tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/the-ashes-6368/articlesThe Ashes – The Conversation2023-08-01T00:49:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089192023-08-01T00:49:01Z2023-08-01T00:49:01ZBazball by the numbers: what the stats say about English cricket’s ambitious but risky change of pace<p>The leisurely sport of Test cricket, in which matches last for several days, has been around for almost 150 years. Over the course of that century and a half, cricket has been reshaped by a few crucial events: the “bodyline” era of the 1930s, the invention of one-day matches and World Series Cricket in the 1970s, and the introduction of the even faster-paced Twenty20 cricket in 2005. </p>
<p>We may be living through another pivotal moment in the history of Test cricket: the advent of “Bazball”, a freewheeling, attacking style of play developed by England coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum. </p>
<p>The aggressive approach is seen as carrying high risk and high reward, with the goal of scoring runs quickly and forcing a conclusive result in a game that often ends in draws when time runs out.</p>
<p>Bazball is only about a year old, and some debate its merits and even its very existence. As statisticians, we can’t determine whether Bazball will transform the sport or fade away – but we’ve crunched the numbers and found evidence England’s new approach does represent a genuine break with the history of Test cricket.</p>
<h2>What is Bazball?</h2>
<p>After a lacklustre 4-0 loss to Australia in the Ashes series two summers ago, England sacked head coach Chris Silverwood. His replacement was the relatively untested McCullum, a former captain of the New Zealand team known for his fast scoring as a batsman.</p>
<p>McCullum only retired from playing in 2019. He is the first international head coach to have played the majority of his career in the era of the frenetic, high-scoring Twenty20 cricket format. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ashes-how-england-crickets-head-coach-brendon-mccullum-developed-his-bazball-style-207949">The Ashes: how England cricket's head coach Brendon McCullum developed his 'Bazball' style</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With this appointment, England has adopted an extremely attacking style dubbed “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2kHhXVRPCrT1Qap1fG6sWW">Bazball</a>” by Cricinfo editor Andrew Miller. The name has taken off in discussions of the stark shift in England’s play, which has attracted attention among cricket fans around the world.</p>
<p>So what is Bazball? McCullum himself recently <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/england-test-cricket-brendon-mccullum-i-don-t-really-like-that-silly-term-bazball-1323779">told</a> a Perth radio show “I don’t have any idea what ‘Bazball’ is”.</p>
<h2>Run rates</h2>
<p>To understand what Bazball is, and whether it even exists, we turned to the voluminous statistical history of the game.</p>
<p>At the conclusion of the first Test of this Ashes series, 2,507 <a href="https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;spanmax1=16+Jun+2023;spanval1=span;template=results;type=aggregate">matches</a> of Test cricket had been played and nearly 2,500,000 runs scored. Across all those matches, the average number of runs scored per six-ball over (known as the “run rate”) has been remarkably stable. </p>
<p>From 1910 to 1919, on average, 3.03 runs were scored every six balls. By the 1950s this had fallen a little to 2.32 runs per six balls, but it has been slowly increasing ever since. </p>
<p>Over the past 20 years, the run rate has averaged 3.29 runs per over, the highest in Test cricket’s history. </p>
<p>What kind of numbers have we seen in Bazball matches?</p>
<h2>Comparing Bazball to the past</h2>
<p>It might be tempting to compare run rates directly, but run rates can be affected by many factors, such as the total number of runs scored in an innings and the pitch conditions. </p>
<p>For example, an innings with a larger run total will tend to correspond to more runs per over, as there are a limited number of overs. As a result, there is less variety in run rates for innings with larger totals.</p>
<p><iframe id="AYHSw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AYHSw/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We built a statistical model to predict, and capture the variability of, run rates in Test matches. The model took into account the innings total, the year of play, and the location where the match was played. </p>
<p>We fitted the model to the data for run rate per innings. We only included data since 2000, which we define loosely as “modern cricket”. </p>
<p>Further, we excluded data where the innings total was less than 200, as it can be easier to maintain a very high run rate for a shorter innings. This left a total of 2,659 innings for analysis.</p>
<p><iframe id="oJ9Rb" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/oJ9Rb/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe id="IJ4Cx" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/IJ4Cx/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>As the charts above show, the model does well at capturing how the mean and variance of run rates changes with year and innings total. </p>
<h2>Putting Bazball in context</h2>
<p>Next, we can measure how far a given innings deviates from the model’s prediction with a number we call the “run rate score”. If the model represents business as usual, the run rate score shows how “unusual” the innings is.</p>
<p>We are interested in high run rates, so we focused on data points larger than what the model predicts (that is, the highest positive run rate scores). We used a statistical approach that can also capture the estimated uncertainty in the run rate scores.</p>
<p><iframe id="z5Rei" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/z5Rei/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In the chart above, you can see the top 30 estimated run rate scores. There are some uncertainties in estimating a run rate score, so these are shown by the shaded areas. As you can see by the highlighted bars, there are eight Bazball innings in the top 30. This is quite remarkable, given there are only 20 Bazball innings altogether in our data set of 2,659 innings.</p>
<p>This demonstrates strong evidence that Bazball is a very real phenomenon. Whether Brendon McCullum knows it or not, his team is up to something very unusual </p>
<p>So now that Bazball has faced its toughest challenge yet – the Australian pace attack – and seemingly survived, the final hurdle will be an away series in India in February next year. For now, we will be keeping a close eye on whether other teams follow suit in this revolutionary style of cricket.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Drovandi is a Professor of Statistics at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and is an Investigator in the QUT Centre for Data Science. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Newans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Statistics show how a change of approach by England’s team marks a dramatic break with the history of Test cricket.Tim Newans, Lecturer, Griffith UniversityChristopher Drovandi, Professor of Statistics, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2091242023-07-05T06:49:24Z2023-07-05T06:49:24ZWhat is the difference between the laws of cricket and the ‘spirit’ of cricket?<p>The second Ashes Test ended in tense scenes on Sunday following the controversial dismissal of English batsman Jonny Bairstow. His stumping infuriated a pro-England crowd at the famous Lord’s ground and divided the cricketing world. </p>
<p>While the Australians would no doubt have preferred to win with less controversy, did they actually do anything wrong?</p>
<p>In answer to that question, it’s widely accepted, even by the English team, that his dismissal was within the laws of cricket. But critics then invoked the “spirit of cricket” to suggest the Australians should not have asked for the dismissal to be upheld. So what is the difference?</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket">laws of cricket</a> detail the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. They have been owned and maintained by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London for over 200 years. </p>
<p>The rules are clear and the many English fans and past players, along with the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/the-ashes/ashes-2023-jonny-bairstow-stumped-by-alex-carey-cricket-rule-explained-was-he-out-was-the-decision-right-second-test-at-lords-reaction-news/news-story/41f36dc48a1515effb69a5c18acccf5a">current captain and coach</a>, have acknowledged the umpires were correct according to those laws. </p>
<p>That’s when we get to the “spirit”. Since the late 1990s, the laws of cricket have also had an introductory statement or preamble. It states that cricket should be played not only according to the laws, <a href="https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket/spirit-of-cricket">but also in the “spirit of cricket”</a>“. </p>
<p>This preamble is aimed at reminding players and officials of their responsibility for ensuring cricket is played <a href="https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket/spirit-of-cricket">in a truly sportsmanlike manner</a>. </p>
<p>The two captains have the main responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play is upheld. This primarily involves making sure players show respect for other players, officials and the traditional values of cricket. It is against the spirit of the game to do things such as dispute an umpire’s decision, verbally or physically abuse a player or umpire, or cheat.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1675771650988560384"}"></div></p>
<p>The problem is the "spirit of cricket” is a subjective and slightly hazy concept. Respected English cricket writers have even suggested it has not existed since 1882, using an <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/07/04/the-ashes-cheating-bairstow-spirit-of-cricket-tradition/">example of conduct</a> by the “father of cricket”, W.G. Grace himself. </p>
<p>While cricket is united under its laws, cricket is a global game and the idea of the “spirit” differs around the world. Consequently, opinions about Bairstow’s dismissal have been highly polarised. Many English players and fans are very angry at what has occurred, accusing Australia of going against the “spirit of cricket”. The fact they narrowly lost the match no doubt intensified this feeling.</p>
<p>Their anger is reflected in the front-page stories in <a href="https://twitter.com/cric_blog/status/1675808745656573954">numerous English newspapers</a> and in social media posts. Twitter has had tens of thousands of tweets under trending hashtags such as #Ashes, #Bairstow and #SpiritofCricket. </p>
<p>Interestingly, a look at these hashtags also reveal numerous accusations of hypocrisy by the English, backed up with <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ashes-cricket-2023-eight-times-england-broke-the-spirit-of-cricket-as-bairstow-incident-ignites/52QFZT4ES5FG5OUBZMUKGJHEYI/">examples</a> of England’s questionable, and sometimes very similar, conduct. These examples have included central figures such as English players <a href="https://twitter.com/BigOtrivia/status/1675643613689311232">Stuart</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MitchellGlenn/status/1675685369898242048">Broad</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/1116sen/status/1676076294306689026">Jonny</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyIKnow/status/1676246531387846657">Bairstow</a> and coach <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/the-ashes/cant-reward-stupidity-brendan-mccullums-words-come-back-to-bite-him/news-story/b4f114547671fa325b11a3acef806ae2">Brendon McCullum</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1676076294306689026"}"></div></p>
<p>Additionally, the only player who has been fined for displaying <a href="https://www.icc-cricket.com/media-releases/3542860">conduct contrary</a> to the spirit of the game in this Ashes series is English player Moeen Ali.</p>
<p>Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting noted that a key part of the spirit of cricket was <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/the-ashes/ashes-2023-cricket-news-ricky-ponting-hits-out-at-ben-stokes-response-to-lords-furore/news-story/cd9859c2dfc32c007e6e9c76a22136be">respecting the umpire’s decision</a>, which in this instance he said the English players, fans and press had not. Indeed, several MCC members have been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/66082409">suspended</a> over their abuse of Australian cricketers returning to their dressing room.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yiuo50uCL9s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the key lesson that both sides could learn can be encapsulated in the old saying that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, particularly in the modern age when evidence can be quickly <a href="https://www.thechronicle.com.au/sport/cricket/jonny-bairstow-footage-all-but-silences-englands-spirit-of-the-game-debate/news-story/4a4b6d8f9ce801fb23169e6d8c87a5f3">found on the internet</a>. </p>
<p>Neither country has a clean slate when it comes to the “spirit of cricket”. Both should be careful about trying to take the moral high ground. Trevor Chappell’s <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/cricket/icc-world-cup-2015/when-trevor-chappell-rolled-the-ball-down-the-pitch-to-brian-mckechnie-he-did-the-kiwis-a-favour/news-story/9e6cdec155f23674f3abf0629a96abaa">underarm bowl</a> is one of the most infamous Australian examples, still remembered over 40 years later. </p>
<p>Bairstow’s dismissal is the most recent controversy and unlikely to be the last. </p>
<p>As the Australian team heads to Leeds for the third Test starting on Thursday, there are concerns tensions could boil over, on and off the field. Leeds is known for its raucous atmosphere. Cricket Australia has <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-news-live-rba-interest-rates-joko-widodo-pwc-scandal-20230704-p5dlpf.html?post=p54ztv">increased security</a> for the Australian team and reportedly told players to remain <a href="https://au.sports.yahoo.com/cricket-ashes-jonny-bairstow-stumping-controversy-exposes-worrying-aussie-truth-014432845.html">extra vigilant</a> when dining out in restaurants during the remaining weeks of the Ashes. </p>
<p>We may never get complete agreement on the “spirit of cricket” and whether the Australians breached it on this occasion. Perhaps the closest we can get is to agree with former Australian bowler and Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie, who <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-12256795/Mail-Sports-experts-weigh-controversial-stumping-Englands-second-Test-defeat.html">believes</a> that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>by playing within the laws of the game you are playing within the spirit of the game. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let’s hope the remainder of the series sees a cooling of tensions and more focus on the last three Tests being <a href="https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket/preamble-to-the-laws-spirit-of-cricket">played hard but fair</a>, without reigniting “spirit of cricket” debates that no one wins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209124/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vaughan Cruickshank does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The laws by which the game is played are laid out in black and white. The ‘spirit of cricket’, however, is a much more nebulous concept.Vaughan Cruickshank, Program Director – Health and Physical Education, Maths/Science, Faculty of Education, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080272023-06-28T20:03:43Z2023-06-28T20:03:43ZCricket commentators love to talk about the ‘nervous nineties’ – but our new research suggests there’s no such thing<p>With dual men’s and women’s Ashes series under way, the performance of elite Test cricketers is in the spotlight. For psychologically minded researchers like us, one aspect of play is attracting particular interest: the performance of batters progressing through the famed “nervous nineties”. </p>
<p>Popularised by <a href="https://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/five-batsmen-who-never-got-out-in-nervous-nineties-in-tests">commentators</a>, this terminology captures the idea that batters with 90 or more runs become anxious about reaching (or not reaching) a century (100 runs). </p>
<p>Commentators and journalists (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_nineties">and Wikipedia</a>) often portray the nervous nineties as a problematic moment for batters. This anxiety, the story goes, leads to lost ability, slow run-scoring and timid play.</p>
<p>These ideas are intuitive – but are they correct?</p>
<p>In fact our new research, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287700">published today in PLOS ONE</a>, shows batters approaching 100 runs typically increased their scoring rate (more runs per ball) and became more likely to score <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_(cricket)">a boundary</a> (a four or a six), without being any more likely to get out than at any other point between 70 and 130 runs.</p>
<h2>100 is not an arbitrary number</h2>
<p>While cricket is a team sport, the individual accumulation of 100 runs is universally hailed as a major batting achievement. </p>
<p>Notably, 99 runs is an impressive individual total; yet in cricket culture, 99 is a world away from 100.</p>
<p>Watching a batter reach 100 runs reveals its significance. Jubilation and relief flood out, teammates stand and applaud, and crowds respond. Even nearby opponents offer congratulations. </p>
<p>Scoring centuries builds a batter’s reputation, while enhancing their legacy, their chance of team selection and, let’s not forget, their team’s chances of winning. </p>
<p>In stark contrast, getting out just short of a century is a bitter experience. </p>
<p>Beyond the disappointment, being dismissed in the 90s can attract stigma of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/watsons-nervous-90s-nemesis-20101218-191ik.html">mental weakness</a> (especially if repeated) and is widely considered “<a href="https://www.cricket.com.au/news/india-england-fifth-test-chennai-joe-root-smith-kohli-williamson-worlds-best-batsmen/2016-12-17">a failure to convert</a>”. </p>
<p>Who wouldn’t be nervous?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-cricket-can-teach-us-about-the-minds-experience-of-time-and-how-to-deal-with-anxiety-207540">What cricket can teach us about the mind's experience of time – and how to deal with anxiety</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Challenges of realising success</h2>
<p>Many people can think of a time when a desired achievement slipped through their fingers just when success seemed assured. </p>
<p>Humans have imperfect thought control and can experience unhelpful thoughts at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.101.1.34">inconvenient times</a>, like pondering the consequences of failing when success is in sight.</p>
<p>The possibility of gaining or losing reputation is also a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.33.3.441">common source</a> of performance anxiety.</p>
<p>For athletes, performance anxiety places extra demands on the ability to execute precise actions. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, the anxious brain is thought to be <a href="https://research.stmarys.ac.uk/id/eprint/931/1/Vater-Williams-Roca-Effects-of-Anxiety-on-Anticipation.pdf">less efficient</a> at perceiving relevant information in the environment, and at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/kr.2017-0056">planning and executing movement</a>. </p>
<p>To counteract this, performers need to apply coping strategies to maintain performance, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.001">acceptance of negative thoughts</a> or directing their thoughts to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2006.10.007">single focus</a>, like the ball in cricket. </p>
<p>According to the mythology of the nervous nineties, these strategies could include more cautious behaviour to try to avoid getting out.</p>
<h2>What does the data say?</h2>
<p>In our new research, we examined data about every ball bowled in 712 men’s and women’s Test matches played between 2004 and 2022 (over 1.4 million deliveries). </p>
<p>In stark contrast to the colloquial phenomenon of the nervous nineties, we found batters in their 90s generally scored faster without increasing their chances of dismissal. </p>
<p>Importantly, accelerated scoring – that is, a progressive increase in the average runs per ball and the probability of a boundary – was uniquely large throughout the 90s when compared to the 70s, 80s and immediately after 100. </p>
<p>Some key examples from this year’s Ashes series bear out this finding. When Usman Khawaja <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-18/ashes-day-two-usman-khawaja-conquers-england-demons-australia/102492592">brought up his century</a> in the first men’s Ashes Test of 2023, it was with a boundary. </p>
<p>When Ellyse Perry was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/22/ellyse-perrys-99-puts-australia-on-top-but-ecclestone-and-tiler-reap-rewards">caught out on 99 runs</a> in the women’s Test match, she was dismissed playing an aggressive shot destined for the fence – not exactly the timid play expected of the “nervous nineties” phenomenon.</p>
<p>In fact, Perry’s forceful batting is precisely the kind of playing our analysis predicts for those nearing a century. </p>
<p>And throughout the 90s, we estimated the probability of a batter getting out on any given score to be about 1.3% – much the same as throughout the 70s, 80s and just after 100.</p>
<h2>Managing the nerves</h2>
<p>We have come up with several explanations for the productive batting observed in the 90s. </p>
<p>Possibly, batters rush to escape their nervous discomfort by batting aggressively or with more urgency (such as running faster between the wickets). </p>
<p>The bowling team could also play a role. Bowling sides often try to limit run-scoring as batters near 100 by bringing fielders closer to the pitch, hoping to build pressure and encourage a mistake. </p>
<p>Ironically, a field packed tightly around the batter may offer a faster path to a century by leaving the boundary unprotected from any shot that passes through or over the infield.</p>
