Justin Langer: "While he [Matthew Hayden] was fiercely competitive and played with steely focus and commitment, he is also a free spirit who loves to surf and fish and cook" © AFP

Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, says even in retirement Matthew Hayden was thinking about the team ahead of himself. He writes in the Australian:

The team will miss him tremendously, not just for his run-scoring and everything he has been to the team for such a long time, but for how genuine a bloke he's been and how hardworking he's been and how he has set such a great example to the young players who come in to the change room.

Justin Langer, who formed one of Test cricket's most successful opening partnerships with Hayden, said he knew Hayden's "awesome, single-minded commitment to the Australian cricket team were over" when he received a call from his partner on Tuesday morning. He recollects memories of his playing days with Hayden on the BBC website:

A couple of years ago while touring South Africa he scored a brilliant century in Durban. When we returned to the hotel he rushed upstairs, grabbed his surfboard and ran down to the waves.

About an hour later he knocked on the door of my hotel room, still dripping wet, and revealed that this had been one of the best days of his life. "All we need now mate is a big feed and a good sleep and life just couldn't get any better than this," he said.

In the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock, a long-time watcher of Hayden, talks about the opener’s dual existence.

These are the two lives of Hayden, the public figure and the outdoors boy who might one day just disappear into the wilderness and not come back.

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, gives Hayden suggestions on how he could fill a book.

Maybe you could tell people what it's like to score a Test century. Or 30. Maybe you would like to tell them what it's like to score four in consecutive Tests and fall a handful of runs short of doing it in five. Maybe you could tell them about the day you scored 380 runs and what it was like to own the world record, even if it was only for six months. Or about the time you scored 549 at 109 from just three Tests in India.

Mike Coward looks back at Hayden's career in the Australian.

All opening batsmen develop their own style. Characteristically, Hayden developed a style all of his own. He was the intimidator respected and feared in equal measure by bowlers the world over. Broad of shoulder, he was a strong man who cut a powerful figure at the crease. The time-honoured responsibility of the opening batsman is to take the shine off the ball and prepare the ground for the feted number three and four, who follow when the going is more manageable. Hayden would have none of this. As far as he was concerned it was his duty to set the agenda, call the shots and dictate the tone and tempo of an innings.

Hayden's career finished as it began, with the left-hander searching for his game, says Peter Roebuck in the Age.

Towards the end he was too anxious to assert himself. In India he broke his duck with a lofted straight drive, a risk repeated on home turf. Both belligerences spoke of a determination to convey confidence. Both indicated desperation and faltering desire. But Hayden was better than he knew. Certainly he was no mere smiter. In his prime, he batted with authority and massive certainty.

In the same paper, Martin Blake recalls his favourite Hayden memory, which came in a series against Pakistan in the UAE.

It was 40 degrees-plus every day and that was in the shade. The wicket was barren and slow, making shot-play difficult. Somebody needed to dig in. Somebody had to find the heart to bat in these inhuman conditions. Certainly the Pakistanis flagged quickly. In the first of those two Test matches, Hayden batted for 431 minutes, stopping regularly for drinks, wearing a towelling wrap under his helmet, grinding and straining and cajoling everything out of his ailing body. Who knows how much weight he lost in scoring that 119. Once again, he had found a way.

Talking to the Cairns Post, brother Gary perhaps sums up Matthew's career best: "It has been a story of setbacks and how he has overcome them."

Australia's greatest opener

Posted on 01/13/2009 in Australian cricket

Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail writes that Matthew Hayden, who has retired, will go down as Australia's greatest Test opener.

When Australia's team of the century was announced in January, 2000, Hayden wasn't even in the Test side and had played a handful of unproductive matches over six frustrating years.

But his Test record gives him the right to be crowned Australia's greatest opener ahead of team of the century choices Bill Ponsford and Arthur Morris. He was also, by a subtantial margin, Queensland's finest home grown batsmen.

Mike Coward in the Australian will remember Hayden as a powerful figure at the crease.

He didn't merely take the shine off the ball. He imposed his will on the bowling dictating the tone and tempo of an innings. He called the shots; set the agenda and established the foundations upon which much of Australia's success was built throughout the 2000s. On song he was capable of changing the course of a match, indeed, a series.

In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed looks back on Hayden's inauspicious debut.

January 12, 2009

Australia's low-key coach knows his place

Posted on 01/12/2009 in Australian cricket

In the Australian, Peter Lalor chats to the national coach Tim Nielsen about his coaching philosophy. In the wake of the England leadership crisis, Lalor also considers how fortunate Australia are to have a coach and captain who get along so well.

Watching the Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores English captain-coach fiasco from the safety of another hemisphere should have a few in Australian cricket thinking "there but for the grace of God go we". Because, you can be sure, had Shane Warne ever been captain of Australia, the relationship with coach John Buchanan would have been entertaining at the very least.

Warne, the self-styled Rajasthan Royals' coach who doesn't believe in coaches, never hid his contempt for Buchanan's lateral, meeting-heavy, style. The leg spinner and Chappell were firmly of the view that a coach was the thing you drove the players to and from the ground in. Still, Warne-Buchanan (think Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders) was one drama that passed Australian cricket by and the tabloids are all poorer because of that.

The Herald Sun looks at Bryce McGain, who has made his long-awaited return from injury. As fate would have it, McGain’s comeback match for his club side Prahran came in the competition’s “country round”, which meant he played in the small Victorian town of Warrion, which has a pub, a petrol station, a church and 22 residents.

Warner brothers: A tale of two sons

Posted on 01/12/2009 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck in the Age looks at Australia's new Twenty20 hero David Warner and finds that, pleasingly for headline-writers, he has a brother who also plays. He also considers that Warner's situation could not have happened in another era.

As has long been their custom, Howard and Lorraine Warner spent Saturday afternoon running the canteen at Eastern Suburbs cricket ground in Sydney. A no-mucking-around couple, they live in working-class Mattraville and turn up at weekends to support their club and, perchance, to watch their sons play.

Both boys worked their way through the ranks like everyone else. Steve, their eldest, is a hard-hitting and hard-living batsman at present stationed in the second team. David, their youngest, plays first grade and one day hopes to make his Sheffield Shield debut.

Oh, and he's opening the batting for his country and is poised to make his fortune in the Indian Premier League. David Warner is both a product of the system and the times. His sudden rise shows that the system works and the pressures upon it. In any other era he'd still be obscure, another rookie playing for his state's reserve team hoping for promotion.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Hanlon considers Australia's fresh-looking Twenty20 side.

Thirteen days ago, Australia lost a Test match at the MCG and with it a home series for the first time in 16 years. There followed much talk of new brooms and sweeping change. Last night the nation's elite cricketers returned to the game's oldest stage, and only captain Ricky Ponting and batsman Mike Hussey remained. That must have been one hell of a big broom.

And here's a great bit of crystal-ball gazing from the Tasmania fast bowler Brett Geeves. In his blog three days before the Twenty20 squad was picked, Geeves predicted Warner would be chosen and destroy the South Africans.

Nugget: Man of the Century

Posted on 01/12/2009 in Australian cricket

Ashley Mallett's newest book tells the story of Barry "Nugget" Rees, the talisman in the Adelaide Oval dressing-room. As Andrew Faulkner explains in the Australian, Rees is a man with few enemies, fewer peers, and many hundreds of loyal friends, from hack club cricketers to most of the living Australia cricket captains.

Mallett's book traces Nugget's friendship with former Australia captain Barry Jarman in the early 1960s Adelaide; a path that led to Australian dressing-rooms, Nugget's own line of sporting goods, and a meeting with the Queen.

"And how are the corgis?" Nugget asked at their Windsor Castle meeting. "As you can see Nugget, they are very well indeed," Her Majesty replied with dogs dancing at her feet.

Now Nugget has a little black book most sporting reporters would gladly exchange for their first-born. The Ws alone number Shane Warne and the Waugh twins. At Adelaide Oval last week Rod Marsh looked up, startled, from a training drill to shout a "G'day" to Nugget, and the world's premier curator, Les Burdett, paused from his pitch-preparing duties to wave a hello to his mate. Narrowing down Nugget's closest cricketing friends is a dangerous practice, but Ian Chappell, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie and Darren Lehmann would make a short list of 50.

January 8, 2009

Decision time for Hayden

Posted on 01/08/2009 in Australian cricket

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, says Matthew Hayden, who was cut from the one-day and Twenty20 teams, has run out of rope.

All summer he has talked about reaching this place, the end of the Test series. Now he must decide if there is life on the other side although the decision looks like it could be taken out of his hands. The 37-year-old knows now the game is slipping away from him.

The selection panel has decided that he is no longer a part of its plans in the one-day or Twenty20 format because of his age. The same group of men will meet early next month to decide if he is part of their plans for the South African and Ashes tours.

While Hayden is struggling for support, Graeme Smith left Australia as a hero following his deeds throughout the series. In the Age Peter Hanlon charts Smith’s journey from pariah to messiah.

January 7, 2009

It's a crowded Nine commentary box

Posted on 01/07/2009 in Australian cricket

With the Australian team starting a new chapter, it's time to shake-up the Channel Nine commentary team a bit as well, writes Trent Dalton in the Courier Mail. Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting (after his playing days) will be welcome additions but he isn't so sure if some old timers are good enough to keep their places.

Reserved throughout most of a match, Lawry would transform into a rabid, nail-biting talking heart attack if Australia needed a four off the last ball – et cetera. This was in the golden age of the Nine commentary team. Today, Lawry seems to be going through the motions, as though he'd prefer to be at home with his beloved pigeons instead of commentating on what have been two superb Tests in recent weeks.

January 5, 2009

Hilditch too busy for two jobs

Posted on 01/05/2009 in Australian cricket

Australia’s chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch has been under as much scrutiny as the players this season. A tabloid paper published photos on Sunday of Hilditch walking his dog in Adelaide instead of watching Matthew Hayden bat for his career and Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail believes something is wrong with Australia’s selection panel.

It is a shame that officials who were upset by the photos have not put the same amount of effort into getting Hilditch to do his job better ... then there would have been no photos. Since he took over as national selection chairman Hilditch simply has not tackled his public responsibilities with the same gusto as his predecessors, Trevor Hohns and Laurie Sawle.

...

As a full-time lawyer in Adelaide he already had a cramped schedule, perhaps too cramped to fit two jobs into one day. Even other selectors noted how difficult at times he was to contact, and how one of them had a phone battery go flat while waiting for Hilditch during a phone hook-up. But it is not as if he is being paid mere petrol money to do the job. As chairman, his salary of more than $100,000 is twice as much as those of the other three selectors - Merv Hughes, Jamie Cox and David Boon - and part of the extra money is a sweetener for being the public face of the panel. So far it has been a very private public face.

January 4, 2009

The decline of Australian sport

Posted on 01/04/2009 in Australian cricket

For years, Australia has been pound-for-pound the greatest sporting nation, winning golds, grand slams and World Cups, taking particular pleasure in crushing England. But cracks have started to show. In the Observer Malcolm Knox, an Australian, explains where it's gone wrong and how failure is affecting the country's psyche.

... when our Olympians don't win, we all feel a bit more sluggish. When our cricketers are beaten by England or India, there is a little less strut on every Saturday-afternoon pitch across the nation. Great champions inspire a nation; failure at the top has a slight depressive effect on the masses

... the best young talents tend to skip over their years of grade cricket, being recruited to the academy or elite State squads from their mid-teens and pushed forward into Sheffield Shield cricket before they have played much grade cricket at all.

Hayden's time looks up

Posted on 01/04/2009 in Australian cricket

Matthew Hayden's highest innings of the Australian summer was probably his most frustrating, and he surely has only one knock left to save his career, says Rob Smyth in the Guardian.

He has always struggled to cope with bad form: some will say because of a lack of humility, others because of a lack of flexibility in body, mind, or both. Ian Healy once described the Australian team, in the nicest possible sense of word, as bluffers. He was right: any game that is played predominantly in the mind will depend to some extent on bluff, and Hayden, as the most overtly strong member of the side both physically and mentally, is probably the biggest bluffer of the lot.

January 2, 2009

Richie's golden anniversary

Posted on 01/02/2009 in Australian cricket

As Australia prepare to do battle against South Africa, Richie Benaud celebrates the golden anniversary of his appointment to the Australia captaincy against Peter May's English in 1958-59. The Australian has the full story.

All Benaud's minions are pretty well retired given they have long been entitled to a seniors card. But not the skipper, who is three months into his 79th year and with a little more than a year of his Channel Nine contract to run. Benaud remains an active broadcaster and writer (this is his 50th year with the News of the World in the UK) with a work and travel diary bound to daunt those decades younger

It's not about systems, it's about people

Posted on 01/02/2009 in Australian cricket

Simon Barnes writes in the Times that Australia are looking vulnerable not because the system has failed but because two of the greatest cricketers, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, have retired. He argues that the greatness of a team is usually the story of a great man. "Warne, [Martin] Johnson, Maradona — they could hardly help but create great teams. They could hardly help but destroy them a little when they went."

... in Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne they had the difference between very good indeed and absolutely remarkable. That’s why the decline began with their retirement. For that matter, the turning point of the Ashes series of 2005 came when McGrath turned his ankle on a stray cricket ball while sodding about playing rugby before the second Test: for want of a man to do the tidying up, the series was lost.

January 1, 2009

Tin-foil Australia

Posted on 01/01/2009 in Australian cricket

Ever since the India tour this October, Australia's fear factor has vapourised. Their cast-iron armour now looks like it is made of tin foil. They are in desperate strife: in match-terms, it is like they have been asked to follow on and are about 500 behind, writes Sharda Ugra in her blog Free Hit.

... Australia have been beaten in two consecutive tests by South Africa that they should have won. To lose tight games can be an outcome of form, which is what happened in the 2005 Ashes. To lose games after setting them up reflect a certain lethargy and flabbiness in selection, in thought, in training (who was it that said that teams begin dropping catches only when they don’t practice taking them enough?). But before anything else, it reflects a paucity of the quality needed to decisively seize games. Whenever the game needed changing, Australia looked around its dressing room and found that its game-changers were gone. And South Africa were ready, willing, composed and able.

December 31, 2008

Warne wants some flair

Posted on 12/31/2008 in Australian cricket

As the fall-out from Australia's series defeat against South Africa continues, one man who many Aussies would be desperate to see on a cricket field again has had his say. Shane Warne played against West Indies in 1992-93, the last time Australia lost a series at home, and writing in his Herald Sun column says that the current attack has to come up with some new plans.

