question for the cricket-heads

why do umpires now curl their finger when giving a batsman out instead of the straight finger?

Just something that I see on an ad on telly that's been bugging me.

Ta.

I think only Billy Bowden does that.

Yeah, Billy Bowden does that ...and it has to do with the fact that he has great trouble in straightening his finger due to suffering from arthritis.

Yeah thats what he says anyway

Wouldnt surprise me if he really did it to add another string to his "wacky" bow

I always thought he did that to be different and a little bit eccentric.

hes pointing to the dressing rooms

or his willy...

it was interesting to see how Billy ended up with a fan club in Aus. They loved him over there...

and the Steve Waugh hug was a classic

What was the Steve Waugh hug thing? I must have missed that.

After the final test match as everyone was walking off the ground doing the handshake Billy Bowden grabbed S.waugh and gave him a big hug

i'm a bit iffy on billy's tactics as an umpire...

most things he does he does for entertainment value, and he has been quoted in interviews saying that he views it as his job to be part of the entertainment - which i don't agree with.... thankfully he is proving to be a good umpire, and indeed is building a fan club...

i've met the man and he's a bit of a fruitloop, and the steve waugh thing was a bit rough i thought... especially when billy took off with the stumps and steve thought he wasn't going to get to claim a stump from his last test - but billy thought it was a big joke and gave him the stump after the hug...

anyhow, i guess he's a good ambassador for the game...

yeah I gotta admit to mixed feelings over the guy. I think its the players job to provide the entertainment, and who the fuck is entertained by a crooked finger and a extravangant boundary signal anyway?

I have also worked with him, when he used to run the cricket shop at Cornwall CC, and as smf said....................he's a real odd-ball. And that was before anyone had heard of Billy Bowden

I guess tho anyone who generates a fan club is good for the game

having said that, Dickie Bird had a fan club and he never pranced around like some sort of fool

I like Darrell Hair...............he called Muli

Like him or not, his status continues to grow

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2798321a1823,00.html

I don't think there's anything wrong with adding character to the game. If his umpiring ability was in question, it'd be another matter. But there's no real question of that at the moment. He adds colour to the game, and it's one of the charms of cricket that an umpire can actually do that. Cricket is possibly the only team sport to highlight individuality in players to such and extent. It means we love and love to hate so many of the players. Why can't umpires be a part of this too?

Darrel Hair has also given so many ridiculously suspect lbw appeals in the past in favour of Aussie ...thank god the guy wears glasses these days.

Dickie Bird may have not pranced around, but he was definately a bit of a character as well.

I've always enjoyed watching Billy Bowden upmire - he especially adds to the atmosphere of one-dayers.

huh?...........I thought "percy" was like.............. a girl?

justahalf .........doh *slaps self* very VERY true my man

still ................calling the cheat -nearly- evens it up

maybe cos he just can't get it up?


i used to think he was fucking great for the game.
i still like him but not as much as i used to. sometimes i think the umpire should only be there to make calls.

I have great respect for Billy and his family, they are great people When I first arrived in NZ I was trained by his brother John. Didn't know anyone in NZ, they took me in and yeah became very close He even baked me a cake on my 20th birthday

But as long as the calls are making are correct, whats the problem ?

I think he is more outgoing in the ODI's than tests too....

I think Billy's good value to watch

I am ... a girl...

I used to play cricket a bit at highschool

As long as the calls are good - which they certainly seem to be - I think Billy should be able to umpire however he likes. Cricket is often perceived as an old dried up English game, so why say no to a bit of colour?

hay?

a girl?

Im sorry percy............but as a small girl your opinions on cricket can hardly be taken seriously by us super-knowledgable manly types



errrrrrr...........sorry, that *might* seem a bit mean



Tell ya what...........why dont you start a cricket thread just for girls to post in , then I could pop in there and have a good chuckle on occasion

I cant be any fairer than that.................

Maestro is a poopoo head

OMG!

The Meastro smashes Percy to the boundry for 6!

yes well..................pesky girls............ trying to post in our cricket threads *sheesh* ............the CHEEK of it

almosrtas bad as that dannii web shizzle character, who wont even make Michael a few sausage rolls and instead yabbers on about throwing the TV out the window

We cant have it.................girly girls begone

Banish em to the netball court I say

The Maestro Darryl Hair was a blatant cheat. I canh remember a one dayer between saf and Australia where Matthews had a plum caught behind appeal denied. Who can forget gGreatbatch being given out lbw to Warne as well.

I know I know!!! jah reminded me.................I posted without thinking aiiiight?

well more posted while thinking hate-filled thoughts of wanker-chucker-cheater-Muli

Are you a lesbian then.

maestro - I haven't posted on this thread til now, I think you mean harvey. I don't care how many dodgy decisions he made, he still deserves credit for calling murali.

JAH that's a shocker comment

At least the New Zealand womans cricket team can at least beat Australia

small percys gonna be furious with me, she already not talking to me in The Lounge

whoops ..............confusing harvey for jah? How did that work?

sorry harvey...............good point you made about Hair.

Anyone else remember those days, we used to get absolutely dorked with bad decisions. Danny Morrison couldnt buy an LBW in the Tri-Series

Since when does playing cricket make you a lesbian? Dearie me, we find out new things about ourselves everyday...

As for Maestro -

of any sport, women's cricket seems to have the highest proportion of lesbians.. it's not just a cliche...

i had a flatmate that played cricket for a club in welly (she wasn't a lesbian) and more than half her team were gay, and she said it was pretty much the same for all the other clubs, and included the wellington rep team...

go figure

*struggles to comprehend his fall from grace with percy*

but..........but.............we used to be so close


When I was working at Cornwall Park they had two girls teams, and it was well known that out of the 25 odd players .............only one of them was straight

(why was that common knowledge? cos the straight one was 17 and really pretty)

Hairy legged lesbians or not..... The NZ womens cricket team deserve far more credit than they get.

Mia Lewis was my 6th Form teacher back @ school...... She was the business with the bat.

Sorry, but I disagree. The standard of play just doesn't make it worth watching. Most club sides could anihilate the NZ womens team.

You told me I couldn't play here!!!

Well thank you all for bringing the rampant homosexuality amongst female crickets to my attention. (I like boys)/

Of course they could Harvey, How can you compare a womens cricket team to a mens side? Anyone would agree, its simily an un-fare comparison.

Compare our womens cricket team to other international women cricket sides - Its a different story.

Well, were talking about recognition. And its just a simple fact that the standard of play is woeful and therefore nobody really pays any attention to it.

women's cricket is really only big in 3 countries, NZ, Aus and England. India are starting to improve though - they just annihilated us in our tour there.

It's just like any mens club rugby side could best the NZ woman's rugby team - you can't compare mens & womans sport

he isn't trying to compare mens and womens sport... he is merely stating the fact that despite our women having more success than our men, it isn't really worth watching their games because the standard of play isn't of a high enough calibre to warrant hoards of attention...

Agreed

If the women's team was full of hotties then we would all be watching.

Agreed

Emily Drumm....

..........


....... .........

rushes off to the mens

I know I used to watch the Hockey a bit back when Mandy Smith was in the team

Mmmmmmmmmm

even if there were hotties in the woman's Cricket team, you wouldn't get to see much anyway

People watch cricket for the hotties?

err.