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The need for Advanced Football Stats

Balanced Sports has been published on Soccerlens, suggesting the need for easily-accessible Sabermetric football data:

The Need for Advanced Football Stats

My Favourite Cricketer: Adam Gilchrist by Will Atkins

Balanced Sports and World Cricket Watch are proud to present the best cricket writers and bloggers today as part of a series remembering "My Favourite Cricketer".  Today's favourite is the greatest 'keeper-batsman of all time, Adam Gilchrist, by Will Atkins of The Short Midwicket.

Not many cricketers are remembered for completely redefining the sport in which they play. Tiger Woods. Michael Jordan. Lance Armstrong. And it would be no exaggeration toclaim that Adam Gilchrist redefined the role of the wicket-keeperbatsman. A batsman who could hit the ball an awful long way while retaining the utmost finesse whether in tests or ODIs, Gilchrist elevated the role of the wicket-keeper from one who simply needed to be able to catch the ball to a player who needed to be able to consistently perform match-winning heroics with the bat. Gilly was more than just a wicket-keeper; he was a game-turner, someone who could take a hopeless situation and salvage it, or compound the opposition’s misery as he finished them off with his lusty blows.

courtesy: theage.com.au

My love for Adam Gilchrist isn’t the most conventional story, as whilst he was making his state debuts for New South Wales in 1992, I was in England having only just been born, so unable to appreciate fully his unbeaten 20 to see NSW home in the Sheffield Shield final. However, as I began to understand and appreciate cricket, there was one player who stood out for me. It was the 2003 World Cup, and with England having set off home fairly meekly, I was able to watch as this Australian started smacking the ball everywhere, which appealed to me greatly. Making four fifties as the Aussies serenely marched to the defence of their trophy, Gilchrist was my hero, and the man who made me take up wicket-keeping. After many swings and misses, and even more dropped catches, I promptly gave up the gloves, but the seed was sown. Adam Gilchrist was the man for me.

Some of his innings were just breath-taking. He just naturally scored quickly without it appearing reckless, finding gaps in fields where there were none, always with expert timing and balance. Batting at number seven in tests, Gilchrist’s quick scoring was instrumental in Australia’s dominance over the cricketing world, as he was able to counter-attack to force pressure onto the other team just as well as he could put the foot to the throat and finish off any slim hopes from the opposition. Some of his best performances speak for themselves. An 84-ball hundred to kill off India at Mumbai in 2001. A double hundredat Johannesburg in 2002 from only 214 deliveries. The extraordinary 57-ball hundred (only one ball slower than the all-time test record) against a demoralised England at Perth in 2006. But it wasn’t just about his fast scoring – a nerveless 149 not out in only his second test to chase down 369 against Pakistan in 1999 is testament to the fact that he was an excellent batsman, not a slogger.

Gilchrist redefined the role of the ODI opener as well, with a strike rate of 97 runs per hundred balls almost guaranteeing that Australia would get off to a flyer. With 16 hundreds, but more tellingly his 55 fifties (to go alongside his 472 dismissals), Gilchrist is arguably the most successful ODI opener of all-time. Indeed, his innings on the biggest stage of them all, in the 2007 World Cup final, will go down as one of the great all-time ODI innings, with 149 off 104 balls single-handedly winning Australia their third consecutive World Cup. All of which he’d been instrumental in.

I admired Adam Gilchrist though, not just for his ability with the bat or gloves, but due to his behaviour on and off the pitch. How many other cricketers would walk when givennot out in a World Cup semi-final? Gilchrist walked then (after the umpire failed to see him inside edge a ball which was subsequently caught) just as he walked every time he nicked. Given the attitudes of some of his teammates in the harsh and ruthless Australian team he played in, Gilchrist’s attitude was so refreshing, and he was an outstanding role model for any aspiring cricketer.

They say people should never meet their heroes, but this advice was fully ignored by me last summer when I did work experience with Middlesex CCC. Gilchrist, by now retired from international cricket and freelancing for T20 teams around the world, had been recruited to play for the Panthers during the fateful T20 season of 2010, and part of my role was to help out with Gilchrist’s media day. He genuinely had time for everyone he spoke to, and was absolutely delighted to be playing for Middlesex. Way back in 1989, a very young Adam Gilchrist (here’s an ominously accurate interview with him from 1989) flew over from Australia to play for Richmond in the Middlesex League, and he said just how important that time was in the development of his career. Playing for Middlesex 21 years later as a fully formed legend of the game was his way of giving back. As is the fact that he sponsors a promising cricketer each year to go and play for Richmond for a summer in the hope that they too can have as successful a career as him. While Gilchrist was initially only signed up to play at Lord’s, he decided to play in one of the T20 outground games at Richmond, just to help give back even more to the small club. You’ve got to admit, that’s pretty cool.

courtesy: cricketnews.com.au

The fact an Australian could ever be considered my favourite player just sums up how great a player, and a man, Adam Gilchrist is. A leader in everything he did on and off the pitch, Gilchrist sets the standard for pretty much everything possible – how a batsman should bat, how a wicket-keeper should keep and how a cricketer should behave. Adam Gilchrist simplified excellence, which is summed up in his thoughts on how to bat successfully; “Just hit the ball”. There won’t be another cricketer like Adam Gilchrist for an awfully long time – not many can have the respect of the cricketing world not just for their abilities, but for their sportsmanship and kind heart as well. That’s why my favourite cricketer is Adam Gilchrist, someone who led the way in every regard.