There is too much emphasis on containment and protecting runs rather than attacking and trying to take wickets. If in doubt, attack every time. These observations are more of an approach and attitude to bowling, rather than directed towards any particular player or the current attack.

Ricky Ponting has a good cricket brain and the bowlers must be prepared to try things, back their instincts and not rely on computer printouts.They must also have another plan, and after that plans C, D, and E when the opposition digs in and the wicket is flat.

In the same paper, Ron Reed goes through the usual end-of-year tradition of picking his team of the last 12 months. He finds space for a couple of Australians, and in the spirit of the season gets the banter going ahead of the Ashes series.

Even one Melbourne paper - yes, the other one - had a go last week and found room for only Mitchell Johnson. Less than one week later, Ricky Ponting had scored his 37th Test century and added a 99 in the second innings, making his omission from that particular combination look a little, er, premature perhaps.

Since then, one venerable English Sunday paper, The Observer, went one better in the Aussie-bashing stakes when cricket columnist Vic Marks, a former England Test player of little distinction, managed to find no room for anyone wearing a baggy green cap.

But he did manage to include not one Pom but two, current captain Kevin Pietersen and a former one, Andrew Flintoff. Pietersen is fair enough - he scored more than 1000 runs at an average of better than 50, but Flintoff?

December 30, 2008

Angry media slam Australia

Posted on 12/30/2008 in Australian cricket

	"RIP Australian cricket. Slaughtered by South Africa" © The Daily Telegraph, Sydney

Australia's first home-series defeat in 16 years has prompted an understandable depression by their media, and no shortage of anger either.

The Daily Telegraph's Ray Chesterton is one, claiming Australian cricket has died. "It simply followed a short illness complicated by player arrogance, chronic selection short-sightedness, poor captaincy decisions, unreliable batting, indecisive bowling and fielding clumsiness," he wrote. "Australia, propped up by statistics, are still No. 1 in world rankings. But after dismal series losses to India and South Africa, this Australian team is so lifeless it could come to the next Test in a hearse."

In the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock gives both barrels to Andrew Hilditch, Australia's chairman of selectors. "Hilditch, who has done a modest job as national selection chairman since taking the post from Trevor Hohns, has changed 15 successive Test teams. Talk about a team becoming a transit lounge," Craddock wrote. He went on to slam the selectors' lack of planning. "Australia have paid a heavy price for not formulating succession plans for the retirements of spinners Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg. Like a child on Christmas morning, the selectors simply expected there would be a present under their tree."

Over in the Sydney Morning Herald, Aaron Timms is fed up of Australia's "acting talents" in his whimsical piece entitled Our cricketers are turning into Pinters. "Already there are signs of irreversible Pinterisation among many members of this Australian team: recall any of the Ford backyard cricket ads from this season and it is abundantly clear that most of our cricketers are hopelessly in thrall to their own acting talent."

December 29, 2008

Selectors must change Australia’s team or go too

Posted on 12/29/2008 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn, writing in the Australian, says if the Australian selectors don’t bring in new players for the Sydney Test they should be sacked as well.

Australia now have no choice but to abandon the present so they can rebuild for the future. There will be pain as the next generation develops under Ricky Ponting but it can be no more painful than watching Australian cricket go into freefall over the past two days.

Alex Brown says in the Sydney Morning Herald the past two days have proved as dispiriting as any in recent memory for the Australian team.

In the same paper Andrew Stevenson looks at the options for Sydney.

Mike Coward, a columnist in the Australian, makes the case for the New South Wales opener Phillip Hughes.

Hughes at the age of 20 is 17 years younger than Matthew Hayden and represents the future. Hayden is representative of a golden era that has passed and, barring the apocalypse, will be formally consigned to history.

How the mighty Australians have fallen

Posted on 12/29/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, was stunned by Australia’s efforts on the third day at the MCG.

Nothing in the recent patchy performances of the national team prepared an incredulous crowd for the calamity they witnessed. Put it this way: in the first five hours of play, the cream of the country's cricketers managed to take a single wicket, and that caught near the boundary ... For Australia, it was not merely a bad day - it was a cricketing disaster.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn reports on how the once mighty Australia “unravelled amid terrible selections, key injuries, poor fielding and impotent bowling”.

December 28, 2008

Come back and help, Shane. Please

Posted on 12/28/2008 in Australian cricket

Will Swanton states the case in the Sun-Herald for Shane Warne, who is currently sitting in the Nine commentary box, to end his retirement.

This is not some whimsical notion about sparing Australia the embarrassment of losing consecutive series against South Africa and England. It's a serious attempt to remind Warne that his word is his bond. Warne vowed to ride back on his white horse if Australia's spin-bowling stocks went up the chute after his retirement. Well, they are up the chute.

Hayden's last hope

Posted on 12/28/2008 in Australian cricket

Tim Lane, writing in the Sunday Age, looks at Matthew Hayden’s chances of saving his career.

Hayden has never been a cricketer to state his case by artistic persuasion. The only way the Queensland behemoth knows is to pile up the runs. Not for him a Mark Waugh-like average of 42, with bonus points for aesthetic beauty. With Hayden it's always been runs or bust. He became one of the game's greatest accumulators.

John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, spotted a flaw in Hayden’s technique before the start of the Australian summer, Alex Brown reports in the Sun-Herald.

Brown also writes Brett Lee is running out of time to convince the selectors he is the man to lead the Australian attack into next year's Ashes series.

December 27, 2008

Hayden heads for the exit

Posted on 12/27/2008 in Australian cricket

Alex Brown, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, believes Matthew Hayden’s position in the Test side is close to untenable.

Australia's selectors must by now have devised a contingency plan for the opener's position in the increasingly likely event Hayden draws the curtain on his career after the Sydney Test. His dismissal for 8 was the fourth time in six innings he has been caught between wicketkeeper and point this summer, and took his tally to a grim 56 runs at 9.33 from six innings.

In the Australian Peter Lalor says Hayden may be playing his last Test for Australia.

Only sympathy for symphonies past or a minor miracle in the second innings will send him to Sydney.

The original AB still rolls his arm over

Posted on 12/27/2008 in Australian cricket

Allan Border plays the occasional warehouse game in Brisbane so he can turn out alongside his son Dene, Mike Coward reports in the Australian.

Border does not feel out of place. He loves cricket folk and has always enjoyed a beer. Moreover his only other active gig in the game these days is playing with old mates in a beach cricket competition sponsored by an Australian beer company.

But it is with young mates that he plays at the Brahmas and in particular his 24-year-old son Dene. As so often is the case with elite sportsmen, Border many times during his great career considered how much pleasure he would gain from playing alongside his first born child.

December 26, 2008

Instability affects Australia’s transition

Posted on 12/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Mike Coward, writing in the Australian, says a stable side can help re-educate the next generation of players. Until recently Australia were in that position, but things have changed in 2008.

It is not yet a calendar year since the Australians defeated India in Sydney to emulate the achievement of Steve Waugh's team in winning 16 consecutive Test matches. Since then it has lost four, drawn three and won two of nine Test matches ... The speed of the decline has been startling and the pressure on captain Ricky Ponting and his senior counsel at the MCG will be as intense as anything they have experienced in long and distinguished careers.

December 23, 2008

Cosmetic changes won't improve Australia's face

Posted on 12/23/2008 in Australian cricket

Australia have brought in some new players for Boxing Day following the shocking defeat to South Africa, but Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, believes a switch in attitude is more important.

Unless Australia produce the intensity missing in Perth, the changes will not make a scrap of difference. Australia did not use their heads ...

Ejecting a few trundlers may help to concentrate minds, and in this case will tighten the attack. But it does not confront the core problem, namely the underperformance of the senior players. Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee and company have been out of sorts since last year's somewhat contentious SCG Test match, and it is high time they recovered their poise. These blokes are the hard core of the team, but they are playing sucker cricket.

Ponting called some of his team-mates “passengers” following the loss. The Australian’s Peter Lalor travelled with them to Melbourne.

Ron Reed says in the Herald Sun the Boxing Day Test is now a guaranteed blockbuster.

In the Courier Mail Robert Craddock writes about Australia’s loss of psychological advantage over South Africa.

Australia are so unsettled that the side for the Boxing Day Test will be the 14th consecutive changed team. And the one after that will probably change as well in Sydney. And then there will be further changes for the South African tour.

Alex Brown wonders in the Sydney Morning Herald about the future of Matthew Hayden.

December 22, 2008

Arrogant Aussies out of form and over-rated

Posted on 12/22/2008 in Australian cricket

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier Mail about the poor attitude from the Australians during the defeat in Perth.

The message booming out to Australia after losing the unloseable Test match is that some key players are overrated, lacking form or too arrogant for their own good. And some, like captain Ricky Ponting, need to have a look at themselves and the damage that negative body language can do when the team has been driven on to the back foot.

South Africa were simply magnificent. On previous tours we have mocked and criticised them for being chokers and underachievers ... and they come out and make fools of the ghouls by producing a victory to rate with any ever achieved on Australian soil.

In the Daily Telegraph Craddock says only eight players have safe spots for the Ashes tour.

The Australian’s Peter Lalor looks at the plight of Brett Lee, who will be in the squad for Melbourne, but his place in the XI now seems under threat.

In the same paper Mike Coward rejoices over South Africa’s win.

What joy. What pure joy. This was a Test match for the ages; one that surely convinced even the non-believers that the pure game is beyond compare.

In Daily News and Analysis, Ayaz Memon says the classic chases at Perth and Chennai have boosted Test cricket to such heights that Twenty20 is made to look tepid.

What has clearly changed is the mindset of players. Modern cricket, and especially in this millennium, is being defined more by adventurism and opportunism than conservatism.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Roebuck hails South Africa’s victory as the country’s greatest.

December 20, 2008

Johnson's burst gives Test cricket more life

Posted on 12/20/2008 in Australian cricket

Tim Lane, writing in the Sunday Age, says Mitchell Johnson’s eight-wicket haul in Perth was an example of what makes the traditional game so compelling.

These days there is so much more sport available, almost 365 days of the year, yet each Test match brings a life of its own to the ones we lead. When something like Johnson's 5 for 2 from 21 balls happens, the old game, whose future is constantly under question, bursts into life once again.

In the Sunday Telegraph Kerry O’Keeffe, the former Test spinner, says Johnson will lead the attack to England next year.

December 19, 2008

Game over for Hayden?

Posted on 12/19/2008 in South Africa in Australia 2008-09

	Matthew Hayden desperately needs to score big © Getty Images

Matthew Hayden endured agonies during his brief and unconvincing stint at the WACA Ground. Desperately needing to produce a convincing innings to rid his mind of doubt and secure his place for the next few matches, he searched for his game and returned empty handed, says Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Often the veteran opener seemed to be beaten for pace as the speedsters bent their backs. Wisely, the tourists did not give him opportunities to move back to assess the delivery. Throughout they harried and hurried him, snapping at his heels like a pesky terrier. In his best years Hayden always had time to play his strokes. Only in his youth did he look stiff and slow and then observers concluded that he lacked the speed of wit and foot to score heavily in this company. It was a mistaken diagnosis. Then Hayden was petrified into inactivity. Perhaps history is repeating itself.

In the Australian Mike Coward writes it was much too easy to look away from Hayden on the third day. Robert Craddock also covers Hayden’s plight in the Courier-Mail.

December 14, 2008

South Africa look to reverse trend

Posted on 12/14/2008 in Australian cricket

	The champion and the challenger © Getty Images

Since the retirement of Shane Warne, Australia are no longer the complete team. If South Africa were to beat them, then we can realistically anticipate a new world order, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

South Africa have not lost a series since they toured Sri Lanka in 2006 so they have every right to be bullish. But do they really believe they can win against Australia? They have never managed a series victory against them in eight attempts since their readmission to world cricket ... In this era South Africa have won just one Test in Australia - in Sydney on the 1993-94 tour. In all, these teams have played 25 Tests against one another since readmission, Australia have won 15, South Africa four. So we can understand how the phoney war is playing out.

We have been here before but there is a general expectation - outside Australia, at any rate - that in Graeme Smith's South Africans a visiting team is about to embark on a Test series on Australian soil that they are genuinely capable of winning, writes Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times.

If they were to win the series that opens in Perth on Wednesday, South Africa would be the first side to win series in England and Australia in the same year since West Indies 20 years ago, and that would represent a significant "double". But they have so many times flattered to deceive that it will take more than a recent run of good form to convince sceptical Aussies that this time things will be different.

Jack's high on cricket's future

Posted on 12/14/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Sunday Herald Sun, Rod Nicholson profiles Cricket Australia's new chairman Jack Clarke and finds him to be an upbeat man who declares: "Just put a beard on me and I'd be Father Christmas."

Clarke is a likable bloke who is right at home having a beer with his mates. So much so that to outsiders he will come across as "one of the boys" - a vastly different perception to former board members who mostly were regarded as faceless guardians of the game.

But for all the jolliness, bubbling beneath his rotund physique, the 54-year-old is one of Australia's most astute cricket administrators whose grounding has been fashioned to accept the current role.

In the Sun-Herald, Daniel Lane meets one of the young up-and-coming allrounders in Australian domestic cricket, the New South Wales legspinner-batsman Steven Smith.

December 13, 2008

Warne takes centre stage again

Posted on 12/13/2008 in Australian cricket

A satirical show about Shane Warne's life proves he can draw a crowd anywhere, even if it left Australians uncomfortably aware of the void he has left on the field, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian.

In the climactic scene, Warne/Perfect cavorts with a fluorescent stump, à la the cricketer's uninhibited celebration of retaining the Ashes on the Trent Bridge balcony 13 years ago. Treading softly on to the stage, the man himself looked rather more abashed, mainly because this was hardly his crowd.

He was carried along by the attention, and perhaps also by the sheer improbability of it all — that he can still pull a crowd while not, strictly speaking, even actually having to be there. As the comedian and his muse stood arm in arm on stage, indeed, it was momentarily a selector's dream: two Shane Warnes! One could forget for an instant that Australia will next week take the field against South Africa with none.

The parallels in Australian politics and cricket

Posted on 12/13/2008 in Australian cricket

	'Mate, we have more in common than you think' © Cricket Australia

Do cricket and politics go hand in hand? It certainly has in Australia and history will tell you how. Tim Blair, in an editorial for the Daily Telegraph, draws up some interesting parallels, chronicling the fortunes of Joseph Lyons and Don Bradman and later with that of Kevin Rudd and Ricky Ponting. There's plenty more. Read on.

Rudd lost his first bid for a Federal seat in 1996. Ponting was dropped from the Test team in 1996 after two Tests against the West Indies. Ponting has captained Australia in 20/20 games, a form of the sport many find pointless, distracting and dominated by players not fit for serious contests. Rudd led the 2020 Summit.

