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Pridružen/-a: 06.07. 2018, 01:42 Prispevkov: 120
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Objavljeno: 12 Jul 2018 03:03 Naslov sporočila: Richardson as Australian Test player-umpires. |
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BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Zach LeDay scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Seth Allen added 15 points and Virginia Tech beat the Virginia Military Institute 88-72 on Saturday night.We were much more purposeful with our dribbles and passes in the second half in the pace we want to play, said Virginia Tech head coach Buzz Williams.Virginia Tech (3-0) took the lead for good with 6:44 left in the first half on Khadim Sys layup. The Hokies led 44-34 at the break on the strength of 57 percent shooting and a 19-12 rebounding edge.I think we played real good pushing the ball, said LeDay, but we have to be better on the defensive end. We want to be playing in March.Tech led by 20 points on several occasions in the second half but VMI kept chipping away.QJ Peterson scored 29 points (23 in the second half) with three 3-pointers and eight rebounds for the Keydets (1-1).Hes a really good player and whats nice is that hes our hardest worker as well, said VMI head coach Dan Earl. His decision making . was really good.Were recognizing when someone has the hot hand and were trying to get them the ball, Peterson said of his big night in a losing effort. They trusted me more in the second half. They wanted me to keep on attacking and make the plays.Adrian Rich and Trey Chapman added 10 points apiece for VMI.Virginia Tech finished shooting 60 percent from the floor (33 of 55) and hit 7 of 17 3-pointers. VMI shot 44 percent from the floor and was outrebounded 34-28.Justin Bibbs and Chris Clarke each added 13 points for Tech.Allen said he is not looking ahead to the ACC portion of the schedule.We have to think about how to get better now, hopefully it will get to that level, he said. I feel pretty good -- off the court (and) on the court we love each other.Three games into the season Williams said he likes his team a lot.I think theyre playing for each other, he said.TAKEAWAYSVirginia Tech: Tech is now 91-43 all-time against the VMI Keydets in a rivalry that dates back to the 1908-09 season. The Hokies have won the last six games in the series. Tech doesnt begin the ACC portion of its schedule until a New Years Eve noon home game against Duke.VMI: The Keydets havent beaten Virginia Tech since Dec. 4, 2004.STAT OF THE NIGHTThe Hokies shot 51.7 percent from the free throw line -- 41 percent in the second half. We could easily have scored 100 if we made our typical free throw percentage, said Williams. Hopefully its an aberration; I dont think Seth Allen (1 of 5) is a 20-percent free throw shooter.UP NEXTVirginia Tech hits the road for their next game against New Mexico on Thanksgiving Day in Fullerton, California, competing in the Wooden Legacy tourney. ESPN will carry the 4:30pm contest. Williams noted the 10-day, 2 time zone trip: I dont know that Virginia Tech has ever done that.VMI is on the road Tuesday night against Presbyterian College. Well find out a lot about ourselves in these next four games, said Earl of a stretch that also includes Campbell and Radford. Los Angeles Chargers Kyzir White Jersey . Newcastle dominated in the early stages but City weathered the storm and then raised its game in extra time. Negredo broke the deadlock from close range after a simple move in the 99th minute before Dzeko took the ball round goalkeeper Tim Krul to seal the victory in the 105th. Los Angeles Chargers Dylan Cantrell Jersey . Belfort (24-10) needed just 77 seconds to down Henderson in the headlining bout of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson" event at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil. The fight served as a rematch of the pairs 2006 meeting, which Henderson won by decision. http://www.cheapchargersjerseys.us/ . Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks. Los Angeles Chargers Derwin James Jersey . -- Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Chargers Jerseys China . For the Wild it was their first win of the season and they now have a record of 1-1-2 while the Jets fall to 2-2. Jets start a six game home stand Friday with another divisional game, home to the Dallas Stars. Number of men who have played Test cricket for Australia: 443. Number of Australians who have umpired a Test: 91. Number who have done both: five. Number who have done both in the post-war era: one. At least for the time being. Paul Wilson hopes one day to double that last figure and join his former team-mate Paul Reiffel as a rare modern Australian Test player turned Test umpire.Already Wilson has taken some giant strides - at his size there are no other kind - and stood in four ODIs and four T20Is. Hard work and determination gained him a baggy green and those same qualities will be required to earn the umpiring equivalent. On sheer numbers alone