Back to My Favourite Cricketer homepage.

Balanced Sports on ManUtd Talk: A United Season Preview

Balanced Sports' Matthew Wood has the cover story on manutdtalk, one of the largest and most-trafficked Manchester United fan sites in the world.

A preview of the reigning titleholders' 2011-12 season, you can also view the article here.

My Favourite Cricketer: Shane Warne by Murray Middleton

My Favourite Cricketer is a series of special features run simultaneously on World Cricket Watch and Balanced Sports where we invite the world's best cricket writers and bloggers to tell us why one player has become their favourite.  Today, it's another inevitability: an Australian writes on Shane Warne.  This week's contribution is from Murray Middleton of World Cricket Watch.

My favourite cricketer is the man whose face Stuart MacGill sees at the bottom of every bottle of Bordeaux wine; a man whose face is becoming increasingly distorted; a man who has committed more infidelities than Tiger Woods and Arnold Schwarzenegger combined; a man who plays a better balcony scene than a Montague and a Capulet; a man who never says ‘no’ to his mother; a man with a penchant for pizza, chips and toasted cheese sandwiches; a man who can always be counted on to deliver accurate information about pitches and weather conditions; a man who recently admitted, ‘I’d be sitting in a strait jacket in a padded cell if I started regretting everything that happened in my life.’

In the sixth season of Sopranos there is a pivotal scene when Tony’s wife, Carmela, confronts his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi. Carmela reveals that she has always been aware of Tony’s means of subsistence. She forlornly admits, ‘I don’t know if I loved him in spite of it or because of it.’ I feel the same way about Shane Warne. I love him. I know this much. Yet I often find myself questioning the motives of my love. Is it because he is the greatest sportsman I have ever seen? Or is it because he is such a majestically-flawed human being?

I remember when Warne was selected to make his international debut in the third test against India in 1992. I wondered why the selectors had opted for a corpulent 22-year-old who looked as though he was better suited to breeding greyhounds. Yet I was also intrigued. In the preceding six months my father had spoken regularly about an up-and-coming leg-spinner who possessed a weapon which I had never heard of: a flipper. I was desperate to see this phenomenon in action. The only problem was that we didn’t have a television.

During the SCG test I was staying at my uncle’s macadamia-nut farm near Bangalow in northern New South Wales. Our family was sleeping in a caravan. We set up a makeshift cricket pitch in a corrugated iron shed and listened to the entire test on the radio. My cousin batted for hours on end while Ravi Shastri led the assault on the young Australian spinner. My cousin plundered my leg-spinners to all acres of the farm. It was ruthless. I felt as though Warne and I were in it together. He eventually dismissed Shastri for 206 to claim figures of 1/150 off 45 overs.

The first time I saw Warne in the flesh was at the MCG against the West Indies the next summer. He had been brought into the side after Australia failed to dismiss the Windies in the final innings of the first test. I was sitting in the Southern Stand with my father. When Warne was introduced into the attack, his statistics were displayed on the electronic scoreboard. His bowling average was in the 60’s. A derisive murmur spread around the ground. ‘I feel sorry for the poor kid,’ said my father. Warne didn’t need his sympathy for long.

In the second innings he collected 7/52 and bowled Australia to victory. He produced his first legendary flipper to remove Richie Richardson. The ball pitched on a good length, confusing Richardson as to whether to play forward or back. He ended up doing neither. The ball zipped off the turf and cannoned into Richardson’s off stump, halfway up. Richardson was stranded on the crease, unbalanced, and evidently perplexed. It is very rare that a champion sportsman is made to look like a fool. Usually when it occurs, it is at the hands of a champion-in-the-making.

In 1993 I went to a Shield match at the MCG to watch Warne play a rare game for Victoria. Five minutes before the lunch break I ran to the fence which adjoined the player’s race in a bid to secure his autograph. As the Victorian players walked towards the race I leant over the fence with a notepad in hand and asked Warne for an autograph. A great smirk flashed across his face. ‘I’ve already signed that one mate,’ he said, before placing his hand upon Matthew Elliott’s shoulder. Later that year, when he dismissed Mike Gatting with the ball of the century, I decided to forgive him.

Although the Gatting ball was an absolute peach, it isn’t my favourite Warne delivery. In 1996 at the SCG Warne was locked in an absorbing battle with the unorthodox Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He decided to bowl around the wicket to the left hander. Just prior to lunch he sent a wonderfully-flighted leg-break towards the footmarks outside Chanderpaul’s off stump. The West Indian star leant back to cut the ball. It pitched among the footmarks and turned prodigiously. The ball crashed into Chanderpaul’s pad before he had time to jam his bat down. It then ricocheted onto his middle stump.

