Talking Balls: Bouncers, Balls, Brawls and Blogs

Jonathan White | Feb 3, 2009 5:00 pm | 6 comments | 2346 reads

In the biggest news for Chinese national teams playing obscure colonial sports this side of the New Year, China has a cricket team. They took part in the Asian Cricket Council Trophy Challenge, against the Asian powerhouses of Iran, Thailand and the Maldives who all beat the China team. Then China overcame Burma by 118 runs to finish seventh overall in their first ever tournament. Their coach Rashid Khan suggests that within five years China will be toward the top of the non-test playing nations in Asia. Howzat for preparations for next November’s Asian Games in Guangzhou?

Financial concerns means that The Bird’s Nest is set to be surrounded with a shopping and entertainment complex in the next three to five years. With an annual upkeep of over USD 8 million it has to be seen as a necessary evil. So far the word is that the only confirmed act at the stadium is the opera Turandot on August 8th . Although it has been strongly touted that the Italian Super Cup will be played there that month too. While Guo’an will definitely not play their domestic campaign there (opting instead for the Workers’ Stadium), they will play both Chelsea and world champions Manchester United there in July.

Guo’an have also got themselves a new foreign player to replace the departing Tiago. His name is Ryan Griffiths (see left) and he is a sometime Australian international, and maybe even a model for catalogues. Even better for Guo’an is the investment of RMB 20 million from the Beijing Sports Bureau. With tax paying for the team you may feel more entitled to shout at them or cheer them on next season.

Compare Guo’an’s good fortunes to those of the national team who recently lost to Wuxi Zhongbang, who are ranked 11th in the A Division. Coming after a recent loss to Oman, and a less than spectacular Olympic campaign this might explain why China has not submitted a formal bid for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups. Although it might be the only way they could guarantee qualification.

Beijing’s women’s basketballers may have missed out on the final, losing to Liaoning in the semi, but two players made it on to the All-Star Team and the Beijing coach is to lead the Northern Side in the All-Star Game out at Shougang Stadium on Feb 15.

In the men’s game, former NBA player David Harrison is starting to settle down a bit and the coach is happy with his performance – he picked up 51 points one game recently. His Beijing Ducks have 15 wins and 15 losses and seem to remain stuck in 11th place on the league ladder. Not faring quite so well is fellow American Gabe Muoneke of the Yunnan Running Red Bulls. He was accosted by a pair of Shanghai Sharks- including Liu Wei, point guard for the Chinese national team- in December. The two players were fined and suspended. Gabe was less bothered than this incident than by the standard of play in the CBA. You can check out his insight on his blog.

A slightly more renowned American player has also been blogging, you can now check out Kobe Bryant’s inner thoughts (well the ones that won’t get him in trouble, at least) in bilingual form on Sina.

Links and Sources
Sina: Kobe Bryant's blog.
Hoophype.com: Gabe Muoneke's blog.

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atacoguy's picture atacoguy Submitted by Guest on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 16:18

Seriously, Sharan. Although you very obviously know a lot about cricket, it's equally obvious to anyone who grew up in the US playing baseball that you don't know the first thing about that sport. The situational/strategic awareness and technical precision needed to play at the professional level are both exceptional.

Would suggest that you not expend another ten paragraphs trying to refute this, you already amply demonstrated the depths of your ignorance with the first ten.

Sharan's picture Sharan Submitted by Guest on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 20:46

Well, I don't deny that the way baseball is played provides its spectators with a lot of entertainment. I guess you could have all sorts of strategies in baseball to liven things up and to try to make the game look intelligent. It's all showmanship with no real substance, however. Strategies don't mean skill. They just mean that the public gets distracted from the fact that there's not really much to the game on its own. It's like the cheerleaders: another strategy to hold the crowd's interest.

You said: "You could not even get your cricket bat on one fastball from a Major League pitcher let alone if they start thowing junk at you."

You support my point. It is indeed predominantly a brute force game, with a relatively small amount of skill involved. One guy flings with all his might, one guy swings with all his might, and then they all run with all their might. You mostly need to work out at weights and turn yourself into the Incredible Hulk.

Sure, doing anything in life consistently involves skill, and I'm sure baseball has its share of skill too. But the brute force : skill ratio in baseball is far, far less than in a lot of other sports.

Talking of ball speeds, fast bowlers in cricket can pretty much match the speeds of baseball pitchers. I'd like to see this buddy of yours get his bat to a fast ball from a cricket bowler. And that is if he can judge where the ball is going to hit the ground and which way it's going to spin or swing or turn or how high it is going to rise depending on the condition of the pitch.

Fast bowling in cricket requires a HELL of a lot more coordination than flinging a ball with all your might at your own leisure after swinging back and forth a few times while working your jaw furiously on a wad of chewing gum to make it look like a lot is going on. The condition of the ground (pitch) makes all the difference in cricket, something baseball players never have to worry about.

Do the pitchers in baseball have a choice? I'd like to see a baseball pitcher try to pitch the equivalent of a slow spin bowler in cricket and see where that takes him in baseball. First of all, imagine the jeers of the opposition, the homophobic taunts and lewd gestures attacking his sexuality while his own team and supporters cringe and try to sink into the ground. No sirree, brute force is called for.

Any swing you can produce in baseball, cricket can match that and more. And, in cricket, there are the added variables of the ball actually hitting the ground, the batsman having to play to both the offside and the legside, and others. These are real variables, not distracting strategies. It is delightful to see batsmen glancing the ball along the ground, all around the pitch, transferring with a flick of their wrist the bowler's energy to the ball. Try glancing the ball in baseball in a similar way -- more cringing and sink-into-the-earth attempts by your team, more homophobic taunts and lewd gestures from the opposition. No sirree, brute force is called for. Surprise, surprise. Yawn.

I do encourage you to get your athlete buddy to have a go at a fast cricket ball -- or even a slow one for that matter -- before he too tries to dismiss the game as a colonial hangover.

Glad you mentioned hockey. No, I don't dismiss hockey in such a cavalier fashion. On the contrary, I consider it a highly skilled game; fast paced and skilled. I'd place it right up there on the skills scale.

The Dude's picture The Dude Submitted by Guest on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 09:26

Cricket harder than baseball? You have obviously not played the game to any higher degree. A buddy of mine played in the majors for both the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees and he is the finest athlete I have ever met. You could not even get your cricket bat on one fastball from a Major League pitcher let alone if they start thowing junk at you.

I am not putting down cricket as I know its a lot harder than it looks and takes real talent and athletes to play at the top levels but don't dimiss baseball as a game of brute force. That is just ignorant. Besides batting strategy there is running strategy. You have fielding strategy and pitch selections and infield and outfield shifts. So many factors can be in play in baseball that makes it a wonderful spectator game if you know what you are looking for. By your rationale hockey is just a bunch of guys skating with sticks chasing a rubber disk.

The Dude Abides.

Sharan's picture Sharan Submitted by Guest on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 19:37

Talking of "obscure colonial sports": the game of cricket actually involves a great deal more skill than the brute-force, over-hyped no-brainer called baseball. The Chinese who found it easy enough to take to baseball found the going very tough when they tried their hand at cricket.

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