Australia's Summer of Cricket 'Boxing Day Test'

   First we crumbled at the might of New Zealand's 'Black Caps' and now we face the challenge of India [ranked second in Test Cricket at the moment behind England]!! There will be glimpses of promise but I think inconsistency will be the key word this summer. That's what comes with rebuilding a team and the mix of experience and youth in our batting and bowling ranks.
   Yesterday India began their innings after our below par 333. The batters who made a start looked more in command of their own game and more assured than our top order, which comes with an established outfit who know their own game at this level. They also have the best of the conditions and the wicket.
   Cricket is a game of statistics and someone worked out that between one day internationals and Tests, Sachin Tendulkar, the best batter since Bradman,* has made 99 centuries... he was out in the 90s in Mumbai so comes here chasing the hundredth 100... and looked for all money like it would happen this morning until a  false stroke in the 70s.
Apologies to my OS reader/s for three paragraphs of indecipherable cricket jargon!!
   Sadly, technology will be a talking point all summer. The game uses a 'Video Referrral System' to check aspects of the game.
- Whether a bowler oversteps the line in delivering the ball
- whether a catch is taken on the full
- whether a players bat or gloved hands touched a ball before it was caught behind them
- whether a ball that would have hit the stumps is stopped by a players body [principally the legs below the knee] and not their wooden bat

   This last one is the most controversial. The teams have to agree to a set of playing conditions before each series. Whether to use floodlights on a dull afternoon and whether to have the video referral system are two bugbears for the Indians and they don't agree to either.
   Yesterday we saw how farcical that is because the umpire is still able to use video checks to establish whether the bowler overstepped [and he did]. That day before, two Aussie betters were given out caught behind the stumps when they [by all replays] did not hit the ball. They had no recourse to technology.
   There are great cameras used in the sport coverage and for some years there has been a belt strap camera with a stabiliser arm so a walking sideline camera can follow action up close and remain steady. This summer the TV coverage has added a special 'segway' scooter for close ups between official play and around the boundary. 'Joe the cameraman' failed to notice a protective helmet on the ground and ran over it in taking footage of the Aussie team warming up for the next session of play... great youtube blooper tape!!! Technology!!