My favourite Warne spell occurred in the World Cup semi-final in 1999. Australia posted a seemingly paltry 213. When Warne was introduced into the attack South Africa was cruising at 0-48. Within six overs they were 4-62. Warne dismissed Kirsten, Gibbs, Cronje and Kallis to finish with figures of 4-29 from 10 overs. The ball that removed Gibbs was almost a replica of the Gatting delivery. The ball that dismissed Cronje pitched on off stump and fizzed into the hands of Mark Waugh at first slip. Admittedly Cronje didn’t hit the ball (it glanced his shoe), but anyone who can turn a ball with such velocity deserves the devil’s wicket.

My favourite Warne series came in the Ashes in 2005. While the rest of his teammates floundered, Warne, whose personal life was in utter disarray, dug in for the fight of his life. He took an incredible 40 wickets in five tests at an average of 19.92. He also scored 249 runs, which was more than several of Australia’s top order batsmen. Warne’s protracted battle with his good friend Kevin Pietersen was a delight to watch. It cost me a semester at university. Warne played like a man possessed. It was Warne versus England. And he almost got them.

Warne played his final test series against England in the summer of 2006/07. He had a burning desire to regain the Ashes for his country. Like all true champions, he had one last trick up his sleeve. On the final morning of the Adelaide test, with the match seemingly trickling towards a banal draw, he bowled Kevin Pietersen around his legs. The ball changed the complexion of the match and the series. Australia went on to secure an unlikely victory in Adelaide and later won the series 5-0. It was a fitting end for one of the greats of the game.

Warne retired with every trophy in the ACB cabinet. It is rare that a sportsman possesses the foresight to retire at the perfect moment. It is also admirable to do so in a game where the temptation is for players to squeeze every last ounce (and dime) out of their ability, as Simon Katich had every intention of doing. Warne was never going to starve without international cricket, and he knew it. Anyone who has watched Muhammad Ali’s bout against Larry Holmes at Caesar’s Palace will understand the futility of ignoring the light.

Warne’s detractors seem to judge him on a humane level, not as a sportsman. It is difficult to defend Warne as a human. I don’t care whether he is a nice person, or a smart person. He is the smartest cricketer I have ever seen. He was a ferocious competitor. He wanted the moment. He wasn’t afraid of it. He had an innate belief that he was entitled to it. He possessed the perfect blend of raw ability, tactical nous and an insatiable appetite for the mental contest. Daryll Cullinan can attest to this. Warne got inside his blood. He transformed a quality batsman into a bunny rabbit. Since retiring, Cullinan has admitted, ‘Quite simply, Warne was too good for me.’

There have been countless other superb Warne deliveries over the years – Gooch, Kallis, Stewart, Anwar; enough to write a post-graduate thesis on. He is a marvel. Warne captured 708 test wickets at an average of 25.41 and 293 one day wickets at an average of 25.73. In 2000 he was selected as one of only five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Not a bad effort for a common man with a pot belly. Perhaps he does look a little unsightly these days, but I forgive him. I’m glad he refused to give me his autograph 18 years ago. Who am I kidding? I love Shane Warne because of what he is.

Back to My Favourite Cricketer homepage.

Goalkeeping Stats across Europe - an analysis

101 goalkeepers made over ten starts in Europe's four major leagues during season 2010-12. Another fifty-six made at least one start in either the English Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga or Serie A. So after thirty eight games (thirty-four in Germany), which goalkeeper is best?

Of course evaluating custodians purely by stats is a fraught and inaccurate business. Goalkeepers, by their demeanour and wits bring more to a team than simply stopping shots, as per NHL netminders. They also command and organise their defence as well as arrange their players in best positions to defend set pieces. Also, they are often not at fault for the goals conceded, being beaten by lackadaisical or poor defending.

That's not to say that quantification of a goalkeeper's performance is useless. For one thing, we can evaluate definitively the differences across leagues.

LEAGUE	Total Starts	Conceded	Saves	Saves/Start	Save %	GAA
Serie A	760	953	2560	3.36	0.729	1.25
La Liga	760	1042	2645	3.48	0.717	1.37
EPL	760	1057	2403	3.17	0.695	1.39
Bundesliga	612	890	1925	3.13	0.684	1.45

GAA = Goals Allowed Average. Note the term "Start" has been used rather than "Games". Due to the data available, we weren't able to evaluate when goalkeepers conceded after coming on as a substitute. This also means that all the goals scored in a league throughout the course of the season may not be included in this table.

Perhaps as a result of a slower game tempo, of a reliance on a star individual, miserly defence or even plain and simple goalkeeping ability, Serie A produced consistently the best goalkeeper metrics across the board. That is, Goalkeepers in Italy conceded less goals per game, had a higher save percentage and produced a high level of saves per start.

