……………a jaundiced view from the author but its is good a way of pulling the leg as any –especially as the wine is from the Barossa Valley!
Category Archives: baggy green
Five Openers, no HOWLERS in Aussie Ashes Squad
Patrick Smith, in The Australian, 25 April 2013
Chris Rogers–Pic from AFP
THE first question — the essential question — that needs to be asked is: can we make that Test squad bound for England any better by fiddling with the work of John Inverarity and his mates? The summer gone has us fretting. If there are no obvious places that need to be overhauled or even fine-tuned, no names chucked overboard, then Inverarity, Mickey Arthur, Michael Clarke, Rod Marsh and Andy Bichel have settled on a sensible, fair and uncontroversial collection of players charged to bring the Ashes to Australia. That doesn’t mean they will come back with anything more than battered limbs and tarnished reputations, rather just that we have gathered together the best of a bad lot. Continue reading
T20 is killing Australian Cricket, says Taylor
Peter Lalor, in The Australian, 25 April 2013
Pic by Brett Costello in Daily Telegraph
MARK Taylor believes Twenty20 cricket is to blame for the impoverished state of batting in Australian cricket and says that the existing players have to stand up if the visitors are going to have any chance in the Ashes. The former captain, who was one of the authors of the Argus review and is tipped to return to the board of Cricket Australia this year, was speaking at the announcement of the Ashes squad in Sydney yesterday.
The selectors have, as revealed in The Australian, gone back to Brad Haddin to inject some experience in the side. The wicketkeeper replaces Matthew Wade behind the stumps and Shane Watson as vice-captain, although Wade remains in the squad. Selectors have also dusted off 35-year-old opener Chris Rogers who has scored more than 19,000 first-class runs — many of them in England — but has played only one Test, in Perth in 2008. Haddin and Rogers, along with Ricky Ponting, were the form batsmen of a Shield summer in which no young batsman could score enough runs to force his way into one of the weaker Test batting lineups of the past two decades. Continue reading
The Australian Invincibles at various moments in Ceylon 1930 to 1953 — in pictorial mode
A young Don Bradman receives a replica of the Dalada Maligava from SP Foenander, Secretary of the Ceylon Cricket Association, on board ship in 1930 … photo courtesy of the State Library of South Australia where the gift now reposes.
Australian & Ceylon teams, 1930-thanks to Hugh Karunanayake
Sathasivam and Bradman toss, at the Oval 27 March 1948 [it being understood that the Aussies would bat first come what may]
Sathi Coomaraswamy gets past Bradman’s bat, with Ben Navaratne right up there. Continue reading
Aspects of Australian Test selection
Bernard Whimpress … article in abstract … full version in Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, volume 15: 8, pp. 1100-09.
ABSTRACT
- Introduction
- Historical perspective
- The Combined Eleven (1877)
- Sin of omission: Alan Kippax (1926)
- The Don’s last selections (1970–1971)
- Sin of omission: Stuart Macgill (1998–2007)
- Conclusion
Australia’s loss of the recent Ashes series brought widespread criticism of its Test selectors. This article offers a historical perspective on Australian selection and includes four case studies from the very first Test match of 1877 to the present day. What is revealed are not only sins of omission and commission but missed opportunities and factors such as mateship, bias, prejudice and politics which are evident in the selection process. Continue reading
A TAIL that wags = An Essential Now for Test Teams
Gideon Haigh, in The Australian, 31 Decmeber 2011, where it had the title: “Year-long evolution of a tail”
EARLY on the final morning at the MCG on Thursday, a half-volley was stylishly despatched by a tall left-hander to the extra-cover boundary. A handsome stroke: long stride, full flow of the bat, flourishing follow-through. “Shot, Huss!” was one’s reflex response from a distance. Except that on a second look the cover drive’s author was not Mike Hussey but James Pattinson.
In the aftermath of victory here, Australia’s arrived-at pace triumvirate of Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus have basked in deserved praise. But the game also involved the continuation of a decidedly useful trend, a year in the making, of the Australian tail selling itself dearly. Continue reading
Filed under Australian cricket, baggy green, Gideon Haigh, performance, player selections
Aussie cricket knives on the slash after debacle at Newlands
Predictably Australian cricket writers have pulled out their bayonets as well as machetes and are piercing and hacking their cricket team. See the items referred to belwow. That said, I must say that the slash and burn has not extended to conspiracy theories and muckraking of the sort that feature when the Sri Lankan side does poorly … or even when it loses a final after doing well to get there! Again, Michael Clarke’s summary criticism of slef and team was as on the spot and not marked by bromide and veneer. It reveals sense and sensibility, as well as fortitude and determination to fight back. Web Editor.
*”Post-mortem results for the Nightmare at Newlands are obvious: heads must surely roll,” by Peter Lalor in The Australian 12 Nov. 2011,
* “Horrible’: Australia bowled out for 47,” by Greg Baum, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Nov. 2011.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/horrible-australia-bowled-out-for-47-20111111-1n9wv.html#ixzz1dTDQ8SjV
Filed under Australian cricket, baggy green, patriotic excess, performance, player selections
Carl Rackemann as farmer politician … so Sanath is not alone
Michael McKenna, in The Australian,22 September 2011
CARL Rackemann put the fear into batsmen when he took the ball – now the former Test cricketer’s ambition of taking to the field of politics is gathering the same pace his once-devastating bouncers had. A third-generation Kingaroy farmer, the 12-Test bowler is firming as the frontrunner to win the state seat of Nanango, held for 40 years by former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, as a candidate of Bob Katter’s Australian Party. The start-up political entity is expected to win registration within days from Queensland’s Electoral Commission, as the party ramps up its campaign to challenge the political mainstream at the next state election, due by March. Party insiders are boasting of a campaign war chest that will exceed $2 million, with more than $500,000 already donated from a disparate band of backers that includes a union, an arms dealer and fishing and ethanol lobbyists normally welded to the Nationals. Continue reading
That underarm moment in World Cricket History …. so Un-Iconic
1 February 1981: “Richie Benaud said this the most disgraceful thing he had seen on a cricket field. On February 1, 1981, New Zealand were playing Australia in the third of the best-of-five finals of the World Series in Melbourne. 15 were needed off the final over, to be bowled by Trevor Chappell, younger brother of Ian and Greg. It came down to seven off the last ball with Brian McKechnie on strike. Captain Greg instructed Trevor to roll the ball along the ground. Underarm bowling was still legal, even if unethical, and Chappell’s unsporting act was roundly criticised. After the incident, underarm bowling was banned.” — http://www.sharegoodstuffs.com/2011/09/crickets-most-iconic-moments.htmhttp://