But it wasn't always so coincidental.

Australia's stock markets lost nearly half their worth in the last two weeks of October, 1987, yet on November 8, Australia won the World Cup against England. It was the beginning of a revival for the team, which two years later regained the Ashes.

Bright side to McGain’s shoulder injury

Posted on 12/13/2008 in Australian cricket

	Bryce McGain has had time for other things since his early return from India © AFP

The legspinner Bryce McGain almost played for Australia in India but had to go home for shoulder surgery. Despite the untimely setback, McGain, 36, tells Peter Lalor in the Australian he is enjoying the break.

In between books and rehab he has found afternoons and weekends free to watch son Liam play his first season with a junior suburban side. Dad delights in the young fellow's love of the game but winces at every enthusiastic slide toward the ball. "All I can think about is 'how I'm going to get the stains out?"' McGain says.

With his right arm out of action, McGain has been bowling with the other to the boy in the nets. "He hits me all over the place, we're having great fun." Injuries, McGain says, aren't all dark clouds and he's even enjoying monitoring his own progress.

Phillip Hughes is only 20, but the push is growing for the New South Wales opener to be part of the Australian set-up. Jamie Pandaram meets him for the Sydney Morning Herald.

December 11, 2008

Nothing matches a five-Test series

Posted on 12/11/2008 in Miscellaneous

What a pity it is that Australia and South Africa no longer play full Test series against each other, says Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. Although the concurrent cricket seasons in the countries are partly to blame, he prefers a longer contest any day.

Three matches, three rounds of golf, three rounds of three minutes, three sets, three days, three acts, none of it works, none of it is complete. Three matches whet the appetite. Too much depends on the first result because the losers are under immediate pressure. Three is better than two, which is not that hard, and otherwise is entirely unsatisfactory.

...............................................

Test cricket needs to wake up. Night matches, cheaper tickets, faster over rates, fewer silly delays and so forth have parts to play in the revival. But in the end there is nothing to beat a five-match series between two strong sides. Cricket needs to stage proper Test series. The rest is negotiable.

SCG will turn pink for South Africa Test

Posted on 12/11/2008 in Australian cricket

Pink stumps will be used at the SCG for the third South Africa Test and the players will also wear the logo of the McGrath Foundation, the Daily Telegraph reports. Glenn McGrath’s wife Jane died from cancer earlier in the year and he was at the ground for the announcement of the support for his charity.

The third day of the Test, which has traditionally been known as Ladies Day, will now be called Jane McGrath Day and McGrath said he was "blown away'' by the support for the foundation. "It will be amazing to walk out there and see everything is pink and I am not sure how I will feel on that first day of play,” he said. “Jane would have been so proud.”

December 10, 2008

Don’t forget Rogers ... even though he’s from Victoria

Posted on 12/10/2008 in Australian cricket

	Chris Rogers is having an incredible season © Getty Images

There’s nothing like a bit of state parochialism when it comes to pushing players for the Australian side. But the Herald Sun’s Michael Horan has a point when it comes to Victoria’s Chris Rogers.

Can anyone answer why there is not a peep from the "in-the-know" quarters about Rogers? You know, the left-hander playing for Victoria who will take the field against Western Australia at the MCG on Monday as the most productive Sheffield Shield opener in the land.

Like team-mates Brad Hodge, Cameron White, David Hussey and Peter Siddle, the 31-year-old Rogers seems to be just another Bushranger hovering on the fringe, while yet another young New South Wales player is earmarked for express passage to the top.

In the Age Jesse Hogan also writes about Rogers’ impressive start to the Australian summer.

Are Australia's players over-worked and under-paid?

Posted on 12/10/2008 in Australian cricket

Player workload is becoming a big issue in Australia and the Daily Telegraph’s Iain Payten uses Ricky Ponting as a case study.

If Ponting glances at his calendar today, he'll struggle to find a spare weekend for a barbecue. For about a year. A backlog of postponed tours and tournaments will see Australia's cricket team embark on arguably their busiest year on record in 2009. Ponting's Test, one-day and Twenty20 sides will play up to 140 days of cricket across six countries and be on the road for a whopping 318 days in a gruelling itinerary ...

Players are currently negotiating with Cricket Australia to cut back off-field commitments for more free time. On the face of it - in 2009 at least - the players have a decent argument. An average worker works about 230 days a year, with weekends, annual leave and public holidays off.

December 9, 2008

Warne reviews his own musical

Posted on 12/09/2008 in Australian cricket

	Shane Warne thinks the musical based on him makes for enjoyable viewing © Getty Images

He was angry when he first heard of the launch of a musical based on his life, but Shane Warne finally decided to see the show, a decision which made him "more edgy, even, than facing Pakistani quickie Shoaib Akhtar on a green, seaming deck". He passes his verdict in the Herald Sun.

I reach the interval and think this is pretty good - and fair - but I'm getting nervous because the so-called "scandals" are about to happen. Buckle up the seatbelt, I think to myself, and count to 10.

There are a few more chuckles and the odd cringe - but not too many, I must admit. Then, it's over.

My life in two hours has just flashed before my eyes. Again I felt weird but, in a strange way, proud of what I'd just witnessed.

Selector adds to Casson conundrum

Posted on 12/09/2008 in Australian cricket

What happened to Beau Casson? It’s one of the big questions of the Australian summer after Casson, the left-arm wrist spinner, careered from first-choice slow bowler to forgotten man in a couple of months. Daniel Brettig talks to Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, about it for AAP.

Far from knowing that Casson was confused, Hilditch believes the left-arm spinner "knows exactly where he stands". "When anybody goes back to Shield cricket, they've got to perform, they've got to be at their best and they've got to be knocking on the door," Hilditch said.

December 7, 2008

Yabba the SCG icon becomes bronzed Aussie

Posted on 12/07/2008 in Australian cricket

Yabba, the supporter who used to have the SCG Hill named after him, will sit in the stadium forever after a statue of him was unveiled on Sunday. In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck takes a look at “the most famous spectator any game has known” – and his new image.

Cast in bronze, he sat still and silent beside the white picket fence under the imposing stand that has replaced The Hill. Hat tilted at a rakish angle, hand providing a foghorn for his mouth, the old rabbitoh watched impassively as the cricketers went through their paces. Although capable of taking most things in his stride, Yabba might have been startled to hear his praises sung by politicians, army chiefs and descendants but he'd have enjoyed the yellowed pictures and re-enactments that brought the ceremony to life.

Peter Hanlon, writing in the Age’s tongue-in-cheek Chucker column, decides to interview Ricky Ponting’s wrist.

December 6, 2008

Remembering a servant of cricket and a friend

Posted on 12/06/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Age, Greg Baum recalls his memories of Paul Hibbert, the opening batsman who played one Test for Australia in 1977-78.

Hibbert came from an earlier and different time and place. He began with Victoria in 1974-75, as an opener. In the first season of the World Series hiatus in 1977-78, against the touring Indians, he made a century — his first — without a boundary, a feat of fastidiousness managed by only one other in cricket history.

The early '80s were lean years, both for Australia and Victoria, but Hibbert was one who dutifully kept the flame alight. He was a cricketer of his time: orthodox, patient, fatalistic, with a distinctive moustache. A left-hander, he was a clean striker who perhaps should have hit out more often, but that is wisdom in hindsight.

Expecting the unexpected

Posted on 12/06/2008 in Australian cricket

Remember Darren Pattinson? Think back to July, when two weeks away from his 30th birthday, having spent the last 24 years of his life in Australia, a roof tiler with just 11 first-class matches made his Test debut for England. Six months on, a younger Pattinson, James, was plucked from the Victorian Bushrangers' rookie list to make his first-class debut in Perth against Western Australia. It's all in keeping with family traditions, finds out Michael Horan in the Herald Sun. Ironically, it was Darren's groin strain that created a spot in the squad for young James.

December 4, 2008

Next generation open for opportunities

Posted on 12/04/2008 in Australian cricket

	New kid on the block: Phillip Hughes © Getty Images

Australia’s next rung of batsmen are putting pressure on Matthew Hayden and Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, looks at the candidates, including Phillip Hughes, Shaun Marsh and Chris Rogers.

The fresh-faced cricketer speaks of his wizened seniors with respect but eyes his position and status with envy. Australia's band of opening batsmen with an eye on a trip to South Africa or the Ashes seems to grow every day. Their braying increases with every faltering Test partnership.

New South Wales opener Hughes celebrated his 20th birthday by producing perhaps the most outstanding pair of innings played in Sheffield Shield cricket this year ... Hughes has hardened himself by leaving home at 18. He has the talent and the temperament to go a long way.

Hughes’ performance in Hobart also gained him a couple of marks once held by Don Bradman, AAP reports.

Fallen stars fall on tough times

Posted on 12/04/2008 in Australian cricket

Twenty-three former Australia players have called on the Australian Cricketers' Association's hardship fund over the past ten years. Ron Reed reports in the Herald Sun about the rise in requests since 2005.

Reed says the former Test player Paul Hibbert, who died last week and is written about here, was one of them.

Speaking of former players, the Sydney Morning Herald says Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne will spend time in the Nine commentary box this summer.

December 3, 2008

Batsmen protected under Australia’s new policy

Posted on 12/03/2008 in Australian cricket

	If Andrew Symonds was a bowler, would he be dropped for Perth? © Getty Images

Andrew Stevenson, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, takes a look at Ricky Ponting’s “horses for courses” selection plans and wonders about the implications.

Take note of who the protected species is here. Who has been safely quarantined from any discussion of the merits of "guys who are going to be able to give you more in different conditions"? Who's immune? Batsmen, that's who.

Jason Krezja has to justify his place in Perth but not, apparently, Andrew Symonds. The Australian top order boasts a phenomenal Test record at the WACA Ground ... but there are plenty of pitches better suited to the rampaging Queenslander. In three Tests Symonds, now being picked as a genuine No. 6 rather than an allrounder, has made a sum total of 144 runs at an average of 24.00 - way down on his career record of 41.90. If he was a bowler he'd be dropped.

In the same paper Paul Sheehan says Twenty20 reflects the mood of the times and may yet dance on the grave of Test cricket.

State switch gives Klinger new lease on life

Posted on 12/03/2008 in Australian cricket

Michael Klinger was a useful player for Victoria but has turned into an excellent one since his off-season switch to South Australia. In the Age Greg Baum looks at his rise.

In eight years with Victoria, Klinger made two centuries. In eight weeks with South Australia, he has made three already, including a double. His latest, against Queensland at the Gabba on Monday, he cherished doubly, because it was not made at the Adelaide Oval and so could not be written off as cheap, and because it guided his new state to its first win for more than a year.

Forget over-rate fines, send someone off

Posted on 12/03/2008 in Australian cricket

Robert Craddock, writing in the Daily Telegraph, comes up with a left-field solution for lifting the over-rates, which have become a severe problem for Australia.

Of all the measures being contemplated, the one that can achieve the result of quickening up the game without totally destroying its fabric is to send a fieldsman off while the team's over-rate remains at an unsatisfactory low. Sounds dramatic? Maybe.

But the time has come for drastic action and to address the problem as it happens. Over-rate fines to modern cricket captains are like parking fines to a rich businessmen. They are accepted with furrowed brows and mild frustration and are forgotten about the minute they are paid.

In the same paper Iain Payten looks at how much the Australians have been fined since Shane Warne stopped playing.

Since Warne's 2007 departure, Australia's Test side has been slugged with A$130,000 worth of fines for slow over rates. The captain Ricky Ponting has personally had to cough up $23,200 to the ICC after getting fined in five of 16 Tests without Warne - by far the worst record in world cricket.

December 2, 2008

Dirty money

Posted on 12/02/2008 in Australian cricket

Neil Manthorp, in Supercricket, fumes at Cricket Australia's unfair accreditation terms on news agencies covering international games and questions the wisdom of the decision.

But Cricket Australia has now decided that, such is the value of their product, everybody must pay them direct. Uhh? Is Australian cricket really that good? Can we really not live from day to day without paying them? And if they continue to lock out the agencies which have been around for close to a century, will they really be able to control the flow of information out of press conferences concerning the game? I doubt it.

Bradman still defying convention

Posted on 12/02/2008 in Australian cricket

A baggy green worn by Don Bradman on the 1948 Ashes tour has an estimated auction price of between A$600,000 to $750,000, Peter Hanlon reports in the Age.

A Bradman bat sold recently at the height of the global financial crisis for a world record A$145,000; "The Don" is still defying convention. "This is the single most valuable item we've ever auctioned — sporting, Australiana, across the board," Charles Leski said before the December 15 auction.

December 1, 2008

Haddin has people asking Adam who?

Posted on 12/01/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, tries to remember Australia’s wicketkeeper before Brad Haddin, who broke through with his maiden Test century.

It was in Adelaide last summer that Adam Gilchrist (the name has come back) saw the ball fall from glove and with it the will to go on. Haddin, who waited so long to go from bridesmaid to gloveman, has come of age at the corresponding Test. The New South Wales wicketkeeper smothered his doubts and silenced the doubters with an aggressive 169 ... It was, in the main, as game-changing as anything Gilchrist dished out.

Another player had an important day on Sunday, with Shane Watson taking seven wickets and scoring 81 for Queensland. In the Daily Telegraph Robert Craddock says Watson should return to the side for the first Test against South Africa in Perth on December 17.

At his best - and we are yet to see his best in Tests - Watson can be a more valuable player to Australia than Andrew Symonds because he is capable of being chosen as a specialist fast bowler. That's gold. Pure gold. The jury is still out on who is the better batsman.

November 29, 2008

Ooh, aah, is it the next McGrath?

Posted on 11/29/2008 in Australian cricket

Look out for New South Wales’ Josh Hazlewood, a 17-year-old who has lots of similarities to Glenn McGrath. The Australian’s Andrew Faulkner talks to a young man who can bowl – and bat.

Thrust into the media spotlight after taking four wickets for New South Wales against New Zealand in a tour match this month, Hazlewood understands the McGrath comparisons are inevitable. "We're both from the country and have similar actions, so the media has focused on that a bit," he said. "I'm happy with that, but you try to put it out of your mind. You try to ignore it as much as you can."

November 28, 2008

In pursuit of happiness

Posted on 11/28/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck in the Age hopes the Adelaide Test will show the game in better light, after the little cheer that the recent going-ons in the cricket world have offered. He outlines the need for Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich to step up, and that for a specialist spinner, as they look for a series win.