Italian football is notorious for it's slower pace - unless you're Napoli or Udinese this season - and infamous for low goalscoring. That isn't necessarily borne out here - while the GAA was lower than in the other three major leagues, the increased Save Percentage counteracts that. This could also be a tactical measure, where Italian defenders are more "pigeon-holed" as defensive stoppers, eschewing forward play in favour of stolid defence.

Most surprising was the relative decrease in saves across the water in England. The Premiership produced the second-lowest save percentage and the second-highest GAA. Again, tactical considerations could be keeping these averages low or simply that the offensive play is superior. This could both back up and dispel the popular preconception that the Premier League is the most exciting and balanced in Europe, so while it's interesting data it's hardly definitive. While this table takes into account goalkeeper performance, it is we have said, impossible to divorce that totally from a defence's (in)ability.

How would these numbers look then, if we removed the backups? Most clubs have one primary goalkeeper and at least one creditable custodian in reserve - take for example Italian Champions AC Milan who fielded Christian Abbiati thirty-five times during 2010-11 and Marco Amelia during the remaining three matches. The following table has removed all the players with less than ten league starts. The numbers don't change much at all:

LEAGUE	Total Starts	Conceded	Saves	Saves/Start	Save %	GAA
Serie A	732	912	2469	3.37	0.730	1.25
La Liga	698	938	2432	3.48	0.722	1.34
EPL	714	988	2283	3.20	0.698	1.38
Bundesliga	553	795	1758	3.18	0.689	1.44

The greatest difference between the two is a minor increase in German Saves per Start and Save Percentage, while Spanish Save Percentage increased mildly as well. The GAAs, though changed in all leagues except Serie A, were minor adjustments. While it was a nice thought that a league's overall goalkeeping quality could indicate how crucial defences were to the numbers, it is unproveable with the above results.

It's perhaps telling that the greatest difference in the table above comes from Germany & La Liga's goalkeeping starts: during the course of the Spanish season, forty-three players got a start between the sticks. Thirty-eight Goalkeepers got starts in the Bundesliga (forty-two, if adjusted for a twenty-team league), thirty-nine Italian league players and thirty-seven in the EPL. While the vast majority of each team's matches were played by the starting GK (over 90% in all leagues), Germany had the most trust in their backups.

This means that backup keepers, whether for reasons of injury, form or rotation claimed 9.93% of the available starts in Germany while in Italy, starters accounted for an enormous 96.3% of the available starts.

In part two, we'll go through Europe's best and brightest goalkeepers by save percentage, Goals Allowed average and by league. In the meantime, you can find all the raw data here at Balanced Sports' Goalkeeper Stats page.

My Favourite Cricketer: Douglas Jardine by David Green

Throughout this summer of cricket and beyond, Balanced Sports and World Cricket Watch are inviting cricket writers from around the globe to wax lyrical on who they consider their “favourite cricketer”. Today is the turn of David Green of The Reverse Sweep who picks arguably England’s greatest - and definitely most combative - captain.

Despite strong competition from the likes of Jack Hobbs, David Gower, Viv Richards and Hedley Verity, my all-time cricketing hero has to be Douglas Robert Jardine, England’s greatest ever captain and winner of the most controversial test series of them all – the Bodyline rubber of 1932-33.

Despite being born in the 1970’s and having never seen him play, the image of DRJ, resplendent in his Harlequin cap was one that I was drawn to from an early age. And when I read about how he tamed the great Bradman and regained the Ashes in the face of a barrage of unfair criticism, I was hooked for life.

Here is why Jardine is one of our heroes:

England’s greatest captain

“If ever there was a cricket match between England and the rest of the world, and the fate of England depended upon the result, I would pick Jardine as England captain every time” Pelham Warner

First and foremost, Jardine was a brilliant captain. Ruthless and uncompromising, yes; but he was also a brilliant strategist and leader of men. DRJ knew that to regain the Ashes in 1932-33, he needed a plan to nullify Bradman. Leg theory had been tried with varying success for some time, but DRJ perfected it and believed that the extreme pace of Notts pair Harold Larwood and Bill Voce and the bouncy Australian wickets would be a potent mixture and the basis for victory.

And it worked with devastating effect. Even though Bradman still averaged a tick over 50, England dominated the series and easily won 4-1. A combination of the fallout from the ‘Bodyline’ series and Jardine’s status as an amateur meant that he only captained England 15 times (won 9, lost 1, drew 5), but he should be revered as England’s finest captain and certainly its first with a fully professional attitude.

Despite the Australians harping at the time about the unfairness of it all, I expect that most of them secretly respect the ruthlessness and win at all costs attitude of DRJ. Those attributes certainly shone through in some of their finest skippers: Ian Chappell, Richie Benaud and Steve Waugh.

