Is Jack Taylor a chucker?

On Tuesday the ECB announced that Jack Taylor had been suspended from bowling in county cricket. Worse than this the ECB also felt the need to make clear that this suspension applied to him playing for England as well. Presumably Andy Flower's Ashes plans are now in disarray.

The ECB's statement is below:

“Glenn Querl and Jack Taylor suspended from bowling by ECB Two bowlers have been suspended from bowling, having been subject to the ECB process for bowlers with suspected illegal bowling actions. Hampshire’s Glenn Querl and Gloucestershire’s Jack Taylor have both been reported on two separate occasions within a 12-month period and have undergone independent analysis.In both cases no previous evidence was available and hence their bowling actions were subject to the independent analysis process set out in the ECB regulations for the review of bowlers reported with suspected illegal bowling actions. This analysis took place on Monday 20th May 2013. The report of the independent analysis was received by ECB on Tuesday 28th May 2013. The reports identified that the bowling actions of each player displayed elbow extension in excess of the permitted 15 degrees during analysis. This analysis follows the same procedures used by ICC in such circumstances.  Consequently and in accordance with the regulations, both Querl and Taylor are suspended from bowling for England and in competitive county cricket until such time as they have submitted to a fresh independent analysis in which it is concluded that they have remedied their actions. The suspension is with immediate effect.  ECB will make no further comment on this matter.”

Taylor has now been reported twice in a year. This raises a few interesting points.

Law 24.3 states that,

A ball is fairly delivered in respect of the arm if, once the bowler's arm has reached the level of the shoulder in the delivery swing, the elbow joint is not straightened partially or completely from that point until the ball has left the hand. This definition shall not debar a bowler from flexing or rotating the wrist in the delivery swing.

Which leads us to question exactly whose definition of 'fairly delivered' are we taking into account?

Taylor has played 12 matches and taken 21 wickets at an average of 42. If you were a division 2 batsman I would say that whatever bowling method he is currently using is perfectly 'fair'. He takes a wicket every 72 balls. Again, as a batsman, those sort of statistics seem very 'fair'.

The next question is really to do with how rubbish you must be to have those sort of figures and still be done for chucking. Most chuckers do so in order to deliver some great mystery ball, some wonderful fizzing, spitting, all singing, all dancing 'other one'. Jack Taylor doesn't. He chucks it, gets smashed, and is now suspended by the ECB for being a rubbish chucker.

The worst things about Taylor being suspended?

We are now going to have to watch more of Ed Young and his 70 average.

Twenty20 nonsense

Do you remember when Twenty20 cricket was great? Admittedly, if you blinked around about 2003 you would have missed it, but it did exist. Honest. It does seem amazing to think that this form of cricket has now been around for pretty much a decade, but surely 10 years isn't enough time for a competition to feel so boring. True, the ECB's attempts to milk the early success for all it was worth didn't help. Nor does it help that Gloucestershire have been mostly useless in this format....although that fact hasn't dampened our enthusiasm for 'proper' cricket.

We are just thinking that if the Jessop Tavern View can't really be arsed with a competition, and remembering that we are men who blog about county cricket, then who the hell can be arsed?

If the rain allows, then Glos are three decent performances away from the quarter finals. Quarter finals that will be played almost 3 weeks after the final round of group games. Quarter finals that will be played on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Before that, the championship will have started again. Oh, and we'll be playing some 40 over nonsense.

After the quarter finals, come the best part of the competition. Finals day. Having the semis and the final on the same day is great. Having it on August 25th, a full month after the quarter finals is not so great. Actually it's crap. Actually, it's worse than crap. It's f***** ridiculous. Somebody please tell us why.

Now in an ideal world we reckon this competition should be played out in as short a period of time as possible thus allowing people to really get into the competition. Something like the recent European football championships would work. Play the group games in 3 weeks. That would be 10 games in 21 days. A game every other day. A 20 over match. That's not that difficult. Then have the quarters, then the finals day. All in the space of a month, or 5 weeks tops.

Anyway, despite their inconsistency, Glos are still in with a shout. And should we get a trip to Cardiff at the end of August then this post will be hastily deleted.