<p>While we can’t judge a batter’s emotional state from historical cricket data, we suspect many players are actually nervous when progressing from 90 to 100 runs. But we find no evidence the “nervous nineties” leads to widespread poor functioning or timid play.</p>
<p>International cricketers appear to typically manage any nerves and capitalise on the situation. It’s a fine example of coping among an elite population in a career-defining situation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-olympic-athletes-can-teach-us-about-regulating-our-emotions-and-staying-dedicated-165170">What Olympic athletes can teach us about regulating our emotions and staying dedicated</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel R. Little receives funding from ARC Discovery Project DP160102360. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leo Roberts, Matthew J. Spittal, and Mervyn Jackson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ‘nervous nineties’ captures the idea that batters with 90 or more runs become anxious as get close to scoring a century. But is it true?Leo Roberts, Research Fellow, Centre for Mental Health, The University of MelbourneDaniel R. Little, Associate Professor in Mathematical Psychology, The University of MelbourneMatthew J. Spittal, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of MelbourneMervyn Jackson, Associate Professor, STEM|Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2079492023-06-27T11:38:36Z2023-06-27T11:38:36ZThe Ashes: how England cricket’s head coach Brendon McCullum developed his ‘Bazball’ style<p>The Ashes series of Test cricket matches (played by England and Australia) are a sporting fixture like no other and serve up a scintillating summer of high quality Test match cricket. It is one of the leading biannual international Test cricket series in the world.</p>
<p>This year’s series has added intrigue, as England head coach <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/brendon-mccullum-37737">Brendon McCullum’s</a> “Bazball” style of play pits itself against the old foe for the first time. </p>
<p>England were humiliatingly outplayed when losing the most recent series <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-in-australia-2021-22-1263452">4-0 in 2021-22</a>, capitulating with Australia retaining the Ashes in just 12 days of cricket. This represented a <a href="https://circleofcricket.com/category/Latest_news/72945/ashes-2021-22-rock-bottom-sir-alastair-cook-and-michael-atherton-slam-england-teams-performance">cricketing nadir</a> for the men’s Test side.</p>
<p>Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting added salt to the wound claiming he “hadn’t ever seen a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/29/ricky-ponting-england-worst-performing-cricket-team-tour-australia-ashes">worse-performing team in Australia</a>” and asserted that several England players “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/29/ricky-ponting-england-worst-performing-cricket-team-tour-australia-ashes">were just simply not good enough</a>”. </p>
<p>Coupled with a dismal performance came several unwanted records, such as, the most ducks (a batter’s dismissal for zero runs) for a national team in <a href="https://sportsamaze.com/cricket/england-cricket-team-creates-a-record-by-completing-50-ducks-in-test-cricket-in-2021/">a calendar year</a>. The former English coach, Chris Silverwood, claimed the team “have to find <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-10349167/Ashes-Chris-Silverwood-believes-POSITIVES-England-despite-humiliation.html">a way to compete</a>”.</p>
<h2>The emergence of ‘Bazball’</h2>
<p>The appointment of former Kent and England player Rob Key as managing director was the first step in reestablishing the team’s competitiveness. <a href="https://player.fm/series/middle-please-umpire-a-cricket-podcast/s5-ep2-seeing-the-opportunity-with-rob-key">His approach was influenced</a> by members of the great Australian team of the 1990s and early 2000s, who were relentlessly positive.</p>
<p>He also drew inspiration from the success of the Michael Vaughan-led England side, which regained the Ashes <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/the-ashes-2005-214350">in 2005</a> by aggressively taking on the opposition. Key recognised a similar philosophy in McCullum, who he appointed as England coach, despite it being his first Test coaching position, and in Ben Stokes, who he appointed as captain even though he was a fiery, controversial figure.</p>
<p>As a cricketer, McCullum was a maverick attacking player with disregard for convention. His perspective on the game was shaped by one critical incident. In 2014 while New Zealand <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-tour-of-united-arab-emirates-2014-15-742601/new-zealand-vs-pakistan-3rd-test-742615/full-scorecard">were trailing to a dominant Pakistan side,</a> the news came through that cricketer <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tristanlavalette/2019/11/27/remembering-australian-cricketer-phillip-hughes-five-years-after-his-tragic-death/">Phil Hughes had passed away</a> from injuries sustained while playing in a Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales against South Australia. </p>
<p>As captain, McCullum did not want his emotionally shattered team (many of whom had played with or against Hughes) to play on. He sought advice from a mental skills coach who encouraged him to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/no-fear-of-failure-how-england-and-bazball-are-breathing-life-into-test-cricket-20221206-p5c407.html">abandon all their previous ideas on how to play or prepare</a>. There would be no harsh judgement of performance, no negative consequences for failure.</p>
<p>Players were liberated from psychological determinants of poor performance. They were released from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1901299">a fear of failure</a>, which is often associated with less <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1612197X.2005.9671765">risk-taking behaviour</a>, increased worry, cognitive and <a href="http://publicacoes.ispa.pt/index.php/ap/article/view/1193">somatic anxiety</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.13609">tension</a>, ultimately leading to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10413201003664962">poor performance</a>.</p>
<p>They <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/no-fear-of-failure-how-england-and-bazball-are-breathing-life-into-test-cricket-20221206-p5c407.html">played instinctively</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1929402">with flow</a>, a state where attention may be improved and movements are automatic yielding functional states such as confidence and increased focus of attention. Flow state may facilitate <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2016.1272650">superior performance</a>. Players were encouraged to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2018-26658-001">embrace the challenge</a>, a state commonly attributed to exciting <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677799/">performance outcomes</a>.</p>
<p>What ensued was the highest batting total ever achieved by a New Zealand team, at an astounding run rate. They hit a world record number of sixes in a Test innings, to square the series.</p>
<h2>The psychology underpinning Bazball</h2>
<p>Bazball is a term used to describe the revitalised playing style of the England Test team under McCullum. It is aggressively attacking, highly entertaining and piles pressure on opponents particularly <a href="https://www.sportstiger.com/news/what-is-the-new-cricketing-term-bazball">by scoring runs quickly</a>. </p>
<p>McCullum feels the <a href="https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/12648287/brendon-mccullum-england-head-coach-says-bazball-term-used-to-hail-test-teams-turnaround-is-silly">term downplays</a> the amount of thought that goes into the Bazball approach to play. <a href="https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/bazball-brendon-mccullum-england-test-cricket-revolution-1688815">Seven key characteristics and values</a> underpin Bazball and may explain its success (thus far). These characteristics are rooted in psychological principles.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A shared collective mindset.</p></li>
<li><p>No negative chat.</p></li>
<li><p>Embracing mental freedom and fun.</p></li>
<li><p>A win-at-all costs mentality.</p></li>
<li><p>Praise – even for the little things.</p></li>
<li><p>Simplicity of message.</p></li>
<li><p>No fear of failure.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A collective mindset where each member of the group displays conformity to the group’s norms and where each group member understands and accepts their role is likely to lead to high levels of <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/3/2/article-p123.xml">group cohesion</a>. This leads to team satisfaction, group members remain <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-01064-002">motivated and display adherence</a> and superior <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/24/2/article-p168.xml">team performance</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, avoiding negative chat is fundamentally rooted in positive self-talk and positive reinforcement. It <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/33/5/article-p666.xml">develops confidence</a> to allow freedom of expression which is so fundamental in Bazball, guides attention and concentration and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029208000642?casa_token=Ab0T7OEy05YAAAAA:nI3Kl0fOuNQ9tkpRTIZRd2PBIePq3xeRPSojJvMJFpri0OGrmfBCHB8_iYGFbfJGklxAq6tMJw">facilitates motivation</a>.</p>
<p>Bazball offers group members <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2022.823488/full">psychological safety</a>. An agreed environment where it is safe to take a risk, mistakes are not held against you and each individual team member’s skills are valued and used. And, as we have seen with Bazball so far, exciting, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1441352317301985">high-level performances</a>.</p>
<p>In two senses England have already been victorious, in bringing excitement and uncertainty back to Test cricket and in resurrecting themselves as a competitive force. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the Ashes represents Bazball’s biggest challenge, with Australia the top ranked international Test side who recently won the <a href="https://www.worldtestchampionship.com/">World Test Championship</a>, beating a strong Indian team convincingly in June. And with England already <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/65964831%22%22">1-0 down in the series</a> following a nailbiting defeat by Australia in the first Test match at Edgbaston, it will be interesting to see if England’s Bazball approach can overcome this deficit. </p>
<p>One thing is sure – against high-quality opposition, batsmen will lose their wickets, bowlers will concede runs and test teams will be defeated. So even if the odds are stacked, they might as well go out swinging.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bazball is aggressively attacking, highly entertaining and piles pressure on opponents by scoring runs quickly.David Turner, Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching, Anglia Ruskin UniversityMatt Jewiss, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science (Sport Psychology), Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075402023-06-22T16:04:30Z2023-06-22T16:04:30ZWhat cricket can teach us about the mind’s experience of time – and how to deal with anxiety<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533129/original/file-20230621-25-9bqpa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C87%2C3362%2C2193&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A battle against time itself: Australia warm up ahead of the 2009 Ashes test series.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hove-england-june-24-australians-take-32607724">Lance Bellers/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bowlers playing for England and Australia in the current <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ashes">Ashes cricket series</a> are collectively meant to deliver at least 540 balls each day (that’s 90 overs of six balls each – more if they bowl any no-balls or wides). If one side’s bowlers cannot capture all ten wickets in one day, they must toil on into the next.</p>
<p>Each of the five Test matches in the men’s series, and one in the women’s, last for a maximum of five days. To win, bowlers usually need to get the other side all-out twice. Australia’s men’s team <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/65968384">won their first Ashes Test</a> with only minutes to go in the final session of the fifth day.</p>
<p>In many ways, this biennial series feels a battle against time itself. Unlike most other sports such as football, whose matches are over in a short, set period of time, Test cricket represents abstract, long-term, targeted behaviour – something that people actually do on a daily basis. In this sense, the players in this Ashes series can teach us something about how the mind responds to time – and how this is linked to reward, threat and anxiety.</p>
<p>Just like these Test cricketers are focused on winning a series weeks in the future, our day-to-day functioning is governed by the larger projects that we are aiming for – be that career goals or family bliss. To reach these overarching goals, we must experience short periods of extreme pressure and anxiety. It is time, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276319/">combined with an uncertain outcome</a>, that leads us to experience this anxiety. </p>
<p>Think, for example, of an upcoming exam period which you don’t know whether you’ll excel at. Or when your future goal of love hinges on what will happen tomorrow when you ask out your crush. How we deal with such anxiety, which comes about partly because of the short timeframe of these key moments, can be of huge importance to our quality of life.</p>
<h2>The ABC of time</h2>
<p>Research in psychology has shown that anxiety for humans <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder/symptoms/">comes in the form of</a> negative, uncontrollable thoughts – a racing heartbeat, heavy shallow breathing, uneasiness and a sense of panic.</p>
<p>This is followed by our attention being snatched from us to focus on a real or imagined threat. In <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Cognitive_Behaviour_Therapy_in_Sport_and/YyKuEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">cognitive behavioural therapy</a>, this is captured in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930903387603%20%20https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-13429-001">alarm-beliefs-coping model of anxiety</a> (ABC). </p>
<p>This model can be easily understood through cricket. When the batter waits for the bowler, they are in a state of alarm (A). Their beliefs (B) about whether the upcoming ball is a threat or not lead to an initial anxiety wave. Then they have to use coping (C) resources to combat this and (hopefully) maintain their stability of mind.</p>
<p>A similar process happens when we get anxious about an examination. If our belief is that we are underprepared, we experience a rise in anxiety. We then have to engage with our coping resources – be they a study plan or optimistic thinking – to manage these uncontrollable thoughts. </p>
<p>This may seem simple, but between A, B and C, our perception of time changes. Research indicates that when individuals experience anxiety, their perception of time elongates – so this period feels like it is going on much longer than it actually is. That means it can have a huge effect on us, eventually affecting our sleep, diet and emotional stability. </p>
<p>Research has found that each ABC process <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022395621001801">literally activates</a> a different part of the brain. To put it simply, during anxiety, our brain switches into an emergency threat mode, and the neural circuits in our brain react differently.</p>
<p>A cricket batter is constantly forced to experience high anxiety before each delivery is bowled. And unless they are out, they then have to manage it again, and again – each time, another uncertain outcome. To score a century, a batter in Test cricket might typically face between 80 and 150 deliveries (<a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/fastest-hundreds-by-balls-faced-210170">though the world record is only 54</a>). So, how do the world’s best performers manage this – and what can they teach us?</p>
<h2>Taking control of time</h2>
<p>Sport and performance psychologists often work with high performers to build their resilience to anxiety via “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2043808718787414">cognitive reattribution training</a>” (CRT). Although the specific strategy used varies, the principle remains the same – perceiving the situation as a whole rather than an isolated part. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman experiencing anxiety." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533166/original/file-20230621-17-9o3xit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We all get overwhelmed with anxiety from time to time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/confusion-my-head-646570363">Ollyy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This involves moving beyond thinking everything hinges on one moment. By doing this, the alarm response subsides, and the uncertain moments causing anxiety feel shorter and therefore cause less damage. </p>
<p>We also try to help the athlete cope by figuring out what level of control they have over various actions. Bowlers, for example, only have control until they release the ball. After that, there’s no point in fretting about the direction of the ball. </p>
<p>Batters, meanwhile, have very little control since they have to react to the bowling, ball by ball. If the athlete has an illusion of control, it leads to errors. The focus of attention should be on the elements they can control, such as the target point. They should withdraw focus from elements they can’t control.</p>
<p>We can all learn from this. Take an example from daily life: you need milk. You run to the grocery store but they have run out. You have zero control over this, and now have an uncertain outcome of where to get milk for your morning coffee. CRT allows us to isolate what can we control. </p>
<p>A CRT-based thought pattern would be: “I can control the fact that I need milk (X), but I cannot control the shop’s milk stock (Y)”. This allows you to refocus mental resources to allocate 80% of your attention and effort into finding other sources of milk, such as going to another shop or asking your neighbour. This is much better than hyperfocusing on the scenario you cannot control, arguing with the shop’s manager, getting angry and so forth. </p>
<p>Of course, many situations in life are much more complicated than this. The most helpful process here is accepting that you only have some control, then using CRT to allocate efforts accordingly. CRT ultimately allows the individual to break down a stream of thoughts into areas of what we can control from 0 to 100%. Think of it as a sorting process.</p>
<p>A Test match’s beauty is that it feels almost indefinite in time. Much like life, all four results are on the table: win, loss, draw and even a tie. The trick is to understand our ABCs and, by doing that, manage how our mind reacts to time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sahen Gupta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is time, combined with an uncertain outcome, that leads us to experience anxiety.Sahen Gupta, Lecturer in Applied Sport & Exercise Psychology, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078122023-06-19T06:01:06Z2023-06-19T06:01:06ZAshes rivalry is as alive as ever. But when it comes to the economics of cricket, India is in the box seat<p>The first test of the 2023 Ashes is well underway at Edgbaston in Birmingham, featuring England’s aggressive “Bazball” style of play (named after New Zealand-born coach Brendan “Baz” McCullum) and a surprise early declaration by the hosts at the end of the first day. This invited an Australian fightback inspired by Usman Khawaja, who notched a 141-run haul before being bowled by paceman Ollie Robinson (whose <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/18/ollie-robinson-defends-outburst-after-usman-khawaja-dismissal">expletive-laden send-off</a> is making headlines).</p>
<p>England currently leads by 35 runs on the end of day three, and it all sets the scene for an exciting series.</p>
<p>It comes just a week after Australia won the World Test Championship, defeating India in comprehensive style at The Oval in south London.</p>
<p>The Ashes always excites the traditionalists, as the Australia-England rivalry is the oldest in cricket.</p>
<p>But while playing the old enemy for the Ashes is, for many, the pinnacle of Australian cricket, Australia-India is developing as a modern rivalry.</p>
<p>This is significant because when it comes to the economics of cricket, it’s India that’s in the box seat, not England.</p>
<h2>India is the new cricket powerhouse</h2>
<p>The 2023 season of the Indian Premier League <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/ipl-2023-records-massive-viewership-of-half-a-billion-viewers-on-television-384783-2023-06-08">drew more than 500 million viewers</a>, a 32% growth in television ratings on last season.</p>
<p>The very first IPL game of the 2023 season in fact attracted more viewers than the Super Bowl, the climax of the NFL’s American football season and one of the biggest dates on the world sporting calendar.</p>
<p>The first IPL match attracted <a href="https://www.livemint.com/sports/cricket-news/ipl-2023-opening-match-tv-viewership-up-29-digital-claims-peak-concurrency-of-1-6-cr-11680511069925.html">130 million viewers</a>, compared with a record <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/nfl/news/super-bowl-attracted-record-audience-this-year-revised-data-shows/articleshow/99938268.cms?from=mdr">115.1 million</a> for the 2023 Super Bowl.</p>
<p>The 2023 IPL champions the Chennai Super Kings are valued at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/04/26/indian-premier-league-valuations-cricket-now-has-a-place-among-worlds-most-valuable-sports-teams/?sh=5d6347833951">about US$1.15 billion</a> (A$1.67 billion), according to Forbes in 2022. They’ve been <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/ipl/top-stories/can-chennai-super-kings-be-crickets-manchester-united/articleshow/87248328.cms">touted</a> as the “Manchester United of the IPL”, and may one day become one of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/09/08/the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams-2022/?sh=31715bcc385c">top global sporting franchises</a> like the Dallas Cowboys (A$11.7 billion) and Real Madrid (A$7.4 billion).</p>