And how was Jardine respected by his men? Perhaps the best epitaph came from the Yorkshire and England bowler W.E.Bowes

“To me and every member of the 1932-33 MCC side in Australia, Douglas Jardine was the greatest captain England ever had. A great fighter, a grand friend and an unforgiving enemy”

A man of Empire and a bygone age

Just like British giants such as Churchill and Wellington, Jardine always struck me as a true hero of the Empire – an era when people were proud to be British, even if at times they could maybe be a little over arrogant to the Dominions. As a firm believer in the British Empire, as a Wykehamist and Oxford Blue, plus his haughty demeanour and Harlequin cap, Jardine was always going to get up the noses of Australians.

He made two trips there for the MCC (as a batsman in 1928-29, he played a crucial role in the 4-1 success of APF Chapman’s team), and he certainly played his part as the pantomime villain.

There are many quotes attributed to him about his dislike of all things Australian, but my favourite two have to be the rather splendid “All Australians are an unruly and uneducated mob”, and also after being told that “They don’t seem to like you very much over here Mr Jardine”, DRJ responded bluntly “The feeling is fucking mutual”.

As a ten year old boy, I found that very funny. And indeed, as a thirty-something year old man, I still find it amusing. I should at this point make it clear that I have spent some of my happiest times in Australia and have many antipodean friends!

“Leave our flies alone, Jardine! They’re the only flamin’ friends you’ve got here!” Australian spectator

I tend to think that Jardine exaggerated his supposed dislike of Australians and accepted the role of villain of the peace in order to take the pressure off his side. If that was the case, it worked handsomely.

Stubbornness and sticking to his guns

In his book about the series “In Quest of the Ashes”, DRJ showed no remorse and no regret. And I love that. In this day and age, people are always apologising for things that they are not really sorry for (that means you, Michael Clarke). Is it not better to stand up for what you believe and stick by it? DRJ felt he had done nothing wrong, not broken any rules and had done exactly what he had been asked to do by the MCC – namely bring back the Ashes. Why should he apologise?

Thankfully, his legacy and stature seems to grow as time goes by especially as winning the Ashes in Australia is not something England have done with regularity before or since Jardine’s triumph. Unfortunately, the man himself died in 1958 without the knighthood and reverence his exploits deserved.

And he was a fine player to boot…

“He was a great batsman – how great I do not think we quite appreciated at the time” Sir Jack Hobbs

It tends to get overlooked how great a batsman Jardine was. Although he only scored one test century, he averaged a healthy 48 from his 22 tests. Again his amateur status and the fact that unlike some of his contemporaries he couldn’t afford not to work; meant that he didn’t play as many tests as his talent justified.

His one test century truly really showed the mettle of the man. It rather ironically came against a West Indian side bowling bodyline against him. This reinforced Jardine’s belief that a strong and resolute batsman could play and prosper against this type of bowling.

A final dig at his nemesis Bradman, perhaps?

Scoring Stats - Europe's most important players

A few months ago - just before his untimely suspension before the Milan derby with Inter - it became known that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had either scored or assisted on an astonishing 45+ percent of all AC Milan's Serie A goals.

Which got me asking which players were the most crucial to their club's fortunes throughout the course of season 2010-2011. Such estimates had to be quantifiable, so Scoring Stats (goals plus assists) became a measuring stick for players in the four major leagues throughout Europe.

Almost immediately, there were nuances to such plain numbers - a player's role defined their total. Some, like Dimitar Berbatov or Freiburg's Papiss Demba Cisse acted chiefly as "finishers", while others like Everton's Leighton Baines or Kaiserslauten's Christan Tiffert performed the role mainly as providers.

So interesting was this matrix that they became something of a minor obsession! The results for all of Europe (and all four English Leagues) can be found on the Balanced Sports Scoring Stats page. Once again Cristiano Ronaldo agonizingly trails Lionel Messi - although he contributed more goals, Messi's contribution to Barcelona's scoring ranked significantly higher than that of the Madridista. While Ronaldo does all he can to be the world's best (and Messi is), they are both surrounded by remarkable talents and as such it's curious to find their clubs so reliant upon them.

The Premier League proved much less reliant on one player than the other three major leagues in Europe. In England, the average team leader in Scoring Stats contributed to only 31.9% of his team's goals. In Germany it was higher still at 35% while Italy was higher still at 35.9%. Spain, however, mostly due to the efforts of those two marvellous players (and Villarreal's Giuseppe Rossi) find one player contributing much more to team scoring - a whopping 37.3%. This only serves to show how extraordinary the efforts of players like Bologna's Marco Di Vaio were, who managed a goal or assist in a phenomenal 60% (!) of his team's scores this year.

