![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/James_Wallace.png\")
James Wallace<\/p>\nKey events<\/p>\n
James Wallace<\/p>\n
Thanks Geoff and hello all. We watch and we wait, will the big mop up job of Gqeberha 2026 result in some play on day two? We watch and we wait\u2026 there\u2019s an inspection due in 15 minutes so fingers crossed we are getting closer to some actual Test cricket action.<\/p>\n
Any thoughts, theories and general patter please do send my way. Let\u2019s keep this OBO afloat.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a> I have probably said all that I can say about rain today, and the only thing undampened is our enthusiasm for Test cricket. So I will hand you over to James Wallace, who is an entertaining type, so please do send him some emails so that he has something to talk about. Today, the whole arena is yours. Cheerio.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n So where does that leave us? Inspection at 14:15 local means the earliest play could start would be 15:00, and that\u2019s only if the ground has dried enough. So we\u2019re going to start at least five hours late, which means losing at least three hours of match time. They might get two to three hours of play if the light stays good tonight.<\/p>\n A day and a half taken out of the Test match then. That does leave time for a result if the match moves quickly, but there might be more rain later in the week.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Ah man, that outfield problem has killed us. No restart. They\u2019ve kicked the can down the road for another inspection 50 minutes from now.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Who knew that not covering the whole ground could lead to a wet outfield?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.08 EDT<\/p>\n Sodden outfield seems to be the problem. There will be another inspection in 14 minutes, which means play can\u2019t resume for a good while after that.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be astonished if Lyon retires from Test cricket a little sooner than people might be expecting,\u201d emails Paul. \u201cFor athletes who\u2019ve performed at a very high level for a long time, one of the hardest things to accept seems to be when they\u2019re no longer an automatic selection, and while in Lyon\u2019s case that\u2019s been for reasons beyond his influence, he doesn\u2019t strike me as someone who\u2019ll be content with a here-and-there role.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve wondered that too, and also whether this chop-change thing is making him less effective. There are mutterings that he\u2019s contributing in the margins, and his last bag of wickets was over two years ago in Wellington. But by leaving him out this many times recently, is Australia hurting themselves by having a less confident, less settled bowler in their line-up when they do need him?<\/p>\n In Jamaica or in Brisbane, did the fourth seamer win them the Test? No. Would they have won with Lyon in the team? Probably. So is there actually a benefit to the configuration without him? Debatable, but there is an observable negative if you\u2019re unsettling a vital player in the medium term.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn the old days, the general rule was three seamers and two spinners, which could still be managed if at least two of the bowlers were proper batters, but even more so if the wicketkeeper was batting in the top five,\u201d writes John Starbuck. \u201cNow, the ball can vary so much more from the faster bowlers – swing, reverse swing, knuckle and so on – that the mystery element of spin and flight aren\u2019t needed. Or so the selectors seem to think. Personally, I want to see at least one specialist spinner in every side, just to change the nature of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, so often the key is the ability to change the type of bowling that a set batter is facing.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m told that they did have an inspection. The umpires wandered about and talked to the ground staff. Often after prolonged rain like this, the covered square is ok but the outfield beyond the covers is a problem. Still nobody has adopted the Sri Lanka method of having 300 blokes covering the entire field.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Just quietly, New South Wales just reached stumps in the west with Kurtis Patterson 117 not out. The score is 345 for 4 at the end of Day 1 in Perth.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a national team looking for a player at some point who makes runs in the domestic competition. A quirky thought.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Luca Human writes in. I\u2019ve met a few South Africans with the surname Human recently, having never seen it before the last year or so, which I\u2019ll admit does make me suspicious that they\u2019re aliens trying to blend in, who didn\u2019t quite understand the context when choosing a last name that they thought would be innocuous. Anyway. I won\u2019t take you to our leaders, because they\u2019re largely absolutely awful.<\/p>\n \u201cSouth African living here in France who overslept because a) school holidays and b) no cricket. I wanted to know regarding the 2027 CWC, if you think crowds in SA will be respectable? What of Zim and Namibia?\u201d<\/p>\n Well, in the frame of my post about CSA earlier, the ICC does have a marketing budget. A titanic one. And the ICC is essentially an events company. So they will leave no doubt that there is a World Cup on. Ticket registration is already open, the schedule is already done, and apparently numbers have been good already on people making requests.<\/p>\n Not every game will be full, of course, with India games the most popular and so on. But I think that a South African World Cup is a very appealing tourist trip for a lot of Brits and Aussies and New Zealanders. There are also big expat communities of those people in the UK and Europe, who might fly down. Then there are the large communities of South Africans who have Indian or Pakistani backgrounds, so they\u2019ll also be interested.