Anothergen

There's been loads of discussion around this, but I'm not seeing many discussions around whether the ball even got near a wire in the first place. There appears to be a prevailing assumption that there being a claim implies that it was at least close, but the broadcast footage suggests otherwise.

This discussion is going to ignore the sensor data (which confirmed no touch) and the trajectories (which people are arguing constantly about), and get down to the elephant in the room. Was there even a wire near the ball to be hit?

So, what is spidercam? The actual cameras themselves come in different shapes and sizes, but the general idea is the same. There is a camera, suspended above the sta

There's been loads of discussion around this, but I'm not seeing many discussions around whether the ball even got near a wire in the first place. There appears to be a prevailing assumption that there being a claim implies that it was at least close, but the broadcast footage suggests otherwise.

This discussion is going to ignore the sensor data (which confirmed no touch) and the trajectories (which people are arguing constantly about), and get down to the elephant in the room. Was there even a wire near the ball to be hit?

So, what is spidercam? The actual cameras themselves come in different shapes and sizes, but the general idea is the same. There is a camera, suspended above the sta

With the test summer coming to an end, eyes will be turning to our next series in Bangladesh later in the year. There's a lot to discuss in regard to how the side is selected, so it is worth starting with some context. Below is the best performers in the Shield of the last 3 seasons with the bat, min 5 matches:

Player	Mats	Inns	NO	Runs	Ave
AT Carey (SAus)	9	18	1	1088	64.00
JP Inglis (WA)	7	14	2	661	55.08
CPL Connolly (WA)	7	13	2	580	52.73
Usman Khawaja (Qld)	12	21	3	908	50.44
CD Green (WA)	5	9	1	400	50.00
BJ Webster (Tas)	20	35	5	1455	48.50
M Labuschagne (Qld)	10	17	1	737	46.06

This was originally a match thread post, but someone suggested it should probably be its own thread.

Watching Brook this series, I keep wondering he averages over 50 so far given the scratchy technique on show. So, I've done a bit of digging.

One less talked about statistic for batters is survival, ie balls faced per dismissal. This is particularly key for openers, but is a good view of how hard it is to remove someone.

Looking just as averages first (min 50 innings since 2020), Brook sits second, only behind Williamson who has batted primarily on Kiwi Bitumen.

Rank	Player	Match	Inns	NO	Runs	Ave
1	KS Williamson (NZ)	30	55	6

Test after test of disappointment, it is time that they are dropped for the sake of the country.

Sydney has gone on for too long ruining test matches, yet somehow they are consistently given the New Year slot.

Look at the past 10 years of disappointment (plus today):

Year	Result	Rain Impacted days	Impact	Dead Rubber
2026	NA	1	Half a day so far	Yes
2025	Win v India	0	None	No
2024	Win v Pakistan	1	Half a day	Yes
2023	Draw v South Africa	3	Lost half of day 1, some of day 2, all of day 3	Yes
2022	Draw v England	3	Lost half of day 1, some of days 2 and 3, some day 5	Yes
2021	Draw v India	2	Lost half of day 1, s

Below is a list of the most successful captains in the 21st century up to today, minimum 10 tests captained, ordered by W/L ratio (incumbents are bolded):

Rank	Captain	Years	Tests	Wins	Losses	Draws	W/L
1	SR Waugh	2001-2004	37	26	6	5	4.333
2	RT Ponting	2004-2010	77	48	16	13	3.000
3	SM Pollock	2001-2003	19	11	4	4	2.750
4	PJ Cummins	2021-2024	27	16	6	5	2.666
5	MP Vaughan	2003-2008	51	26	11	14	2.363
6	V Kohli	2014-2022	68	40	17	11	2.352
7	RG Sharma	2022-2024	15	9	4	2	2.250
8	KS Williamson	2016-2022	40	22	10	8	2.200
9

Personally, I dislike reactionary comments, yet r/cricket has tended to be flooded with reactionary comments regarding Australia's batting in the last few years.