<h2>So how did India do it?</h2>
<p>When T20 took off in England and spread to the cricketing nations, everyone thought test cricket would die. But it didn’t. In fact, it’s stronger than ever.</p>
<p>If anything, it’s the game in between T20 and test cricket, the 50-over game, that’s likely to become obsolete – with only the World Cup played every four years attracting significant attention (although now the T20 World Cup overshadows that too).</p>
<p>India acted fast to surf the T20 wave. The IPL was formed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following India’s victory in the 2007 World Cup, after a breakaway league had been mooted to break the BCCI’s grip on the game.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/franchises-for-board-s-new-twenty20-league-310819">According</a> to the BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, at the time the IPL was</p>
<blockquote>
<p>designed to entice an entire new generation of sports fans into the grounds throughout the country. The dynamic Twenty20 format has been designed to attract a young fan base, which also includes women and children</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Part of India’s success is its size, overtaking China this year to have the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/un-desa-policy-brief-no-153-india-overtakes-china-as-the-worlds-most-populous-country/">largest population of any country</a> with 1.4 billion people, as well as its economic success in recent decades with a growing middle class. By 2025, India’s middle class will number <a href="https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mygsb/faculty/research/pubfiles/3021/Great%20Expectations_The%20Rise%20of%20the%20Indian%20Middle%20Class.pdf">583 million</a>, or 41% of the country’s projected population.</p>
<p>This has been supercharged by the digitisation of the Indian economy, with televisions and smart phones giving the average cricket lover access to their favourite teams.</p>
<p>The IPL has attracted the top cricketers from around the world, mainly off the back of <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/sports/ipl-how-india-became-home-to-the-biggest-baddest-cricketing-league-in-the-world/articleshow/99885321.cms?from=mdr">private franchises</a>, many of which are owned by billionaires. This gives teams deep pockets when buying players from all over the globe, with the TV broadcast rights topping up IPL coffers too. </p>
<p>This has also <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/how-one-auction-catapulted-women-s-cricket-to-a-whole-new-level-20230214-p5ckat.html">boosted women’s cricket</a>, including their pay packets, with the launch of the Women’s Premier League in India earlier this year.</p>
<h2>Cricket diplomacy</h2>
<p>It just shows the power of India in world cricket, and more generally the power of sport in today’s global economy.</p>
<p>Indeed, sport is no longer about small talk, but an intrinsic part of the global economy and geopolitics.</p>
<p>I was in India last month hosting the “Cricket, Collaboration and Commonwealth” conference for the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in New Delhi. There was a robust discussion on the economics of the IPL and the role of “cricket diplomacy” in Australia-India relations.</p>
<p>While I was in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Australia speaking to packed houses of India diaspora in Sydney. Modi wanted to build on the momentum of the blossoming India-Australia partnership, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited India in March.</p>
<p>Cricket diplomacy was on display then too, spawning now famous images of Prime Ministers Modi and Albanese on a chariot before the fourth test match in Ahmedabad.</p>
<p>Albanese used the trip to announce a <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/anthony-albanese-india-visit-australia-india-education-agreement-qualifications/cad0b5f1-b692-48d7-b33d-daaa77bddf79">new education deal</a> with India. Nearly 50% of Indians are <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/more-than-50-of-india-s-population-25-yrs-or-older-survey-11593793054491.html">under the age of 25</a>, and only <a href="https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=IND&treshold=5&topic=EO">21% of Indians aged 25-34</a> have a tertiary qualification, so there are immense opportunities for Australian universities and TAFEs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-visit-hopes-to-strengthen-ties-with-india-amid-chinas-rise-but-differences-remain-201369">Albanese visit hopes to strengthen ties with India amid China’s rise. But differences remain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Cricket diplomacy has been central to the Modi-Albanese partnership, which highlights the role of sport in political and economic relationship building.</p>
<p>And the rise of the IPL has boosted India’s ascendancy as a superpower in world cricket. Its economic power has been as important as the improved on-field performance of Team India.</p>
<p>What’s more, the large attendances at The Oval for the ICC World Test Championship and now the raucous crowds at the Ashes shows the supposed death of test cricket has been greatly exaggerated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Harcourt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While playing the old enemy for the Ashes is for many the pinnacle of Australian cricket, Australia-India is developing as a modern rivalry.Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1735892022-01-17T19:00:25Z2022-01-17T19:00:25ZSportswashing: how mining and energy companies sponsor your favourite sports to help clean up their image<p>Fossil fuel and carbon-intensive industries have an image problem. As awareness of their environmental impact grows, energy and mining companies in particular are desperate to maintain control over spiralling levels of public esteem. </p>
<p>For decades, greenwashing has been a go-to tactic for companies seeking to mask their damaging effects on natural environments, and governments across the world have begun to <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/fear-of-the-law-will-bring-businesses-in-line-on-greenwashing-20211114-p598rr">legislate</a> against it.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, another more subtle practice remains in the marketing toolkit: sportswashing. By sponsoring sporting teams or events, organisations harness the positive impacts of sport to wash off negative associations with problems such as environmental degradation and human rights abuses.</p>
<p>In Australia, mining and energy companies often partner with sporting organisations from the grassroots to the elite level. As our research <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222429211023355">has shown</a>, sports sponsorship is a powerful way to channel the energy of sporting “atmospheres” into brands, diverting attention from firms’ roles in furthering climate change. </p>
<p>So as Australia clinches another Ashes series, let’s take a closer look at how official partners such as Alinta Energy can benefit from sponsoring sporting events.</p>
<h2>How does sportswashing work?</h2>
<p>Sporting events have long been a site to exert “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592296.2016.1169791">soft power</a>”. Countries that host the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, for example, are able to <a href="https://www.dw.com/ear,%20%20n/germanys-world-cup-report-hails-economic-social-success/a-2263053">challenge negative global images</a>. Take Qatar: in the lead up to this year’s FIFA World Cup, the nation has taken opportunities to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-21/can-qatar-reshape-image-on-the-back-of-world-cup/100636396">reshape</a> its reputation on a number of issues including human rights.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-world-cup-an-exercise-in-soft-power-that-did-not-go-to-plan-for-brazil-28939">The World Cup – an exercise in soft power that did not go to plan for Brazil</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sports sponsorship can serve similar purposes for businesses. Mining and energy giants such as <a href="https://www.adani.com/Sports">Adani</a>, <a href="https://communityinvestment.riotinto.com">Rio Tinto</a>, <a href="https://www.originenergy.com.au/about/community/community-partnerships/netball-australia/">Origin</a>, and <a href="https://www.woodside.com.au/media-centre/news-stories/story/surf-life-saving-wa-and-woodside-launch-woodside-nippers">Woodside</a> all sponsor sports teams and leagues from local to international levels of sport. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222429211023355">Our research shows</a> when companies sponsor sport events, their brands become associated with atmospheres: intense experiences of shared emotion. Over time, sports fans come to associate sponsors’ logos and names with these experiences such that sponsors’ brands become stores of this emotional energy, rather like batteries.</p>
<p>This benefits companies because when people feel emotions in relation to a brand, they’re more likely to remember that brand and become loyal customers. Simultaneously, these positive emotional associations can distract from companies’ problematic connections to a range of issues including climate change and pollution.</p>
<h2>Is the tide turning against sportswashing?</h2>
<p>In 2021 a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/22/major-climate-polluters-accused-of-greenwashing-with-sports-sponsorship">critical report</a> found more than 250 advertising and sponsorship deals between corporate polluters, and leading sports teams and organisations around the world.</p>
<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ebd0080238e863d04911b51/t/605b60b09a957c1b05f433e2/1616601271774/Sweat+Not+Oil+-+why+Sports+should+drop+advertising+from+high+carbon+polluters+-+March+2021v3.pdf">The report</a>, by the New Weather Institute, implicated a range of Australian sports events and leagues including the Australian Football League, Australian Baseball League, and the <a href="https://ausopen.com/articles/news/santos-power-australian-open-natural-gas-partner">2021 Australian Tennis Open</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1360016509716856833"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://act.350.org/sign/tell-australian-open-say-no-santos/">Some condemned</a> the Australian Open for accepting gas giant Santos as an “official natural gas partner”. And last year Comms Declare, an advertising and marketing industry body, <a href="https://commsdeclare.org/2021/02/08/media-release-australian-open-santos-sponsorship-is-a-double-fault/">said the decision</a> was at odds with Tennis Australia’s commitment to the United Nations <a href="https://unfccc.int/climate-action/sectoral-engagement/sports-for-climate-action">Sports for Climate Action Framework</a>. </p>
<p>Surf Life Saving Australia has also been <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/surf-life-saving-australia-under-fire-over-social-media-post-061812022.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAB9ysjlBNbTmFGvtH71KCV1s3M1YxcW8pTHyD9PgaFHraVZMe2kd5cF2yWOha1Y7OwcV1xn9lGpRlUo1pMbmhd89RoX9LZ7P_xNI_cwXApbMma9hIaMAS51WXvvDyusLCxZy_twqF0gN21hR8SvoZJDK0iXkTBF-liY6UbmhQN7v">criticised</a> for accepting sponsorship from petrol supplier Ampol, not least because the fossil fuel industry <a href="https://www.awe.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/cc-risks-full-report.pdf">threatens</a> the very coastal environments that surf lifesaving calls home.</p>
<p>Sportspeople are joining these critical voices, too. Former Australian rugby captain and conservationist David Pocock last year criticised Rugby Australia’s decision to accept Santos as the Wallabies’ major sponsor, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/former-wallabies-captain-criticises-fossil-fuel-sponsorship/13625408">likening it</a> to tobacco company sport sponsorship in the 1980s.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1458192330423357440"}"></div></p>
<h2>What does this mean for sport sponsorships?</h2>
<p>As awareness of sportswashing grows, we think sponsorship deals are likely to generate increasing scrutiny from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/22/wa-nippers-parents-speak-out-against-woodside-energy-sponsorship-deal">consumers</a>, investors, and from other companies. This will have big implications for companies whose sponsoring partnerships are perceived as sportswashing. </p>
<p>In recent years, sports fans have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038516660040">protested</a> against the owners of sports teams, as well as event organisers, for a range of issues. Research shows that activism can damage revenue and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2189/asqu.52.3.413">share prices</a> for companies. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-repressive-states-and-governments-use-sportswashing-to-remove-stains-on-their-reputation-100395">How repressive states and governments use 'sportswashing' to remove stains on their reputation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>More generally, by creating negative media publicity and government attention, sports activism can undo the intended benefits of sponsorship, further damaging brand images.</p>
<p>In some cases, activists have been able to demand policy u-turns. For example, Liverpool FC supporters forced owners to scrap ticket price rises and issue an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-11/liverpool-owners-ticket-price-apology/7158428">apology</a>. Whether activists can bring about change in environmental sportswashing remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it may be time for sports governing bodies, owners and event managers to reconsider contributions from environmentally unsustainable companies. Such sponsorship is at odds with the the cultural value of sporting events and the benefits sport brings to all levels of society.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greenwash-a-critical-expose-highlights-need-for-action-10133">Greenwash: a critical exposé highlights need for action </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173589/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Companies may be using the positive impacts of sport to divert attention from their roles in furthering climate change.Robin Canniford, Department of Management & Marketing, The University of MelbourneTim Hill, Lecturer in Marketing, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1238272019-09-19T08:59:04Z2019-09-19T08:59:04ZBen Stokes v The Sun: gross intrusion or simple reportage? How media privacy law works<p>When Ben Stokes celebrated his part in the England cricket team’s World Cup triumph, followed by his incredible match-winning innings during the Ashes, dubbed the “greatest ever”, he could not have anticipated that heightened interest in him would lead to the later unwelcome unearthing of an old family secret. </p>
<p>The day after the Ashes series ended, The Sun newspaper ran a story headlined “<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/9941347/ben-stokes-cricket-brother-sister-killed/">Stokes’ Secret Tragedy</a>” recounting the 1988 murder of Stokes’ two siblings by his mother’s ex-partner in New Zealand.</p>
<p>In a highly charged response on Twitter, Stokes vehemently criticised The Sun, claiming its story was “immoral and heartless” and “contemptuous to the feelings and circumstances of my family”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1173893834377441280"}"></div></p>
<p>The Sun’s spokesperson has defended the newspaper’s actions, claiming that the murders were widely covered in the New Zealand media and that it had published with the co-operation of another family member, Jacqui Dunn, the killer’s other daughter.</p>
<p>These arguments broadly reflect the privacy versus free expression arguments that have recurred in many legal disputes between high-profile celebrities and the (usually tabloid) media. Such disputes are governed by <a href="http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/136661/">misuse of private information (MPI) law</a>, an area of law developed by judges following the passage of the <a href="https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/human-rights/human-rights-act">Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA)</a>, particularly the Article 8 right to respect for private life and the Article 10 right to free expression.</p>
<p>Though Stokes has not indicated any intention to bring a legal claim, wider questions have arisen as to the legality of The Sun’s actions. So, has The Sun breached privacy law?</p>
<p>When deciding whether a misuse of private information has occurred, the court would apply a two-stage test. First, it would consider whether Stokes had a “reasonable expectation” of privacy in relation to the information. If so, the court would then balance Stokes’ privacy right against The Sun’s free expression right and decide which one is stronger and ought to prevail. Both of these stages of the test take close account of the particular facts of the relevant case. In the context of misuse of private information, two issues in the Stokes case are particularly interesting because of their (legal) ambiguity.</p>
<h2>Public domain</h2>
<p>First is the question of whether this information was, as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes/ben-stokes-the-sun-newspaper-family-story-brother-ashes-2019-a9108401.html">The Sun claims</a>, already in the public domain? In older confidence actions in the pre-Human Rights Act, pre-digital era, a firm “public domain” exception applied. Once information was “out there”, it was “public” and there was no secret left to protect. </p>
<p>But this position has developed and a strict private/public binary no longer applies. An individual may still have a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of information that is partly (or even widely) publicised. In Stokes’ case, the extensive publicity given to the murder of his siblings was more than 30 years ago in a country on the other side of the world. So this would not automatically be deemed “public” and The Sun’s reference to the story as “Stokes’ Secret Tragedy” tends to support this.</p>
<h2>Whose privacy?</h2>
<p>A second interesting issue is: whose privacy is it anyway? Stokes’ Twitter statement claimed: “I will not allow my public profile to be used as an excuse to invade the rights of my parents, my wife, my children or other family members.” This hinted perhaps at his acceptance that his sporting role will attract a degree of attention and interest. </p>
<p>Misuse of Public Information (MPI) law does indicate that being a “public figure” or “role model” is a relevant factor in MPI disputes and so-called “Ashes Hero” Stokes would fit the definition. But the law is also clear that public figures still enjoy a right to privacy, as successful litigants such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/mar/27/pressandpublishing.privacy">Naomi Campbell</a> and <a href="https://inforrm.org/2016/05/19/news-supreme-court-allows-appeal-in-pjs-celebrity-injunction-case/">“PJS”</a> demonstrate. Furthermore, Stokes’ “public figure” status would have only limited bearing on whether The Sun’s story was deemed to be in the public interest.</p>
<p>This statement also raises the trickier issue of how to deal with the privacy interests of an interrelated family group. Stokes’ primary concern was for the privacy of his family – and particularly his mother who lives in New Zealand. The privacy rights of family members may be included in claims where there is clear evidence they would be adversely affected by publication of private information.</p>
<p>But would Stokes have a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to events that happened to other members of his family before his birth, particularly where another extended family member is willing to speak to the media about them? This case raises the problem of who (if anyone) can “own” or control shared family experiences – particularly when family members have different attitudes to the information. </p>
<p>In this sense, the case has broad parallels with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/20/concert-pianist-james-rhodes-wins-right-to-publish-autobiography">James Rhodes dispute in 2014-15</a> where the Court of Appeal held that James Rhodes’ autobiography did not misuse private information about his son, because the information was about Rhodes rather than his son.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the Stokes-Sun dispute highlights some interesting grey areas in MPI law and, while a privacy claim would face a number of hurdles, it is also clear that The Sun’s claims about public domain should be treated with caution. Yet, irrespective of the strength of any legal claim, in light of widespread criticism of The Sun and support for Stokes, it seems that the morality of The Sun’s actions is perhaps more clear-cut.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Moosavian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Was The Sun’s story about England’s Ashes hero an invasion of privacy?Rebecca Moosavian, Lecturer in Law, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1220852019-08-21T09:33:52Z2019-08-21T09:33:52ZThe Ashes: Jofra Archer, Steve Smith and cricket’s dilemma of balancing safety with media spectacle<p>Fast bowling has often been described as the most thrilling aspect of cricket, especially international Test cricket – which is played out over five days in a format designed to “test” the players’ skills to their limit.</p>
<p>It’s something that cricket journalists love: somehow the sight of a bowler hurling down short-pitched “bouncers” at over 90mph seems to get their juices (and their adjectives) flowing – whether or not they’ve actually faced this kind of bowling themselves, which most commentators have, unlike their newspaper colleagues. It lends itself to the idea of a “gladitorial contest” which makes for great copy. </p>
<p>But just how dangerous this sort of bowling can be was underlined in the most recent Test match between England and Australia at Lords. On the afternoon of the fourth day, Australia’s best batsman Steve Smith ducked to avoid a short ball which struck him on the neck. It was timed at 92mph. The blow felled Smith who had to leave the field. </p>