<\/p>\n I have faith the crowds will be good in South Africa, and I hope that for the handful of games in Namibia, novelty value will get people along, and for Zimbabwe, they play all their games at home, so that will be a draw.<\/p>\n Plus, can\u2019t tell you what a difference it makes to tourists to have a year to plan the trip, with confidence that the schedule won\u2019t change, as opposed to all the recent World Cups in India where we get the schedule six weeks out, and inevitably change a few games even after that point. They are truly disastrous hosts from the perspective of people wanting to attend games, so overseas tourists just don\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n In this case, I\u2019m upbeat.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cShout out to Disney,\u201d writes John Stewart. Unlikely to be that one, no. John Oliver might be watching the cricket with Zaltzman, but he\u2019d be the only late night host.<\/p>\n \u201cThey bought the NZ broadcast rights for the SA test series; they mucked up the calendar, and had the test match scheduled to start today rather than yesterday. So they didn\u2019t actually broadcast day 1.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter about 40 minutes on the blower last night, I convinced the customer support person that cricket goes for five days, so it\u2019s not five different games, and that it wasn\u2019t a time-zone muck up on my part; Joshy was already throwing down his third. Eventually after getting me to turn it off and on a couple of times, she was just like \u2018Oh well, you should be able to watch it tomorrow I guess\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine having so much money you buy the broadcast rights to a test series, then don\u2019t even notice you\u2019re not broadcasting it. That\u2019s what you and Adam should have done in Pakistan that time. Ultimate flex.\u201d<\/p>\n That is pretty impressive. I can assure you that we did notice we were broadcasting, it was among the most stressful experiences of my admittedly quite pleasant life.<\/p>\n That story is here<\/a>, if you want something to fill half an hour of your rain delay time. Mike Williams is a brilliant audio doco maker.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.44 EDT<\/p>\n Ground staff are repainting the pitch lines, which is great news. There\u2019s an inspection due in about 45 minutes, given how wet the ground got. With any luck, that would then mean action in one hour and 45, with the lunch break considered to have been taken, and we could get straight into a 2.5 hour session. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFast bowlers don\u2019t eat as many pies or neck as many beers as they used to back in the day, so the role of the spinner to hold up an end is diminished these days,\u201d suggests David Blackah. \u201cAlso drop in pitches don\u2019t take turn until days 4 & 5 and it\u2019s often all over by then.\u201d<\/p>\n There is something to that last bit. Also the fact that teams now bowl about 70 overs a day even when it\u2019s clear and sunny.<\/p>\n Still, I don\u2019t buy the argument that because a game may be shorter, you don\u2019t need a spinner. If it ended in three days without the spinner playing a role, then picking one didn\u2019t hinder your team. And if you think it\u2019ll be a short match but it goes longer, then you have the resource that you need.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m told that the St George\u2019s Park band has been playing music for most of the morning, which is hilarious, but even they have stopped now. Tired out. The covers are coming off, though.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHello Geoff, thank you for your efforts in informing us about this almost game. I do hope they let you do your work from home!\u201d In this case, yes, Mark Gretton, though more often I\u2019m doing these updates from the ground.\n <\/p>\n \u201dMore pertinently, I was struck by the \u2018more in sorrow than in anger\u2019 tone of cricket SA after hardly anyone turned up to watch the first Test. I can save them money on their enquiry as to why that was: 1) finding the time of year when you can pretty much guarantee there won\u2019t be an uninterrupted day\u2019s play and, overwhelmingly 2) this serving to reinforce the point you\u2019ve made repeatedly over the the past few years that Test cricket is no longer that important to you. I\u2019m not unsympathetic to Cricket<\/a> SA as to why they have elevated T20 as their cash cow of choice. But to then don sack cloth and ashes regarding Test attendance suggests foolishness, dishonesty, or both.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, quite, and there\u2019s also the fact that there has been no Test cricket in the country for close to a couple of years, and they didn\u2019t bother telling anyone that it was back. All reports from Durban were that promotion was non-existent. And yes, we know that CSA are very short on cash and probably don\u2019t have much marketing budget, but it also is hard to believe that it would be highly expensive in a South African context to engage local workers for some postering or flyering or targeted online ads.<\/p>\n There is a tendency, for those of us who are obsessed with cricket, to imagine that everyone else knows about it too. How could they not know about the Return from Sandpaper series, right? But, truth is they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n That XKCD comic about \u201caverage familiarity\u201d could apply to our field as well.<\/p>\n This one<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve pondered this a bit, since Lyon\u2019s very public show of dismay after missing out in Brisbane last summer. In a way, I like that he\u2019s so fired up about missing a Test, and I like that he\u2019s candid about having feelings instead of brushing over them. And I don\u2019t like the increasing attitude that spin is not effective enough, but pace bowling magically is.