Well the first full ODI's are here and the tour is headed into the last leg of what has been an awesome summer of cricket.
Lots of runs, wickets, bumps, bruises and of course beers have been for the taking in what will long be remembered as a real clash of the titans.
With the tour winding down, it was interesting to read Ponting's criticism of the decision for Johan Botha to stand down now that Graeme Smith is back. Normally I'm all for the assigned captain to carry through the captaincy duties but Botha's captaincy in Oz and here for the T20 games makes that decision tricky.
His grasp of rotating bowlers in the ODI format is top-notch and you can see he is always thinking about batters and their field positions... and importantly it hasn't dulled his ability to perform with his own bowling.
Maybe a bit of a snub for him? Can you believe that Botha hasn't got an IPL contract?! Geez he's probably the best T20 bowler around at the moment...
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Dude, I wouldn't say he is the best T20 bowler going around but he is certainly been consistent enough. There have been too many, but some that I recall who've done BETTER recently, are Nathan Bracken, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul and Afridi. If you look at the last T20 WC and the IPL, you'll see, some of these players have done really well.
Anyway, I guess we can debate about this back and forth but to me the interesting question that you've raised is "Botha vs. Smith." I would have to say I really like Botha, more as a captain then a player. Similarly, I liked Michael Vaughan, better as a captain then a player. Botha is a good bowler and his decisions as a captain are better. His rotation and field settings have been spot on. He looks more comfortable in the field. Smith is just an amazing batsmen and I've noticed that he is getting the hold of this whole captaincy thing now then ever before. In the past, he talked the talk but did not walk the walk. I wouldn't say he is a GREAT captain but he is getting use to it now. We saw good signs of it in the test series against Australia in Australia.
I've always liked the idea of having a bowler as a Captain. It just brings a whole new perspective, especially, in a game like T20. I think having Botha as a T20 Captain for the WC, may not be such a bad idea. Simply, because his record speaks for itself. Nothing against Smith though.
Hhhhmmm agreed - we could debate it back and forth and I was actually going to do a separate blog post on the subject of how crucial it is going to be to have multiple spinners in a good T20 lineup...
Botha has matured a lot as a captain (and cricketer) and his decisions are definately better.
Smith I think is a ballsy Test captain and I reckon he tends to bully opposition where possible - but I just don't see him doing something unpredictably brilliant or have the total complete control demanded by a T20 World Cup... maybe Botha should run with it and let Smithy have some time off to focus on his batting...
Dunno
I wanna have a look at their T20 bowling records ... might make for interesting reading
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