it is a massive challenge: the ICCs Elite Panel, from whom most Test umpiring appointments are made, consists of only 12 men.I want to do Test cricket, but its a patience game - just keep getting more experience and do more games, Wilson says. Again, its being in the right place at the right time.There is a reason he used the word again. Right place, right time is how he describes his 1998 call-up to Australias Test team. But that phrase suggests his baggy green was won via nothing but luck. Wilson worked hard to put himself in the right place and waited for the right time to arrive.Like many Test players of the 1990s, he came through the pathway of the Australian Cricket Academy. So far, so normal. But what was unusual was how he came to the Academy. While still a teenager, Wilson left his Newcastle home and travelled halfway across the country to Adelaide to pitch his case to Academy director Rod Marsh.This was not how the Academy worked. Scholars were invited; they didnt just turn up and gatecrash. Until Wilson.I just rocked up to the Academy offices, Wilson says. I said, Im looking to see Rod Marsh... Rod said, Try to get rid of him. Begrudgingly, Rod accepted me to come into his office and say hello. As he describes it, he says, Heres this large lump of a lad who filled in the doorway. Our friendship started from there.You look back at it now and being a father of three kids, I cant sit back and say, dont go and do something unconventional. It was genuinely unconventional at the time, and no one else has really done it since. It was a unique thing and Im very glad I did it.Wilson was given a few weeks at the Academy, which turned into a few months, which eventually turned into a full scholarship. Within a couple of years he had made his domestic one-day debut for his adopted state of South Australia, and a Sheffield Shield debut came in 1995-96. His trajectory kept rising, an ODI call-up coming in 1997-98, and a place on the Test tour of India that followed.Glenn McGrath missed the tour due to a torn abdominal muscle, and Australias attack in the first Test in Chennai was made up of Michael Kasprowicz, Paul Reiffel, Shane Warne and Gavin Robertson. Wilson was just happy to be part of the squad. But come the second Test in Kolkata, he became Australias 376th Test cricketer.I found out the morning of the match, he says. My now umpiring partner Paul Reiffel had got injured in the first Test, so I was in the mix along with Adam Dale, who at that stage hadnt played. And Stuart MacGill was on that tour, and Greg Blewett was bowling some overs... so its me, Dale or MacGill, and I was lucky to get the call-up at Eden Gardens.Mark Taylor announced it, got presented with the cap, the old process from the captain. I was honestly blessed to play one game. There were a handful of guys who werent available for selection for that tour and also that Test match. I was in the right place at the right time, and I was extremely lucky to play one Test match.Not that the match went to plan for Wilson, whose entire Test record consists of 12 overs for 50 runs without a wicket, and no runs from two innings. He remembers the noise of Eden Gardens, the thrill of playing at such a marquee venue, the obsession of Indian fans who knew everything about his career - and the devastation of breaking down with injury mid-match.It was the back end of a long summer and we all go into matches carrying a couple of niggles, he says. What I thought was a niggle was worse than that, and during the Test match it went bang. I did a groin in the Test match and later on was diagnosed with osteitis pubis, which was not really well known at that stage but its a very common one these days.To me it was the devastation of knowing in your own mind youve got an injury thats not going to get you through the Test, let alone the rest of the tour... You know in the back of your own mind that this might be my only chance, and it was. You didnt have to be Einstein to work that out, with all the number of players coming through the system and onto the scene, that it was probably going to be my only chance.And so it was. Wilson never represented Australia again, in any format. He played out his career with South Australia and then Western Australia, and wondered what he would do when it all ended. Coaching was his first move, but something had nagged at him even during his playing days. He describes it as an itch he had to scratch. He wanted to become an umpire.His timing was good, for in the early 2000s, Cricket Australia was keen to get more former first-class players involved in umpiring, hence Reiffel and Rod Tucker were being welcomed into a project panel. After they were promooted to the full national panel in 2005, Wilson was the next in line.dddddddddddd Not that he was lured into it; he instigated the move himself, having discussed the career with umpire Daryl Harper as early as 2002.Its a pretty major decision, he says. In Australia it was uncommon for first-class players to go into umpiring. Rod and Paul were trailblazers. In England