Admittedly, Australia has been unlucky that the most creditable candidates are wounded. As a rule, tweakers are about as injury-prone as chess players (though not quite as sane). But it's time to review coaching methods and to instigate a national campaign. Curiously, 20-over cricket is helping to restore spin even as unchanging pitches thwart it. At any rate, one of the off-spinners will play in Adelaide, not least to wave the flag.

With apologies to Kellie Hayden, there can hardly be anyone who knows her husband better than the man who walked out to bat with him 113 times. And Justin Langer is adamant Australia cannot yet afford to lose Matthew Hayden's wisdom and experience, writes Chloe Saltau in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Symonds the ungracious

Posted on 11/28/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Australian Mike Coward writes about how Andrew Symonds has let down his captain Ricky Ponting with his behaviour.

Symonds' ingratitude, especially to Ponting, defies belief. Many men who have led Australia in the past would not have been as forgiving as Ponting, who has expended so much emotional energy to mentor Symonds throughout his career.

Yet again Symonds has seriously disrupted and distracted the Australian team and the army of specialists attached to it before an important match. Again he has forgotten his debt to Ponting. And to make matters worse, this time his great mate and fishing pal Matthew Hayden is playing his 100th Test match and was entitled to be the focus of attention going into the match. Perhaps that fact also slipped his mind.

November 26, 2008

Is Lee still No. 1?

Posted on 11/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Is Brett Lee's star fading as Australia's No.1 fast bowler? Robert Craddock asks former Australia bowlers about Lee's future and the rivals snapping at his heels in the Herald Sun.

In his column for the Australian, Australia's captain Ricky Ponting writes that Matthew Hayden will cook up something special against New Zealand in Adelaide. The second Test will be Hayden's 100th and Ponting says it is the most significant thing you can do in a cricket career.

November 25, 2008

Symonds learning the price of fame

Posted on 11/25/2008 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that Andrew Symonds might need to take a leaf out of Shane Warne's book to learn how to cope with the intense media spotlight.

Warne was a lover, not a fighter, and the British tabloids loved him for it, time after indiscreet time. Symonds is a fighter, which can be all the more damaging, so he would do well to take on board some of Warne's hard-earned lessons about staying out of trouble and out of the spotlight. It got to the stage later in his career when Warne would forsake the bars and clubs and simply invite a few mates to his hotel room to share a bottle or two of red wine.

In the Daily Telegraph, Nick Walshaw recounts one of the stories of Symonds' lack of grace when dealing with the general public.

Andrew Symonds was downing beers at a swank rooftop party in Bangladesh when they approached him. Two Aussie backpackers whose entire salaries had been siphoned into following 11 Baggy Greens across the subcontinent. But now they were here. Invited into the inner sanctum by tour officials. Standing with beers in hand before their hero Roy.

"So, you blokes cricketers?" Symonds eventually deadpanned. A question that sent our duo into a spin about synthetic wickets, park outfields and modest exploits against mates.

"Oh," Symonds said sarcastically, "you're not Test cricketers then?" Confused, both men shook their heads. "Well, this party is for Test cricketers ... so you should probably f... off."

At what point do Aussie sports stars have the right to morph from public figure into private property?

Michael Slater writes on ninemsn that Symonds has to be prepared to make greater sacrifices if he wants to continue his international career.

An arrogant, reckless man

Posted on 11/25/2008 in Australian cricket

Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Andrew Symonds' latest incident could hardly have come at a worse time and while the evidence suggests he did not instigate the altercation at a Brisbane pub, that won't necessarily save him from punishment.

His stubborn refusal to make peace with CA following January's Adelaide court hearing - in which Australian players were convinced to drop charges of racial abuse against Harbhajan Singh before the Indian spinner's eventual exoneration - has eroded team harmony, and frustrated administrators and teammates alike. Likewise, Symonds's courting of controversy in more social settings has angered many within Australian cricket, particularly as the majority of his teammates seem to have mastered the dual arts of enjoying a beer while avoiding trouble.

Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail is fed up. He wonders why Steve and Mark Waugh managed to spend about 35 years collectively on tour never once became involved in a bar-room incident, yet it happens to Symonds regularly.

You have reached the end of the road as a dignified sportsman when rugby league players steer clear of you because you are too much trouble. It happened to Andrew Symonds at the Normanby Hotel on Sunday when several Kangaroo players decided Symonds was an incident waiting to happen and moved on to other company.

Being brushed by league players because they deem you "too loud and arrogant" is like being taunted by Warwick Capper because your pants are too tight. It just doesn't get any worse than that ... the final indignity for an arrogant, reckless man who refused to learn from his lessons.

Of course the Normanby Hotel went into predictable damage control mode last night, falling over themselves to defend Symonds. But that's beside the point. Precisely a week ago Symonds was telling the world on Channel 9 how some of his problems were caused by too much drinking. And now this. Symonds's statement released last night portrayed him as the victim. Is he ever guilty?

Chloe Saltau in the Age argues that Cricket Australia have sent all the wrong messages by recalling Symonds before he was ready.

November 23, 2008

A lifetime award for Shane Warne

Posted on 11/23/2008 in Australian cricket

	The IPL, a book, poker ... it's been a busy year for Shane Warne © AFP

Observer Sport Monthly's lifetime achievement award goes to Shane Warne. "He has earned a place among the legends of cricket, and this year proved he was no slouch even in semi-retirement, winning the first-ever IPL as player-coach. From poker star to hair-replacement guru, his empire is as unpredictable as his bowling," says Adrian Deevoy, who interviewed Warne to mark the occasion.

Nah. He (Sachin Tendulkar) never frightened me. I think I might have said 'I'm going to have a few nightmares tonight' once and some journalists took it as gospel, but I was never frightened of anyone. And that's not me being big-headed, I was just confident in my ability.

November 22, 2008

The rock among the sandcastles

Posted on 11/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	Simon Katich's true grit is a real boon © Getty Images

Continuing his run of form since being recalled to the side earlier this year, Simon Katich became the first Australian to carry his bat in a Test for more than a decade and set Australia on the path towards victory against New Zealand at the Gabba. In the Sun-Herald, Peter Roebuck salutes Katich's innings and calls it the difference between two ordinary batting sides performing poorly on an improving deck. Cautious batsmen, says Roebuck, are appreciated in recessions, economic and cricketing.

Nothing Katich does at the crease catches the eye. He shuffles around like a minister without a portfolio. He has the grace of a bulldog. His bottom hand features strongly in all his shots. His batting is full of punches, clubs, clouts and carves. But there is a reassuring practicality about his work - and it is work, not play. He is built for reliability not speed, comfort not flash. The whole is greater than the parts.

Over in the Sunday Herald Sun, Robert Craddock says that you can tell how Australian cricket is travelling by what you might call the Simon Katich Index.

When the team was flying, Australia's selectors did everything they could not to pick Katich. For the selectors, ringing Katich was like ringing your dentist - you only called him when you absolutely had to and even then you never really looked forward to seeing him in operation. Their philosophy was that when you had a few Ferraris in the shed, why do you need an old-fashioned Jeep - and it was the right thinking for the time. Grit was seen as glamourless and expendable.

Ponting can learn from AB

Posted on 11/22/2008 in Australian cricket

Ricky Ponting is not happy with Allan Border's comments on his captaincy in Nagpur, but Robert Craddock writes in the Herald Sun that by the time Ponting retires he will surely be worshipping at Border's altar.

With every passing day in charge of Australia's new generation team Ponting is finding out what it is like to be Border. The tense selection issues. The insecurity of under-performing players. The glee of other nations at extending the once invincible champions. The media inquisitions.

The more you see Ponting scrapping along as the captain of a team struggling to match its former glories, the more you wonder at how on earth Border handled such stress - and much more - during his tenure as skipper. Mark Taylor said five years was the sensible limit for a Test captain. Border did it for 10.

In the Daily Telegraph, Jon Pierik defends the under-fire wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

It should be remembered that Test greats Ian Healy and Rod Marsh all began their international careers with mixed performances, and endured calls for their axings. Times and expectations, however, have changed.

November 21, 2008

Is Australia's iron grip over?

Posted on 11/21/2008 in Australian cricket

	Is winning not so easy anymore for Ricky Ponting and his team? © Getty Images

The Indians started it; New Zealand's performance on day one at the Gabba reinforced it. There are clear signs the era of Australia's iron grip on test cricket is over, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

Consider the numbers.

Remember their 16-match winning run from October 1999 to February 2001 under the iron hand of Steve Waugh?

Or how Ricky Ponting steered Australia to 20 wins from 21 successive tests - with one drawn - between October 2005 against the ICC XI to the ugly win over India at Sydney last January?

In nine tests since, Australia have lost three, drawn four and won two. They are still tough opponents, loaded with talented cricketers and will continue to win far more than they lose.

Hayden's done it his way

Posted on 11/21/2008 in Australian cricket

	Matthew Hayden, 99 Tests and counting © Getty Images

Matthew Hayden looks back at the bests and worsts with Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph. The Gabba Test was Hayden's 99th and he is set to become the tenth Australian to 100 Tests in the second Test in Adelaide. A few excerpts:

WORST ROOMMATE: "Tim Zoehrer. He was a massive smoker for a start. Things happened when I roomed with him. I remember we were staying at the Westbury Hotel in England and a bloke invaded my room late at night and tried to kick me out of the room.

"I grabbed him and put his head up a lamp shade. I rang reception and they said they thought he was a sleepwalker and I said 'how do you know? I haven't told you what he looks like'.

"They told me not to touch him but I said 'it's a bit late for that . . . he's in a bit of trouble'."

Hayden copped some flak for his comments on India's Third World status, and he won't earn praise in Bangladesh for the following remarks.

THE GROUND I DISLIKE THE MOST: "Downtown Dhaka and the Chittagong Stadium is not my favourite ground. I remember travelling 90 minutes from the hotel for a 9.30am start at Dhaka and looking out the window and seeing life and humanity pass me by.

"One morning there was a chicken coop on top of a bus and one bloke sitting up with them like the Pied Piper."

Selectors miss the boat on Krejza

Posted on 11/21/2008 in Australian cricket

Robert Craddock writes in the Daily Telegraph that the omission of Jason Krejza at the Gabba highlights the muddle-headed thinking of Australia’s selectors.

Once so decisive, they are second, third and fourth guessing their options and it is causing widespread insecurity. Will Australia really need five seam bowlers on a green-topped wicket against a club strength New Zealand batting line-up? It's a bit like hiring a SWAT team to chase the neighbour's cat out of your backyard. One of them - probably either Symonds or Watson - should have given way for spinner Krejza.

Australia's omission of Krejza is not a historical howler because the wicket was more suited to other bowlers. But they should have played him anyway. Shane Warne's old adage "if the wicket will take seam it will take turn" couldn't save Krezja. Nor could a 12-wicket Test debut. Nor could those two dirty words "over rate". Australia would have played him if McGrath and Gillespie were still around. But they no longer trust their quicks to do the job, even on a seamers' paradise. It's a worry.

In the Herald Sun, Jon Pierik argues that there are plenty of Test runs left in Matthew Hayden despite his recent struggles.

November 20, 2008

Time for an Australian charm offensive

Posted on 11/20/2008 in Australian cricket

Mike Coward writes in the Australian that Ricky Ponting’s men are on notice: they must reconnect with the Australian public this summer. Coward believes the corporatisation of the game has left fans cold.

A former executive of a company with strong and traditional ties to Cricket Australia this year took to calling CA the "Jolimont juggernaut". (CA is headquartered at Jolimont in Melbourne's inner-east.) It is most apt.

As a consequence of the corporatisation of the game, CA has become something of a behemoth with the attendant party machinery, personalities and politics. And woe betide those who deviate from the doctrine.

One suspects Ponting abided by an unspoken, unwritten, unacknowledged understanding when he surrendered Australia's chance of holding on to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the fourth day of the final Test at Nagpur. It still beggars belief that he can't see his mistake, own up to it and get on with a job that generally he does most capably.

In the Age, Peter Roebuck argues that it is time Australia the nation gets the cricket team it deserves.

A Krazy success story

Posted on 11/20/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Daily Telegraph, Josh Massoud traces the unusual rise of Jason Krejza, who started playing cricket when a local junior team was door-knocking for new members.

Up until then Krejza played soccer, sometimes in nearby Amalfi Park alongside Mark Bosnich. A professional footballer during his former life in Czechoslovakia, Krejza's father George knew the Bosnich family well.

As unlikely as it seemed, the son of an immigrant fitter and turner quickly fell in love with bat and ball. But it would be more unlikely that he would ever spin the latter. During his early days the kid they called Krazy was obsessed with pace. Unfortunately, his body wasn't up to speed. By his 13th birthday, Krejza developed a spinal fracture because, according to George, "he never had a follow-through".

November 19, 2008

In Roy we trust

Posted on 11/19/2008 in Australian cricket

Tim Nielsen, the Australian coach, is pleased to have Andrew Symonds back in the squad for the series against New Zealand and South Africa. In his blog on Cricket Australia's website Nielsen suggests Symonds' greatest attribute, apart from the fact that he is such a quality player, is that he is such a hard competitor - something Australia is in desperate need of during these times of change.

He’s a natural fun-loving member of the team, he enjoys being part of a group of blokes and enjoys the up and down nature of our game. Most importantly has the ability to carry other guys along with him when times are tough. Those sorts of people are few and far between.

November 17, 2008

Symonds deserves to be applauded

Posted on 11/17/2008 in Australian cricket

Andrew Symonds’ admission that alcohol played a part in his downfall this year was a major step in the right direction, according to Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail.

Symonds left a few people cold at his "return" press conference in Melbourne last week with his belligerent air which radiated everything except the one quality people were desperate to see - remorse. "How can he really repair any damage he's done if he doesn't feel the need to apologise?" was a common view uttered by people there.

However his admission to former teammate Ian Healy on Channel 9 yesterday that he had drunk too much for his own good was a brave call, for which he should be applauded. It had been the elephant in the room for the past few months. Many people knew about it. No one wanted to talk about it. No one is calling Symonds an alcoholic - he's not - but alcohol unquestionably brings out the worst in him.

Walk into any bar and you will see how a few drinks extract the extremes in people's personalities - happiness, aggression, despair or humour. Symonds, by nature, is a brooding type who does not trust many people. He seems to carry quite a few angry thoughts around with him. After he has had a few beers those thoughts can gush out. Candidly, it's not pretty to watch.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Age that the time is right for Symonds to rejoin the Test team.

In the Australian, Peter Lalor argues that Stuart Clark must play in the first Test against New Zealand.

It's 1988 all over again

Posted on 11/17/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Herald Sun, Robert Craddock and Jon Pierik take a detailed look at where Australia’s team is heading. They also speak to Ian Healy, who sees similarities to the national side he joined in 1988.