Here, in order of percentage input to their team's scoring, are the ten most irreplaceable players in Europe:

League	Player	Team	Games	Goals	Assists	Total	Team Goals	%
Serie A	M. Di Vaio	Bologna	39	19	2	21	35	0.600
Bundesliga	T. Gekas	Frankfurt	31 (3)	16	2	18	31	0.581
Serie A	E. Cavani	Napoli	32 (3)	26	6	32	59	0.542
Serie A	A. Di Natale	Udinese	35 (1)	28	7	35	65	0.538
Bundesliga	P. D. Cisse	Freiburg	32	22	0	22	41	0.537
La Liga	L. Messi	Barcelona	31 (2)	31	18	49	95	0.516
La Liga	C. Ronaldo	Real Madrid	32 (2)	40	10	50	102	0.490
Serie A	S. Eto'o	Inter Milan	35	21	9	30	69	0.435
EPL	C. Tevez	Man. City	30 (1)	20	6	26	60	0.433
La Liga	G. Rossi	Villarreal	35 (1)	18	5	23	54	0.426

You can see who led each team in Europe at Balanced Sports' Scoring Stats page.

Marco Di Vaio image courtesy: www.footballitaliano.com, image of Leighton Baines courtesy: sportydesktops.com

Complete English Premier League Table, 1993-2011

Yes, we know, we're stat-heads and have no life. At least, that's what it feels like at times! But the pointy-heads at Balanced Sports have spent the past several hours slaving over an increasingly hot lap-top to bring you THE COMPLETE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE since 1993!

Manchester United sits atop with twelve titles, but who sits behind them? Arsenal? Chelsea? Palace? The Battersea Home for Lost Dogs third XI ... click across to find out. (It's too big to post here).

My Favourite Cricketer: Allan Border by Ben Roberts.

In the second of our series "My Favourite Cricketer", co-hosted by World Cricket Watch and Balanced Sports, is by Ben Roberts and features the man who single-handedly dragged Australian cricket from the doldrums, Allan Border.

Upon request I have journeyed deep into my memory to come to the point of selecting Allan Border as my favourite cricketer of all time. At the time that his career concluded I was just out of primary school and I am sure he was not the player that I aspired to be. My history however has the years rolling by with me continuing to turn over who my favourite player was at any one point, and likewise having been asked I have settled (with surprising ease) on Border as the one most worthy of my admiration.

My undoubted first love was Craig McDermott, now Australia's bowling coach. He was the fast bowler leading Australia's attack at the time I remember first watching cricket on TV and all I wanted to do was bowl fast. In hindsight it is a strange choice for two reasons. One, these formative memories have Sir Vivian Richards pasting McDermott and others all around Australia on his final visit to our shores; and two, my own cricket career finished with me an unspectacular opening batsman rather than a feared fast bowler.

But I did not stop there with the fast men, Glenn McGrath then followed in my affections. Maybe he carried to further height a similar style to McDermott, consistency and fire being in the right balance. Today, I remain enamoured with a fast bowler out of the current crop. Without a doubt it is Peter Siddle whom I love to watch play cricket most. But this is more about his overall attitude to the game than skills. As an adult now I have perspective on how misguided we can be that cricket is more than a game. Siddle is a breath of fresh air, he just loves playing the game, running in and bowling fast.

I have seen all the great modern Australian batsman score centuries live but none really stick in my memory as particularly inspiring. Of batsmen however, Steve Waugh during the 1989 Ashes was a favourite based purely on making the first centuries of his career with a Gunn and Moore bat (my first bat was a G&M also). I will also go to my grave claiming Mark Taylor is Australia's greatest captain ever.

But it is not the statistics or great memories that leave Border sitting atop my list. He was not the most classically gifted batsman as Greg Chappell was, nor could he play an innings of absolute power as Adam Gilchrist became known for. Yet Border climbed to the top of the batting world at a time where pitches varied wildly and each nation boasted an array of world-class bowling talent. He did so through willpower and technique alone. What elevates him above all others is who he was in Australian cricket history and what he means now to the historical landscape of Australian cricket. Allan Robert Border, no matter what position they found themselves in, represented Australian Cricket.

 
Getting his chance while the World Series players were out of the way, he quickly became a worthy First XI selection in a team of Second XI talent. Within only a few years he was a constant and a leader in a team that was as volatile off the field as it was on. He was a controlled player that underpinned the flashiness surrounding him.

When Australian cricket was at its lowest ebb, as a captain departed in tears and the core of the great side left as one, there Border remained, though still in his twenties, a man among the boys. He took on a role that today's leadership experts and sports psychologists would probably steer his type away from. In fact Border himself did not appear assured in accepting the role, being aware of his limitations in areas beyond batting.

He rolled through series after series of being battered by a West Indian pace attack that was as unforgiving as it was fast. If you look at his career he nearly outlasted three generations of these fearsome bowlers and of the greats, only Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh continued beyond him. Imagine turning up to your workplace day after day and being confronted by the message 'try as you might, you will fail today': This was Australian cricket in the 1980s.

 
Minimal footage exists of his 1984 test in Port of Spain where he dug in for 98* and 100*, but newspaper descriptions of it are enough to fire my enthusiasm for tough test cricket. West Indian wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon has gone on record saying it was the saddest thing he saw in his cricket career that AB didn't get a hundred in each innings. He was unforgiving in nature also. Less than established in the test team, Dean Jones found this out in the middle of India's M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. Though Jones scored a double hundred in immense heat, vomiting all the way, Border still asked more of him and the tied result of the match maybe justified his stance.

