Mac Allister & Farbrace
The title of my post sounds like a firm of solicitors. In fact both are connected to Sussex sport.
I am delighted for Mac Allister who plays a different role as foil to Lionel Messi for Argentina.
At Brighton he plays up the field as we have no striker who can score.
He is a beautiful striker of the ball and has the normal assets of an Argentine midfielder as he can dribble and pass.
He is integral to Argentina’s success to date as Messi, at 35, tends to flit in and out of the game.
Our own John Pargiter in a pre-tourney Zoom call with sporting Rusters pointed out something that eluded all analysts – namely, favourites rarely win the World Cup – and look for the team that starts poorly and grows in stature, Argentina being a prime example.
So I would always back Argentina to beat Holland as the former’s players will die for their country whilst the Dutch, for all their technique, tend to fall apart as a group.
I was similarly delighted that Sussex CCC appointed Paul Farbrace as Head Coach.
The last three appointments – Mark Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Ian Salisbury (jointly with James Kirtley) did not bring much success.
Joint anythings rarely work as the divisions of responsibilities are blurred but all the more in red ball (Salisbury’s role) and white ball (Kirtley’s role) as youngsters who have established themselves in the red ball format see the lucrative offerings of the white ball.
Farbrace is an experienced coach who can marry the two formats with the additional advantage that vice captain speedster Ollie Robinson is his step son-in-law.
