Premature Ejection
You gotta be friggin kiddin me.
Richard Boock's article in the Sunday Star-Times with a follow-up piece in the Dominion Post suggests Stephen Fleming's time as captain of the NZ cricket team is about to come to a sudden end.
You gotta be friggin kiddin me.
Now while sports journos are not exactly in the Nostradamus category when it comes to predictions, given that Boock wrote Fleming's book we can safely assume the two do speak to each other and in this case there is a bit of wood burning causing the smoke on the horizon.
And if NZ Cricket are about to dump Fleming as captain, I'd rank it in the Rugby League Sports Management and American Military Intelligence category of oxymorons. Dumb Dumb Dumb. Sure, Fleming is in the twilight of his career but surely as our most successful captain ever and one of the world's best over the last 10 years he has earned some right to stage manage his exit? The fact he gave up the ODI captaincy after the World Cup shows he is not really wanting to hang onto the reins longer than he perhaps should. He is still in fine nick (a 243 for Nottinghamshire last week) and at age 34 you wouldn't think senility has crept in yet, would you?
The only ones showing signs of senility are NZ Cricket's coach and selectors. States Boock:
It's thought the New Zealand selectors are anxious to continue with Fleming's services as a batsman, but are unwilling to retain him as captain
Well here's a thought. If you demote Fleming as captain, my money is on him giving NZ cricket the big two-fingered salute and buggering off to the rebel Indian Cricket League. Honestly, NZ cricket is living in cloud cuckoo land if they think they can demote him from the captaincy yet retain his services as a batsmen.
The fact is Fleming is still the best qualified for the job, and can still hold his place in the side. And with test series away to South Africa, England and Australia over the next 12 months, it ain't the time to be blooding the heir apparent. IF NZ Cricket had any brains, they would look at the long-term calendar, see we have a softish domestic season in 2008/9 with visits by West Indies and India and promote Vettori then.
This is all so completely stupid you have to wonder what Fleming has done to piss off either (or both) the selectors or coach Bracewell. Yet again you're left with the feeling personalities and politics get in the way of rational decision-making in a NZ sports organisation.
Richard Boock's article in the Sunday Star-Times with a follow-up piece in the Dominion Post suggests Stephen Fleming's time as captain of the NZ cricket team is about to come to a sudden end.
You gotta be friggin kiddin me.
Now while sports journos are not exactly in the Nostradamus category when it comes to predictions, given that Boock wrote Fleming's book we can safely assume the two do speak to each other and in this case there is a bit of wood burning causing the smoke on the horizon.
And if NZ Cricket are about to dump Fleming as captain, I'd rank it in the Rugby League Sports Management and American Military Intelligence category of oxymorons. Dumb Dumb Dumb. Sure, Fleming is in the twilight of his career but surely as our most successful captain ever and one of the world's best over the last 10 years he has earned some right to stage manage his exit? The fact he gave up the ODI captaincy after the World Cup shows he is not really wanting to hang onto the reins longer than he perhaps should. He is still in fine nick (a 243 for Nottinghamshire last week) and at age 34 you wouldn't think senility has crept in yet, would you?
The only ones showing signs of senility are NZ Cricket's coach and selectors. States Boock:
It's thought the New Zealand selectors are anxious to continue with Fleming's services as a batsman, but are unwilling to retain him as captain
Well here's a thought. If you demote Fleming as captain, my money is on him giving NZ cricket the big two-fingered salute and buggering off to the rebel Indian Cricket League. Honestly, NZ cricket is living in cloud cuckoo land if they think they can demote him from the captaincy yet retain his services as a batsmen.
The fact is Fleming is still the best qualified for the job, and can still hold his place in the side. And with test series away to South Africa, England and Australia over the next 12 months, it ain't the time to be blooding the heir apparent. IF NZ Cricket had any brains, they would look at the long-term calendar, see we have a softish domestic season in 2008/9 with visits by West Indies and India and promote Vettori then.
This is all so completely stupid you have to wonder what Fleming has done to piss off either (or both) the selectors or coach Bracewell. Yet again you're left with the feeling personalities and politics get in the way of rational decision-making in a NZ sports organisation.
Labels: opinion
posted by Rob Crawford at 8:41 AM
1 Comments:
Im glad you didn't throw in the towel on this blog mate
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