Ian Healy watched Australia's painful demise in India a number kept flashing through his head ... 1988. A small part of him was transported back to his first rugged tour to Pakistan. The brutally long days in the field, the painful insecurities of new players - himself included - the grinding burden on an overworked captain. Captain Allan Border was 33 then, just as Ricky Ponting is now.

The sides had promising, but yet-to-fully-blossom, allrounders (Steve Waugh then, Shane Watson now), new keepers (Healy then, Brad Haddin now) and struggling pace attacks. The Pakistan tour, which the home side won 1-0, was a painful experience for all involved but it was also a turning point for a developing side after four sorrowful years because, soon after, Australia decided to identify a group of promising players and stick with them.

November 16, 2008

Questions for Hilditch, but he's not talking

Posted on 11/16/2008 in Australian cricket

Australia’s chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch needs to be prepared to explain the selection panel’s sometimes baffling decisions, according to Will Swanton in the Sun-Herald. And Swanton believes in taking a couple of questions at the SCG when Australia’s Test squad for Brisbane was announced, Hilditch failed to offer any insight.

The guts of it was that Australia was embarking on an important lead-up to the Ashes. He said selectors sometimes get it right and sometimes they get it wrong.

Is that really enough? Wasn't it bleeding obvious that playing White as the first-choice spinner for three Tests was going to end in tears? The Sun-Herald wanted a forum away from the TV cameras to ask Hilditch about India. About Cameron White. About no Jason Krejza until the last Test. About Cameron White. About claims Beau Casson was hung out to dry because left-arm spin was not wanted in India. About Cameron White. About Stuart Clark being relieved of his services for no apparent reason. About Cameron White.

No talkies.

November 15, 2008

Ponting must rethink his captaincy

Posted on 11/15/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Ricky Ponting must rethink his approach to captaincy or Australia will lose to South Africa and England in the next nine months.

Ponting often seemed to be captaining by formula as opposed to instinct. In his younger days he had a strong grasp of the mood of a match and an urgent desire to intervene. He was a leader, urging his players along, suggesting ruses to his captain. Moreover, his ideas were often astute. As a batsman, too, he hooked and clipped and seized the initiative. His only weak point was a hot temper and a fondness for grog, a combination that periodically put him in strife.

Ponting confronted and corrected his wild ways, to his credit. He did not blame anyone except himself. From that moment, his rise was inevitable. Honesty and ambition command respect. In controlling his furies, he lost part of himself, a part he needs to recover or else his captaincy is doomed. Most particularly, he needs to restore his feel for the game, and put it alongside his sportsmanship.

Above all, he needs to lead his men away from the resentments of the Sydney Test, which was a disaster for Australian cricket. Ponting and his senior players pursued a case they could not win over an incident they had initiated thereby turning a sharp-tongued opponent into a national hero. An aspiring leader was described as " an unreliable witness".

Ricky Ponting’s players fought hard, but did not have the bowling resources required to trouble a strong batting order appreciating placid pitches [in India]. The imminent return of Andrew Symonds will put a bit of spark into the fielding and add aggression to the batting, but it will not add much penetration with the ball, writes Roebuck in the Witness.

Also in the Witness Ray White writes, "All that can be read into the Australians’ defeat by India is that they are still not easy to beat ... All that has happened is that the Australians have come back to the chasing pack that includes just three teams — India, clearly, England and South Africa."

An Invincible ponders Twenty20

Posted on 11/15/2008 in Australian cricket

In the hours leading up to the All-Stars Twenty20 match, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Alex Brown caught up with Arthur Morris to see what he made of the Twenty20 phenomenon.

To truly appreciate cricket's changing visage, you could do worse than share a drink with an Invincible in the hours leading up to a much-hyped Twenty20 encounter between Australia and a Cricket Australia All-Star XI. Clutching a schooner in the grand old Members Bar of the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday, surrounded by sepia-toned photographs depicting a more dignified age, the 86-year-old Morris recounts with astonishment and humour the cricketing revolution he has witnessed.

"I don't mind it, so long as people treat it as a fun exercise," he said of Twenty20. "It's completely different to first-class or Test cricket. Test cricket is for people who know something about cricket. Twenty20 is for people who don't know much about it. There will always be people who are fascinated by Test cricket and all its intrigue. It's not just slather and whack." Was he planning to watch the match? "I might," he said. "But not if I am going to miss The Bold and the Beautiful."

In the Weekend Australian Peter Lalor looks at two of the new facilities at the SCG, the aptly named Doug Walters Bar and the Waugh Room.

Players turning into subcontractors

Posted on 11/15/2008 in Australian cricket

Greg Baum, in the Age, explores the idea of "splitters" in cricket as players increasingly resemble subcontractors, switching between clubs, counties, states, countries without hesitation.

This is a labyrinth. Cricket authorities, transfixed by Twenty20, say international club competition is the great unexplored frontier. Lalit Modi, Indian board mover and shaker and the brains behind the Indian Premier League and the Champions League, says soccer comfortably divides its fixtures between club competitions and internationals, so cricket should.

But soccer never asks players to choose between clubs in the same competition. Nor does it ask them to switch constantly between radically different styles of the game, nor to squeeze club and country commitments into consecutive days.

Also in the Age, Brendan McArdle wonders if Cricket Australia really had the players' best interests at heart when it scheduled the All-Stars Twenty20 game.

Eight players involved in last night's match will be playing in today's Sheffield Shield match at the MCG between Victoria and Tasmania, and to accommodate their travel back from Brisbane the game starts at one o'clock. One can only wonder at the thoughts of David Hussey or Brad Hodge if they are walking out to face Ben Hilfenhaus or Brett Geeves in semi-darkness at 7.30 tonight.

November 14, 2008

Too early to write off Australia despite defeat

Posted on 11/14/2008 in Australian cricket

There has been a huge amount of talk this week about eras ending and dynasties toppling after India's win in the Test series. I can understand where they are coming from, but writing off Australia is a bit premature, writes Shane Warne in the Times.

The aura of invincibility that we [Australia] carried in the eyes of the opposition has probably gone. Teams think they can beat us now, and belief is so important in sport. In the weeks ahead against New Zealand and South Africa we should look to impose ourselves again and intimidate a few opposition players. We just need a bit of spark to get things going again.

Symonds question not so simple

Posted on 11/14/2008 in Australian cricket

The selectors have only confused the issue by naming Andrew Symonds in a 13-man squad for the first Test against New Zealand, Greg Baum writes in the Age. He believes they should have picked Symonds in a fixed role or not at all.

As a player, Symonds was obliged at least to appear to take Australia's matches against Bangladesh in August seriously. Instead, he went fishing, incurring the wrath of teammates and a suspension. Since, he has undergone a program of rehabilitation that sometimes has seemed too earnest to be taken seriously. Yesterday, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch called it a "prescribed plan", making it sound like a course of chemotherapy.

Be that as it may, he has been pronounced cured. Announcing this to a press conference last week, Symonds was affronted, belligerent and unapologetic, so affirming that his state of mind was indeed normal. Be that as it may, too. But in six first-class innings for Queensland this season, he has passed five only twice, and not made a half-century. Bowling, he has taken five wickets. It is scarcely irresistible form.

Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph considers a question the selectors have not had to ask until now - who is the better option, Symonds or Shane Watson?

Their styles as players are as different as the men themselves. Symonds is what the psychologists call a "Mozzie", an instinctive player who admits he plays best when he doesn't think too much about his game. Former Australia coach John Buchanan used to give Symonds permission to throw his computer printouts into the garbage bin. His technique may not have textbook purity but at his best he has the eye of the pig hunter he likes to be when cricket is not calling.

Watson is a more of a thinking type who has one of the game's best batting techniques - so good that he has even had to work on it becoming less than perfect so he can improvise in one-day cricket. Some days, such as the last of the series in India, Watson bowls as well as anyone in the team. Other days he looks vulnerable.

November 13, 2008

Get off Ricky's back

Posted on 11/13/2008 in Australian cricket

Steve Waugh was one of the former captains who said Ricky Ponting made the wrong decisions in Nagpur. But in the Daily Telegraph, Waugh says people should get off Ponting's back and explains that captaincy is much harder than many people realise.

When things are going along smoothly, the automatic pilot virtually switches on but when things start to go amiss you are at the coalface making decisions under intense pressure. Invariably there will be decisions that won't be right.

In Ricky Ponting I saw a leader who had been under mounting pressure, a result of injured and out-of-form players, an inconsistent selection policy, an Indian team that no longer were intimidated or afraid to speak their mind in the media or on the field, pitches that made results difficult, slow over rates and bad luck calling the toss. In reality they were clinging on and rarely occupying the high ground, scrambling to stay in the match.

In the New Zealand Herald David Leggat warns against the theory that Australia are in decline and ripe for a surprise beating from New Zealand.

This is baffling, not the least because right now New Zealand are not as robustly combative and skilled as the Indians. When Australia arrived in India, there was always a chance they'd lose the series.

India are no pickles, especially on their own turf, and they were always going to play with a fierce resolve to avenge what they believed were the wrongs foisted on them during their visit to Australia last summer. But this does not translate into the Australians having turned into a mediocre outfit.

November 12, 2008

Punter v Peter

Posted on 11/12/2008 in Australian cricket

In Ricky Ponting’s new book, Captain’s Diary 2008, he explains his frustration at Peter Roebuck’s highly critical column following the Sydney Test. The Sydney Morning Herald has some extracts from the book.

Peter Roebuck … had written a lengthy piece that demanded I be sacked. The message in page one was loud and emphatic: Ponting Must Go. He was scathing in his criticism, which of course he is entitled to be, but to me he was so far over the top it was ridiculous.

It was as if we'd started World War III. He suggested that the entire cricket community was 'disgusted' and 'distressed' by our performance, but that was hardly the feedback I was getting. It was quite extraordinary how, when I walked down the street or stopped for a coffee in the day or two after that story appeared, people would come up and ask, 'What's going on? What's Roebuck on about?'

Ponting also says the players felt angry and totally let down by Cricket Australia over its handling of the Harbhajan Singh racism row.

I guess there was a certain naivety on my part in all of this; next time, I'll want to be just as sure about my convictions as I was this time, but I'll also want to be certain that the game is as committed to justice as I am before I put my reputation, and the reputation of my teammates, on the line.

There is a part of me that says in future I should steer clear of 'cricket politics' … but I don't want to run away from my responsibilities. I couldn't then, and I won't in future. Trust me.

November 10, 2008

The advantage of having Warne

Posted on 11/10/2008 in Australia in India 2008-09

	It is doubtful that Warne ever would have fretted about over rates, and certain that no captain with Warne in his side would have bothered © Getty Images

When the Australian cricket team was at its best, it followed process, but also hunches and inspiration, writes Greg Baum in the Age.

In concentrating all its thinking on its incredibly slow over rate on Sunday night, Ricky Ponting's team appeared to obsess itself with crossed Ts and properly dotted Is and neglected the essence of its mission in India. It failed where it was once infallible, in its imagination.

.......................

But Ponting then had the advantage of Shane Warne in his side. In the context of today's debate, Warne had three great strengths. His wicket-taking exploits emboldened Australia in a way that it cannot be bold now. The thinness of Australia's attack in India has forced it onto the defensive, and it looks to have become a mindset. Mere wishing will not make it otherwise.

Warne also was a maverick who was sceptical of cricket's painstaking processes. He could afford to be in a way that others could not and cannot. It led him into conflict with team management, but it also meant that he could see possibilities, however absurd, when Australia was in trouble and, being Warne, realise them.

It is doubtful that Warne ever would have fretted about over rates, and certain that no captain with Warne in his side would have bothered.

Thirdly, Warne was both a spin bowler and indefatigable. It meant that he bowled many overs, quickly, giving Australia a perhaps unmerited tract of the high moral ground in the over rates debate.

Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun writes that how Ricky Ponting reacts to criticism of his captaincy in the next couple of weeks will be crucial for Australia's longer-term prospects.

November 8, 2008

Australia's ugly spin reality

Posted on 11/08/2008 in Australian cricket

If you think you know how bad Australia’s spin options are – you really don’t. Forget about Cameron White’s straight’uns and Jason Krejza’s confusing cameo in this Test, says JRod on the Wisden Cricketer blog.

Back home the truth is even uglier. Three games into the domestic season and the number one spinning wicket-taker is Marcus North with six wickets.

Marcus North is a batsman, a good one and as a spinner is someone you bowl before a break, or when your state doesn’t want to pick a real spinner. His career first-class bowling average is 44.

Another example of a burgeoning malaise

Posted on 11/08/2008 in Australian cricket

Kumar Sarna, a talented opening batsman, holds a Victoria rookie contract and represented Australia at the Under-19 World Cup. But as Brendan McArdle explains in the Age, Sarna has returned to the land of his birth, India, to see what opportunities await him.

Two months ago, Sarna's dream was to play for Victoria, but a string of disappointing performances at club level have scuppered his hopes. Now, in the eyes of many, he is turning his back on a system that embraced him to search for an easier option in cricket's new land of milk and honey.

His move will not exactly shake the foundations of Australian cricket, but it reflects the ever-changing focus among many of our top players, as well as those on the levels below. In cricket's current climate, if a player isn't happy with his lot, he will seek opportunities elsewhere.

November 6, 2008

Financial crisis could jolt England's Ashes hopes

Posted on 11/06/2008 in English cricket

In his blog, Line and Length blog on Times Online, Patrick Kidd comes up with a very interesting theory, one which could harm England's prospects in next year's Ashes.

Kidd's Law of Economics part 1a: Australia always do well out of an economic crisis. Plus, Kidd's Law of Economics part 1b: There is nothing like a recession to stimulate the arrival of some all-time great Ozzie cricketer on the world stage. For some reason, they thrive on it. Maybe because there is nothing else to do during a depression than to become really good at cricket. Plus it depresses the English even more. So don't view their troubles in India as the beginning of a decline. Instead, be afraid that some new hero is about to emerge. Here's the evidence.

Here's one of the four example he offers to prove his theory:

1992 As if you needed any more proof for my "Australia flourishes in a recession" theory, I offer up Black Wednesday on September 16, when sterling collapsed and John Major had to pull us out of the ERM, costing Britain £3.4 million. A couple of days beforehand, a young spinner named Warne had just completed his first Test series for Australia in Sri Lanka and had not been all that effective. He was selected for the next summer's Ashes tour, however, and turned out OK in the long run.

So there you are, a theory that can be explained thus: unfulfilled Australian cricketer + economic crisis = All-time Aussie Hero + Demoralised Poms.