<\/p>\n At the same time, I wonder how justifiable it is to be furious about missing a game when you\u2019ve played 140 of them, more than almost anyone in the history of the sport. Does that then become a display of ego, thinking you\u2019re more important than the decisions the team is making about how best to win a game, or more important than other players, because literally everyone else on your team has had less opportunity to play for Australia than you?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a mixed grill, this one.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n John Dean \u2013 an OBO reader, not Nixon\u2019s lawyer, though I suppose one could be both \u2013 has written in regarding my questions about the state of mind of N. Lyon.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly there isn\u2019t a small door behind a filing cabinet on the 7\u00bdth floor of a Manhattan building I can crawl into to enter the mind of the GOAT. However, I\u2019d imagine as hard done by as he\u2019d feel, he recognises no one has been more hard done by on selection than ScoBo. He\u2019d be filthy, but not at Bayside\u2019s favourite son.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The rain radar that I can find doesn\u2019t look promising either. Apart from depicting clouds as giant bilious green snot-chunks, which is highly unappealing, it has these chunks circling about and not moving anywhere. The main piece is off to the east of Gqeberha, but the smaller part over the town is largely static both in the prior tracking and the projection, just shifting in small circles.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n A bit of a dance went on with the covers, where they came off, umpires talked about an inspection, then the covers went on again. A tale as old as time.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n If there was a draw, it wouldn\u2019t cost Australia much in WTC terms: less than one percent on the ratio count, compared to an Australian win. But it could cost South Africa a lot, more like five percent versus a South African win. Not to mention that Australia won the last series between these sides, so if there\u2019s a washout here, South Africa can\u2019t win the series or take the trophy, such as it is. It still doesn\u2019t have much of an identity, although hopefully it doesn\u2019t end up being named after two randomly plucked players.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Later, once South Africa finally get to bowl, which may be Day 3 at this stage, we\u2019ll have the return of Rabada. He was the main character at this ground eight years ago.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n All of this rain will give Nathan Lyon more time to think. The more time lost from the match, the more it suits the Australian approach of four fast bowlers, because the less they\u2019ll need a spinner to carry any slow periods of play. But I\u2019m curious about what he makes of the situation. Is he as angry as he was when left out for four quicks in Jamaica and Brisbane recently? On the third time in the last eight Tests that he\u2019s been fit for, is there a level of acceptance? Does it cause despondency?<\/p>\n Interested in any reader thoughts about the role of spin in the modern game, given that England don\u2019t bother picking a proper spinner most of the time either.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n My sources at the ground confirm what everyone else\u2019s sources at the ground say, which is that it is now absolutely pouring down. This is not what qualifies as breaking news.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n This was the risk of Test cricket in October, we\u2019re told by South Africans. More likely to have bad weather. In 2018, of course, this tour was played in March and even strayed into the first days of April. Seven of the last eight Australian visits started in February or March. But that can\u2019t happen anymore, because that would displease the IPL, whose owners want Australian players, and would displease Australian players who want to earn the extra slice from the IPL.<\/p>\n Well, perhaps more importantly it would deny that same chance to South African players, who need that extra payday much more urgently given how little they comparatively earn from their home board, or more realistically it would see a Test series shorn of anyone who got picked up by the IPL.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Does the rain mean we\u2019re doomed to have a draw? Not necessarily, given the speed at which Test cricket moves in this era. Even in Durban, which was an uncharacteristic grind of a match relative to many recently, they only played about 360 of a possible 450 overs. All the time lost to bad light didn\u2019t matter, and it wasn\u2019t a close-run thing to finish the game on day five. If wickets keep falling when we get some play, the rain may not matter. But that\u2019s only if it clears up and stays away after this morning.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Preamble Hello all. Yes, we managed 12.2 overs yesteday, but somehow it was still quite an eventful 12.2 overs. Another chapter in the Scott Boland story, anyway. He\u2019s a quiet testament to humility. Very odd that CA didn\u2019t put him up to speak to media last night. They didn\u2019t put anyone up, which is highly unusual.<\/p>\n The bad news for those wanting the next chapter of this tale is that it\u2019s still raining in Gqeberha. So the planned early start won\u2019t happen, nor will the normal start on time, nor will anything probably for the first couple of hours. The forecast is better later, and even yesterday we were anticipating losing the morning.<\/p>\n![\"Geoff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792411935_391_Michael_McGowan.jpg\")
Geoff Lemon<\/p>\nGeoff Lemon<\/p>\n