Despite never getting the ultimate success (for the age) against the West Indies, Border's career concluded with Australia as number two and taking off for the glory years. Border was still a constant and a force in the breakthrough 1987 World Cup and the 1989 Ashes victories. While others were on glorious runs of form in both of these tournaments, the captain held his game together as solidly as ever in the middle order. He retired after Australian cricket returned to South Africa and left behind a core of players that built on his legacy.

 
Both Waugh twins, Ian Healy, and Mark Taylor became the leaders of the next generation of Australian cricket and all learned much about mental toughness and winning hard from their former leader. Even while Shane Warne was spinning a web around the hapless Englishmen there was still one man who could still attack him. Warne himself has admitted that he has never been played as well as by Border (in training) in his early career. Despite his unspectacular batting nature you can do a lot worse than to watch footage of Border batting against spinners to learn the art of playing the slow men.

I never saw a Border century live, and struggle to remember seeing one on television except maybe for glimpses of his second test double century, this against England in 1993. I maintain Taylor as the best captain that Australian cricket had tactically and in understanding the game, but give me Border to bat or captain for my life any day. He did not inspire me as a child during his career, but in retrospect he has become the marker of what I consider quality cricket. Maybe why I love watching Peter Siddle today as it is he who epitomises individuals who play as though they want to squeeze every last drop of success out of their talent.

With questions abounding Australian cricket of what group of players will lead the way back up to the top the question for me is not how much do they want success? It is whether they want it as much as AB did?

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens: Where to now for Blackpool?

Blackpool have gone down to the Championship. In this post on Soccerlens, we examine how best to move on from there.

Balanced Sports is now on Twitter!

Balanced Sports is now on Twitter!

Our feed is called balanced_sports, and you can follow us by clicking this link.

Context, (poor attempts at) humour, irreverence and sport, all in 140 characters or less. Who could say no?

My Favourite Cricketer: Brian Lara

The first Balanced Sports and World Cricket Watch: "My Favourite Cricketer" is penned by the editor of WCW, David Siddall. It features the Samba King of West Indian batsmanship, Brian Lara.

From the age of 13-18 this aspiring top order batsmen would spend their summer holidays practically living at the Stoughton and Thurnby Cricket Club nets. Honing the particularities of your batting technique was the order of the day. But it wasn’t any English batsmen we were attempting to emulate (possibly with the exception of Graham Thorpe’s late cut). Rather we’d play around with the low grip of Tendulkar, the seemingly straight bat pull shot of Ponting, and the high back-lift and ferocious bat-speed of Lara.

Analysing the three players, arguably the finest three batsmen of their generation, leads to never-ending debates pertaining to the all time batting pantheon. Frankly, this gets tedious in less time than Marcus Trescothick had to react to this tracer bullet beamer. In short, I’d go for 1) Tendulkar 2) Lara, and 3) Ponting. Tendulkar’s longevity and imminent hundred hundreds record – one way of looking at that is he must have several hundreds he doesn’t even remember – account for his top spot.

But this piece is about favouritism and not statistics. And the love of cricket, being such a heavily mediated sport, owes its success just as much to aesthetic appeal as it does to run getting. Of the three players, it is Brian Lara’s elegance and flamboyance that makes him my favourite cricketer.

Early on in his career, Lara was able to stand on the shoulder of giants – Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall (immense at 5”11), Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh (both metaphorically and literally at 6”7 and 6”6 respectively) – in the tail end of West Indies dominance. In the latter half of his career, post 2000, West Indies cricket would fade, yet Lara would continue to make waves. And whether the West Indies was dominant or dormant, the hallmarks of Brian Lara’s batting would remain a constant.

These included aggression in attack and defence in equal measures, lightning footwork, fleet of foot to get down the pitch against the spinners, the highest back-lift in world cricket and the clunk of his back-lift unleashing timing that rivalled one of his idos – Viv Richards himself. He had a tendency to play every ball on its merits irrespective of the time of the day. Never has this been exemplified more than when he hit Robin Peterson for 28 runs in an over in Johannesburg in 2003-04 despite their being only 2 overs to go in the day.

Trademarks of the 466444 display are the shimmy down the wicket, 100% commitment to the stroke, and the lazy swing of the hands through the ball.

Besides the stunning aesthetics to the batting of Brian Charles Lara, he will go down in history as being the batsmen who turned big scores into mammoth scores time and time again. His maiden test match century, a whopping 277 in Sydney in only his 5^th test, was a sign of things to come. Had it not been for an over zealous run out, in all likelihood it would have been a triple century.