These, generally, boil down to people dogpiling whoever isn't in form in Australia's top 6, or the most recent addition if we're otherwise tracking okay.

Right now, however, is different. Australia's top 6 is as good as it's looked since the early mid 2000s. The best performing player in the country is playing in every position, and the side looks well balanced.

Up to this series, the poster boy for hatespeech was Cameron Green. Young, talented, better looking than you'll ever be, Green has it all, but what he didn't have was

Good sense prevails as as the better of the Western Camerons was recalled to the Australian Test XI.

In an attempt to not merely rehash my previous thread, there are a few points that I feel need to be cleared up, largely around Renshaw, but also around an older point that I never, at least to now, put a name to.

I have at many times on here been accused of 'having favourites', or 'being a shill' (which is a bizarre claim around selection policy). The most notable being Mitch Marsh, Marnus Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw. I've written many a wall of text in defense of all three, but with Renshaw remaining in the s

The discussion of who will replace Warner will dominate discussion between now and Adelaide, but I think with this now being the focus, it's worth just digging a bit into the numbers of Cameron 'Gigachad' Green and Cameron 'Sandydacs' Bancroft.

For the purposes of this discussion, I will ignore that Cameron Green can bowl, much as Captain Pat has done over much of his test career; the focus here is who is the best choice to bat after all.

To start with though, let's just go with the raw numbers over the past 5 seasons (2019-20 to now):

Player	Mats	Inns	Runs	Ave	100s	50s
Green	49	78	3327	50.41	9	13
Bancroft	53	92	3301

Stokes is an interesting character. Born in New Zealand, the son of one time New Zealand Rugby League International Gerard Stokes, Ben, like most good English cricketers, moved there in his teens and was at 19 reportedly interested in representing New Zealand at international level.

Much can be said of Stokes' history, but he is very much a player that lets his game do the talking. Few players in the modern era can make such statements, but a common comment regarding him is 'the stats don't tell the full story'.

The reason for this post is that I responded to an offhand comment by someone that 'Stokes is better than his numbers'. Now, I personally saw nothing controversial in this statem

This post is largely building on the method used in my previous post, 'A Statistical Analysis to Determine and Improve upon the ICC's Team of the "Decade".

With the last of the Tests completed for the year, now seems a fitting time to put together a team by this method. Personally, I'd feel quite silly to write a team of the year post before the last test was even finished.

Broadly, the team will have the following structure:

2 × Openers

1 × Number 3

2 × Batters

1 × Allrounder

1 × Wicketkeeper

2 × Seamer

1 × Spinner

1 × Next Best Bowler

In order to select this though, we need to

With the WSJ reporting on the chess.com report, it seems clear that Hans was not as truthful as one would hope when referencing past cheating. This is the table showing the tournaments that he is alleged to have cheated in: [Table].

A few things pop out here:

• All but one event was Blitz. Only 12/32 games in the rapid event were flagged as likely cheating.
• He appears to have had 3 sets of cheating.
• The first at 12 years of age.
• The second at 13 years of age.
• The third, and biggest one, from February 2020 to August 2020, this being 16-17 years of age, during the height of the Covid lockdowns.

Claims will likely be thrown around that th

A handy guide to understand what's happening tomorrow night. Keep in mind, the required number of seats is 24 and no party holds this number of seats right now.

To truly understand the situation, we have to start with the independents:

• Waite (7.4% LIB v ALP): Member left the Liberal Party after 2018.
• Mount Gambier (10.3% v LIB)
• Kavel (14.5% LIB v ALP): Member left the Liberal Party after 2018. Narungga (18.2% LIB v ALP): Member left the Liberal Party after 2018.
• Florey (13.5% ALP v LIB): Member won't contest this seat in 2022.
• Frome (18.1% LIB v APL): Member won't contest this seat in 2022.

Of these, the expectation is that Waite will be contested, but more th