Overreaction Monday ft. MVP Jadeja, Hogg’s Pakistan punt and Riley’s distasteful statement
Mondays are incomplete without overreactions and so we are back to help you get rid of the irksome blues by spicing up your day by presenting you four of the most absurd statements we’ve had this week in the world of cricket. Which one was the worst of the lot? Well, you get to decide that.
Ravindra Jadeja is India’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in Test cricket in the 21st century
CricViz’s ‘match impact’ model, where each and every player was assigned an ‘MVP Rating’ on the impact they had on matches, found Ravindra Jadeja to be India’s most valuable Test cricketer of the 21st century.
SC Take: ‘Have statistics gone too far?’ was the first thought that struck my mind as soon I came across this piece of information. Make no mistake, Ravindra Jadeja is a great player and he’s played a pivotal role in India dominating the Test arena in the last 10 years or so but analytics like this - and I might be absolutely wrong about this - almost prove the point why pure numbers, at times, could be a tad misleading. Trusting just the eye and not the numbers, it’s hard to think of any point in Jadeja’s career where he’s made the fans go, “Yes. Jaddu must be the first name on the teamsheet.” Indeed, he’s won many a game for the country - primarily with the ball - and some even single-handedly, but seldom has his impact been such that he’s unanimously made everyone ‘feel’ that he’s the most important player in the side. His exploits with the bat, too, have bolstered his MVP rating but truth be spoken, while his numbers read pretty - 35.26 with fifteen 50-plus scores - he’s played a negligible number of match-defining knocks in his career; you could take away all 440 runs he scored in 2019 and India would still have won all the games they eventually ended up winning. Jadeja is definitely an underrated gem, but far from India’s MVP of the 21st century.
The Indian Premier League could become the Mumbai T20 League
According to a BCCI official, a Mumbai-only IPL - an IPL where all games will be played in the city of Mumbai - is a possibility that’s being considered.
SC Take: Sometimes, you’ve got to tip your hat off to the optimism of tournament organizers. I mean, back in March, the IPL organizers deferred a decision on the postponement of the tournament in the hope of the situation simmering down by May (It’s July now) so frankly, it’s not surprising that a bunch of people think that in around three months time the IPL can be held in Mumbai. Yep, that’s right. There are people who genuinely believe that in three months’ time, a tournament like the IPL can be held in a city which currently has already recorded close to one lakh Covid-19 cases - and is showing no signs of slowing down. And mind you, these are just the ‘official’ numbers; the actual number, as many have suggested, might very well be 10x of these figures. Without even getting into the ‘bio-bubble’ environment that the said official spoke of, I think it is important to make the organizers swallow their pride and understand that unless and until a vaccine is found, there is no freakin way that the IPL is going to happen in India. Thus the sooner they drop the dream of somehow hosting the IPL in India, and instead pursue realistic options outside of the country, the better the chances of the tournament taking place this year will be.
There is only one country that can beat India in India - and it’s Pakistan
Brad Hogg believes that Pakistan are the most well-equipped side to beat India in their own backyard in Test cricket.
SC Take: It’s a 100% record for Brad Hogg, who has now found himself in both the Overreaction Monday articles I’ve written. Anyway, coming to his point, Hogg’s comments make me suspect if he’s been watching a completely different sport. Forget beating India in India, this Pakistan side has comprehensively lost two series’ at home in the last three years against teams - Sri Lanka and New Zealand - they were expected to dispatch blindfolded. If the two sides play at UAE or even in Pakistan, for that matter, this Pakistan side would be lucky to avoid a whitewash at the hands of India. Perhaps the bowling could ‘try’ and go toe-to-toe against that of India’s, but if Hogg realistically thinks that a Top six of Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam and Asad Shafiq and Haris Sohail - even at their very best - could challenge India, then he’s been watching a completely different sport altogether, indeed. As things stand, if the Pakistan side that beat Bangladesh by an innings and 44 runs in Rawalpindi in February were to tour India for a three-match Test series, they would not only end up losing the main games but perhaps also the warm-up encounters.
Phil Simmons needs to be sacked because……..erm… he attended a funeral
Conde' Riley, The President of the Barbados Cricket Association, has called for the "immediate removal" of Phil Simmons as head coach of West Indies for putting the lives of players in danger.
SC Take: We continue to come across ‘overreactions’ day in and day out, but Conde Riley’s ludicrous letter, asking for the removal of Phil Simmons as the head coach of West Indies, easily takes the cake. "I just heard on the radio that our head coach Mr Phil Simmons attended a funeral recently and is now being quarantined as a result. If this is true I am calling for his immediate removal as head coach,” is what Riley wrote, in a letter to the board members. But as it turned out, Simmons, who left the biosecure bubble to attend the funeral of his Father-in-Law, had already obtained permission from the board and had taken all the necessary precaution whilst being in constant touch with the medical staff.
Well, it is hard to believe that the move was not a politically motivated one. As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, Riley, a member in the board of directors of CWI, happens to be a supporter of former CWI President Dave Cameron, who incidentally happened to be the President when Phil Simmons was sacked during his first tenure. Cameron is a direct rival of Ricky Skerritt, who dethroned the latter as CWI President last year, and so for Riley, this was an opportunity to leave some sort of a stain in the incumbent President’s reign.
Being opportunistic is one thing but what Riley did, through his letter, has come off as classless, distasteful and disgusting - especially at a time when Simmons was grieving the death of a loved one.