Cricket: Stokes dismissal a disgrace

Ben Stokes' controversial dismissal in the second ODI against Australia was one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in a game of cricket.

So what happened? After playing a Mitchell Starc delivery straight back to the bowler, Starc threw the ball straight back at the stumps but instead catching a diving Stokes on the hand. Australian wicket keeper Matthew Wade appealed and the umpires refer the decision upstairs. Third umpire rules that Stokes has obstructed the field and gives him out.

Problem 1: The third umpire only used slow motion replays.

The slow motion replays do make it seem like Stokes deliberately handled the ball to stop himself from being run out. He has already been stupidly run out this summer so he perhaps wanted to avoid the same fate.

In real time, its clear that Stokes is taking evasive action from taking some serious damage from a 6ft8 fast bowler throwing the ball at him (not on purpose).

Why then did the third umpire not get both perspectives plus also use a little bit of common sense? There is no way Stokes was thinking of stopping the ball at that moment. He was only thinking of protecting himself whilst also trying to get back into his crease.

Problem 2: Would the ball hit the stumps?

Starc's attempted run out  was speculative and it seemed clear that the ball was going to miss the stumps anyway. So if Stokes was trying to obstruct the field, surely he should only be given out if the ball is going to hit the stumps?

Problem 3: He is not looking at the ball when it reaches him

Stokes is not looking at the ball as it hits him. How could he know the ball was going to hit his hand?

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It's clear that the decision made was the wrong one. I am not saying that this decision would have effected the overall result of the match, Australia bowled and batted better than England and they deservedly won the match. This decision, however, has set a dangerous precedent and I hope that we now don't see bowlers chucking the ball at batsman in order to grab a quick wicket. It also raises the issue over the usage of technology in sport. When is too much? When do we need to use it? Who knows. An argument for another time perhaps.

IAAF World Champs 2015: GB Mens 4x100m fail again

 The World Athletics Championships in Beijing have been a fantastic spectacle of sport. Bolt beating Gatlin, GB gold and British records falling, its been brilliant.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the Men's 4x100m once again failed on the global stage. Since winning a bronze in 2009, Britain have found a way to embarrass themselves time and again on the global stage.

Yesterdays debacle went to a whole new level and it saw members of the team blaming each other and blaming the coaches for changing the team. I understand their frustration, a medal was there for the taking had it not been for the botched hand over. That does not, however, excuse this type of reaction. As second leg runner Danny Talbot said "We win as a team, we lose as a team".

The problems started when the coaches decided to bring in CJ Ujah to replace Harry Aikines-Aryeetey for the final. First leg runner Richard Kilty said that the team for the final was "not a team we have practiced as much". I didn't think this change was a bad one. Ujah has twice run 9.96  in his career and is the current British champion over 100m. It makes sense to bring your fastest guy to anchor the team home. If I had to be uber critical it would have perhaps been better to drop Talbot and not Harry AA and keep the front three as was. May not have made a difference but who knows? 

In the final, third leg runner James Ellington was coming in to Ujah, who left at the right moment. Suddenly, Ellington seemed to slow and therefore unable to get to Ujah, prompting CJ to run out the box and see GB's chances of a medal evaporate.

This then led to the farcical scenes afterwards with Kilty and Ellington critical of first Ujah and then the coaches. Kilty, who has a habit of opening his mouth, is quoted as saying that had Aikines-Aryeetey or even Dina Asher-Smith been in the team then GB would have won a medal. Ellington said that "perhaps CJ went early". The two of them then painted a picture of disharmony in the relay squad after a major coaching change. Credit to Ujah for not biting back at his team mates.

The frustrations are obvious but Kilty and Ellington should not have opened their mouths like this. It shows a lack of respect and lack of thinking on their part. This is something that could have been handled behind closed doors with the coaches. They have also been made to look rather stupid because BBC analysis showed that Ellington and not Ujah was at fault.

The coaching team are not entirely blameless in all of this. If they were going to run Ujah in the final, then why on earth would you not run him in the heats? So everyone can get a medal? I understand taking a risk but with our record it was perhaps a foolish idea to do so.

There needs to be an overhaul of this attitude in the relay squad and perhaps the personnel too. We are not going to win medals with in-fighting. Therefore over the winter, pick the team, train them and run them in the European Championships in preparation for Rio.

In regards to personnel, in my, very under qualified opinion, Kilty and Ellington are lucky to be in the squad in the first place. Ellington has been in the team for some time now and was also involved in the mishap that led to the 2013 disqualification in Moscow, albeit it wasn't his fault. Kilty is a great starter and world class 60m runner but is he really the best option to lead us off?

My team would feature this line up: Zharnel Huges, Ujah, Adam Gemili, James Dasaolu. I'd have Talbot and Harry AA as reserves as they have proven to be useful runners in the past. I get the need for team work and consistency but we also need the speed in between. If it is possible to get all these guys together to train and throw in the other two, then surely we can find a suitable quartet of four to hopefully win a medal in Rio. Jamaica for years have relied on speed with safe changeovers. That's why they have won every major event since 2008 and broken the world record three times.

This is just my opinion. I don't know what happens behind the scenes but I'd rather any complaints kept there rather than being played out very publicly.  It just makes the whole thing a whole lot worse.

Welcome

Hello all,

My name is JB and I am a bloke that likes sitting in front of a TV and watching Sport. I'm not a one sport kind of guy. I watch a lot of sport. I find Sport compelling and I have set this blog up to share my views to the world.

So what sports am I going to covering on this Blog? Well, there's a lot of Sports that I will attempt to cover but the list is:

Football
Rugby Union
Cricket
Formula 1
Boxing
Athletics
Tennis
Golf
NFL
Darts
Some Winter Sports

It's a bit of a long list and I cannot guarantee that I will give equal treatment to each of the sports given but I will try and cover the major events.

I will also attempt to write a thought piece on a wider sporting issue and attempt to provoke debate (if it comes to that) amongst the fans.

Well I'm about to upload a load of posts because there has been a LOT going on this weekend.

Enjoy folks!