<p>Though he felt well enough to resume his innings later that day, he <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes/ashes-2019-steve-smith-england-australia-jofra-archer-concussion-a9064166.html">admitted to “feeling groggy” the next morning</a>. He was substituted out of the match and will not play in the third Test match at Headingly in Leeds. Social media has since erupted with condemnation at what many fans – particularly Australians concerned at the fate of their star batter – see as being “brutal” and deliberately setting out to hurt the batsman.</p>
<p>The commentators have seen it all before. Last time it was Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson scaring the pants off English players in the 2013/14 tour to Australia. What comes around goes around – it just happens that for this Ashes contest it is England who have, in Archer, perhaps the fastest bowler in the world. </p>
<p>What united the press and commentators was distaste at the booing of Smith as he left the field. Some – a small minority of the Lords crowd it must be said – seem reluctant to forgive him for his part in the <a href="https://www.wisden.com/almanack/whitewash-wisden-booth-sandpaper-scandal-almanack-2019">sandpaper scandal</a> that rocked Australian cricket in March 2018, when the captain, vice-captain and the team’s youngest player were caught hatching a plan to doctor the ball using a sheet of sandpaper and banned for a year. </p>
<p>One MCC member indeed, was <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mcc-member-thrown-out-of-lords-for-steve-smith-abuse-f7dlfpzdt">reportedly ejected from the Lord’s pavilion</a> for verbally abusing Smith when he was finally dismissed for 92. It might well have been “embarrassing” for the club which acts as a custodian of cricket’s spirt of fairness, but it acted quickly and decisively.</p>
<h2>Fast and furious</h2>
<p>Short-pitched bowling has always been part of the game. It is part of a fast bowler’s repertoire to be able to legitimately terrify batters by sending a few whizzing past their nose.</p>
<p>In the early 1930s, in an attempt to nullify another Australian batting champion Don Bradman, England captain Douglas Jardine devised a strategy which involved short-pitched bowling aimed at the batsman’s body so that the consequent evasive action would most likely result in parrying the ball to one of the waiting fieldsmen. It should be noted that then, as now, England had a talented, accurate, terrifyingly fast bowler in their ranks.</p>
<p>Two Australian batsmen were seriously injured, and a diplomatic row between the two countries developed to the extent that 90 years later, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/cricket-the-old-batsman-blog/2013/mar/13/fear-batting-bodyline-devastation-england-ashes">the “Bodyline” affair</a> still adds extra piquancy to the Ashes.</p>
<p>The genie was out of the bottle. Short-pitched bowling was a way to intimidate, dismiss or at least, becalm opposing batsmen. Over the years, the West Indies for example, have excelled at it. In 1976, having seen three of his batsmen <a href="https://www.cricketcountry.com/photos/bloodbath-at-sabina-park-when-west-indian-pacers-ensured-5-indian-batsmen-were-absent-hurt-518116">injured by West Indian pace bowlers</a> in a test match in Jamaica, Indian captain Bishen Bedi declared his team’s innings over in bitter protest.</p>
<p>Australia has also prided itself on the use of aggressive pace bowling over the years, with practitioners such as Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson terrorising opposing sides in the 1970s.</p>
<p>Helmets soon became as important as bats, and some would argue that the balance of power has unfairly shifted cricket towards the batter. What seems unquestionable is that batters have become more bullish in the knowledge that a blow on the head will often require nothing more than a new helmet. Indeed, Smith’s replacement in the Australian team, Marnus Labuchagne, might have thought just that when he took his eye off another express delivery from Archer on the final day of the test match on Sunday.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1163106485976666112"}"></div></p>
<p>Having himself just become the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes-2019-icc-england-australia-concussion-rules-news-latest-a9012471.html">first ever concussion replacement</a>, under a new rule recently introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC), it was his helmet, rather than his technique, that saved him.</p>
<h2>Playing safe?</h2>
<p>When Smith and Labuchagne were felled, everyone connected with the game inevitably <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/49384240">thought of Philip Hughes</a>. The young Australian batter was struck a fatal blow under the back of the helmet in a domestic match in 2014, and died a day or so later.</p>
<p>So, did we all trivialise the events at Lord’s in the interest of theatre? People being hit makes for uncomfortable viewing. Add the booing and jeering and you might have thought it was the coliseum in Rome, and not the home of cricket.</p>
<p>One of the main instigators of protective headwear in the first place was not even a cricketer. Having bankrolled World Series Cricket in the 1970s, media tycoon Kerry Packer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/may/02/the-spin-kerry-packer-world-series-cricket">insisted they were worn</a>, not for any altruistic reason, rather because as he explained to the players, “I’m not paying you to lie around in hospital for six months.” </p>
<p>At least with the introduction of concussion replacements, teams are not penalised if a player is hurt, but cricket’s next looming challenge might be to work out how it successfully balances the game as a contest with player welfare. Batsmen might need better techniques as well as better helmets. Whatever the answer is, it surely is not to use the laws of the game to emasculate box office talent like Jofra Archer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Extreme pace bowling has been thrilling crowds but scaring batters since the Bodyline tour of the 1930s.Richard Thomas, Lecturer, Media & Communication, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900202018-01-16T19:14:18Z2018-01-16T19:14:18ZWe need to ‘climate-proof’ our sports stadiums<p>For many Australians summer is synonymous with cricket and tennis. But as Australian summers become more prone to extreme heat conditions, sustainable and climate-adaptable stadium design has become a leading consideration for both sporting codes and governments. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/ashes-201718-scg-sunday-roast-fries-players-and-33285-fans-on-hottest-day-of-test-cricket-in-australia-20180107-h0eodw.html">final Ashes test</a> played at the Sydney Cricket Ground recently showed that the cricketing community must adapt to heatwaves made worse by climate change.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-not-cricket-how-climate-change-will-make-sport-more-risky-36839">Just not cricket – how climate change will make sport more risky</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And in recent years the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-01/australian-open-tennis-heat-policy-needs-changing/6991792">Australian Open</a> has produced many stories of both tennis players and spectators suffering in extreme heat. And more are <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/dangerous-heat-to-build-during-first-week-of-2018-australian-open/70003824">expected</a> over the two weeks of the current tournament.</p>
<p>As the New South Wales government embarks on a hugely expensive <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-23/olympic-and-sydney-football-stadiums-demolished-and-rebuilt/9182798">rebuild of major stadiums</a> across <a href="http://www.infrastructure.nsw.gov.au/projects-nsw/western-sydney-stadium/">Sydney</a>, now is a good time to ask whether major Australian sports venues are adequately “climate-proofed” for a warming future.</p>
<h2>Climate change is literally a ‘game changer’</h2>
<p>The Climate Council released a <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/uploads/b6cd8665c633434e8d02910eee3ca87c.pdf">report in 2016</a> detailing the risks of extreme heat to human health, exacerbated by climate change. It recommends that extreme heat adaptation is incorporated into urban planning and building design policies. </p>
<p>Following the final Ashes Test, the International Cricket Council (ICC) <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes/england-australia-ashes-joe-root-excessive-heat-icc-hospitalised-sydney-a8148526.html">was criticised</a> for failing to provide a clear policy protecting players in conditions of extreme heat. </p>
<p>Other sporting codes have considered how a game should be managed in conditions of extreme heat but have mostly focused exclusively on the welfare of players and field officials. </p>
<h2>Spectators are also vulnerable to extreme heat</h2>
<p>As the 2018 Australian Open is now under way, it’s worth a look back at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2014/jan/16/australia-tennis-open-climate-change-extreme-heat">2014 event</a>, when the tennis players and spectators suffered as temperatures soared over 41ºC.</p>
<p>Accounts emerged of spectators collapsing and attendances declined as Melbourne endured a catastrophic heatwave. Subsequent renovations to Melbourne Park featured important heat management aspects. </p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/property/margaret-court-arena-aces-leed-sustainability-certification-20150901-gjc9ok.html">Margaret Court Arena</a> received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification. LEED is the <a href="https://new.usgbc.org/leed">world-leading rating system</a> for green buildings. </p>
<p>LEED certification provides a framework to measure sustainability through the design, construction and operation of a building through its life cycle. This is achieved by incentivising reductions in energy, water and building materials consumption, while at the same time enhancing the health of occupants. </p>
<p>In order to manage heatwaves the stadium redesign included a retractable roof, allowing air conditioning and lighting to be reduced, and <a href="http://www.sportsenvironmentalliance.org/blog/portfolio-items/tennis-australia/">reflective roof coating</a> to reflect over 70% of the sun’s heat. </p>
<p>A larger open space that provides more shade and indoor areas was included in <a href="http://www.sportsenvironmentalliance.org/blog/portfolio-items/tennis-australia/">Rod Laver Arena</a> for the benefit of both tennis fans and concertgoers.</p>
<h2>Taking the LEED in Sydney</h2>
<p>The new Western Sydney Stadium is the first NSW stadium to undergo such a reconstruction to bring it up to LEED standards.</p>
<p>The stadium rebuild is legally a “major project” and classified as State Significant Development under the <a href="https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1979/203">Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EP&A Act)</a>. This means the NSW planning minister was responsible for assessing and approving the rebuilding of the stadium. </p>
<p>The NSW government pointed out that the new stadium will feature a <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/your-government/the-premier/media-releases-from-the-premier/winning-design-unveiled-for-new-parramatta-stadium/">Gold LEED</a> energy and environment rating. </p>
<p>The stadium and the surrounds are designed to reduce the occurrence of “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands">heat islands</a>”. Measures to cool heat islands include planting over 200 trees in the surrounding precinct and using softer and cooler pavement materials. </p>
<p>The minister noted in the <a href="https://majorprojects.accelo.com/public/04745fb355ddf188a6292cada8d0a7fa/SSD%208175%20Assessment%20Report.pdf">assessment report</a> that the LEED certification targets reduced energy and water consumption through efficient air conditioning and a design that maximises natural ventilation and insisted that the stadium increase its own supply of renewable energy to power air conditioning and refrigerants. </p>
<h2>The gold standard in environmental design</h2>
<p>While some headway is being made in Australia, LEED has already been widely applied to stadium design and construction in North America. At <a href="http://plus.usgbc.org/sustainable-stadiums/">least 30 certified stadiums</a> have been constructed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201907/original/file-20180115-101514-1lrv13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">HOK’s stadium in Atlanta is officially the first LEED Platinum-certified professional sports stadium in the United States.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HOK</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new HOK-designed stadium in Atlanta is the first LEED Platinum-certified sports stadium. Aside from its retractable roof for extreme heat protection, the 185,000-square-metre venue is designed to conserve water and energy. It uses 47% less water than baseline standards and includes a five-hectare adjacent green space, 4,000 solar panels, bike valets and charging stations for electric cars. </p>
<h2>Stadium design needs to plan for climate change</h2>
<p>The recent Ashes Test matches and current Australian Open are stark reminders that approvals for stadium design need to consider the relationship between climate change adaptation and extreme heat. If the LEED certification <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/leed_building_standards_fail_to_protect_human_health">fails to provide for human health</a> it is incumbent upon government to insist that more is done for the welfare of spectators. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-heat-in-sport-why-using-a-fixed-temperature-cut-off-isnt-as-simple-as-it-seems-89771">Extreme heat in sport: why using a fixed temperature cut-off isn't as simple as it seems</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Climate change will continue to increase the risks from extreme heat to levels not previously experienced. The design of our sporting stadiums must manage heatwaves with the welfare of both players and spectators in mind as temperatures continue to rise in the future. </p>
<p>The impacts of extreme heat during the 2018 Ashes series presented a serious challenge – and the Australian sporting summer is far from over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul J Govind does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Australian Open tennis and the recent Ashes Test cricket series show why our sporting stadiums need to be “climate-proofed” to deal with extreme heat.Paul J Govind, Lecturer in Enviromental Law, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/897732018-01-10T19:34:26Z2018-01-10T19:34:26ZWhat the stats say: is Steve Smith the second-best Australian cricket batsman ever?<p>The Ashes may be over once again, but one of the biggest talking points during the cricket test series between Australia and England was the continued meteoric rise of Australian captain Steve Smith as a test batsman.</p>
<p>There was <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/australia/steve-smiths-recordsmashing-23rd-test-century-drive-him-further-towards-greatness/news-story/718a2513383048f788162f206449a460">much speculation</a> as to <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/the-ashes/case-grows-for-steve-smith-as-best-aussie-batsmen-since-sir-donald-bradman/news-story/fdeeda2111eea7513890d4d3beeb4f01">whether Smith is the best Australian test batsman</a> – bar Donald Bradman – ever to have played the game.</p>
<p>“The Don” Bradman is widely regarded as the greatest Australian cricketer – <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153387.html">and was voted the greatest cricketer of the 20th century</a> – with an <a href="http://www.bradman.com.au/donald-bradman-statistics-the-greatest-ever/">unrivalled test batting average of 99.94</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201279/original/file-20180109-83563-16rwcmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Don Bradman is almost run out at 101 in his innings of 169 in the fifth test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1936/37.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/national_library_of_australia_commons/16431524020">Flickr/National Library of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So what is the ranking of Australian test batsmen since Australia’s first ever test match in 1877? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-explainer-how-cricket-captains-make-good-decisions-88384">Video explainer: How cricket captains make good decisions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Let’s crunch the numbers</h2>
<p>We need to use some statistical modelling to answer the question. The dataset includes only batsmen who played a substantial number of tests for Australia, defined here by batting at least 30 innings.</p>
<p>“The Don” is removed from the dataset to allow the other players to be ranked without being affected by his exceptional performance. </p>
<p>All players who were considered predominantly bowlers have been removed from the dataset. All-rounders and wicketkeepers were retained, as these types of players might be expected to make substantial contributions with the bat. That leaves 108 players in the dataset.</p>
<p>A statistic commonly used to compare batsmen is their average: the total number of runs scored in their career divided by the number of times they have been dismissed.</p>
<p>If a player is not dismissed in an innings – the player is “not out” for whatever reason – then their score would effectively carry over to the next innings, at least from the point of view of the way the average is calculated. </p>
<p>For example, if a player scores 5, 57, 34 (not out) and 3, then this is the same as the player scoring 5, 57 and 37, giving an average of 33.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yIMrCSDZ49E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Steve Smith has been compared to the great Don Bradman.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A changed game over the years</h2>
<p>Just simply comparing averages may give misleading results, however. Cricket has evolved greatly over more than a century due to factors such as pitch conditions, professionalism, coaching, popularity and technology, to name a few.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201298/original/file-20180109-83556-193m9f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each circle represents the batting average of an Australian test batsmen. The solid line is the mean batting average estimated from the statistical model applied to the data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christopher Drovandi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The graph above shows that test batsmen found run-scoring relatively difficult in the late 1800s and early 1900s compared with more recent times. So we need the statistical modelling to account for the decade in which the players played most of their test cricket.</p>
<p>The solid line in the graph shows that the statistical model can detect the general upwards trend of test batting averages. We can then adjust the results to account for this trend.</p>
<p>This gives us the top 15 Australian test batsmen of all time (bar Bradman) as determined by the statistical model. Note that only players who have played at least 25 matches are considered in the final ranking.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/6iy0s/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="479"></iframe>
<p>In the graph above, the black circle on the plot represents the relative score for each player. This is the score the statistical model predicts for a player’s batting average relative to the model predicted average from all players (where the model adjusts for the decade the player played). </p>
<p>For example, a relative score of 10 suggests that the player scores on average 10 more runs than a typical batsman in the same era. The horizontal grey line for each player shows the level of uncertainty in that figure, but we’ll come to that later.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-explainer-batting-expertise-and-decision-making-in-cricket-89366">Video explainer: Batting expertise and decision-making in cricket</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The second-best batsman is…?</h2>
<p>We see from the circle plot that Steve Smith has indeed received the highest relative score. Greg Chappell stands out as the next best.</p>
<p>The statistical model naturally shrinks the scores related to players who have played relatively few matches and/or scored inconsistently.</p>
<p>This is actually an advantageous feature of the model. A player who has managed to maintain a high average and play consistently over a long period of time should be rewarded.</p>
<h2>And now the uncertainty</h2>
<p>The statistical modelling approach not only provides an estimated relative score, it can also produce an interval that quantifies the uncertainty in the estimated score.</p>
<p>This is what those horizontal grey lines show in the graph above. They show there is a 90% chance that the player’s relative score is in that interval.</p>
<p>Although Smith has been allocated the highest relative score, there is substantial overlap in the score intervals of other players. This suggests that it is difficult to determine, from a statistical point of view, that Smith is a significantly better batter than the other players shown in the graph.</p>
<p>But the intervals do demonstrate that the players on this list are significantly better than a typical player from the corresponding era, as the intervals do not include 0.</p>
<p>The main reason for the large uncertainty is that a batter’s scores in individual innings fluctuate wildly. A batsman may get out for 0 runs in one innings and then score more than 100 runs in the next. </p>
<p>It is therefore difficult to home in on a batsman’s real average unless they were able to bat an extremely large number of times. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-explainer-bowling-strategies-and-decision-making-in-cricket-89367">Video explainer: Bowling strategies and decision-making in cricket</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The other reason for the wide intervals is that because a game of test cricket is so long (typically four or five days), each player is not able to bat many times, even if they have a long career. </p>
<p>A more rigorous statistical analysis would attempt to model the individual run scores of all the players directly rather modelling the average, which is simply a summary of a player’s batting career.</p>
