Geoff Lemon's Blog

Four matches in four weeks for the men’s team compromises the quality of the sport – and makes the Test season a contradiction in terms

This has long been on the way, and here it is. Test season, the centrepiece of Australia’s summer, will next time around consist of four matches played over four weekends, not starting until the second week of December and done a week into January. Cricket Australia will instead claim to have expanded the schedule to seven Tests, but their tropical excursion against Bangladesh is in August, and the pink-ball sideshow masquerading as the 150th anniversary Test will have half its overs in March darkness. Both are distant islands to the summer mainland. Unlike most cricket countries, Tests are still Australia’s most substantial earner and site of interest. Yet in a world of sports trying to claim more of the calendar, Australian administrators are in voluntary retreat.

Even as recent decades have squeezed the format into shorter series, while tour matches are euthanised and preparation is eroded as an outdated luxury, there still has to be time within a series itself. Two matches could run back to back, maybe three, but any longer and there has to be space built into the tour, gaps of a week or 10 days to offset the physical demand. Those pauses also gave the audience time for breath; they let players rest and storylines compound. Much of the rhythm of cricket is in waiting.

The retiring captain got one last win but her score highlighted how scarce opportunities make those quirks of bad luck cut rather than sting

Sometimes, those behind-the-scenes cameras show more than they know. In a silent Australian dressing room in 2019, the players were staring at the indeterminate middle-distance like commuters on a train. Eventually, the one raised voice belonged to Alyssa Healy.

This was the last day of the Ashes Test at Taunton, where Australia had to decide whether to offer England a chase in an attempt to win, or bat the game to death. Criticised afterwards for choosing the latter, coach Matthew Mott and captain Meg Lanning adopted thin-lipped Australian sternness to insist that an England team trailing in a multi-format series didn’t deserve to be offered a path back.

Australia set India 410 for victory and then their bowlers were far too good as they swept the ODI leg of the series

2nd over: Australia 11-0 (Healy 9, Litchfield 2)

Kashvee opens the bowling from the other end – she was certainly the pick of the bowlers for India on Friday. However, Litchfield is keen to get going and finds a gap in the infield immediately, driving it through cover for a single. And that has inspired Healy into action as well, she cuts it well for four – the first boundary of the match. Litchfield chases after a wide delivery and cuts it into the deep late in the over – she picks up a single, but it might provide India some hope that they can lure her into more risky shots and pick up a boundary. Healy finishes the over with another four.

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1st over: India 0-1 (Mandhana 0, Verma 0) Schutt almost has two! Verma tries to counterattack but mistimes a straight drive that is just out of reach of the bowler’s left hand in her follow through. Outstanding opening over from the experienced South Australian, who wasn’t selected in the original ODI squad, but has come in today with immediate effect, hooping the ball into the right-handers from over the wicket.

Schutt’s second delivery swings in from wide on the crease, hits a good line and length, and jags massively off the pitch, pinning Rawal on the crease. That looks very out. The Indian opener reviews but DRS does not save her. What a start for Australia!

Team GB were disappointed in a men’s curling match against Canada while Tormod Frostad’s big air win was one for the ages

Heinis of France is in the air, it feels hein just looking at him, and he jumps 129, giving him 133.8 points; he moves above Karhumaa and into the lead.

I’ve also got the curling on and, if you’ll excuse my parochialism, I’m not watching pool leaders Switzerland monstering defending champions Sweden, rather USA v China, for reasons of relevance to GB. The Americans now lead 2-1 playing the fifth.

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Meyers Taylor storms monobob to win first Olympic gold at age 41

Solberg of Norway looks like he’s going nicely, but he’s still well off the lad at every checkpoint. Increasingly, it looks like getting out first was a big advantage, Atle Lie McGrath still in front, as Sala of Italy joins the growing list of those who didn’t finish.

Visibility isn’t great as Dave “The Rocket” Ryding” sets off for his penultimate Olympic run. The GB veteran isn’t likely to trouble the podium, but he’ll want to make the second run, and he finishes 13th, 3.74 off the lead.

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The riders are having to squint into the sun to see their scores come up. There’s lots of USA support on the slopes, first for 19-year old Bea Kim, who looks happy to settle into fifth, then for the queen of half pipe, Chloe Kim, who is aiming for her third consecutive gold medal in this discipline. Oh and she’s also just finished a degree at Stamford. It’s a cracking start – a big backside 720, frontside 900, and something floaty and turny which the commentators describe as “the penny black” of halfpipe. She immediately settles into first.

Women’s halfpipe qualifying: Thinking about my attempts to stand on a skateboard as young women in baggy snow trousers zig-zag and float across the halfpipe.

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The riders are having to squint into the sun to see their scores come up. There’s lots of USA support on the slopes, first for 19-year old Bea Kim, who looks happy to settle into fifth, then for the queen of half pipe, Chloe Kim, who is aiming for her third consecutive gold medal in this discipline. Oh and she’s also just finished a degree at Stamford. It’s a cracking start – a big backside 720, frontside 900, and something floaty and turny which the commentators describe as “the penny black” of halfpipe. She immediately settles into first.

Women’s halfpipe qualifying: Thinking about my attempts to stand on a skateboard as young women in baggy snow trousers zig-zag and float across the halfpipe.

Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing

Follow us over on Bluesky | Get in touch! Mail Geoff

Ooooh, Ariane Raedler of Austria, eighth in the individual event, nails 1:35.65, a time that would’ve been good enough for bronze; she takes the lead, giving Katharina Huber, her partner, a chance in the second portion.

Miradoli of France lays down a quicker time than she did coming 16th in the individual downhill, 1:37.37; I guess she’s used to the course now. Our big names, though, don’t come out for a while: Goggia, who took bronze in the individual event is ninth, Aicher who claimed silver, is doing the slalom portion, and Johnson is 14th with Srobova, Vlhova’s partner, going 28th and last.

There were gold medals for the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Japan but Team GB were denied again

Which of these events is most terrifying? This a question that reminds me of when a teacher asked five-year-old me which hand I wanted to be caned on, and I kept saying neither – yes, a real man would’ve said either or both – except the other way around, the answer being all of them. But for the less lily-livered, there must be an answer.

The slalom section of this competition is tomorrow, which is to say the downhillers go today, then the times of the two team members are added together, with the quickest taking gold. Germany now lead, having gone faster than Switzerland.