Daniel Brettig, in ESPNcricinfo, 14 October 2016, with title “Clarify bouncer laws, Phillip Hughes inquest told”
Category Archives: Australia Cricket
Call for Clarification of Bouncer Laws at Inquest into the Phil Hughes Death
Doug Bollinger on Back Foot in Phil Hughes Inquest
Peter Lalor, in The Australian, 13 October 2016, where the title is “Hughes witness puts Bollinger on the back foot”
A last-minute statement by a new witness has contradicted claims by senior cricketers to the NSW Coroner that Phillip Hughes was not sledged or targeted with short-pitched bowling. The tragedy of Hughes’s death was revisited yesterday with bowler Sean Abbott’s moving account of cradling the fallen batsman on the pitch after he’d been struck a fatal blow. But the sideshow that the inquest into the accident has become was also on display when Matthew Day, a former Australian under-19 player and friend of the Hughes family, offered a statement to the NSW Coroner’s Court stating that Doug Bollinger told him he regretted saying on the day the words “I am going to kill you”.
Day’s recollection sets him at odds with the other players, including South Australia’s Tom Cooper, who was a pallbearer with Day at Hughes’s funeral. Day also claimed the NSW bowling coach at the time told him he was upset there were plans to bowl short to Hughes, who was struck and killed by a bouncer.
Doug Bolinger on the field 2016—Pic by Phil Hillyard
Matthew Day at hospital after Phillip Hughes was injured —Pic by John Grainger
Alex Kontouris faces “Chin Music” at the Coronial Inquest into Phil-Hughes’ Death
Michael Roberts
Alex Kountouris, a Cypriot Australian physiotherapist from Melbourne, was recruited as masseur and physiotherapist for the Sri Lankan cricket team in1995 or so by new coach Dav Whatmore. He rendered yeoman service and was a vital cog in the management programme that enabled Sri Lanka’s cricketers to win the World Cup in 1996. The island repaid him handsomely albeit involuntarily: he married a lass from that land.
He has since moved to higher levels back home in Australia: he became the cricket team’s physiotherapist in 2006. It is in this capacity and because of his experience that he was called as a witness in the coroner’s inquiry in Sydney into the tragic death of Philip Hughes by bouncer-blow on 25th November 2014. As far as I know, he was not present on the ground that day so his testimony could not provide direct evidence. Continue reading
Mad Dog Maxwell murders Sri Lanka at Pallekelle
Michael Roberts
When I first witnessed Glenn Maxwell on the field i thought that he was as electric as mad … quick a cross the grass, adventurous in whatever he did and, with those gleaming eyes, an epitome of the demonic and dangerous. Subsequent cricketing events on the world stage have proved me correct. Take the World Cup in Australia New Zealand for example…… and THEN yesterday — at the appropriate ‘jungle setting’ of Palle-KALAY — he mauled the Sri Lankan bowlers in hammering 145 runs in 65 balls at a scoring rate of 223.07 … almost as much as the Lankan batsmen could accumulate in 20 overs.
He respected Dilshan however: he did not use the “dilscoop”. He did not need to mind you.
Australia’s Glenn Maxwell (R) is watched by Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper Kusal Perera as he hits a ball to the boundary during the first T20 international cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele on September 6, 2016. / AFP / LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI (Photo credit should read LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/Getty Images)
“Australia canter to win after record 263, Maxwell slams 145* = says Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo reports … http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-australia-2016/content/story/1054835.html .... AND…..http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/author.html?author=335
ALSO SEE http://lanka99videos.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/Glenn-Maxwell-play.html
English Cricket Documentary from the Hutton-Compton Era
Tom Farman
This recently unearthed British Council documentary provides a snapshot of English cricket over 60 years ago. Narrated by Sir Ralph Richardson and the great BBC commentator John Arlott, it shows beautiful footage of Test cricket and the theatre surrounding it, as well as the more humble cricket on the village green. There is some splendid slow-motion footage of the Lord’s Test of 1948, featuring such legends of the game as Sir Don Bradman, Sir Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Keith Miller.
Denis Compton hits the winning stroke as England beat Australia and win the Ashes at the Oval, London, 19th August 1953 
Bradman in actionThe Pathe documentary footage is also very strong on the crowd, the sense of occasion of a Lord’s Test that remains every bit as much of a national event today as it did in Sir Don’s last Ashes tour of England. It is a world away from Hot Spot, DRS and Snicko (and probably none the worse for that) but this video provides a glimpse of how cricket might have loked in 1948
Two Famous Aussie Cricketers from Yesteryear at the SCG, 26 March 2015
….. Ritchie Benaud eye-balled by Rod Marsh 
Filed under Australia Cricket, cricketing icons, World Cup 2015
India vs Australia at Adelaide — Some Scenes
Edwin Smith, Chappel and Bradman Stands on West
Filed under Australia Cricket, Indian cricket
Plaudits and Grief embrace the country lad Phil Hughes
… Phil Hughes with country-wide SMILE — Pic from Getty
A range of headlines say it ALL!!
Nation shares AGONY of an innings cut short — Peter Laylor … in The Australian, 28 November 2014
Why Cricket can go on — Wayne Smith in The Australian, 28 November 2014
Future of Gabba Test falls by wayside as players unite in grief — Wayne Smith in The Australian, 28 November 2014
Modern batsman’s security has vanished –Patrick Smith in The Australian, 28 November 2014
Forever young that’s how we’ll remember Hughes — Gideon Haigh in The Australian, 28 November 2014 Continue reading
Fallible Umpires? No Excuse for Fallible Third Umpire with TV Asset
Melinda Farrell and Daniel Brettig, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, 1 December 2015, http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-new-zealand-2015-16/content/story/945583.html, where the title is “Did Lyon decision contravene ICC directive for DRS?”
Nathan Lyon‘s reprieve during the Adelaide Test appears to have been in direct contravention of the ICC’s directives for umpires using the DRS. In a decision New Zealand have lodged a formal protest against, the third umpire Nigel Llong ruled that Lyon was not out despite Hot Spot showing a mark where the ball had passed the back of the bat, before ballooning off Lyon’s shoulder and into the hands of Kane Williamson at slip.
Llong’s deliberations were broadcast live on the Nine Network’s television coverage and, while viewing the Hot Spot vision, he stated three times that he could see a mark. He then told the on-field umpire S Ravi: “There’s a mark on the bat but it could come from anywhere.”
ESPNcricinfo has confirmed that umpires make their deliberations under instructions that Real-time Snicko (RTS) is only to be used if Hot Spot does not show a mark. “If the umpire gives it out [and it is reviewed], the third umpire will look at the spin-vision replay to start with, then he’ll go to Hot Spot,” Geoff Allardice, the ICC head of cricket operations, had said when explaining the introduction of RTS in 2013. “If there’s a mark on Hot Spot he’ll go straight to out. That’s his conclusive evidence straight away. The only time Snicko will be used is if there’s no mark on Hot Spot.” Continue reading →
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Filed under Australia Cricket, close finsihes, cricketing rules, ICC, technology and cricket, television commentary