Lara would go on to be the only batsmen in history to record a century, double century, triple century, quadruple century and quintuple (?) century in first class cricket. In 1994, Lara was at the height of his powers as he surpassed Sober’s test record score of 365* with a score of 375 against England in Antigua and recorded the highest ever first class score of 501* in the space of only a few months. During the same period he recorded 7 first class centuries in 8 innings. Just how much of an immovable force he was can be seen in the awe of the faces of his Durham opponents and his Warwickshire teammates alike in the following video…

But despite being named the 1994 and 1995 Wisden leading cricketer of the year, Lara would arguably save his greatest ever innings for the Australians with a modest (by his standards) match-winning 153* in a 1-wicket win in Barbados in 1999 in a game that Steve Waugh described the greatest test he’d ever been involved in. The Wisden 100 has named it the second greatest ever knock in test cricket only behind Don Bradman’s 270 for Australia v England at Melbourne in 1936-37.

Having hit a double hundred in the previous game to resurrect the series for the West Indies, this innings would swing the series in the West Indies favour as they would lead 2-1. The poignancy of the knock made even more unbelievable when you consider the West Indies had possibly come off the back of the lowest point in their history – a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of South Africa. At 248 for 8, still requiring another 60 runs for victory, Lara had to take the bull by the horns with only Ambrose and Walsh in the hutch. Lara the ‘Lone Ranger’ of the Windies batting lineup seemingly becoming the constant theme as his career progressed. Although you might think otherwise if you believe the version of events that Courtney Walsh spun (surviving 5 balls at the death).

To try and attempt to analyse the legacy of Brian Charles Lara is a tall order. It predominantly lies as a batsman rather than a captain (Lara did guide the West Indies to the 2004 Champions Trophy and led from the front admirably however). Statistically, the record for the highest ever test score is the obvious choice. It was a choice that Matthew Hayden almost dented having hit Zimbabwe for 380 in Perth in 2003.

Fittingly in April 2004, Lara, not to be outdone, became the first ever man to score 400 in a test match at the same ground where he surpassed Sober’s original record. With today’s over rates and endless stoppages, it is a score that is unlikely to be eclipsed. But Lara’s legacy should transcend far beyond that of mere batting records.

Besides meeting Barack Obama and having a fantastic cricket video game named after him, Lara was the most entertaining and most flamboyant batsman of his generation. His only criticism could be that he perhaps lacked the mental toughness that Tendulkar demonstrated unerringly for over 20 years.

Nevertheless, when in the mood (a caveat that seems to explain the low points in Lara’s career), Lara’s stonewall defence like Rahul Dravid, aggression and strokeplay likeVirender Sehwag, combined with his footwork to spinners that remains unrivalled in world cricket today made him simply unplayable.

If the cricketing pantheon does the great man any justice, the image and memories of his batting will be forever immortalised, alongside the biggest scores in cricketing history.

Welcome to My Favourite Cricketer

Welcome to My Favourite Cricketer. This is a special feature which Balanced Sports and World Cricket Watch where we're inviting several of the world's leading cricket writers to submit pieces which explain the romance of their favourite cricket players.

This series will run throughout the Northern Summer/Southern Winter and week by week, piece by piece, will build a complete picture of some of the most influential players in memory.

Usually, you'll find that these might go back a few years as our formative years in the sport are those which have the greatest influence on us. For many of us, you'll see references back to our childhoods when the game was new and exciting.

We're asking our writers to compile works which really show you what they think of their cricket heroes, to try and get you to feel what they feel. They'll use videos, photos and plenty of other tools in this pursuit.

Each will be a labour built on fond memories, a joy to compose and, we hope, just as fun to read.

The Ten-Year Premiership Table

We've been working hard and mindlessly to bring you special stats pages on Balanced Sports. You can find out all about which players contribute most to their team scoring, how the English Premiership ladder would look over a decade, rather than a season, or how each EPL Goalkeeper performed last year compared to his peers.

Our newest addition is the 2002-11 Cumulative EPL Table. Take a peek to see how your club fared.

Enjoy!

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens & The Roar

Balanced Sports has been published on Australian sports opinion website The Roar, with pieces by Matthew Wood on Bobby Davis and how the 2011 edition of the Geelong FC being "Crap Invincibles".

We've also been published on Soccerlens, detailing how West Ham can bounce straight back up from relegation to the Championship.

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens: Championship Promotion Playoffs analysis

Balanced Sports has again been published on Soccerlens, this time a piece by Matthew Wood analysing what makes a successful club in the Championship Promotion Playoffs.

Balanced Sports on The Roar: The Demise of the Second Team

Balanced Sports has once again been published on the Australian Sports commentary and opinion site, The Roar - this time regarding AFL fans' reluctance to embrace a second team.

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens; Has Cristiano Ronaldo Evolved too far?

Balanced Sports has once again been published on the leading soccer blog Soccerlens. Matthew Wood examines whether Cristiano Ronaldo has evolved too far to be credited as the World's best player.

Balanced Sports published on The Roar

Balanced Sports has been published on The Roar, a leading Australian sports opinion blog. This time, we examine how the NBA Playoff matchup between the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder is viewed in the Pacific Northwest.