its very common. In fact, the majority of the national panel are former first-class players. I thought, Why not? I took the plunge.It took some getting used to, being out on the field but not as a competitor. Concentrating on every single ball of a days play, often for several days in a row.Early on, you probably found yourself drifting, you find yourself going through the old habits of someone fielding at fine leg or mid-on or mid-off, Wilson says. But the routines as a player in the field arent dissimilar to an umpire. You switch up, switch down. When the bowler runs in, as a batter youre switching on for that ball to be bowled, and as an umpire its no different.We try and find a bit of downtime while the ball is dead. But once the bowler is running in you switch on again. Those things that became second nature as a player became very handy as an umpire. You just need to adjust it slightly, because you have to be on and off all day every day as an umpire.What did he find hard at first?Its the nuances, the signals, being on the right side, going to the right side when the ball is in play, staying still, concentrating on the front foot, then bringing the ball into focus - all those things that as an experienced umpire ten years down the track I take for granted as part of my routine. Its a completely different world to being a player, even though were on the same ground.He also learnt quickly that there is far more to being an umpire than making out or not-out decisions. A good umpire is a good man manager, who can defuse a tense situation before it goes too far, or prevent one entirely by communicating well in the first place. And that communication is not only with players, coaches and ground staff, but as you rise to the elite level, it is event managers, media managers, all sorts of additional stakeholders.At the core of the job, though, are the on-field decisions. That is what an umpire is judged on. It looks easy from the comfort of the living room but is deceptively difficult. It is mentally draining - Umpires sleep very well during a four-day game, Wilson says - and certain decisions are incredibly challenging in the split-second an umpire has at his disposal.Lbws are hard when theres bat and pad involved, he says. If everything is close together, thats a seriously tough decision. If its a clear-cut one, fine. When bat and pad are close together and theres two noises, what are the two noises?With the advent of BBL etc, there is also the noise factor. If the players cant hear each other on the field, theres a fair chance that when theres a fine nick it becomes very difficult for umpires to pick things up. Noisy venues are a real challenge for umpires because we use eyes and ears. Sometimes, one of those faculties can be taken away from us purely from it being a noisy venue.DRS is a useful safety net if available and Wilson is a great believer in using the technology, but the system brings its own challenges. And not just for the umpire on the field who has his decisions scrutinised. Sitting in the chair as TV umpire requires a different set of skills to standing on the field.I think most people thought it was the job you went to and just had the pipe and slippers, had your cups of tea, Wilson says. But its a completely different ball game now. Its effectively becoming a specialised role, over time. Your skills are not only to do with going through the processes and protocols, depending on the on-field decision and whether its a straight-out decision or something sent upstairs with a soft signal.But now we also have the advent of live-to-air comms. Then its making sure your communication skills are right - knowing that what youre asking the director for is what the person at home is listening to. You have to make sure that is clear and concise, so that the person at home can see and understand what youre looking for.If we can communicate clearly then its effectively educating the people sitting at home about the process the third umpire is going through. Some of the really good ones around the world are doing that really effectively, and actually educating the person at home watching the game. Youre probably educating the commentators as well, to a degree.Clear communication, forensic analysis, immaculate concentration - these are not traits one might necessarily expect of a big fast bowler nicknamed Blocker. Nevertheless they are traits that he possesses, and have helped him become an international umpire.Perhaps one day he will join Reiffel, Charles Bannerman, George Coulthard, George McShane and Arthur Richardson as Australian Test player-umpires. No doubt that would make him immensely proud, as he is of that one Test back in 1998.In that era, to have played any games for Australia - looking back on it now, at the players around at the time, it was just an absolute honour. Wholesale Jerseys 2020 Cheap NFL Jerseys Throwback Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Hoodies Wholesale Black NFL Jerseys Discount Jerseys ' ' ' |
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