October 28, 2008

Graceless gibberish

Posted on 10/28/2008 in Australia in India 2008-09

Patrick Smith takes a dig at the Australians after their capitulation in Mohali. He believes Australia are in denial. Read his piece in the Australian.

Hayden, who has made 0, 13, 0, and 29, has said that he believes he has Zaheer Khan on the back foot. For the record the Australian opener has made 17 fewer runs than Zaheer...Hayden's diagnosis that Zaheer is on the point of a nervous breakdown is based on the bowler's abuse of him when the Australian was dismissed for 29 in the second innings of the second Test. Hayden apparently had brought Zaheer to this brink when he charged his first ball of the second innings. That the ball was mis-hit and looped dangerously close to mid-off was, it seems, a victory for Hayden and not the bowler.

Said Hayden: "Zaheer Khan has been put under pressure a lot by myself and Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) in all the tournaments we've played in one-dayers. I have also tried to emulate that when we've played Tests. I just feel he is vulnerable when he's like that."

Not only is it such graceless gibberish, it is also foolish.

October 26, 2008

Trouble and strife on tour

Posted on 10/26/2008 in Australian cricket

In his new autobiography True Colours, Adam Gilchrist, publicly acknowledges the damage caused on the 2005 Ashes tour by a rift between the players' wives and girlfriends. Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail thinks about how Australia might handle the return tour to England next year.

When the rift was detailed some time ago, Ricky Ponting described it as "absolute rubbish". It was a poor choice of words because it happened and he knew it. It is an issue Ponting must address before next year's Ashes tour or risk the tour becoming the same fractured fiasco it was in 2005.

Will Ponting prove a sensitive new-age captain who declares everyone is welcome all the time next year as was the case in England in 2005? Or will he adopt an Allan Border-style approach and declare an emerging team must have bonding time early in the tour and place wives and families off limits for a few weeks or more?

It is an issue that could make or break the tour. If Ponting goes the Border way he better put his flak jacket on. It is 19 years since Border banned wives from parts of the 1989 Ashes tour and at least one angry wife still chips him about the decision.

Where are the indigenous players?

Posted on 10/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn in the Australian looks at what Cricket Australia could do to encourage more participation from a wider group of cultural groups, including indigenous Australians. Conn speaks to Creagh O'Connor, the outgoing Cricket Australia chairman, who says he is disappointed with the progress being made in encouraging more indigenous players.

While some football codes, particularly the AFL, are heavily populated by indigenous players and those from post-war migrant families, cricket remains a defiantly Anglo game. Jason Gillespie, a descendant of the Kamilaroi people who once populated northern NSW, is the only Test player to publicly acknowledge his Aboriginal heritage, although Gillespie claims he is as much Greek as Aboriginal.

Neither the indigenous nor European migrant population has made any significant impact on Australian cricket. In an effort to spread its cultural base, Cricket Australia is taking indoor cricket under its ever burgeoning umbrella.

Tait tells of his troubles

Posted on 10/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Shaun Tait is back playing for South Australia after a self-imposed seven-month absence from all forms of the game. In his most extensive interview since walking away from cricket in January, Tait speaks to the Advertiser's Richard Earle about his struggles with the grind of international cricket.

Six years ago the gangly youngster was "having fun" with his mates playing C grade for Sturt. Fast forward to January this year, and he was living every young boy's dream as an international cricketer. But it was fast becoming Tait's nightmare – he had started "hating it".

He was starting to dread approaching the familiar glass of Adelaide's new airport terminal. Opening the car door meant queuing for yet another ticket, another tour, another hotel room and another dose of loneliness. Tait never went looking for cricketing stardom. The game's marketing gurus and Cricket Australia – armed with a lucrative contract – pursued him.

Instead of excitement about the next cricketing adventure there was regret at leaving his mates. "I was going to the airport for another tour and saying that I just want to stay here, I don't want to go. I just wanted to stay with them," recalled Tait.

October 18, 2008

'Balance just about right'

Posted on 10/18/2008 in Australian cricket

In an interview to David Sygall in the Sun-Herald, James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive, says cricket is booming at the grassroots in the country. He feels the ICC has got the balance right between Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s.

The CA board certainly argues that Test cricket should always be treated as the premium, prestige format and Test cricket is more popular in Australia now than it was a decade ago. However, it is not as popular in all other countries as it is here. Our view, which is reflected in the ICC approach, is that the long-term development of cricket should have Test and ODI predominating in the international cricket calendar, with Twenty20 cricket complementing that as a mainly state or equivalent level format with an appropriate but not disproportionate amount of international Twenty20 cricket. IPL is, for example, a state level competition in India and we play three Twenty20 internationals in our Australian summer, which I think is about right

.

October 12, 2008

The disappearing legacy of Shane Warne

Posted on 10/12/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Sun-Herald, Will Swanton wonders why Shane Warne has not left a legacy of young Australian legspinners.

Ricky Ponting missed Warne at the end of day two at Bangalore. Australia had posted 430. India needed to face 18 overs at the end of the day. In fading light. With chat-happy Australians in their ear. Fieldsmen crowding the bat. Warne would have come on almost immediately, taunting and teasing and turning the screws. White was not given a bowl.

Jenner's vision of a thousand 20-something Shane Warne impersonators now being in their prime has failed to become a reality in Australia, but it's happening elsewhere. Warne's impact was on world cricket, not just Australian cricket, and a few of his more memorable performances came in the northern hemisphere. Where are all the kids Warne inspired? Sadly, they're in England.

In the Sunday Age, Chloe Saltau meets Matt Johnston, the Western Australia allrounder who has overcome a heart condition, while Darren Berry considers the vast numbers of Australian domestic players who these days switch states at the drop of a hat.

October 8, 2008

Hughes aims to 'keep it simple'

Posted on 10/08/2008 in Australian cricket

Phillip Hughes, the 19-year-old New South Wales batsman, had an impressive debut season in 2007-08, and he is hoping to continue the good run this season. He talks to Martin Gibbes on foxsports.com.au about his first season for New South Wales, where he played alongside the likes of Simon Katich and Michael Clarke.

It was only a couple of years ago that you were watching these guys on television and, hopefully, one day you hope to get the opportunity to play with those guys, and it just happened to be. Now, I hope I can continue that for years to come.

We know what a great season Simon Katich had last season, breaking records left, right and centre, and I just happened to be in that side. It’s just the way he approaches the game, and his attitude to the game is nothing short of brilliant; no doubt I learnt a lot. Batting with those guys definitely lays off the pressure. It’s great to have a batsman at the other end like Simon Katich, Brad Haddin or Phil Jaques and, in the final, Michael Clarke; the list just keeps going on.

October 4, 2008

Siddle's call-up a sign of a new direction for Victorian cricket

Posted on 10/04/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Siddle's inclusion to Australia's Test squad to play four matches in India has given Victoria reason to believe more cricketers can emerge from that state, reports Lyall Johnson in the Age. Since the retirement of Damien Fleming in 2001 only Shane two Victorians have played Test cricket - the legend Shane Warne, who himself called it quits in 2007, and Brad Hodge, who managed six games.

Yet this summer, Victoria could have as many as seven players wearing Australian colours: Siddle, McGain and White — the latter called up yesterday — at Test level, with Hodge and David Hussey also in contention in either one-day international or Twenty-20. Further down the list, but still very much in the sights of the selectors, are West Australian recruit Chris Rogers, who has already played a Test match and all-rounder Andrew McDonald.

September 30, 2008

Eddie Gilbert finally gets his due

Posted on 09/30/2008 in Australian cricket

	Eddie Gilbert developed a unique style of fast bowling based on a whip-like wrist action © The Cricketer International

Few may have heard of Eddie Gilbert, an Aboriginal cricketer who once knocked the bat out of Don Bradman's hands. Thirty years after his death, Gilbert is finally getting recognition, with a life-size bronze statue at the Queensland Cricket Academy in Brisbane, to be unveiled next month. Kathy Marks writes in the Independent:

Gilbert developed a unique style of fast bowling, based on a whip-like wrist action, and stories about his prowess abounded. His blistering deliveries were said to raise smoke on a concrete pitch; one of his balls reportedly crashed through a picket fence and killed a small dog. Another struck a box of matches in the wicket-keeper's pocket and set them alight.

While such tales are probably apocryphal, Gilbert was a cricketer of remarkable ability - yet he was never selected to represent Australia. Few doubt that racism was to blame. This was an era when the movements of Aboriginal Queenslanders were controlled by white superintendents, whose permission had to be sought to move around, work, or even spend money. Gilbert, a quietly-spoken man, was not permitted to stay in the same hotels as his team-mates.

September 27, 2008

A notorious feud, an ugly sectarian conflict

Posted on 09/27/2008 in Australian cricket

Greg Growden's Jack Fingleton: The Man Who Stood Up To Bradman is not merely a biography of Fingleton, gutsy Test batsman and peerless cricket writer. It is an inside story of Australian cricket in the 1930s, which draws on new sources to explain how things really were inside the Australian dressing room then and, in particular, why Don Bradman alienated many of his teammates, writes Philip Derriman in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Growden approaches the issue from Fingleton's Catholic perspective, although it is worth noting that Growden himself is not a Catholic. One story he tells shows how rancorous an issue it was. During a match at the SCG, Bradman learned that Fingleton, who opened the batting, had had his bat sprinkled with holy water by a Catholic bishop. Fingleton was soon dismissed. As Bradman, the new batsman, passed Fingleton on his way to the middle, he said to him: "We'll see what a dry bat will do out there." Bradman scored a century.

September 26, 2008

The Don would not have approved

Posted on 09/26/2008 in Australian cricket

	The Don is surely the greatest, four runs or not © Getty Images

Mark Smit, in the Business Day, says the recent quest by a group of statisticians to find four more Test runs for Donald Bradman - in order to push his career average to 100 - would have been ridiculed by the Don himself.

Why did they find four runs and not a different number? Surely, in their rudimentary Australian way, they would have felt that finding more runs would make it all look just a little more kosher.

...

He was unquestionably a believer in the old cricket philosophy of “You win some, you lose some”. He would have understood, and accepted, that some scorecards got it wrong on the minus side and others got it wrong on the plus side.

He was asked a couple of times before his death what he felt about the intrusion of technology into a game that has built years of folklore on its fundamental characteristic — human error.

From the responses he gave, I felt he had profound misgivings about the technological advance, and the clinical, inflexible dimension it adds to cricket.

Warne remains a busy man

Posted on 09/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Shane Warne has just completed his new book in which he ranks the top 100 players of his time. Alyson Rudd of the Times finds that though Warne has retired, he has his hands full: looking after his kids, playing poker, and his commitments with Cricket Australia.

September 23, 2008

Where is Warne's legacy?

Posted on 09/23/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Australian, Malcolm Conn looks at Shane Warne's legacy - or lack of - among young legspinners.

Impressionable 10-year-olds in 1993 who saw the bleached blond leg-spinner bamboozle and bowl Mike Gatting with his first ball in a Test on English soil would now be 25. But there has been no procession of 25-year-olds charging to fill the breach. The rookie leg-spinner who landed in India today as part of Australia's 15-man touring squad, Bryce McGain, is just three years younger than Warne at 36.

So bare is the cupboard that McGain and the man he is set to replace in the Test side, Stuart MacGill, 37, are the only leggies who claimed more than nine wickets in the Sheffield Shield last season and just five managed to take a wicket at all.

September 16, 2008

Sorry Symonds says hardest word

Posted on 09/16/2008 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds wants to be a better team-mate © Getty Images

Andrew Symonds has apologised for his behaviour, which led to him being sent home from Darwin last month, and Alex Brown, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says the early signs are promising, but the true challenge lies ahead.

The allrounder spoke of his love for the game, desire to again reach its pinnacle and need to become a better team-mate. All positive signs. All that cricket fans wanted to hear.

But his team-mates will need more. For those who have contended with the mood shifts, brooding and occasional flash of temper since the Harbhajan Singh affair in January, nothing short of an attitude overhaul and a penitent heart will suffice. Symonds yesterday gave every indication his time in exile had impressed upon him the need to improve as a team-mate, as much as a player.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn is concerned it took two weeks for Symonds to reappear.

It's a welcome step that Symonds has decided to say sorry but just how much he means it will become obvious in the weeks and months ahead.

To see Symonds’ apology head to Fox Sports.

September 11, 2008

Bar row put Symonds on outer

Posted on 09/11/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Australian, Peter Lalor looks at a falling out between Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds in the Caribbean this year, a couple of months before Clarke was part of the leadership group that sent Symonds home from Darwin.

Symonds and vice-captain Michael Clarke were once as close as a Brisbane summer, they were cricket's most effective offside fielding team and got on well socially, but things have had a tendency to turn arctic of late.

The pair allegedly had a blow-up in a hotel bar in the West Indies. Clarke, the team's vice-captain and one of the more dedicated cricketers on or off the field, chipped Symonds one night when he found him drinking in the bar with former West Indies great Brian Lara.

He is said to have suggested that Symonds had better be in good shape to take the field the next day, a suggestion not taken in good humour.

Symonds blew up and the pair had a very heated argument. They later patched things up, but relations have again become strained with Clarke leading the charge to have the belligerent all-rounder sent home from Darwin last month and placed on notice about his cricketing future.

September 8, 2008

Threw & through

Posted on 09/08/2008 in Australian cricket

Trevor Chesterfield in the Island recalls a deeply rancorous incident on his first tour of Australia in 1963-64 - the Ian Meckiff no-balling episode in the first Test of the series.

Both teams went into that Gabba Test with some apprehension over Meckiff’s selection. However, judgment on his action was delayed until well into the second day after Australia, batting first, scored 435.

Umpire Egar was in little doubt after passing the first delivery without comment.

"No b-a-l-l!" came his call from square leg. The crowd went numb and a sick silence swept over them. Egar stood motionless. The Australian fielders, uncertain, looked at each other, unable to believe what was taking place.

September 7, 2008

Judging captain Clarke

Posted on 09/07/2008 in Australian cricket

	Michael Clarke had an eventful time in Darwin © Getty Images

Michael Clarke has completed his first full series in charge of Australia’s one-day team. In the Sydney Morning Herald Jamie Pandaram looks at Clarke’s leadership following an assignment that began with sending Andrew Symonds home.

Judging by hundreds of blog postings since Symonds' dismissal from the team camp in Darwin, Clarke has accomplished little to boost his ego. Rather, punters wrote, he needs to explain his actions, describing the 27-year-old as a Cricket Australia clone and ruthlessly ambitious leader-in-the-wings, among other critiques ...