<p>But the analysis has justified why many commentators, pundits and punters consider Smith to be the best Australian test batsman after Bradman – so far. Smith is still very much in the game so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain or improve on his recent performances.</p>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Drovandi is an Associate Investigator of the Australian Research Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS). He receives funding from the Australian Research Council currently through the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award scheme.</span></em></p>Australian cricket captain Steve Smith’s play during the recent Ashes saw him hailed as one of the greatest Australian players. So what do the numbers say?Christopher Drovandi, Senior Lecturer in Statistics, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/893672018-01-03T20:16:14Z2018-01-03T20:16:14ZVideo explainer: Bowling strategies and decision-making in cricket<p><em>This is the final in a three-part video series looking at decision-making in cricket. In this episode, Jonathan Connor explains how bowlers find their rhythm, how they adapt to conditions, and how they make good decisions.</em></p>
<p><em>Watch: <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-explainer-how-cricket-captains-make-good-decisions-88384">Episode 1: How cricket captains make good decisions</a></em></p>
<p><em>Watch: <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-explainer-batting-expertise-and-decision-making-in-cricket-89366">Episode 2: Batting expertise and decision making in cricket</a></em></p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2pz7dOn6CMU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In the final episode of our three-part cricket video series, we look at bowlers and how they find their rhythm and develop a game plan, and why left-armers are so successful.Emil Jeyaratnam, Data + Interactives Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/893662017-12-25T20:35:17Z2017-12-25T20:35:17ZVideo explainer: Batting expertise and decision-making in cricket<p><em>This is the second of a three-part video series looking at decision-making in cricket. This episode looks at batting: the techniques and strategies batsmen use in a game and how they learn to make good decisions.</em></p>
<p><em>Watch: <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-explainer-how-cricket-captains-make-good-decisions-88384">Episode 1: How cricket captains make good decisions</a></em></p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4R4aN98Qrbo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In the second of a three-part series, we look at how batsmen make split-second decisions and cope with the mental demands of Test cricket.Emil Jeyaratnam, Data + Interactives Editor, The ConversationNatalie Pitcher, Multimedia Intern, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883842017-11-30T19:07:12Z2017-11-30T19:07:12ZVideo explainer: How cricket captains make good decisions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197062/original/file-20171130-12035-xac4j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ability to perform and make good decisions under pressure actually comes from practice and experience, not innate talent.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The British Council</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the first of a three-part video series looking at decision-making in cricket. This episode looks at captains: why they make certain decisions and how they acquire the skills to perform at the elite level. Episodes two and three will examine bowlers and batsmen.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7YoLV5cBAjY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Australian captain Steve Smith and English captain Joe Root will walk out onto the Adelaide Oval tomorrow knowing that the choices they make could determine whether their team wins or loses the important second Ashes Test.</p>
<p>Winning a Test match depends on more than just talent. The type of pitch, the weather, the ball, and even luck, all play an important role in influencing the result.</p>
<p>And though the focus is often on the batsmen at the crease and the bowlers, it’s the captains who will have to make the important decisions.</p>
<p>Especially when fielding, captains have to constantly evaluate and adapt their strategies depending on the stage of the game, how the pitch is playing, what the ball is doing, and how comfortable the batsmen look against their bowlers.</p>
<p>But how do captains know when to rotate their bowlers or which field to set?</p>
<p>The Conversation asked Jonathan Connor, a coaching specialist in skills acquisition with Cricket Australia, to help explain some of the intricacies of this unique game, and the factors that captains rely on to make good decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Ever wondered how cricket captains make all the decisions they need to make in a test match? In the first of a three-part series, we look at what goes through a captain’s mind on the pitch.Emil Jeyaratnam, Data + Interactives Editor, The ConversationAmanda Dunn, Politics + Society EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875332017-11-16T12:35:39Z2017-11-16T12:35:39ZAshes 2017: why underdog status could do England’s cricket team a big favour<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195005/original/file-20171116-15416-9bncd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Sky Sports</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After being in the news <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017/09/27/england-name-ashes-squad-plus-latest-ben-stokes-arrest-live/">for all the wrong reasons</a>, England’s cricket team is in Australia preparing for the Ashes. The beleaguered squad is viewed by pretty much everyone <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/oct/29/joe-root-ready-prove-critics-wrong-england-land-australia-ashes-ben-stokes">as underdogs</a> following the loss of star player Ben Stokes due to a disciplinary matter.</p>
<p>For fans in England or Australia – or pretty much anywhere else cricket is played for that matter – the Ashes is laden with significance. The contest dates back to 1882, when a touring team from the then colony of Australia beat England, prompting a satirical obituary “in affectionate remembrance” of English cricket in a British newspaper. Since then, Ashes tours have become for players and fans alike, a barometer of national pride for the two countries. And, at the moment at least, Australia is claiming bragging rights in expectation of giving England a good thrashing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195006/original/file-20171116-15416-1ff2qfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A matter of life and death.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the recent examples of underdogs overcoming their limitations in other sports – <a href="https://theconversation.com/leicester-city-are-football-champions-of-england-im-tearful-incredibly-proud-and-full-of-envy-58658">Leicester City Football Club</a>, for example, going from relegation fodder to English Premier League winners; <a href="http://www.espn.co.uk/golf/masters16/story/_/id/15178583/danny-willett-wins-masters-jordan-spieth-collapse">Danny Willet winning the US Masters</a> while ranked 102nd in the world, and the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-win-world-series-sullivan-spt-1103-20161102-story.html">Chicago Cubs winning the World Series</a> for the first time in 108 years – it’s worth asking whether underdog status is good or bad for the English cricket team?</p>
<p>An underdog <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/underdog">is defined</a> as an individual or group that is at a disadvantage and expected to lose. So there are two intertwined elements to being an underdog that are worthy of further consideration. First, underdogs are those considered to be at a disadvantage compared to their opponent – whether it is because of fewer resources, a smaller reputation or, in the case of England’s Test team, the loss of a star player. </p>
<p>Second, underdog status can be achieved through lowered expectations and an anticipated loss. The lowering of expectations can often lead to commentators or pundits viewing the underdog in a positive light. Watching an underdog achieve can be a massive source of inspiration – after all, it is the uncertainty within sport that keeps us on the edge of our seats. Hence, underdog status may not be such a bad thing for the England players.</p>
<h2>Pulling together</h2>
<p>Team cohesion is often defined as the sum of the forces pushing in from the outside and the bonds within the group pulling it together – and, in Australia, it is likely that this push/pull effect could be maximised. Both on and off the field of play, the England players will be exposed to sledging – the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/oct/18/the-spin-history-of-sledging">verbal abuse</a> usually directed at individual batsman by the majority of the fielding team. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194998/original/file-20171116-8003-4h2y7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How Queensland’s Courier-Mail greeted the England test team when they toured in 2013. England lost 5-0.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courier-Mail</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In an Ashes series, probably the highest-profile cricket encounter globally, the sledging will be from players, crowd, pundits and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/joe-root-england-cricket-ashes-series-australia-new-boys-hostile-reception-a7891426.html">probably the Australian media as a whole</a>. However, if well prepared for, these external forces directed at the England players, could be used to pull the group together to form a very tight unit and even strengthen the team’s resolve: “The whole world is against us, but what doesn’t kill us, will only make us stronger.”</p>
<h2>Home advantage</h2>
<p>Another psychological concept that will loom large in the context of the Ashes, will be the home advantage. The phenomenon that the home team (in most aspects of sport) tends to have an advantage because of greater crowd support, a better working knowledge of the pitch, and the local facilities. </p>
<p>In most circumstances, these factors would lower the expectations of success for the away team but might increase expectations for the home side. Interestingly, the heightened expectations of the Australian players, among both the public and media, could work against them. </p>
<p>If, in the somewhat unlikely event that things go England’s way, these expectations could see the crowd and the pundits quickly turning on the Australian players, whereas conversely, the reduced expectation – and hence pressure – felt by the England players, may have a liberating effect.</p>
<h2>All in the mind</h2>
<p>The Ashes series will be the ultimate test of the England player’s <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/all-in-the-mind-9b0rpzpwk">mental toughness</a>. The England Cricket team should expect adversity to come from every direction, the media will be “in their face” 24/7, the crowd will be constantly on their back and it is likely that every element that the Australian management can control will be used to test the resolve of the England players. </p>
<p>For instance, it is likely that the <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/firstcricket/sports-news/flat-tracks-galore-cricket-australia-admit-pitches-need-to-offer-more-to-the-bowlers-2594472.html">pitches will be prepared to favour the Australian team’s preferences</a> and even the itinerary may have been constructed to give the England players little respite. If England players can produce match-winning performances under these circumstances, they will truly be mentally tough.</p>
<p>Recent indicators are not favourable. During <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41859201">England’s 5-0 drubbing in Australia in 2013/14</a>, Jonathan Trott – who occupied the key batting position of number three for England – left the tour early for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/oct/03/jonathan-trott-mental-health-england-ashes">stress-related reasons</a> having been hit by a delivery from Australia’s super-fast bowler Mitchell Johnson. The oft-trumpeted Australian tactic of “mental disintegration” – uncompromising cricket on the field and a constant barrage of abuse off the field – had helped to claim an important scalp. </p>
<p>However, with most aspects of preparation and the occasion being weighted in the Aussies’ favour, legendary status and a hero’s welcome home awaits a winning England team. If the underdog wins, the repercussions will rumble around “down-under” for a lifetime – Australian pundits still smart at the memory of the 1986/87 Ashes tour when a team from England that “<a href="http://en.espn.co.uk/onthisday/sport/story/339.html">can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field</a>” returned home holding the Ashes urn. Given the hype in the Australian press this time around, an England win would be truly memorable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>England’s cricket team is expected to lose the series against aggressive Australian opposition. But they might just defy expectations.Ian Maynard, Professor of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science, University of EssexJohn P. Mills, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/814802017-08-04T00:15:32Z2017-08-04T00:15:32ZCricket pay saga a case study in how not to resolve industrial disputes in sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180960/original/file-20170803-5614-9oglqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both James Sutherland and Alistair Nicholson faced criticism for their handling of cricket's pay dispute.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tracey Nearmy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-03/cricket-pay-deal-explained/8771988">protracted pay dispute</a> between Cricket Australia and its players is over. Harmony is restored in the sport’s employment relations. Playing tours to Bangladesh and India, and the related commercial agreements, can resume.</p>
<p>Most importantly, the Ashes are saved – at least until England arrive later in the year.</p>
<p>Extended collective bargaining disputes between players’ unions and their employers are not unusual in modern professional sport, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/03/us/pro-sports-lockouts-and-strikes-fast-facts/index.html">especially in the US</a>. Baseball, for example, had eight work stoppages, including one season-long dispute, between 1972 and 1995.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, an unusual characteristic of this dispute is that it appeared for long periods to be a process of negotiation through media spin and not traditional face-to-face talks. The resulting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jul/14/greg-combet-hits-back-at-cricket-australia-chairmans-absurd-claims">lack of trust</a> between the players and their employers delayed the negotiations. This relationship <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-03/cricket-australia-reaches-pay-deal-with-players/8765040?section=sport">will need rebuilding</a> in the months ahead.</p>
<h2>Spinning in the media</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/fears-playerboard-relations-set-back-40-years-due-to-pay-dispute-20170725-gxiio1.html">lack of trust</a> was exacerbated by the inevitable media focus on key individuals in the dispute. </p>
<p>For one, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland was <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/james-sutherland-must-intervene-in-knifeedge-pay-spat-says-brendon-julian-20170620-gwujz0.html">heavily criticised</a> for his apparent brinkmanship in not getting involved until a very late stage of the dispute. </p>
<p>However, his approach – leaving the initial contacts to the governing body’s lead negotiator, Kevin Roberts, and suggesting that, in the absence of agreement, mandatory arbitration might be necessary – was a wholly unremarkable negotiation ploy in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-australian-cricketers-industrial-dispute-drags-on-heres-what-weve-learnt-80544">“structured antagonism”</a> of industrial relations.</p>
<p>On the other side, speculation surrounded the capacity of the Australian Cricketers’ Association’s Alistair Nicholson to complete a deal. The speculation, noting Nicholson’s AFL background, highlighted his <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-pay-dispute-alistair-nicholson--the-man-holding-cricket-australia-at-bay-20170727-gxjsei.html">apparent inexperience</a> – even naivety – in such deal-making. Again, this spin was as unhelpful as it was unsubstantiated.</p>
<p>Both sides also used the media to flag that a failure to negotiate a deal would have potential legal ramifications. The 230 or so players argued that the termination of the previous agreement meant they were, in effect, unemployed. Thus, as free agents, they claimed they could negotiate their own sponsorship and endorsement deals.</p>
<p>These deals, they argued, would inevitably rival existing, and protected, Cricket Australia sponsorship deals. The impact this may have had, in terms of the pressure that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-10/cricketers-union-makes-bold-play-for-sponsorship-deals/8693346">official sponsors</a> brought to bear on Cricket Australia to complete a deal, should not be underestimated.</p>
<p>In echoes of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-cricketers-pay-dispute-will-lightning-strike-twice-in-the-same-place-78119">World Series of Cricket</a> split of the 1970s, the players also argued that any interference by Cricket Australia in such deals – including the possibility of them playing in events not sanctioned by Cricket Australia – would equate to an illegal <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-pay-dispute-ca-may-stop-uncontracted-australians-from-playing-away-20170523-gwbhkk.html">restraint of their trade</a> or livelihood.</p>
<p>A less effective ploy by the Australian Cricketers’ Association was its idea that it would seek to exploit its players’ <a href="http://www.cricket.com.au/news/player-pay-dispute-ca-aca-ip-mou-cricket-australia-digital-rights-intellectual-property-promotions/2017-05-24">collective image rights</a> in India. </p>
<p>The exact nature of the companies that might invest in such rights always remained unclear. In any event, players’ exploitation of image rights is seen more as a <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?DocID=COG/PCG201711/NAT/ATO/00001">legally recognised</a> way to reduce their personal tax burden, rather than having any meaningful, external economic value.</p>
<p>Both sides also engaged in quite an amount of what can only be called “virtue-signalling” regarding their commitment to grassroots and women’s cricket.</p>
<p>Cricket Australia made much of its “duty of care” to the sport as a whole. It argued the <a href="http://www.cricket.com.au/news/james-sutherland-pay-dispute-cricket-australia-association-grassroots-growth-revenue-sharing/2017-05-27">existing revenue-sharing model</a> – 70% on elite cricket, 18% on administration costs and 12% to grassroots cricket – needed to be amended.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricketers-propose-peace-plan-to-end-pay-impasse-ahead-of-ashes-20170723-gxgsbc.html">players</a> continuously highlighted their commitment to a “gender-neutral” final pay agreement, which would recognise the growth of the women’s game and that the average wage for a female international player should double to A$180,000.</p>
<p>In both instances, the union’s negotiators seemed to have got the better of Cricket Australia. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-03/cricket-pay-deal-explained/8771988?section=sport">It secured</a> the biggest pay rise in the history of women’s sport in Australia. In addition, the Australian Cricketers’ Association will largely claim the credit for an innovative grassroots investment fund.</p>
<h2>What about the revenue-sharing model?</h2>
<p>At its core, however, this was a straightforward workplace pay dispute. The players demanded an increased share of rising revenue streams, while the employers sought to balance these demands against the longer-term good of the game.</p>
<p>Again, it appears the Australian Cricketers’ Association prevailed.</p>
<p>Unlike the announcement of <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-06-20/players-get-20-per-cent-pay-rise-in-new-cba">recent sports pay deals</a>, little effort was made at Thursday’s press conference to present the deal <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/crickets-pay-stoush-each-side-will-think-itself-the-winner-in-truth-there-are-two-losers-20170803-gxoqrw.html">as a win-win</a> for both parties.</p>
<p>The reason is clear. Cricket Australia made much of the need for the sport to move away from <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/progress-slow-in-crickets-pay-dispute-between-players-and-cricket-australia-20170719-gxema1.html">a gross revenue model</a> to one based on a set pool/shared revenue approach. </p>
<p>In May, and somewhat strangely by <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-australia-releases-explanatory-video-in-bid-to-end-pay-dispute-20170530-gwgq83.html">video</a>, Cricket Australia’s chief negotiator outlined its offer to the players predicated on an amended revenue-sharing model. Comparing that offer to what has been agreed – the players obtained up to 30% of agreed revenue – it’s clear the union’s definition of revenue-sharing <a href="http://www.auscricket.com.au/news-media/news-articles/heads-of-agreement-reached-in-mou-negotiation">prevailed</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, an interesting feature of this agreement is what remains unsaid. The players have secured not only an upfront or guaranteed share of Cricket Australia’s revenue stream, but also a share in its forecast growth.</p>
<p>This is of interest because, in 1997 – when the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/malcolm-speed-says-australian-cricketers-must-face-up-to-revenue-reality-20170628-gx0i7d.html">first agreement was reached</a> – Cricket Australia’s revenue was $40 million per year, split evenly between gate money, sponsorship and broadcast rights. </p>
