no one could doubt we belonged in the final.
Final v. Australia
Hesitant, confused, uncertain – we just didn’t look like we belonged in the final. Is it too much of a cliché to suggest that we couldn’t rise to the occasion is because of our lack of experience in finals?
Majorally stoked that we made the finals. Awesome. Bummed we didn’t win the tournament, but it’s only the Champions Trophy after all.
