Blues have the blues except for Hughes

While we wait for some more international cricket, here is some light relief from the Sheffield Shield (remember that is the official name now). In short, the Shield holders, the Blues, can’t take a trick. NSW are languishing in the cellar with zero wins from five attempts and have lost three matches outright. On Thursday, they went down to Tasmania in a low scoring thriller, with the Tigers making the highest score of the match in the fourth innings.

The good news for the Blues and Australian cricket that 19 year old Phillip Hughes continues to shine. Hughes burst onto the seen last year with a spectacular 161 and followed up a few matches later with a century in the Shield final. He is a left-handed opener (not very original, I know) with more potential than Kit De Luca (name the movie). That’s good news because Matthew Hayden (left-handed opener) can’t go on forever. Phil Jaques (left handed-opener) is flat on his back and Chris Rogers (left-handed opener) was less than impressive with somewhat of a false start last summer. He’s probably still at the head of the queue with 3 centuries (including twins against his old team) and an average of 88.7 thus far this summer.

In the match against Tasmania, Hughes made 93 in a total of 172 and backed up with 108 in a total of 173. For that match, that is 201 runs of the Blues’ 345. That’s a percentage of 58%. While that sort of ratio happens on occasion for an innings (as an indication, the Test record is mid-sixties), it is rare for a player to achieve it in both innings of a match.

“I don’t like winning, I love it”

I had the opportunity to watch some cricket in the morning session on the fourth (and final) day of the series between Australia and New Zealand. The televisor must have had a “Ricky cam” because we were treated to the captains reactions after just about every ball. And what I noticed was that Ponting was very, very happy. You couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. He was chatty and upbeat. Delirious. And why not? He had recently taken “that catch” and New Zealand were in the process of utter capitulation. It made me realise that Ponting loves winning. He doesn’t care who his team is beating. He just loves that winning feeling. No matter that the opponent is really quite weak (sorry, but it has to be said).

It reminds me of a child that I know. This child was very smart and attended a small private school. She came top in the class every year and felt good about it. Come high school, the parents secured a scholarship at a large Grammar School. The student was not happy and declared they would rather be top of a small class of nobodies than only in the top 10% at a competitive, high achieving school. She didn’t even care if she was gaining better results. She wanted to be numero uno.

I see Ricky as being a lot like this child (accept I doubt he would have gained a scholarship at a grammar school). The point is, the basis of Ricky’s self esteem and happiness are not Swisse multi vitamins, but winning. Ricky feels good about himself when he is winning. Well, he must be better than the rest, hey? Conversely, his mood and attitude are bad when he is loosing. We might see a mood swing in just over a week.

I think Ricky will be a much better captain when he can smile when the side is loosing. It might even help him to turn the odd bad situation into a win.