The One Thing Australia gets right

Australia is a slightly controversial cricketing nation.  There is a lot not to like.  Their long term refusal to help developing countries, the sledging, behaving like flogs, the ludicrous idea they put forward that they are custodians of the game, and all those despicable players.  And this lot too

On occasion they do some things differently, and are unique and for once things get things right in putting wickets before runs when stating a team’s score.

Breathe in.

This format makes so much sense, especially when following the game sporadically on the radio. You’re out and about and catch with the score after an hour say. You know ~40 runs will have been added; you want to know how many wickets have fallen.

As we hear so many times, test cricket is all about taking 20 wickets. That is the important statistic, and is what drives test cricket. They get it.

And if someone asked you the score at a random point in the game you’d say Australia was on 190-odd. Precision during an innings isn’t important; that’s what wickets are about.

Today New Zealand lost its second wicket (Latham) in the same over that they brought up 150 runs.  One of those things was more important than the other.

This aggravates many, hopefully because it’s a uniquely Australin thing, but in this case we need to accept they are correct.

Historically, their other deviation from the norm was the use of the term Sundries ahead of Extras.  Strangely that seemed like a term out of an English novel but, while not offensive or wrong, added no value so they eventually fell in line with the international standard.

On the wickets before runs argument they have a much more virtuous battle on their hands.