When looking back over the last week's cricketing action it has made very clear the schizophrenic nature of our great game. Oftentimes the casual observer of our beloved game finds the different variants of the sport a mystery and does not understand the distinctions needed of both the observer and the participant. From those in the inner circle it is all too common for them to look down on certain forms of the game and heap praise on the others. This week there have been three very different type of contests being played out across the world that typify this problem. Further more the leading point scorer in each one of these disciplines further typifies the different styles of players we see in the modern game.
A quarter of our players were playing in good old fashioned long form cricket - four in the Sheffield Shield and a further two in Tests, that grandest of cricketing traditions. Cricketing purists who put this form of cricket on a pedestal will also be overjoyed to hear that five of the top six performers this week were participating in these games. Our top point scorer for the week was Nathan Lyon. A player fully dedicated to his nation's plight. A player who drops out of T20 tournaments in order to ensure his fitness for his national team. This is a level of elite honesty that Australian can only dream of in the post-Sandpapergate era. This week he churned out a nine wicket haul for New South Wales against Queensland. Lyon is a pin up boy for the long form cricket purist. A former groundsman who tenaciously plugged away at his game until he has become (statistically speaking) the best spinner Australia have ever seen. He ticks all the boxes that a Test cricket fan likes. Tenacity. An appealing backstory. A streak of classically Australian pugnacity. He has it all. He has now got the Australians to have a run against and, on current form, might be able to do a lot of damage. He is joined at the top of the table by the equally tenacious Shaun Marsh, whose late November spurt continues, and the indefatigable Shakib Al Hasan.
This month has seen the launch of the Mzansi Super League and in an era where not all T20 franchise tournaments are created equal - this one has something close to a heart attached to it. The games have been of the highest quality and an almost perfect mix of domestic South African domestic players, South African international stars and international players have turned out so that all are levels of interest are catered for. The only South African player that is not participating is the injured JP Duminy and it is Mr Consistency himself, Quinton De Kock, that is the MSL's top point scorer this week. A good T20 league should raise the profile of one of that country's best players. We have seen it with Jasprit Bumrah in the IPL and with Pat Brown in the T20 Blast. QDK is clearly more renowned than that but in a year where he would rightfully feel rather overshadowed he is using this fledgling tournament to get back to his best. His 74 from 36 balls in yesterday's game against Jozi was a batting tour de force and his Cape Town team are very much in the driving seat with a 100% win ratio. His 170 points this week sees him overtake JP Duminy and become the highest ranked South African on our overall list.
Anybody that has been keeping an eye on the T10 league can't help but enjoy it....but we need to question it's validity. A tournament where a 47 year old gets 4 wickets in 5 deliveries has question marks seeping out of every crack in the pitch. I have tried to write this section without showing any bias but it really is a struggle. Thee of our players are featuring in this money fuelled jaunt: Jofra Archer Rashid Khan and Sunil Narine. Archer and Khan are young. They need money. We can forgive them but there is something irritatingly inevitable about Narine's involvement. He is inevitably present. He is inevitably performing the best out of the trio. He is inevitably getting paid through the nose. Those last two points are inevitably linked. The spinner, who has turned his back on the West Indies set up long before his thirtieth birthday, is the most mercenary of all the mercenary Cricketers. This being said he has not done badly for himself this year. He represents one of the four players in our overall top ten who do not represent their national team but is the only one who has not bolstered their points with an extended spell in the County Championship. The player, if selected, may continue this into 2019. He confirmed his involvement in the PSL this week and will, again inevitably, turn up to the IPL and put himself in the shop window yet again for another year of globe-trotting and money grabbing.
Week
Nathan Lyon - 350
Shaun Marsh- 254
Shakib Al Hasan - 230
Quinton De Kock- 170
Mitchell Marsh- 170
Kane Williamson - 140
Simon Harmer -114
Sunil Narine - 105
Jofra Archer - 90
AB De Villiers- 82
Hashim Amla - 71
Aaron Finch - 57
Rashid Khan - 31
George Bailey - 28
Dean Elgar- 9
Virat Kohli - 4
Ravi Ashwin- dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Ravi Jadeja - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Overall
Simon Harmer - 6944
Rashid Khan - 5586
Jeetan Patel - 5311
Jos Buttler - 4424
Virat Kohli- 4373
Jofra Archer - 4303
Joe Root - 4127
Sunil Narine- 4043
Aaron Finch - 3864
Kane Williamson - 3684
Ravi Ashwin - 3370
Nathan Lyon - 3326
Ravi Jadeja - 3263
Shakib Al Hasan - 3106
Mitchell Marsh - 2663
Quinton de Kock - 2519
JP Duminy - 2496
Shaun Marsh- 2356
Dean Elgar- 2293
AB De Villiers- 2191
Hashim Amla - 2162
David Warner - 1401
Steve Smith - 1350
George Bailey - 1115
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