cricket.rickeyre.com

This press release from the ICC regarding Sunday’s Contretemps at Kennington arrived in my inbox in the last half-hour. It might be the final word on the Test, but I think there’s still some blood-letting to come. I wonder if the ECB’s insurance covers this type of cancellation:

What the…. ?

How long before we see the ICC issue an emergency playing condition abolishing the five-run penalty in Test matches? Or will we finally see DB Hair despatched to an early retirement?
It will be Monday night before I get the chance to look into Sunday’s festivities at The Oval a little more deeply, but for now, here’s some background reading:

• Obo of the mid-afternoon session (Guardian);
• Obo of the post-tea non-session (Guardian);
• Aggers’ column for BBC Online;
• Cricket 24×7’s comment on events thus far.

This just in from Cricket Australia:

Fifth 3 mobile Ashes Test (SCG) – SOLD OUT

The general public ticket allocation to the Fifth 3 mobile Ashes Test match at the SCG has sold out within 40 minutes this morning.

Tickets all matches in Sydney, including days 1 – 4 of the Test match, went on sale from 9am today through Ticketek (via web, over the phone and through outlets).

A small amount of tickets still remain to the other international matches scheduled for the SCG this summer including:

• Aus v Eng, Twenty20, 9 Jan 2007
• Aus v NZ, ODI, 21 Jan 2007
• Aus v Eng, ODI, 2 Feb
• Second ODI Final

For additional ticketing information, please visit www.cricket.com.au.

In the only suitable fashion.

No play before lunch, rain
Marylebone Cricket Club v Nottinghamshire at Lord’s, 14-17 Apr 2006

Congratulations to Andrew and Rachael Flintoff on the birth on Wednesday of their 6lb 14oz baby boy, National Public Radio newsreader and Alaskan mafiosi Corey Flintoff.
With the distinguished American broadcaster’s birth coming thirteen days early, His Freddiness celebrated at Mohali on Thursday by winning the toss and scoring 4 not out.

The Marylebone Cricket Club has announced on Thursday the dates and venues for the Ashes tour of Australia in 2006-07:

• Museum of Sydney, Saturday October 21 - Wednesday November 8
• Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Sunday November 12 - Wednesday November 22
• South Australian Museum, Adelaide, Sunday November 26 - Wednesday December 6
• Western Australian Museum, Perth, Sunday December 10 - Wednesday December 20
• Melbourne Museum, Monday December 26 - Sunday January 7 2007
• Melbourne Cricket Club Museum, Tuesday January 9 - Sunday January 14

Tasmania misses out again. No word on when tickets will go on sale to Barmy Army operatives, or whether the cast of How Long Have You Had It, Madam will be the Urn’s support act on tour.

“The England boys richly deserve their MBEs and OBEs and I was delighted when I heard on the TV I was going to get my own Sun gong!”

- attributed to Gary Pratt, The Sun, 30.12.05

Rupert Murdoch’s well-known daily comic book, The Sun, was right on the ball last week when England’s specialist twelfth man Gary Pratt missed out on an MBE.

I think it’s fabulous how the Blair Government has opened up the honours lists to people who would never have been contemplated in stuffier times. Congratulations indeed to Sir Tom Jones (though I’d still like to know if David Furnish is now to be called Lord John, or even Lady John, following the recent betrothal). But I think they’re going a bit overboard in rewarding national sporting victories.

A dangerous precedent was set when England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and now we have the 2005 Ashes squad all getting gongs. There’s an OBE for Michael Vaughan, and MBEs for the other eleven who played in the Tests against Australia (Bell, Collingwood, Flintoff, Giles, Harmison, Hoggard, G Jones, S Jones, Pietersen, Strauss, Trescothick). Also getting OBEs are coach Duncan Fletcher, chairman of selectors David Graveney, and team manager Phil Neale.

Let’s just look into this a bit further:
Ian Bell has an MBE for scoring 171 runs in ten innings at an average of 17.10;
Paul Collingwood has an MBE for playing one Test, scoring 17 runs and bowling seven overs;
and Wheelie bin Giles has an MBE for scoring 155 runs at 19.37 and taking 10 wickets at 57.80!

And who missed out?
There were the players selected in the twelve or thirteen-man squads who were not required in any of the final elevens: Chris Tremlett and James Anderson.
There were the substitute fielders: James Hildreth, who caught Ricky Ponting in the First Test, and Gary Pratt, who infamously ran Ponting out in the Fourth, and the others whose names I do not have at hand but were most definitely part of England’s Ashes campaign.
There was the remainder of the England management team: Troy Cooley among others…

And really, was Andrew Flintoff’s contribution worth a mere MBE? And while Clare Connor has been elevated to an OBE for leading the women’s team to victory in their Ashes, what of her team-mates?

