10 Things # 51

GH on sad politics, bad ads, great literature and an awesome band

1/ Will Pakistan play the T20 World Cup? Pakistan’s interior minister and cricket board boss Mohsin Naqvi has the matter in hand, so what could possibly go wrong? We’re promised a decision by 2 February, five days before Pakistan are meant to get the tournament underway with their match against the Netherlands. Yep, no worries, plenty of turnaround time etc.

You’d be forgiven for not quite grasping why the Pakistan Cricket Board, whose games have already been moved to Sri Lanka, is standing at the door, looking over its shoulder, saying: ‘Did you hear me? I’m leaving now. This is it. Leaving right now. Yes, this is me leaving…’ They wish to be seen as ‘in solidarity’ with Bangladesh, whose earlier brinkmanship with the ICC not only failed in its objective, but disappointed their players and disenfranchised the third-biggest fan base in the world. Underlying it, I suspect, is also residual ill-feeling about India’s armchair ride in last year’s Champions Trophy, to which Mohsin was an irritated onlooker. Now, there’s some foundation for this, and, yes, the ICC is an Indian sock puppet, as Sharda observes here.

Yet this we already knew. And it’s all a little late, the logic is shaky, the risks are great, the home support far from monolithic, the disruption to other countries considerable, and, above all, the rewards of the temporary reinforcement of a pre-existing entente with Bangladesh pretty meagre. The ‘compromise’ position of Pakistan boycotting their game against India will cost international cricket another bomb, even as IPL investors clean up. Anyway, they’ll let us know! I can hardly wait for next year’s World Cup…..

2/ The end of the Big Bash League does not signify the end of the Australian season, but it feels oddly like it. After all, how many climaxes can a summer contain? The Sheffield Shield final can hardly be expected to signify much when it does not begin until 26 March, three weeks into the AFL season. Twenty-five years ago, it was hoped that the Allan Border Medal might provide a sub-Brownlow rounding off to the summer, but scheduling has now precluded what became the Australian Cricket Awards - coda for Dan’s 2024 book is that the women’s gongs will be distributed in the middle of next month, the men’s ‘later in the year’, which seems less ‘outrageous’ than dour.

3/ There is, of course, another Test match to play - Australia’s women’s Test in Perth marooned in summer five weeks hence, commencing after the start of the football seasons. The hosts will have a new captain, for all formats. Sophie Molineux is a lateral pick, given her lack of recent cricket, and Australia’s existing spin stocks. But Australia has a bit to prove where its on-field nerve is concerned, and some maturity and sang froid might help. At one time, of course, Tahlia McGrath looked like Alyssa Healy’s natural heir, but her game seems to have fallen apart, to the extent that awarding her one of two vice-captaincies is also elusive. Anyway, the Indian visit commences with T20s in Sydney on 15 February, and Et Al will be following it.

4/ Reasonable minds differ on all manner of cricket subjects, but in one respect I think a consensus is possible - Australian cricketers make shit advertisements. Honestly, have you ever seen such a crop as this summer’s?