<p>Cricket Australia’s current revenues are around $400 million per year; 80% of it from broadcast rights. This 80% is subject to what’s called the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/digital-disruption-16055">digital disruption</a>” of sport, a phenomenon that encapsulates our social-media-driven age and its impact on the ways in which we play, watch, sponsor and consume sport.</p>
<p>Longer forms of cricket (and other sports) are becoming less attractive. In addition, large-scale broadcasting deals with a handful of TV companies are becoming a thing of the past, as the broadcasting market for sport fragments onto a bewildering array of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/aug/01/amazon-outbids-sky-to-win-exclusive-atp-tour-tennis-rights">multimedia and digital platforms</a>.</p>
<p>A characteristic of this dispute, and why its details will be closely followed elsewhere, is how it will in the future capture greater revenue from shorter forms of the game, as broadcast on platforms such as <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-talks-stick-on-allocation-of-digital-revenues/news-story/e9aff5c420a60cf6d2b327226994390e">Cricket Australia’s website</a> and related social media outlets.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>In the end, Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association struck a deal in a rather old-fashioned, “Test match” way. </p>
<p>Both sides faced off for four to five days. Some spin was used. But, eventually, the game was declared a draw – and one side (Cricket Australia) was left with many regrets.</p>
<p>Whether Test cricket remains the game’s future is a matter of debate. What’s rather more certain is the way the game is financially exploited, and its players remunerated, is changing rapidly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lack of trust between Australia’s cricketers and the game’s governing body delayed negotiations in their protracted pay dispute. This relationship will need to be rebuilt in the coming months.Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781192017-05-24T03:24:33Z2017-05-24T03:24:33ZAustralian cricketers’ pay dispute: will lightning strike twice in the same place?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170467/original/file-20170523-7379-1qxnwus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leading Australian cricketers have indicated they may boycott forthcoming tournaments if no pay deal is reached.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/David Mariuz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-19/pay-dispute-biggest-threat-to-cricket-since-wsc-richard-hinds/8538140">are at loggerheads</a> over the negotiation of pay and working conditions. </p>
<p>If a new memorandum of understanding cannot be reached by July 1, Cricket Australia <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/we-wont-pay-you-cricket-australia-boss-james-sutherlands-stunning-email-to-players-heightens-tension-20170513-gw45tl.html">has threatened</a> to not pay players. The union and leading players have indicated they may boycott forthcoming tournaments, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/australian-star-david-warner-says-pay-dispute-puts-ashes-summer-in-doubt-20170515-gw51tz.html">including this summer’s Ashes series</a>, if no agreement is reached.</p>
<p>Sport, like other areas of economic life, requires decisions to be made about pay and working conditions. Especially in recent decades, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lifting-their-voice-how-unions-can-arrest-membership-decline-and-stay-relevant-57351">sport has witnessed</a> the formation of associations to represent players, and the use of collective bargaining to resolve such issues.</p>
<p>There are times, however, when the parties experience difficulties in reaching an agreement.</p>
<h2>Not unique to cricket</h2>
<p>In the US, Major League Baseball had a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/08/11/1994-mlb-strike/13912279/">232-day strike in 1994</a>. The National Football League had a <a href="http://www.espn.com.au/nfl/story/_/id/6797238/2011-nfl-lockout-owners-players-come-deal-all-points-sources-say">127-day lockout in 2011</a>. The National Basketball Association had lockouts of 204 and 161 days, respectively, in <a href="https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/story/2011-10-12/Timeline-to-the-1998-99-NBA-lockout/50747980/1">1998-99</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/sports/basketball/nba-and-basketball-players-reach-deal-to-end-lockout.html">2011</a>. And the National Hockey League had lockouts of 301 and 119 days, respectively, in <a href="https://www.si.com/nhl/2014/09/15/2004-nhl-lockout-look-back-at-dark-day">2004-05</a> and <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2013/1/6/3728892/nhl-lockout-timeline-2012-2013">2012-13</a>. </p>
<p>Other examples of actual and threatened industrial disputes can be found in numerous sports across the globe.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Australian women’s national football team, the Matildas, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/11/matildas-player-strike-what-are-the-key-pay-demands-and-disputes-ahead">refused to tour the US</a> over the level and late payment of wages. This is the only example of a strike in Australian sport.</p>
<p>There are several other examples of Australian players threatening strike action: the most recent <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-19/australian-netball-in-turmoil-as-players-threaten-strike-action/8454762">involved netballers</a> concerned over governance of their sport. </p>
<h2>Lessons of the past</h2>
<p>Australian cricket has also experienced its fair share of industrial drama over the years. </p>
<p>Between 1908 and 1909 there was a major clash when administrators wrested control of tours away from players. </p>
<p><a href="http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingTraditions/1991/st0801/st0801c.pdf">In 1977</a>, the creation of World Series Cricket involved media mogul Kerry Packer signing leading players to “lucrative” annual contracts ranging from A$16,500 to $35,000. The then-Australian Cricket Board (ACB) had not contracted players and paid them “low” levels of income (from $180 to $2,000 for home Test matches from 1970 to 1977). </p>
<p>The dispute was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-1970s-cricket-revolution-a-beginners-guide-9024">essentially over</a> Packer’s attempt to broadcast cricket – the rights had long been in the hands of the national broadcaster, the ABC. The dispute was resolved in 1979 when the ACB accepted a more lucrative offer from Packer.</p>
<p><a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=990706610;res=IELAPA">In 1995</a>, the Australian Cricketers’ Association formed and experienced difficulties gaining recognition from the ACB. The ACB sought to bypass it by conducting meetings with players or writing to them individually. </p>
<p>Players, especially those in the Test team, steadfastly stood behind the ACA. They maintained they lacked knowledge concerning the business side of sport and needed their union’s professional expertise to represent them on such matters and broader, collective issues associated with player welfare. </p>
<p>The ACB sought to paint the Test players as “greedy”, only concerned with themselves. These players responded that they wished to enhance the income and security of state players, provide them with an incentive to stay in the game, and ensure a ready supply of hardened professionals to maintain the supremacy of Australian cricket. </p>
<p>The players threatened to strike in a one-day game. The ACB ultimately agreed to recognise the ACA and, in 1998, negotiated the first of several pay deals – all of which have been based on revenue-sharing.</p>
<h2>Unpicking this dispute</h2>
<p>The 2012-17 deal provided cricketers with a 24.5% to 27% share of revenue (depending on playing success). Other Australian athletes <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=809150704816818;res=IELBUS">receive shares</a> of revenue ranging from 25% (rugby league), to the high 20s (AFL, likely, given current negotiations), and low 30s (rugby union and football).</p>
<p>In the US, athletes receive approximately a 50% share. Footballers in Europe get somewhere between 60% and 70%.</p>
<p>The 2017 cricket dispute looks like a re-run of the dispute in the 1990s. Cricket Australia is bypassing the ACA by contacting players directly, with the players again standing behind the ACA. CA is seeking to treat state players differently from Test and contracted players by offering them one-off payments, rather than linking their payments to revenue, which the ACA hopes to maintain.</p>
<p>A major difference from back then is the inclusion of female players. From July 1, Cricket Australia has offered payments of $179,000 for the Southern Stars, the national women’s team, and $52,000 for state players. The Southern Stars would be the highest-paid female team players in Australia.</p>
<p>The ACA, in offering what it regards as an olive branch, has lowered its request for a players’ share to 22.5% – including female players. Cricket Australia has not taken up this concession: it wants to negotiate with players individually and rejects revenue-sharing.</p>
<p>Recent decades have <a href="https://theconversation.com/english-football-holds-lessons-for-cricket-as-elites-hijack-the-game-45784">seen the rise</a> of Indian cricket and Twenty20 cricket globally, with offers in the millions of dollars for leading players. This differs markedly from the 1990s. If the current dispute is not settled, players could conceivably earn an income from such tournaments – or new entrepreneurs may find a willing workforce prepared to embark on new competitions. </p>
<p>There are other sports looking for a chance to find their place in the Australian broadcasting sun, such as football and burgeoning women’s sports. It remains to be seen whether a new deal can be struck like a four to the boundary, or what will happen if negotiations continue to go through to the ‘keeper.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Braham Dabscheck has been a consultant for a number of player associations in Australia and overseas. He is on the player agent accreditation boards of the AFL and rugby union. He is a member of the Rugby Union Players Association's National Player Development Committee. He is a previous member of the ACA advisory board. In March 2010 he prepared a report the ACA entitled 'An ideal player allocation model for an expanded (eight-team) Big Bash competition'. He has been a member of Australian soccer tribunals to resolve contractual disputes.</span></em></p>Cricket has experienced its fair share of industrial drama over the years – and the 2017 dispute looks like a re-run of a brawl that enveloped the sport in Australia 20 years ago.Braham Dabscheck, Senior Fellow, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/441572015-07-08T05:24:42Z2015-07-08T05:24:42ZWhere you grow up matters for sporting success – that’s why Yorkshire cricketers are so good<p>With the Ashes test series between England and Australia continuing what has already been a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-british-media-woke-up-to-the-womens-world-cup-44035">glorious summer</a> of sport, we find ourselves about to watch something remarkable and yet so often taken for granted.</p>
<p>Not for the first time, Yorkshire County Cricket Club will have provided almost a third of an England <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/33346761">squad for a test match</a>. The first Ashes test will have Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid and Joe Root as born-and-bred Yorkshiremen, with Gary Ballance (born and educated in Zimbabwe, but Yorkshire-based) completing the quartet in the 13-man squad.</p>
<p>While sports science and research tends to focus upon the biological and psychological training <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-take-to-be-an-elite-athlete-depends-on-the-sport-18208">necessary to become an elite performer</a>, success in sport is much more complex than this. Underpinning any athlete’s “bio-psycho” make-up is the socio-cultural environment in which they are brought up. </p>
<p>This is now acknowledged in sports performance development, thanks partly to a <a href="https://www.sportscoachuk.org/sites/default/files/Participant-Development-Lit-Review.pdf">review undertaken through SportCoachUK</a>, which looked at the importance of geography and location in sporting participation, alongside other factors such as children’s socio-economic status and their educational background. The culture in which young athletes are brought up can have a significant impact upon the opportunities available to them to engage and participate in sport. </p>
<p>The challenges of Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards (the British ski jumper in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rqI8xwXVac">Eric “the Eel” Moussambani</a> (the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who became famous at the 2000 Sydney Olympics), could have been mitigated if they’d been born elsewhere. Had they been born into a culture of opportunity (Eddie in a Nordic country and Eric in a country with its own Olympic-sized swimming pool) then things could have been so different. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L1aWsFpg3To?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Eddie the Eagle at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Location matters</h2>
<p>A number of academic studies have identified that the size of the place you are born in can influence your chance of making it at a top level. In <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640410500432490#.VZeJnflVhBc">the US</a> it’s been noted this was most effective in cities of less than half a million inhabitants. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Hancock5/publication/271933096_Positive_Youth_Development_From_Sport_to_Life_Explicit_or_Implicit_Transfer/links/552d23cf0cf29b22c9c4b61e.pdf">Research</a> has also suggested that “smaller communities may foster a more salient context for youth sport participation” due to their structure, function and underlying cultural approach to the game.</p>
<p>One study of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17461391.2015.1009492#.VZvq47cb4TV">handball and football players in Denmark</a>, found that size and density of a population affected the proportion of youth players from a community becoming elite athletes. It found the odds of young people registering to play handball and football increased in smaller rural communities, compared to larger urban ones. </p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2159676X.2013.766815#">study of a sporty Canadian town</a> suggested that socio-cultural influences, such as rivalry between local communities and growing up with a stable group of teammates, were important factors in athletic development. </p>
<p>When it comes to sport, where we are born is as important as who we are born to and what genetics we have. Books such as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bounce_The_Myth_of_Talent_and_the_Power.html?id=jY-zgZgrKEUC&hl=en">Bounce</a> by the journalist and table tennis player Matthew Syed further reflect and popularise this. There is a direct link with culture, or somebody’s place of upbringing, and sport. </p>
<h2>Local grassroots sport is vital</h2>
<p>All of the Yorkshire players have family connections and involvement in the game – <a href="http://www.canadacricket.com/archives/2003/whyplay.htm">not unusual at all in cricket</a>. An analogy might take us away from sport and into the developing realms of archaeological science, where it’s possible to tell what monarchs <a href="http://www.livescience.com/47403-richard-iii-really-ate-like-a-king.html">such as Richard III</a> ate (and therefore where they lived) from studying the isotopes in their bones. Perhaps the historical Yorkshire dominance in cricket might be described as a “sporting cultural isotope” – where sport is a central tenet to the county, and where living there allows access to participation, support and a cultural way of life that helps develop performers. Yorkshire appears to excel at this (and especially in cricket).</p>
<p>Other sports and places have similar influences. Take the likes of Ireland and the <a href="http://www.gaa.ie/about-the-gaa/mission-and-vision/">Gaelic Athletic Association</a> (GAA). The whole notion of community engagement and community involvement is very often centred around Gaelic Games. The GAA clubs are at the heart of the community (much like club cricket is in some area of Britain – and in particular Yorkshire), reinforcing how vital these grassroots clubs are to our sporting legacy.</p>
<p>Since cricket has gone global (and in particular on pay-per-view television rather than freeview), <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/33407465">youth cricket in England has come under pressure</a>. All the more reason to reinvest and focus on local community engagement to survive.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87650/original/image-20150707-1288-1f79fta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">God’s own cap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gin_soak/529444697/sizes/o/">gin soak/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While there is a growing awareness of the need to understand athletes as people, not just bodies, the emphasis of sports science research continues to focus on improving times, results and performance. Perhaps this is at the cost of understanding the individual. </p>
<p>In an age of consistently reported <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31118639">inactivity of our children</a> it is important that we find opportunities beyond school and the home to allow young athletes to develop in a supportive culture of engagement so that they can have every opportunity to excel in their chosen sport. Failing that, ensure your children are born and brought up in a small enough community that supports young development. Failing that, move to Yorkshire.</p>
<p>(<em>Martin Toms is NOT a Yorkshireman. He wishes to blame his parents for not bringing him up there and thus not allowing him to fulfil his cricketing potential.</em>)</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44157/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Toms does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s not just about physical training and psychology, sport is influenced by your location.Martin Toms, Senior Lecturer, School of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/442052015-07-07T05:22:19Z2015-07-07T05:22:19ZThe Ashes: sledging is ‘OK as long as you realise where the line is’<p>Once again the Ashes are upon us – and once again the focus is on the on-field relations between the two teams. After a superbly exciting (and all-too short) early season tour by Brendan McCullum’s New Zealand team, which thrilled packed crowds with aggressive, positive cricket played in a spirit of mutual respect, England is preparing to meet the “Old Enemy” – Australia. The early signs are that the old antagonism that has marked Ashes series over the years will not take long to bubble to the surface.</p>
<p>The Australian tour party arrived in England a fortnight ago, and captain Michael Clarke <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes-2015-michael-clarke-warns-australia-aggression-could-headbutt-the-line-10335202.html">was interviewed</a> about his team’s approach to this on-field aggression. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s how we play our best and it’s a big part of the Australian way, but you also need to keep in mind that there is a line you can’t cross. Both teams might ‘headbutt’ that line but I am confident we will not overstep the mark, and that the series will be played in the right spirit. Both teams will play hard.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Where, one is tempted to ask, does issuing a threat of deliberately inflicting physical injury on an opponent site – as Clarke did in the most recent Ashes series when he told England’s pace bowler James Anderson to “get ready for a broken fucking arm” – sit on that line?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RtA6laeJBts?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sporting declaration from Australian captain Michael Clarke.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is sledging?</h2>
<p>Sledging is a form of gamesmanship that usually takes the form of verbal exchanges between competitors (the equivalent to North American “trash talking”); it’s intended to distract opponents and present irrelevant cues that interfere with their concentration. Such verbal exchanges can get inside an opponent’s head and play with their emotions so that they can’t keep their focus on the next delivery. Put simply, it can put a player off their game.</p>
<p>Of course, there is sledging and then there is sledging. The annals of cricket history are littered with lyrical exchanges that provide a shorthand for the competitive, almost gladiatorial relationship between two individuals representing two teams.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87496/original/image-20150706-978-1v9mj8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old mates - Botham and Marsh playing in the 1981 Ashes test at Trent Bridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Sutton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the more famous sledges is the exchange between Australian Rod Marsh and England’s Ian Botham (known to be mates who would share a beer together). Marsh greeted Botham with a cheery quip: “So how’s your wife and my kids?” Botham replied: “Wife’s fine but the kids are retarded.” This was – remember – in a different era and sensitivities were not what they are now, particularly in the middle of a cricket pitch.</p>
<p>This exchange between Australian spin ace Shane Warne and South African batsman Daryl Cullinan regularly makes the best sledges lists: Warne: “I’ve been waiting for two years to have another go at you.” Cullinan: “Looks like you spent it eating.”</p>
<p>Then there is this episode from English county cricket which is regularly cited as the best of all time. Greg Thomas had been bowling at West Indian batsman Viv Richards, who kept playing and missing. Said Thomas: “It’s red, it’s round, it weighs about five ounces and you are supposed to hit it.” Viv Richards promptly hit the next delivery back over Thomas’ head for six, saying: “You know what it looks like man, now go and fetch it!”</p>
<h2>But does it work?</h2>
<p>We recently interviewed a group of top-level cricketers from England’s county championship league as part of research exploring emotionally intense interactions between competitors: four top-order batsmen, six bowlers, a wicketkeeper and an all-rounder – roughly the make-up of a cricket XI with a 12th man thrown in.</p>