It's hard to imagine Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting having divided the public so early in their tenures, yet the differences between Clarke and any previous captain are so pronounced. The ear-bling, tattoos, cheeky on-field banter, right-handed batting and left-handed bowling, famous model for a fiancee and multimillion-dollar endorsements make him an ideal candidate for jealousy and criticism. Clarke won't flinch at blogs or public disapproval; he is known for delivering verbal barbs at team-mates and would expect nothing less in return.

September 6, 2008

Fishing issue keeps biting Symonds

Posted on 09/06/2008 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds remains under the microscope © AFP

It’s been a week dominated by Andrew Symonds’ fishing trip and in the Herald Sun Ron Reed examines the allrounder’s behaviour.

While he has freely offered his own evidence that he's also a bit of a dill - his autobiography contains a chapter devoted to team-mates relating stories about his various faux pas - there is a streak of something more unpleasant, too. Since his elevation to stardom, which was a long time happening, he seems to believe he's a law unto himself. Turning up drunk for a match in England three years ago suggested that, and ignoring last week's meeting underscores it.

The Daily Telegraph’s Rebecca Wilson says Symonds has become too big for his boots and too bigheaded for his baggy green.

Old throwing saga remains unresolved

Posted on 09/06/2008 in Australian cricket

The death of Col Egar means one of Australian cricket's greatest controversies will remain a mystery, Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian.

A strong and straightforward character and a highly respected umpire, he is best remembered for no-balling Ian Meckiff four times in his opening over on December 7 1963, during the first Test against South Africa in Brisbane, ending Meckiff's career. Conspiracy theories abounded that Meckiff, who had not played a Test for almost three years, was the victim of a set-up involving Donald Bradman, who was ACB chairman at the time.

September 5, 2008

Where have all the Aussie icons gone?

Posted on 09/05/2008 in Australian cricket

They may be winning pretty handsomely in their top-end tour against Bangladesh, but Australia's cricketers aren't exactly quickening the pulse at the moment - which is a concern to Philip Derriman of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Star quality among cricketers - most easily defined as the ability to rise above the performance level of mere mortals - is fairly rare. Only a handful of Australian players has had it since cricket was first televised here.

People old enough to have seen him bat would say Norm O'Neill had it. Doug Walters certainly had it. You always felt when he arrived at the crease that he might do something out of the ordinary.

Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, in his heyday, had star quality too, and to some extent so did Mark Waugh. More recently, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist both had it, but they're out of the picture.

Which leaves who? Nobody really.

September 4, 2008

A contest with plenty at stake

Posted on 09/04/2008 in Indian cricket

In his blog on the Guardian website, Dileep Premachandran looks at Australia A's tour to India and says it's unlike other similar contests, with many players in with a chance to make it the to the face-off between the senior sides later in the year.

A team games not involving Hannibal, BA Baracus, Murdock and Face tend to be pretty mundane affairs. Fans weaned on a steady diet of international cricket tend to treat them as a Premier League supporter does a League One game, and the players themselves are motivated by different things. For the young and ambitious teenager, it's a chance to press his claim to be the next Tendulkar, Ponting or Wasim. These days though, with U-19 games and tournaments so common, many of these tyros take the escalator straight to the top, ignoring the A team staircase altogether. For most on the wrong side of 25, unless you're an Australian with the initials MEKH, the A team call-up is usually a sop, a reward for steady domestic performances for those who lack the X-factor that separates the merely good from the exceptional.

Don Bradman: the serious Australian

Posted on 09/04/2008 in Australian cricket

	Don Bradman: More English than the English? © Getty Images

In the August edition of the the Monthly, an Australian magazine, Gideon Haigh takes an in-depth look at the career of Don Bradman. Some of the issues the essay investigates are Bradman's early cricket in Bowral, how his attitudes "faithfully reflect the deeply English roots of Australia's sporting culture", his skirmishes with the Australian board, his views on Bodyline, and his anxiety about his financial security.

Still the most compelling aspect of the legend is The Average. One hundred is not the maximum possible arithmetic mean score in cricket, but 99.94, with its tincture of human fallibility, its hint of Oulipian constraint, could not have been more exquisitely contrived. To a generation addicted to measurement and saturated in numbers, The Average is monolithic, unassailable, totemic.

Yet by The Average, it would seem, are we largely to know him. There is a certain comfort in calling Bradman great and leaving it at that; there is a certain contrarian glee, too, in deeming him an old dead guy, especially given his unwitting implication in the Howard ascendancy, and the unevolving bien-pensant snobbery about sport. If only he'd been less popular, one is left to conclude, Bradman might have occasioned deeper interest.

September 3, 2008

Where did it all go wrong for Symonds?

Posted on 09/03/2008 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds' experience in an Adelaide courtroom was not a fulfilling one © Getty Images

Alex Brown, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, goes back to January to find the start of Andrew Symonds’ problems, which culminated in him being sent home from Australia’s one-day series in Darwin.

To this day, Symonds has not forgiven Cricket Australia for what transpired in an Adelaide federal courtroom eight months ago. It was there that Symonds and three team-mates were convinced by CA to downgrade a charge of racial abuse against Harbhajan Singh to one of mere verbal abuse - a ploy the Australian players were advised would help ensure a lengthy suspension after the Monkeygate scandal, but one which eventually resulted in Harbhajan escaping sanction altogether.

Harbahjan's reprieve infuriated Symonds, who felt abandoned by administrators he felt were more interested in kow-towing to the influential Indian board than protecting their own. Sources within the Australian team say Symonds has refused all of CA's subsequent attempts to appease him, and the lingering resentment has fuelled his deteriorating attitude to work.

What should Symonds do? The Courier-Mail asks six experts, starting with the former Australia coach John Buchanan.

The winner of a competition to go fishing with Symonds in Darwin will still get the prize, according to AAP’s Adam Cooper.

Tait relates to Symonds stress

Posted on 09/03/2008 in Australian cricket

	Shaun Tait says there is nothing wrong with taking a break © Getty Images

Shaun Tait went fishing to recover from his mental and physical exhaustion and he tells Malcolm Conn in the Australian he expects Andrew Symonds to do the same. Symonds is deciding what to do with his future after being sent home from Australia’s series with Bangladesh for wetting a line instead of attending a team meeting.

While their circumstances are different, Tait can relate to the pressure and stresses of international cricket which forced him to walk away from the game in January physically and mentally exhausted. "Symo has played a hell of a lot of cricket over the last few years and he's often played with injuries," Tait said.

"He's got a massive profile in Australia, which obviously puts him under a fair bit of pressure and last summer he copped a fair bit of flak, so it's probably put him off a bit. I'm sure he'll be right. Maybe a couple of months off will be exactly what he needs.

"If you're in that bad a place mentally and with your cricket, there's nothing wrong with having a bit of a break if you're seriously not with it. I'm sure there are enough players around to fill spots.”

Private Hussey hopes for public Tests

Posted on 09/03/2008 in Australian cricket

David Hussey says he’s “a very dull, private person”. But he tells the Sydney Morning Herald’s Jamie Pandaram of his exciting aim.

Three games into his international one-day career, Hussey is already thinking three steps ahead towards a baggy green cap and is motivated by the perception he lacks the temperament for the longer form of the game. "Nothing is going to stop me playing Test cricket, and it doesn't matter what anybody says.”

September 2, 2008

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to ... Symonds

Posted on 09/02/2008 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds is "angry and hurt" © Getty Images

In a wide-ranging article on player behaviour in sport, the Daily Telegraph's Tom Smithies looks at Andrew Symonds’ attitude following his fishing trip in Darwin.

You also have to laugh when someone such as Symonds, having broken his team's rules, then asks the world to "respect my privacy" as he contemplates walking away from the preposterous earnings and opportunities that elite sportsmen are granted. Teams require their members to respect each other, if no one else, and if you don't play by house rules then disharmony is sewn faster than onion weed.

In the Symonds case consider the words of Michael Clarke, vice-captain of the Australian team and for rather longer a close friend to the all-rounder. Their history counted for little when Clarke questioned Symonds' attitude and his commitment and spoke of things that Symonds wasn't fulfilling. A lack, in short, of respect.

The Australian’s Malcolm Conn says the decision to send Symonds home probably saved the allrounder from himself. Conn also talks about Symonds’ “moody side”.

Having travelled to all of cricket's most difficult and dangerous locations over the past two decades I have only felt physically threatened twice. One was when a guard outside the palatial residence of Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe, which is across the road from the cricket ground in Harare, held me up at bayonet point while two army officers interrogated me for 20 minutes. The other was when Symonds saw me in a bar during the 2004 Sri Lanka tour and shaped up before team security grabbed him and moved him on.

Jamie Pandaram, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, reports Symonds is considering quitting and is "angry, hurt and embarrassed".

In the India-based Daily News and Analysis, Stephen Gray the co-author of Roy: Going For Broke, tells Vijay Tagore of Symonds' passion for fishing, a childhood hobby.

“I’ve no doubt how he would spend his superannuation. He will have a house near the sea and will buy a good fishing boat. He will also go swimming and farming but fishing will be his primary activity after he has done away with cricket.”

September 1, 2008

Perfectionist Hussey wants to lose 'battle' tag

Posted on 09/01/2008 in Australian cricket

Michael Hussey, the man with the second best sustained average in Test history, underwent a critical assessment of his batting in the off-season so his time at the crease wasn’t such a “battle”. Adam Cooper, from AAP, talks to Hussey about the changes in technique.

"To be honest I feel like my batting's been a real battle for two years," he said. "I've just been sort of hanging in there and grinding away and it feels like every innings has been a real vigil and it didn't feel like I could play a lot of shots with a lot of power or conviction."

August 31, 2008

Symonds situation leaves Australia in limbo for India

Posted on 08/31/2008 in Australian cricket

	Six weeks on the road would test Andrew Symonds © Getty Images

Jon Pierik, writing in the Herald Sun, wonders about the options for Australia’s tour of India in October if Andrew Symonds is not there.

With Symonds now contemplating his future in the wake of the embarrassing fishing fiasco in Darwin, Australia's national selectors will have to at least discuss other options ahead of naming the touring squad in a fortnight. Even if Symonds does make himself available, it's questionable whether he will be in the right frame of mind to deal with six strenuous weeks on the road.

Meanwhile, Clayton Murzello in the Mid-Day recounts other instances of player indiscipline, with Doug Walters featuring prominently.

Symonds lets down his best mates

Posted on 08/31/2008 in Australian cricket

Andrew Symonds' latest indiscretion is a major letdown for one of his best mates, Michael Clarke, writes Jon Pierik in the Sunday Mail.

Clarke is not only a young, inexperienced captain who shouldn't have to put up with disciplinary issues, he is also the man who twice has tried to save Symonds through his tumultuous career. On the 2006 South African tour, it was Clarke - six years younger than Symonds - who quelled a potential fight between Symonds and a Cheetahs rugby union player in Cape Town nightclub Hemisphere.

And it was Clarke on the 2005 Ashes tour who did his best to sober up Symonds after his now infamous alcohol-fuelled march around Cardiff nightclubs on the eve of Australia's one-day match against Bangladesh.

Ben Dorries writes in the Sunday Telegraph that Symonds' attitude has become so poor that there is no guarantee he will want to come back into the Australia team.

The Queenslander, who these days carries himself with such an arrogant swagger that even his team-mates sometimes shake their heads, has become too big for his boots. Symonds treats just about everyone with disdain - rival players, journalists, his employers and even some of his team-mates.

August 30, 2008

Olympic dream lacks reality

Posted on 08/30/2008 in Australian cricket

Ron Reed, the Herald Sun columnist, looks at Ricky Ponting’s push for cricket at the Olympics and says at this stage he is talking through his baggy green hat.

It is far from inevitable given that the game has little or no traction in Europe, North and South America and most of Africa, and that team sports are being dumped rather than recruited - ask baseball and softball. There is also the matter of priorities - soccer and tennis, among others, are regarded by many to be out of place at the Olympics because they have bigger fish to fry. The same argument applies to golf's regular attempts to crash the party.

August 27, 2008

A century on, Bradman’s birthday remains a big hit

Posted on 08/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	It's party time for the schoolchildren in Bowral © Getty Images

How did parts of Australia celebrate the 100th anniversary of Don Bradman’s birth? There were lunches, dinners, speeches, toasts, stories and birthday cake.

In Bowral schoolchildren played on the same oval Bradman did towards the start of last century. "I look up to him when I am playing, not just for cricket but to show that if you persevere, anything can happen," the 12-year-old Luther Canute told the Australian.

Paul Kent, writing in the Daily Telegraph, reports on Ricky Ponting’s delivery of the Bradman Oration in Sydney.

Ponting underlined his standing not just in the game but as an Australia captain by becoming the first active cricketer to deliver the Bradman Oration. He delivered his 30-minute speech deliberately without notes, for he wanted his message to come from the heart. All it needed was a lifetime of experiences, and he pitched it perfectly ...

Ponting told how a man named Bradman opened a new world of international cricket to him. Most of all, he spoke not about the legend of Bradman, but of the legacy and the responsibility his legacy demands.

Cricket's Superman had human frailties

Posted on 08/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	Schoolchildren cut a cake on Don Bradman's 100th birthday © Getty Images

While the world honours the birth centenary of Don Bradman, an old article by Ian Chappell reappears in the Hindustan Times, in which he talks about his fight with the Don.

As captain, I found it frustrating you couldn’t have a discussion with Bradman. If you had a varying opinion to his that was the end of the matter; it was closed not in the manner of finishing a book but more like a door slamming in your face. Once you’d put your case he countered with the perennial, “No son, we can’t do that,” delivered in his distinctive high- pitched tone, as was the harangue that followed and then the meeting was over. His attitude toward the Australian players’ requests for better pay was extremely disappointing in view of the battles he had with the authorities over similar issues when he was playing.

Bradman is as great without the four runs that would give him a Test average of 100, writes Ayaz Memon in the DNA. In the same paper, Vijay Tagore recalls a trip to the Don's locality during India's last tour to the country.

Was Bradman just born special?

Posted on 08/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	Nature or nurture? © Wisden Cricket Monthly

Philip Derriman, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, tries to find out what made Bradman so special.

It is the one question about Bradman that continues to fascinate. Few people today could care less about the various controversies that surrounded him during his lifetime. Whether he leaked this or that story to the press. Whether he was anti-Catholic. Whether he disliked Bill O'Reilly as much as O'Reilly disliked him.

But many people remain extremely interested in how, statistically, he managed to be almost twice as good as the next best. What was his secret? Physical talent? Mental strength? Or was he in some indefinable way, as Geoff Boycott wondered, just born special?

