Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the day “July 8, 2016”

08 Jul 2016

Are Sussex County Cricket Club The New Aston Villa of Cricket?


As a member of Sussex for many years I am becoming increasingly despondent over the quality of the cricket that has been served up while at the same time seemingly an ever increasing commercialisation.Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales and won its first ever official County Championship title in 2003 after a wait of 164 years. Subsequently Sussex became the dominant team of the decade, winning the title again in 2006 and 2007, and also winning limited over tournaments up until 2009.

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Since 2009 things have been getting steadily worse culminating in relegation from Division 1 in 2015 and currently sitting low in Division 2 with little hope of promotion this season.

Why is this happening? I cannot pretend to have the answers however it seems that many poorly performing players have been signed and then eventually released having shown none of their potential. There seems little rational into the signing of some players and those that continue to produce poor form seem to retain their place.

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My personal belief as of July 2016 is that Sussex are the second worst county side in the UK.    They have won 1 game in the county championship from the 8 played, have the lowest number of batting points in the division and only a single team has a lower number of bowling points. Yet I see little evidence of a spark to improve and change things. Players performing woefully continue to be selected. On occasions an individual player has had a good performance but these are never sustained with the single exception of Ed Joyce who has been consistent this season opening the batting. When watching the team play there seems little enthusiasm and fielding at times has been poor.  The costs of membership have been increasing almost unnoticed with membership costing £200-250 dependent on whether there is desire to watch T20. And these are not the only costs. Car parking for members at Arundel was £5 and the cost of food has got absurd approaching double the cost of the same food at a football game. Sausage , chips and tea at Arundel £11.

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This season we have seen the potential resurgence of Leicester as a county. They addressed the issues that led them to not win a game for 2 years and currently sit 20 points higher than sussex.

Something needs to be done. We need to see evidence of players taking accountability and tolerate less poor performances. Sussex cricket is in decline and I see no evidence of a reversal at present.

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08 Jul 2016
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Australian State New South Wales Ban Greyhound Racing


The state is working towards a ban from july 2017 after uncovering what they describe as “horrific” cruelty.”We are left with no acceptable course of action except to close this industry down,” Premier Mike Baird said. This emerged following an investigation and reports that animals such as rabbits and possums were being chased and killed in training sessions.

Four Australian states – NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania – subsequently launched inquiries into greyhound racing. In 2015 the NSW greyhound racing board stepped down after this illegal baiting was exposed in a TV documentary. This however was only the start. Mr Baird’s ruling came in response to the findings of a Special Commission of Inquiry, which were handed to the state government last week. The Inquiry found that in the last 12 years in NSW, between 49,000 and 68,000 dogs were killed because they weren’t considered quick enough to win races.IMG_3082

In recent years, the sport has enjoyed a resurgence across Australia. Prize money has sky-rocketed and betting is more than £2bn ($2.6bn) a year . This raises the question as to what will happen to the 20,000 racing greyhounds in this state alone. In the UK the Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare Trust that rehomes and socialises retired racing greyhounds expressed concerns earlier this year over the closure of a single greyhound track at Wimbledon and the potential influx of new greyhounds. FullSizeRender-1

There is already huge debate over this banning with views expressed that jobs and livelihoods will be lost, however the australian RSPCA reported this as an immense day for animal welfare. Opinion is thus divided.

NSW has strong penalties for animal cruelty of five year jail sentences plus a $22,000 fine for individuals found guilty of animal cruelty.

However critics argue that there is little evidence of these penalties being enforced.

In the short term the learnings are:

  • Animal cruelty is a crime and cannot be acceptable. Violators should be punished
  • Greyhounds do make excellent pets and at least 75% can be socilaised to the extent of making re-homing possible. Education is further needed over how to adopt these beautiful dogs through trusts such as WGW in UK that do superb work.
  • Banning greyhound racing may be an extreme reaction but it may be needed temporarily to identify and prevent the problems reported. Whether it is needed longer term remains to be seenIMG_0177

 

 

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