<p>All the participating athletes were required to have at least two years playing experience at the elite (professional) level to allow them to have played in a significant number of competitive matches and as a result to have experienced a range of emotion-inducing interactions with competitors. </p>
<p>The athletes participating in the study were from a range of countries including Australia, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and the UK. They were interviewed individually at their training ground and the questions were grouped into sections exploring general emotions experienced in cricket, specific situations in which sledging and emotional interactions with competitors occurred, and their perspective on the utility of seldging as well as their responses to it.</p>
<p>We analysed the interviews using the <a href="http://www.liwc.net/">Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count</a> software which quantifies the use of specific words relating to sentence structure as well as cognitive processes and emotions.</p>
<h2>Breaking concentration (and arms)</h2>
<p>Sledging had a number of objectives; specifically, to disrupt concentration and induce anxiety through intimidation. </p>
<p><strong>Disrupt concentration</strong>: This strategy was explained similarly by multiple participants:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a bowler, if you see a guy that is in form and in a routine you almost want to say more, to then to try and upset their rhythm … It’s all about trying to draw the batsmen outside of their own little bubble and give them something else to think about … to make them think about something differently.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or, as another member of the fielding team suggested, sledging tactics are often used to influence underlying aspects of performance: “He’s in the zone; I do it to take his mind off what he’s doing and concentrate on other things which will leave things unnoticed in his technique.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"613890384494637056"}"></div></p>
<p><strong>Intimidation of the batsman:</strong> Members of the fielding team also provided verbal encouragement, audible to the batsman and bowler, to promote aggressive play: “They’ll say like: ‘smash his face … hit him in the throat … and hit him in the head … let’s see if he likes it round the nose, let him smell it.‘”</p>
<p>It could be a direct threat from bowler to batsman: “I’m going to take your head off, I’m gonna break your arm, I’m gonna hit you somewhere’ you know.”</p>
<h2>A cheeky smile</h2>
<p>Batsmen suggested that they use the aggression to improve their performance including specific aspects related to motivation and attention. For example, one batsman suggested that: “Personally it spurs me on, it makes me more determined to prove them wrong and beat them.”</p>
<p>Similarly, another batsman outlined how being the target of aggressive play can increase concentration: “I just get a heightened sense of awareness; I’m a lot more switched on, a lot more focused.” </p>
<p>Responses can vary widely and may include mental skills intending to generate a relaxation response through the use of visualisation, self-talk or re-focusing routines between deliveries, “It’s called gardening, when you take your guard and repair some of the pitch… slow the tempo, get your breathing right… check the field… commence play when you’re ready.” Some batsmen take the direct approach, confronting aggressive play and the bowler: “If the batsman is willing to puff his chest out and walk back down the wicket … then the bowler is always going to have to back down.” </p>
<p>Alternatively, one batsman suggested that resisting the aggressive play with humour to demonstrate that it is not having the desired effect can also be an effective strategy to diffuse the situation: “I would just walk down and give him a smile or come back and give him a cheeky smile.”</p>
<p>Three players said there was a fine line between sledging and abuse: “If it’s all kind-hearted and nothing personal then I think it’s OK and can benefit the game,” said one. Another responded: “To bring your home life into your cricket is unacceptable … as long as it’s just cricket based then what goes on the pitch stays on the pitch really.”</p>
<p>Keeping it clean and avoiding personal insults seems to be where the tipping point is: “Once you start getting personal with someone then you start pushing the boundaries and go over the line a bit.”</p>
<p>Michael Clarke appears to understand this well. In an interview with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/21/michael-clarke-james-anderson-ashes">cricket.com.au</a> he said he regretted the incident. “And when I say I regret it, I regret the language I used and I regret that I said it over the stump mic,” he said. “The last thing I want is for boys and girls watching cricket to be going and playing club cricket and saying things like that to opposition players. I think it’s unacceptable that the Australian cricket captain is setting that example.” </p>
<p>And when boundaries are crossed … well, “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/2013/04/130404_todays_phrase_not_cricket.shtml">it’s just not cricket</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Ashes start tomorrow but the war of words has already begun.Paul Davis, Senior Lecturer Department: Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/233292014-02-18T14:23:07Z2014-02-18T14:23:07ZProfessional era means women’s cricket is no longer about charity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41818/original/x89msdt9-1392724742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gone pro.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Owen Humphreys/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>England retained the Ashes in 2014. That’s not a wistful statement from a parallel universe, it’s a fact. A fact relating to women’s cricket, though, not men’s. </p>
<p>As crestfallen fans will know, the men lost the Ashes in a particularly abject 5-0 collapse, a series which has been variously described as <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/25610300">dismal and disastrous</a>. But the women’s cricket team won their 2013-14 series.</p>
<p>That’s cricket. You can’t win them all, as fans understand, and it certainly doesn’t detract from the women’s success that England’s men did so badly. Still, the contrast in fortunes must have played a part in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to give the women’s team professional status and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/26171943">significant pay rises</a>. </p>
<p>My initial response was that it’s about time. For too long, women have had to finance themselves as international competitors, even to the extent of having to buy their own blazers. Sport has to be visible for its excitement, complexities and stories to be available to a wide public. And to achieve visibility, there has to be financial investment. </p>
<p>We need to know the names of athletes in order to follow their progress, and the success of the England women’s team has put names like captain Charlotte Edwards and Sarah Taylor into the spotlight. It’s not surprising that Edwards, <a href="http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/ranking/woment20/batting/">ranked third in the women’s T20</a>, expressed her pleasure at the news that women’s cricket was going professional. </p>
<p>In celebrating this recognition, players and managers of women’s cricket also acknowledged the influence of the <a href="http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/corporate-social-responsibility/chance-to-shine,1390,BP.html">Chance to Shine</a> project that has helped children in inner city areas and state schools take up the game (as compared to the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/01/ashes-2013-cricket-players-privately-educated_n_3687757.html">dominance of privately educated players</a> in the men’s team).</p>
<p>Women cricketers acknowledge the huge support which many have gained from the Chance to Shine programme. It’s an admirable initiative, but it sees women lumped in with deprived areas as if women’s sport were either a worthy cause or a troublesome problem that requires intervention. </p>
<p>This charitable discourse and the classification of women as a disadvantaged group still haunts sport, so the move to professionalism in cricket is a watershed. Responses are positive and at least there has not been any public outcry about the resources which might go to women’s cricket coming at the expense of the men’s sport.</p>
<p>It remains the case that women feel compelled to be grateful for whatever support they get. We’ve still got a long way to go but this is progress. Most importantly, it’s a chance for us to watch more cricket, and that’s definitely in the interests of the game. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kath Woodward receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for research into peak performance in sport, music and cultural work.</span></em></p>England retained the Ashes in 2014. That’s not a wistful statement from a parallel universe, it’s a fact. A fact relating to women’s cricket, though, not men’s. As crestfallen fans will know, the men lost…Kath Woodward, Professor of Sociology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218062014-01-07T19:14:46Z2014-01-07T19:14:46ZUrn returns: how cricket’s turnaround culture paid dividends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38574/original/c76gswkh-1389073626.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Australian cricket team's turnaround Ashes win shows how a building culture of team work yields results.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ll know that Australia has convincingly won the Ashes 5-0. They have done this not by fielding a team of champions but rather, a champion team. Most agree, it has been a miraculous change of fortune from a side that lost the Ashes in 2013, and had a horror tour of India. In England they were called “the worst ever” and in both series that didn’t win a game.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Tony Abbott may have called them “The Unchangeables” at their civic reception in Sydney but “change” is what they did very well. How did they do it? I suspect there are many organisations and leaders who would like to emulate this kind of impressive turn around.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that there was a silver bullet or magic formula. There are however some clues that managers facing similar challenges may wish to take note of.</p>
<p>Firstly, the leaders in the Australian Cricket team and the team as a whole had to genuinely see a need for change. In Michael Clarke’s post match press conference he said that the tough times during 2013 provided the catalyst for change. He was quoted as saying: “We all said, ‘Enough is enough, we have to turn this around’”. More of the same was not going to work and the team collectively realised that change was needed if they were to step back on the winner’s podium. A crisis was not wasted.</p>
<p>Secondly, there was a distinct change in culture and atmosphere around the team. Much of this has been attributed to the approach of new coach, Darren Lehmann, who was appointed during the ill-fated English tour. On the team bus, for example, music and a few drinks now replace homework and briefings. Players talk of a sense of fun and enjoyment. At the same time, however, the work ethic is visibly strong and they are encouraged to be honest with each other when performances are poor.</p>
<p>Thirdly, much has been made of the fact that the team that played the first test also played the other four. This appeared to be strong motivation for the team to perform well. This aligns with the theory that a high performing unit achieves because of the whole rather than the individual sum of its parts. George Bailey has been cited as the player that did not perform his role (as a batsman) well, but his strong contribution off the field and to team morale has also been recognised (in addition to his catching!). Nonetheless, there was a hard edge to this - Clarke said before the fifth test that while finishing the series with the 11 players that started it might be “romantic”, they still had to pick the best 11 to do the job.</p>
<p>Finally, this was a team that was positive and resilient. Dispersed among periods of domination were times when it wasn’t going well at all. At the same time as being honest about where they stood and what was needed, the Australians retained a positive mindset that they could deliver. Confidence and self-belief in themselves, their team mates and their captain was strong.</p>
<p>None of this belies the role of good strategy and the ability to execute. The Australian bowling unit had someone who could send down thunderbolts at 150 kilometres and others who could starve batsmen of runs. The victors also had a “keeper batsmen” that could be called upon to steady the ship after a batting collapse. Perhaps this is yet another reminder that the hard analytics associated with strategy and tactics need to be complimented by the so-called “softer” issues around culture, motivation and people if any team is to succeed.</p>
<p>Many teams and organisations can point to smart strategies and talented individuals. Not all achieve great results. The English team are a good example. These attributes are perhaps necessary but not sufficient. Recognising the need for change when it’s needed, creating the right culture and atmosphere, and having a positive mindset may well be equally important. Perhaps the most important thing is that this decision to turnaround culture is endorsed, supported and executed from the top down.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Styles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ll know that Australia has convincingly won the Ashes 5-0. They have done this not by fielding a team of champions but rather, a champion team. Most agree…Chris Styles, Professor and Deputy Dean, Director Australian Graduate School of Management, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217042014-01-06T01:59:28Z2014-01-06T01:59:28ZThe Ashes: six salutary lessons for the media, the nation and sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38477/original/y3z4mdf2-1388964933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia regained the treasured Ashes urn after whitewashing England five-nil. What are the key cultural lessons from the latest series?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the end came to the Ashes, it came quickly on the third day at the Sydney Cricket Ground – <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/25610300">five-nil to Australia</a>.</p>
<p>After ten Ashes tests in seven months, 2015 will be well advanced before Australia and England again compete for the urn. The object of copious coverage and commentary across broadcast, print and online media, what lessons can be drawn from this latest expenditure of sweat and toil under burning sun, television lights and midnight desk lamps?</p>
<p>First, and most obviously, <em>the colonial embrace is forever</em>. Although technically the relationship between the competing countries is now <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ashes-time-to-replay-the-postcolonial-pantomime-15616">postcolonial</a>, the Ashes’ emotional power derives from reviving, however banally or stereotypically, the sting of colonial history.</p>
<p>Before the on-field action commenced, excellent sport was made with the elaborate <a href="http://images.smh.com.au/file/2013/11/07/4905023/2013-14%2520ECB%2520Test%2520Catering%2520Requirements.pdf?rand=1383825635483">dietary demands</a> of the English team, ridiculed in the Australia media as effete wannabe aristocrats. When England was vanquished despite all the prescribed pak choi and puy lentil, the result reaffirmed for beer-bellied old-school cricketers and their followers that eating and drinking unhealthily – and even irresponsibly – are integral to sporting success.</p>
<p>Symbolically, Australia’s beer, fat and sugar-fuelled triumph would have come as a relief for some of Cricket Australia’s more conspicuous <a href="http://www.cricket.com.au/our-partners/commercial-partners">commercial partners</a> (formerly known as sponsors), including Victoria Bitter, KFC and Coca Cola, purveyors of consumables not readily associated with healthy living.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38478/original/skng48th-1388965353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">VB: the drink of champions?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Himbrechts</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, the second Ashes lesson ironically suggests that <em>promoting health is bad for sporting and commercial performance</em>. However, Swisse Health and Wellness Company was on call in the unhappy event that fortunes were reversed, the odds for which were offered by round-the-clock CA commercial partner and potential health risk, bet365.</p>
<p>As recently as August last year, bet365 <a href="http://www.bet365.com/news/en/betting/press-releases/england-odds-on-for-ashes-down-under">declared</a> England “odds-on favourites to dish out more misery to their cricketing rivals”. Their confident prediction revealed a third important Ashes lesson: <em>loving and living off sport means never having to say you’re sorry</em>.</p>
<p>Most professional commentators did not give Australia much chance after losing the previous three Ashes series and another in India. Most professional commentators were wrong. But the airwaves and printed pages did not echo with exclamations of mea culpa. Cricket’s irritating know-it-alls were either blithely unaware of their own failings or exceedingly anxious to bury them.</p>
<p>Like their business commentator counterparts who confidently and regularly predict outcomes that are comprehensively off beam (most notoriously failing to predict the coming cataclysm that was the global financial crisis), they barely missed a beat before praising Australia to the skies and excoriating the hapless English.</p>
<p>Suddenly, the meek had inherited cricket’s fragile earth and we were witnessing the twilight of its current cohort of gods.</p>
<p>That some of the game’s most prominent media personalities can be as reliable prophets as the proverbial back-bar sage underscores the fourth key Ashes lesson: <em>competitive uncertainty is crucial to sport as the most valuable genre of reality television</em>.</p>
<p>Talent, dating, renovation and cooking shows imitate sport’s exploitation of this uncertainty principle. Live sport attracts both the people who love it and the mildly curious in common pursuit of finding out how it all turned out.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38481/original/bs9vwhx9-1388967321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even prime minister Tony Abbott got in on the summer game’s popularity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Brendon Thorne</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sport <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-act-one-of-the-ashes-melodrama-17071">compulsively generates</a> its narratives, plots, characters and ethical dilemmas. But its continuously declared “massive” moments unfolding in real time must, in most cases, be forgotten instantly. In a five-day Ashes test, for example, at least 2700 largely unmemorable balls are scheduled to be bowled over a minimum 30 hours of play.</p>
<p>Sport is vital to the economics of both free-to-air and pay television, invoking the fifth Ashes lesson that, in an echo of sport philosophers <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/thissportinglife/default.htm">Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson</a>, <em>there is far too little sport on television</em>.</p>
<p>The match made in heaven that is television and sport has rarely been more conspicuous than when the Ashes coverage on Nine almost overlapped with the T20 <a href="http://www.bigbash.com.au/">Big Bash League</a> (BBL) on Ten. On those days, 12 free TV hours were allocated to cricket, leaving only a few spare minutes on the screen of dreams to switch channels.</p>
<p>Both broadcasts were popular, with <a href="http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/12/sunday-15-december-2013.html">over 1.7 million metropolitan viewers</a> tuning into one session of the third Ashes test in Perth, and the early BBL games receiving five-city metro audiences of <a href="http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/12/friday-20-december-2013.html">more than 800,000</a>.</p>
<p>During and after the Ashes, 35 televised BBL games lead up to the final on February 7, supplemented by five one-day internationals and three men’s and women’s Twenty20 double headers. This is not to mention all the other coverage on subscription TV, online, mobile, radio and print platforms that cover these and sundry other sport events.</p>
<p>It will be dispiriting news for the sport-resistant that there are several billion reasons with dollar signs attached that media (especially television) and sport will continue to cling to each other for survival like sailors in storm-tossed Sydney-Hobart yacht races.</p>
<p>For those for whom sport is the staff of life, A-League football and 24-sport pay TV sport channels will sustain them until the Australian Open tennis tournament negotiates the awkward transition to coverage in all media of pre-season tournaments for Australian rules and rugby league.</p>
<p>Here endeth the sixth and final salutary Ashes lesson: that <em>the only foolproof escape from media sport is an isolation tank</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21704/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe is currently receiving ARC funding for A Nation of ‘Good Sports’? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia (DP130104502).</span></em></p>When the end came to the Ashes, it came quickly on the third day at the Sydney Cricket Ground – five-nil to Australia. After ten Ashes tests in seven months, 2015 will be well advanced before Australia…David Rowe, Professor of Cultural Research, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207412013-12-26T09:58:29Z2013-12-26T09:58:29ZOut! Goal! The ball was in! But could Hawk-Eye get it wrong?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38390/original/n2yn3c3c-1387797781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The eye sees what the camera can't.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scot Campbell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hawk-Eye is a device used to reconstruct the track of the ball for LBW decisions in cricket and for line calls in tennis. It will be much in evidence during the remaining Ashes tests and is now being used for goal-line decisions in Premier League football. The technology is at its best when officials make a really bad decision. </p>