The Australian’s Peter Lalor considers whether Bradman’s incredible innings will ever end. “Even now he bats and bats and bats ...”

In the BBC, England's Alec Bedser recalls his encounters with Bradman, both on and off the field. He speaks of how Bradman shunned publicity and disowned the friends who auctioned off memorabilia and letters.

"He used to write me letters. Some people would try to sell them, but I never could betray a confidence and never told anyone what he said. I know Donnie. He wouldn't think much of some of the people who have tried to sell letters he wrote to them. It's terrible, I think, and that was his point immediately. He says 'I've finished with you', that's what his reaction would be, unless they sold them for charity. He wouldn't have minded that so much.

Continue reading "Was Bradman just born special?"

August 25, 2008

Reverse-swing’s myth and mystery

Posted on 08/25/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, has a look at what it takes to master the "dark art" of reverse-swing bowling. Mints, scuffing and finger nails are discussed.

No two experts agree on how to make the ball reverse-swing or why it reverses. It's a mystery, a sleight of hand that unsettles many because they don't understand it.

Chloe Saltau, in the Age, feels Trescothick's crime is no less dastardly than the catalogue of ball-tampering offences through cricket history, but nor is it any easier to stamp out.

At the time, there were whispers that the English were doing something to the ball, but no one, certainly no one in the Australian camp, was prepared to go public for fear of it appearing like sour grapes. One figure close to the Australian team even cottoned onto the fact that the ball always went back to the bowler through Trescothick, but only now, three years later from the sanctuary of retirement, does the full extent of his misdemeanour become clear.

Outstanding resourcefulness Marcus is my response! I have no problem with mint condition swing bowling. By the way - did England forget the brand name this summer? writes Mike Haysman on Supercricket. He also explains how balls are often tampered with in American football.

Why Bradman reigns as greatest ever sportsman

Posted on 08/25/2008 in Australian cricket

There will never be another Don Bradman, but that will not stop the quest to find one, Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent.

It is irksome that Bradman will always stand alone, of course, because, as Bolt showed so marvellously, we want to improve on those who came before without at all deriding their achievements. That is the fun. But all studies of Bradman – and they are by now countless – point to his uniqueness.

Bradman’s hero status was not restricted to sport and Corrie Perkin, the Australian’s national arts writer, looks at the events that will mark the centenary of his birth on Wednesday.

Following a plaque unveiling at the Bowral Primary School where the cricket legend used the bell-post as a makeshift wicket, students will walk to the Bradman Oval and form a giant human "100" on the grass. They will then sing Happy Birthday and Our Don Bradman before tucking into birthday cake.

August 23, 2008

The Don's finest declaration

Posted on 08/23/2008 in Australian cricket

In the lead-up to the 100th anniversary of Don Bradman’s birth, his biographer Roland Perry looks back in the Age at how Bradman, as chairman of the Australian Cricket Board, handled the issue of playing against South Africa in the apartheid era.

He flew to South Africa to meet the prime minister of the republic, John Vorster, a former wartime political extremist who supported and admired the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Vorster welcomed Bradman, believing he would support the cricket tour. But the meeting turned sour. Bradman asked questions in his direct way about why black people had not been given a chance to represent their country. Vorster suggested that they were intellectually inferior and could not cope with the intricacies of cricket. Bradman laughed at this.

"Have you ever heard of Garry Sobers?" he asked. Bradman flew on to the UK to meet former British prime minister Harold Wilson and the incumbent, Ted Heath, and returned to Australia with his mind made up.

In the same paper, Charles Davis scours old scorebooks searching for an extra four runs that would give Bradman the Test average of 100.

Australia-South Africa has been compromised

Posted on 08/23/2008 in Australian cricket

	How will Brett Lee cope with three Tests in three weeks? © Getty Images

In the Age, Brendan McArdle writes of his concern at the decision to delay this year's Perth Test to allow a window for the inaugural Champions League.

Consecutive Melbourne and Sydney Tests are a feature of the cricketing calendar, but this is something else again. There are only four days between Perth and Melbourne and three between Melbourne and Sydney. How can Brett Lee be expected to come through that unscathed? How will emerging South African pace bowler Dale Steyn cope? Australia has got through these situations in the past only because of a certain leg-spinner.

The big losers will be the South Africans, who, like all touring teams, will not have the player options available to the locals. Cricket Australia will justify its decision by pointing to an almost identical itinerary on South Africa's previous tour here three years ago. But that series, as this one surely will be, was hopelessly compromised; in the end Ricky Ponting helped himself to twin centuries in Sydney as the South Africans desperately searched for fit bowlers.

August 11, 2008

Michael Clarke: vice-captain in summer, skier in winter

Posted on 08/11/2008 in Australian cricket

What does Australia’s vice-captain do in the winter? Head for the snow, of course. The Daily Telegraph reports on Michael Clarke’s ski trip to Mt Hotham.

August 6, 2008

Olympics would be awesome - Ponting

Posted on 08/06/2008 in Australian cricket

Ricky Ponting has achieved many things even A-list cricketers can only dream of, but he joins the Olympic buzz by saying he cannot think of anything better than his sport being part of the Games. In his column in the Australian he pitches for a chance at gold.

I know my time will be well and truly past if it was to happen. It's probably a couple of generations of players away. But the fact that teams from Australia or India or China or the US could be playing cricket in the Olympic Games is an awesome thought.

If you’re interested in seeing Ponting’s new baby Emmy, head to the Daily Telegraph.

Steve Waugh will be at the Olympics as a mentor for the Australian team and he talks to Wayne Smith about gamesmanship, body language, athletes’ fears and beating England.

Asked about England's intention to turn the medal tally tussle with Australia into the Olympic equivalent of the Ashes, Waugh suggested "they might find they get the same result".

August 5, 2008

Olympic flame may douse player drain

Posted on 08/05/2008 in Australian cricket

The lure of an Olympic medal could help Australia avoid losing teenage cricketers to the football codes, Jamie Pandaram writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Adam Gilchrist, who floated the idea of Twenty20 at the 2020 Games, was mobbed by school children during an appearance in Sydney on Tuesday, the Daily Telegraph reports.

"I thought this kind of stuff only happens in India," Gilchrist said as he signed caps and shirts. "I haven't been out of the game that long, but it's nice to think I haven't been forgotten."

August 2, 2008

Bradmans seek damages from law firm

Posted on 08/02/2008 in Australian cricket

The solicitors of the late Donald Bradman's son, John, have initiated proceedings in the Supreme Court of South Australia, seeking damages from the law firm Allens Arthur Robinson. Click here to read Gideon Haigh's report on the case in the Australian.

The essence of the complaint is that Allens, while serving the foundation, disregarded \Bradman's repeated instructions that his heirs and successors enjoy right of veto over the foundation's commercial uses of the Bradman name.

The family's disenchantment with the foundation briefly became public three years ago when the foundation licensed food company Unibic to market Bradman Chocolate Chip Cookies in India.

The family described Bradman as "a loved and missed family member, not a brand name like Mickey Mouse". A foundation spokesman at the time counterclaimed that it had "full confidence that he would happily have approved of the venture", and an inconclusive mediation ensued at the end of 2006.

A meeting with the legend

Posted on 08/02/2008 in Australian cricket

	Doug Walters played 75 Tests for Australia © Bob Thomas/Getty Images

Peter Lalor of the Australian catches up with Doug Walters, the popular batsman from the 70s, who, as always, lives life to the fullest

The "new Bradman", the almost-mythical Dungog Doug, can be found most days in the front bar of the Great Northern. Bent over a beer, one eye on the horses and another on the cricket, he is rendered almost anonymous in the monochromatic half-light.

The locals call him "Freddie" and he engages in easy, quiet banter with them about the comings and goings of life at the village well. There's no aura or pretensions here. He doesn't hold court at the pub near his home in northern Sydney, just beer and languid conversation.

Phar Lap, the people's champion, is preserved behind glass in the Melbourne Museum. In much the same way Doug Walters, the larrikin cricketer, is preserved behind a beer glass at the pub, in situ, as it were.

You can pay homage during the extended visiting hours, but speak quietly and please don't touch the display.

July 20, 2008

Warne still the best

Posted on 07/20/2008 in Australian cricket

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Shane Warne talks about the Indian Premier League experience and captaincy, his family and his views on Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and sledging. He reveals what he told Paul Collingwood during the Ashes in 2006-07.

“I will tell you exactly what I said. He was ripping into me, saying stuff, so I said, ‘Mate, you’re actually making me concentrate, so thanks for that’. He kept going, so I hit back. ‘Paul, tell me, are you embarrassed about your MBE? Don’t you think you should send it back? You’ve played one Test match in the Ashes, made seven and 10. I mean, mate, I would be embarrassed if I were you. But if you do send it back, I’ll pay for the envelope and the stamp’. He went pretty quiet after that. Sledging is actually made out to be more than it is and 10 years ago it was far worse. Now there are too many cameras, too much super slo-mo, and the players have to be politically correct.”

July 16, 2008

Sheffield Shield makes a comeback

Posted on 07/16/2008 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn welcomes the return of the Sheffield Shield, which he finds refreshing in an age where crass commercialism have taken over tradition and history. He says in the Australian:

Nine years after the state four-day competition became the Pura Cup, much to the chagrin of cricket lovers around the country, Cricket Australia has found a sponsor which does not want to put its name at the front of the award.

...

State captains were lined up for a promotional photograph with yoghurt smeared across their top lip to make it look like they had been drinking milk.

"I felt like I was committing treason," then Victorian captain Paul Reiffel confided later.

Meanwhile, Maddy Hogan, who has represented Victoria at under-17 and 19 level despite a congenital limb deformity on her left arm, will also feature in 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Read more on the Cricket Australia website.

July 10, 2008

Cricket Australia's AFL-style mediation plan

Posted on 07/10/2008 in Australian cricket

Chloe Saltau, in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Cricket Australia (CA) is lobbying for an AFL-style mediation plan to resolve racial disputes before the ICC.

The AFL is considered a world leader in confronting racial vilification, and won a United Nations award for the code established after Essendon champion Michael Long reacted to Collingwood's Damian Monkhorst racially abusing him in 1995. Since then, the first step in resolving incidents of racial abuse has been for the two players to attend a mediation session. If that fails, the matter proceeds to the AFL Tribunal.

Cricket Australia is advocating a similar system, in which mediation would ideally be confidential, and prosecution a last resort. The ICC is understood to have been unconvinced, but CA is determined to keep pushing for a less combative process that, in the first instance, aims for the offender to understand why a particular remark is unacceptable.

July 1, 2008

A labour of love

Posted on 07/01/2008 in Australian cricket

	Shaun Marsh bats with his special gloves © Getty Images

Alex Brown of the Sydney Morning Herald reveals Shaun Marsh's source of inspiration.

Should Marsh find himself short of inspiration, he need only glance at his batting gloves. There, scrawled in black marker pen, is the word "Chemo" - a reference to the bond he has forged with several young cancer patients in Perth.

For more than a year Marsh has worked with "The Chemo Club", a joint initiative between Aspire Gym and SolarisCare which encourages those undergoing chemotherapy to exercise in a bid to help their recovery. Justin Langer also has close ties to the group.

For Marsh the simple five-letter message on his gloves serves not only as a tribute to the kids with whom he is particularly close, but also as a source of inspiration. "To me it just keeps things in perspective," Marsh said. "No matter how hard I might think I have it, I only have to look at the gloves and that message and think about what they're going through, and know that what I face is really nothing."

June 28, 2008

Hussey vs Hussey

Posted on 06/28/2008 in Australian cricket

Alex Brown of the Sydney Morning Herald catches up with the Hussey brothers, Michael and David, and reveals that they were competitive even as children.

The Husseys make no attempt to sugar-coat the situation. As children, adolescents and even young adults, the brothers didn't care much for each other. Acerbity and antagonism marked their relationship. The Bradys, they weren't.

"I just felt as a kid everything was competitive - in the backyard, playing cards , playing dice, whatever," Michael said. "I'd generally lose my temper, because he'd try to bend the rules a bit, and I'd try to drive him into the dirt. We weren't friends, definitely not. I just saw him as the enemy and had to win. And he was much the same coming from the other way."

Michael does not use the term "enemy" flippantly. The older and more naturally gifted of the brothers, Michael viewed David not so much a brother, but an opportunity to flex his athletic superiority. And for David, Michael represented a figure to be defeated by any means necessary, underhanded or otherwise.

Brown also meets Andrew Symonds, who talks about how he tries to deal with being a celebrity, as well as his cricketing prowess. Click here to read the article.

June 26, 2008

Grenada prepares for more hostile invaders

Posted on 06/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Alex Brown takes a drive around Grenada, which is hosting the second Australia-West Indies ODI on Friday, and writes in the Sydney Morning Herald of an island of struggle – “a land witness to many a hostile invader”.

At Carib's Leap, a sheer cliff face on the north coast, a memorial has been erected to the band of 40 Carib Indians who, having been cornered by French colonisers in 1651, jumped to their deaths rather than surrendered. Further south, Grenadians of an older vintage sit around the foreshore of Carneage Harbour and regale tourists with tales of the US invasion of 1983.

Still, there is a more obvious example of Grenada's struggles with an invasionary force, albeit a meteorlogical one. A stroll around the bustling capital of St George's reveals a city still recovering from Hurricane Ivan, which pulverised the island on September 7, 2004. Even now, almost four years on, buildings lie in rubble, churches remain gutted and rooves are in disrepair. The winds may have eased, but the battle remains ongoing for the locals.

Border's baggy green up for sale

Posted on 06/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Allan Border’s baggy green is being auctioned in Melbourne and it’s expected to fetch around AUS$20000. Phillip Derriman has the full story in the Sydney Morning Herald:

This would be a bit higher than the recent going rate for baggy greens, but, given that it is reportedly the first of Border's baggy greens to go on sale, the price may well be realised. When and how this status was achieved is the subject of an interesting new book, The Baggy Green, co-written by Michael Fahey and Mike Coward.

A table in the book listing baggy green sale prices year by year suggests that collectors have lately been attaching almost as much value to the baggy green as the players who wear it. Average prices have shot up in the past few years, although no recent sale has come close to matching the $425,000 paid five years ago for Don Bradman's 1948 baggy green.

June 25, 2008

Goodbye Jane McGrath

Posted on 06/25/2008 in Australian cricket

	Glenn McGrath with his children at his wife's memorial service © Getty Images

Australia farewelled Jane McGrath in Sydney today, with Glenn McGrath wiping away tears and his children blowing bubbles, according to news.com.au. Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden were among the players to pay their respects.

To see the photos of what happened outside the service go here.

June 23, 2008

An English rose who inspired