And let’s face it: is winning the Ashes really on the same level as winning a Rugby or Football World Cup? Let’s be realistic here.

And then there’s all the players in all those Ashes-winning sides of years past who never got a gong: let’s rustle up some examples - Arnold Sidebottom (1985), Ken Shuttleworth (1970-71), Don Kenyon (1953), Tommy Mitchell (1932-33, the Bodyline series)… I could go on.

Some more news on cricket’s involvement in the campaign to provide urgent relief for victims of the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan:

Members of the England cricket team visited the Institute of Medical Science in Islamabad on Friday, where more than 1500 children are being treated for injuries. BBC Online has a report.

Adam Gilchrist, who is an ambassador for World Vision, appealed on Friday for Australians to give more money for victims of the earthquake. The Age is reporting that the Australian team, who will commence the First Test against the West Indies on Thursday, will discuss on Monday how they can help earthquake victims.

The Pakistan Cricket Board today announced their teams to take part in the Pakistan versus Rest of Pakistan twenty-over-per-side match being held at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday to raise funds for the earthquake relief appeal.

The World Food Programme meanwhile has issued the following press release on Friday.

Devastation in Pakistan worse than expected - survey

Muzaffarabad, 28 October 2005 - WFP has said that losses and devastation from this month’s earthquake in northern Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir were far worse than had first been thought, and that 2.3 million people may now require food aid to get through winter.

These conclusions were based on the preliminary findings of an assessment in the quake-hit region, carried out by WFP with support from the UN Children�s Fund (UNICEF) and the British based non-government organization, Oxfam.

It found that 2.5 million people had lost their homes, most of them in rural areas, and were living in tents or makeshift shelters.

�These people were already poor before the earthquake hit. In a matter of just a few minutes everything they had � their homes and livelihoods � disappeared.

“Now they are completely desperate. We have to reach them before winter does � and that means within the next three weeks,� warned Anette Haller, a WFP Programme Adviser, who headed the assessment team.

In the immediate aftermath of the crisis, WFP appealed for US$56 million to provide emergency food relief for one million of the worst affected people for six months.

However, it gave a warning earlier this week that this figure could well be revised now on the basis of the assessment. It is also appealing for US$100 million to provide air support for aid operations for all agencies.

The assessment results come amid growing concern that donors were contributing too little money to emergency relief efforts by the UN and other aid organizationson the ground and concentrating instead on supporting longer-term reconstruction projects.

WFP warned on 27 October that with winter approaching, a window of hope for survivors was slamming shut.

Six out of the nine districts affected by the earthquake were already in the most food insecure parts of Pakistan, where people depend on subsistence farming, livestock and wage labour during the lean season.

According to the findings, more than half of rural households surveyed lost all or most of their grain stocks and one fourth of the livestock was killed.

Large numbers of children were found to be suffering from diarrhoea or respiratory illnesses, suggesting that a rapid increase in cases of acute malnutrition could be imminent.

About 20 percent of mothers with children under two years old had stopped breastfeeding, either because of illness or inadequate breast milk.

According to the survey, priority should be given to the estimated 200,000 people living in the most difficult to reach areas in Neelum, Jhelum, Kaghan and Naran valley as well as upper parts of Alai which will soon be cut off by snow for months.

The survey noted that less than ten percent of the affected population had left their communities for safer areas, the majority preferring to stay close to their lands and livestock. While larger movements of people are expected to move into camps as winter sets in, this is seen as a last resort.

�These are people traditionally very attached to their land and livestock which up to now have been their sole means of survival. They are not ready to leave them behind to move into camps,� Haller said.

Markets have also not recovered in three of the hardest hit areas, with trading coming to a virtual halt in many areas. And where markets are functioning, prices have soared. In addition, banks are closed, restricting cash and credit flow.

�The local economy has collapsed. Even if the survivors had money to buy food, supplies are extremely limited. Many people are coming down from the mountains only to go back up empty handed,� stressed Haller.

The assessment mission recommended assistance to urban areas for the next two months and in rural areas until the end of February.

World Food Programme � 2005

Wikipedia has links to organisations around the world who are raising funds to assist in the relief. Please give generously to a reputable agency of your choice.

There aren’t enough Novocastrian bloggers out there, let alone Novocastrian bloggers about cricket. This from the city that gave you Greg Matthews, Gus Gilmour, Belinda Clark, Sandman Abbott, Dutchy Holland, Johnny Watkins, me…

From “One Salient Oversight” comes a thought-provoking analysis of Flintoff, Pietersen and the Jerk Factor.