<p>But there are things you might not know about Hawk-Eye. For instance, it cannot track the ball to a millimetre even though one might get this impression when watching some replays; in tennis, those shots shown to be touching the line by a hair’s breadth and called in might actually be out and vice-versa.</p>
<p>Few people realised that there was an issue with accuracy until my colleagues and I <a href="http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/contactsandpeople/harrycollins/expertise-project/hawk-eye-debate.html">wrote about it in 2008</a>; even top scientists were quite surprised until they thought about it. </p>
<h2>How it works</h2>
<p>Reconstructed track-devices such as Hawk-Eye work by using a number of TV cameras to record the position of the ball in each frame, then a computer reconstructs the path and projects it forward from the last frame. </p>
<p>These devices were first used to aid leg-before-wicket decisions in cricket. The projection-forward principle is the same in tennis since it is unlikely that a camera shutter will be open at the exact moment the ball hits the ground next to the line so the crucial position has to be estimated from a series of previous positions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38394/original/7cqjgmb5-1387798891.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coming to a football stadium near you.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shuji Kajiyama/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What we uncovered</h2>
<p>From the frame-rate of the cameras and the speed of the ball, a back-of-an envelope calculation gave the range of possible accuracy and it turned out to be less than the replays suggested. So we telephoned the firm to talk about it and we hit a wall. As sociologists of science we had spent decades chatting with scientists about this kind of thing but suddenly we were told this information was private and lawyers were on call. Before we could publish our first paper we had to ask Cardiff University to back us in case we were hauled into court.</p>
<p>Our results were based on the range of possibilities for frame-rate and such other technical matters we could glean from the internet but detailed data for these devices was and still is secret. The International Tennis Federation refuses to release the details of its tests and the International Cricket Council also keeps its results under wraps. I have tried and tried to get the information from them and the scientists they commissioned to do the testing but am always met with the claim that the information is commercially sensitive.</p>
<h2>Margins of error</h2>
<p>The problem with reconstructed track devices is that their output is based on estimates. The position of the ball in any one frame is a blob of pixels. The future path of the ball must be extrapolated from at least three frames if the ball is swerving but if it is moving fast and the bounce point is near to the crucial impact point there may not be three frames. </p>
<p>Even with three frames, projections have errors and if, as in tennis, the ball distorts on impact, the footprint on which the line call is based is, again, the result of an inexact calculation – and so on. Hawk-Eye itself used to claim an average error of 3.6 millimetres; more recently it claims this has been improved to average of 2.2mms. However, particularly in tennis, the reliance on this technology to provide a definitive call means that this margin of error isn’t reflected in the replays, leading most fans to assume it is 100% accurate.</p>
<p>Accuracy, of course, will depend on the speed and the angle of the ball and many other factors which is why these are average figures and, as with all averages, on occasion the error will be bigger – sometimes much bigger. To know what is going on one needs details of the tests and the distribution of errors that resulted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38395/original/nntjhhzn-1387798945.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Or is it?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anja Niedringhaus/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tech and circuses</h2>
<p>Assuming that tennis and football lovers, unlike enthusiasts for, say, the professional wrestling circus, want to see fairness as well as an entertaining spectacle, they ought to know more about how the technology is trying to work out what happened to the ball. </p>
<p>When the ball is really close to the line we should see something like a spinning coin to indicate that the final judgement has a lot of chance in it. The crowd would still get its decision and fun but something closer to the truth would be on display. </p>
<p>More and more, computers are able to simulate what looks like reality and this is dangerous for the future of society. The public needs to learn to question technological claims such as those that have been made for anti-missile weapons systems. In certain sports some spectators think that technology is infallible when it is not.</p>
<p>Paul Hawkins, the founder of the Hawk-Eye company, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/sports-make-final-call-on-technology-1292/">recently said</a> our arguments were “typical of people who spent a lot of time in universities rather than on the tennis circuit”. He’s right, and thank goodness for that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harry Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hawk-Eye is a device used to reconstruct the track of the ball for LBW decisions in cricket and for line calls in tennis. It will be much in evidence during the remaining Ashes tests and is now being used…Harry Collins, Professor of Social Science, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212652013-12-10T01:48:03Z2013-12-10T01:48:03ZThe Ashes: Australian masculinity reborn amid English tumult<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37220/original/cztyphrv-1386562723.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia’s cricketing mojo has returned in this Ashes series. While effective, their methods have not always been pretty.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After losing three Ashes series on the bounce and following much soul-searching about the decline of its national sporting prowess, Australia is giving England a <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/australia-takes-20-ashes-lead-with-easy-win-in-adelaide-20131209-2z0n5.html">pounding</a> in the cricket. For many, all is right again with the world.</p>
<p>Recently, I sat at Melbourne Airport as Australia’s <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/mitchell-johnson-rips-through-england-20131207-2yxti.html">resurgent fast bowler Mitchell Johnson</a> – the butt of some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJao1loiq-k">cruel humour</a> by visiting Barmy Army fans during his erratic, neurotic last home series - terrorised the English batsmen. Many people were watching the cricket on screen, with one fellow traveller loudly proclaiming:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no greater pleasure than sticking it to the Poms in the cricket!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There were several murmurs of approval.</p>
<p>Such visceral responses to sporting contests with the former Mother Country are still common, despite Australia coming of age many decades ago.</p>
<p>In the dark days of the last Ashes series in England earlier this year, I <a href="https://theconversation.com/triumph-despond-and-the-sporting-nation-the-ashes-continues-16270">wrote in The Conversation</a> about despondent Australians and the triumphalist English, and noted then how:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Claiming as one’s own the best individuals and teams as measured by frequently narrow, even fluky victories in sport events enables ready extrapolation to other, more elusive achievements and characteristics. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The tables have indeed turned since. That series, ultimately won 3-0 by England, was misleading in its conclusiveness, caught up as it was in consecutive Australian failures against India and England, and so lending itself easily to a narrative of miserable failure. </p>
<p>As is often the case, the rub of the green – including the turn of the coin toss and the ill-timed opening of the skies – was against the losing team.</p>
<p>But the simple suggestion that a predictable reversal of fortune has occurred for two competitively close teams is too dull and lacking in drama for any media-dependent sport. Hence the search for the deeper explanation and meaning behind Australia’s Ashes renaissance.</p>
<p>The dominant thesis is that the Australian team has reverted to “blokey” type in aggressively inducing the mental disintegration of its opponents. An early sign of this explanation was to be found in the lampooning of England’s detailed, esoteric <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ashes-where-the-indigestible-meets-the-indelible-20057">dietary demands</a>.</p>
<p>Expecting breakfasts of “probiotic yogurt with separate bowl of fresh berries and agave nectar or honey” and lunches of “mung bean curry with spinach” was interpreted not as a sign of meticulous English planning, but as the imperious expectations of prima donna Pommy toffs.</p>
<p>Here the rhetorical space was opened for the return of old-style Australian cricket masculinity as represented by its no-airs-and-graces coach <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/new-australian-cricket-coach-darren-lehmann-was-born-to-lead/story-fndpt0dy-1226671882950">Darren “Boof” Lehmann</a> and embodied in the saturnine Mitchell Johnson, who seems to be channelling his champion predecessor Dennis Lillee with his intimidatory bowling and <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/mitchell-johnson-and-dennis-lillee-battle-of-the-moustache/story-fndpt0dy-1226767305421">extravagant moustache</a>.</p>
<p>This overt aggression – lost for a time under the previous technocratic, high-performance management regime of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/ashes-to-ashes-rotation-policy-dead-declares-james-sutherland-20130625-2ouae.html">player rotation</a> and self-reflective player <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/in-the-naughty-corner-online-gags-flow-over-crickets-homework-debacle-20130312-2fxnh.html">homework</a> – had returned in all its animalistic hirsuteness. It found expression not just in Johnson’s bouncers and death stares and in the clubbed sixes of David Warner, but in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-be-so-sensitive-sledging-is-part-of-the-game-20929">vigorous sledging</a> for which Australia had been previously renowned.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37267/original/942gns6j-1386626337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mustachioed Mitchell Johnson has returned to form, channeling 1970s Australian cricket hero Dennis Lillee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When captain Michael Clarke, who has been treated with deep suspicion by the guardians of old-style Australian maleness, was caught by an errantly live Channel Nine microphone <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUNt-q_8NW8">swearing and physically threatening</a> by proxy the voluble England fast bowler Jimmy Anderson, it became clear that the re-instatement of the argy bargy was coming from the top.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/the-ashes/embattled-england-no3-jonathan-trott-flies-home-with-a-stressrelated-illness/story-e6frf3gl-1226768146271">departure</a> from the tour on account of a long-term stress-related illness by Jonathan Trott was not officially a direct result of the sledging on the pitch and at a Warner media conference, but there were some who <em>sotto voce</em> described it as tactical vindication.</p>
<p>There has also been much praise of the metaphorical – and perhaps even physical – “return of the biff” in the tabloids, TV sport commentary and social media.</p>
<p>But the reinstatement of the take-no-prisoners hairiness of Australia’s male cricketers was seen by some as resonating well beyond the enclosed green swards of the nation’s cricket grounds. For example, conservative columnist Janet Albrechtsen <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/crickets-verbal-biff-sign-of-resilient-time/story-e6frfkp9-1226774524442">hailed the return</a> of “good old-fashioned sledging” that is “celebrated as part of the culture” and a “throwback to the good old days” before widespread infection with the “PC [political correctness] virus”.</p>
<p>Albrechtsen presents cricket as a “bastion of effrontery where cheeky banter has not yet been banished as bullying”. But what is happening on the pitch is clearly rather more than a witty exchange of <em>bon mots</em>. It is perhaps, as European sociologists Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning <a href="http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1987/JSH1402/jsh1402i.pdf">have proposed</a>, a case of increasingly “civilised” societies outsourcing violence in socially approved form to the sporting field.</p>
<p>If these very specific arrangements of the professional cricket match were extended across the nation, the kind of Australia that it represents – macho, malicious and merciless – would soon lose its shine for most of its people.</p>
<p>Australia’s cricketing mojo has returned. For now. Its methods have not been pretty, but they have been pretty effective in this Ashes series, assisted by a disoriented far-from-home opponent. The wheel will turn again in time, and with it the distribution of hubris and ignominy.</p>
<p>All that, though, is for another day, and those Australians who care can bask temporarily in their cricket team’s reflected glory. But if the nation is looking in its imaginary mirror for a sign of its most desirable image of the future, it will not find it in the scowling furry visage of a reborn 1970s cricket masculine archetype.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe is currently receiving ARC funding for A Nation of ‘Good Sports’? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia (DP130104502).</span></em></p>After losing three Ashes series on the bounce and following much soul-searching about the decline of its national sporting prowess, Australia is giving England a pounding in the cricket. For many, all…David Rowe, Professor of Cultural Research, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208122013-12-04T19:45:58Z2013-12-04T19:45:58ZSledging is out of order in the workplace, so why not the sports field?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36351/original/gqn5mx2n-1385597988.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke became involved in a sledging imbroglio after stump microphones picked up a comment aimed at Englishman Jimmy Anderson. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Picture this scene: you and a colleague sit down for a meeting with your counterparts from another organisation. Before discussions begin, one employee leans over and questions whether you know what you are doing. They advise you to head for the door rather than face up to what the meeting will throw at you. </p>
<p>As discussions progress, another employee says that they have intimate knowledge of your partner and mother. Then, as negotiations reach a particularly important and delicate point, this employee threatens to “take your head off”. As negotiations are concluded everyone shakes hands and congratulates you on the job you did. You leave the building to a series of jeers and animated gestures from other workers.</p>
<p>In the workplace, behaviour that threatens the safety of another employee – or that questions the sexual morality of an employee’s wife or mother – would be classed as maltreatment. This behaviour would not be condoned and would be penalised. </p>
<p>Yet in sport, and particularly cricket, this form of behaviour, known as “sledging”, is not only condoned but celebrated as an important tool to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/the-nastiest-sledges-in-cricket-20131125-2y52y.html">use against your opponents</a>. The acceptance of such behaviour raises questions about both the importance placed on sport and the treatment of those who play it.</p>
<h2>Sledging as maltreatment</h2>
<p>Maltreatment is a term that refers to a range of behaviours that have the potential to result in physical injuries and/or psychological harm to a person. As an umbrella term, it encapsulates behaviours perhaps otherwise known as abuse, harassment and bullying.</p>
<p>Maltreatment can include physical, psychological and emotional behaviours as well as neglect. Athletes, spectators and coaches all have the potential to be the victims and/or perpetrators of maltreatment in this context. </p>
<p>Sledging is a clear example of inter-player maltreatment in sport that can pose a significant threat to the well-being of the individual. This form of maltreatment can be direct or indirect and relates to verbal interaction between players on the field of play or in reference to players through media or other channels.</p>
<h2>Sledging in focus</h2>
<p>While sledging is <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-cricket-to-clean-up-its-sledging-excesses-20736">not a new development</a>, it was brought into focus at the end of the first Ashes Test match, after it was announced that English batsman Jonathan Trott was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-25/jonathan-trott-returns-home-from-ashes-series-due-to-stress/5115796">leaving the series</a> due to a stress-related illness. </p>
<p>Trott was the target of off-field sledging by Australia’s David Warner, who <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/david-warner-mocks-scared-england-20131123-2y308.html">described his performance</a> – via the media – as “pretty weak”. This is an example of direct emotional maltreatment, targeted at a particular player, which has the potential to be harmful to the well-being of the individual. While England coach Andy Flower <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/theashes/10472108/Jonathan-Trott-did-not-return-home-because-of-David-Warners-comments-says-England-coach-Andy-Flower.html">described</a> Warner’s comments as “disrespectful”, he said it did not play a role in Trott’s decision to return home.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36360/original/jktv225v-1385599928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">England batsman Jonathan Trott has been forced to quit his side’s Ashes tour, citing a stress-related illness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Towards the end of the match, England’s James Anderson is alleged to have <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/ashes-2013-shane-warne-says-james-anderson-threatened-to-punch-george-bailey-in-the-face-20131125-2y6ag.html">threatened to punch</a> Australian George Bailey. Australian captain Michael Clarke was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUNt-q_8NW8">overheard</a> via on-pitch microphones suggesting that Anderson should “get ready for a broken fucking arm”. Following the match, Clarke <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013-14/content/story/692367.html">was fined</a> 20% of his match fee for the sledge.</p>
<p>Both of these are examples of direct physical maltreatment through the threat of physical violence with an aim to evoke fear or alarm in the opponent. </p>
<p>When this hostility/violence is committed by someone such as Clarke – who is in a role described by then-prime minister John Howard as <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/more-important-than-the-pm-so-lets-have-decorum/story-e6frezz0-1225977366943">the most important job in Australia</a> – there are worrying consequences.</p>
<p>Sportsmen and women are commonly selected as role models or heroes. Countless young children look up to and aim to replicate the on and off-field behaviours of these athletes. Clubs and merchandising companies are happy to exploit this desire to copy through the use of athlete endorsers to sell not only sports-related goods but items from all realms of popular culture. </p>
<p>While it may be beneficial for fans to copy the onfield sporting exploits of these role models, it is concerning if the forms of maltreatment witnessed recently are also being copied.</p>
<p>Sporting organisations, especially when they are the employers of the athletes being maltreated in this way, should consider whether they are protecting the rights and welfare of their employees or whether their passivity is allowing this behaviour to continue.</p>
<h2>Not just sledging of concern</h2>
<p>It seems sledging is simply another example of the growing moral decline in sport and joins an increasing number of abusive incidents that have recently been highlighted within the media. These include instances of <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1850957-richie-incognito-files-grievance-against-dolphins-after-jonathan-martin-scandal">bullying</a> or physical, emotional and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/28/penn-state-sandusky-victim-settlements">sexual abuse of athletes</a>. </p>
<p>Many of the more subtle examples of maltreatment such as sledging or inter-player maltreatment escape scrutiny because we believe them to be a “normal part of the game”. The distancing or normalising of behaviours clearly reduces any moral obligation to “care for athletes” or afford them the protection that would be expected as standard in other settings. </p>
<p>It is not acceptable to excuse this behaviour. Instead, it is time to accept that maltreatment would not be condoned in any other area of society, and therefore has no place on the sports field.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Parry is affiliated with the University of Western Sydney.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Kavanagh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Picture this scene: you and a colleague sit down for a meeting with your counterparts from another organisation. Before discussions begin, one employee leans over and questions whether you know what you…Keith Parry, Lecturer in Sport Management, Western Sydney UniversityEmma Kavanagh, Lecturer in Sports Psychology and Coaching Sciences, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.