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

Posted on 06/23/2008 in Australian cricket

Writing in the Courier Mail, Robert Craddock shares his memories on the relationship between Glenn McGrath and his wife, Jane, who succumbed to cancer yesterday.

Once on a South African tour, Glenn made her heart melt when he told her how lonely he was and how much he was missing her. "And I've gone into the kitchen and put the kettle on and put the news on, and the sport was on," Jane said. "And there he is coming down this water chute in his swimmers with his arms in the air going 'wooohooohooo' and I could have absolutely killed him. "I rang him straight back and said: 'I'd hate to see you when you're happy if that's depressed'. He hasn't done that again."

... "I've decided to take up the piano and learn one song . . . for Jane," said McGrath, who later bought his own piano.The song was Richard Marx's heart-tugging melody Right Here Waiting For You.A cold, ruthless fast-bowling enforcer on the field, McGrath had a soft, romantic touch beyond the boundary when it came to his wife and family.

Also, have a look at a 2004 Enough Rope interview where Jane and Glenn McGrath spoke of how they met and dealt with the devastating news of her being diagnosed with cancer.

You met in 1995. When you first met, did the sparks fly?

Glenn McGrath: Yes. Sort of think back to a few years ago now. A nice little nightclub in Hong Kong called Joe Bananas. We've often thought about heading back there sometime, it was an interesting place to meet, to say the least. But, some good memories.

... Jane McGrath: ... We were walking through Cronulla, and people were shouting, "Hey, Glenn," and "Oooh, ah," and I thought, "God, he's a popular chap. He's got lots of mates." And that was the bit... I just thought he was a popular bloke, had a lot of friends, and then we went to a friend of his that were having a barbecue, and the girl said, "So, what's it like going out with Glenn McGrath?" And I said, "What's it like going out with your boyfriend?" And she goes, "Yeah, but Jane, Glenn's a superstar!" And I was just dumbstruck. I said, "What do you mean, a 'superstar'? I said, "Like Ryan Giggs?" He's a soccer player in the UK. And she's, "Jane, Glenn's as famous as Robert De Niro." Which he's never let me forget!

June 22, 2008

Casson not in the same league as predecessors

Posted on 06/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	Beau Casson claimed overall figures of 3 for 129 on his Test debut © AFP

Steve James, writing in the Sunday Telegaph, thinks Beau Casson, Australia's latest spinner is not in the league of his fellow country who bowled left-arm chinamen before his arrival.

Much about Casson is ordinary. Take his character. He might appear to possess potential for the mad professor look when older, but he is certainly no eccentric like so many others to have plied his trade. Think of the dark, reclusive Michael Bevan, whom England coach Peter Moores struggled to deal with in his early years at Sussex, or the hyperactive Brad Hogg. Or even, from a bygone era, 'Chuck' Fleetwood-Smith, who ended up living under a bridge. By contrast Casson is what the Australians call 'a good kid'.

Sadly his bowling is also ordinary. As Australia's newest wrist spin bowler, the designated successor of recent retiree Stuart MacGill, Casson made his debut in the recently concluded final Test against the West Indies in Barbados. He was not particularly impressive. Dwayne Bravo took a particular fancy to him and match figures of 32-4-129-3 tell a humdrum story. That can only be good news for England ahead of next year's Ashes.

June 16, 2008

Pointers from the Caribbean

Posted on 06/16/2008 in Australian cricket

The battle for the Frank Worrell Trophy has been one to savour, writes Alex Brown in the Age.

The timing of a contest between a West Indies side climbing off the pavement and an Australian side descending from its peak has proven ideal, providing three competitive Tests, each of which has progressed deep into the fifth day. For both sides, the events of the past month have provided cause for concern and optimism.

In the West Indies' case, the positivity that has surrounded each strong performance has been partially offset by the team's admitted over-reliance on Shivnarine Chanderpaul. And for the Australians, the success of the realigned batting line-up continues to be overshadowed by anxieties over the third seamer and spin-bowling positions.

Beau Casson’s first Test and maiden wicket are reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald.

June 15, 2008

Back-to-back hundreds might not save Katich

Posted on 06/15/2008 in Australian cricket

	In form and in danger: Simon Katich © AFP

Simon Katich is in danger of making history by being dropped following consecutive Test centuries, Alex Brown writes in the Age.

Percy McDonnell, in the 1880s, is believed to be the only batsman to be demoted immediately after posting hundreds in consecutive Tests, and that was because of a contractual dispute. Katich, however, could join him if, as expected, Matthew Hayden recovers from his achilles injury and resumes his place atop the order for Australia's tour of India in October.

After his century in the same innings in Barbados, Phil Jaques talks in the Sydney Morning Herald about the success of laser eye surgery.

June 14, 2008

Invincible memories live on

Posted on 06/14/2008 in Australian cricket

It’s the 60th anniversary for the Invincibles and the Sunday Herald Sun speaks to the four surviving members from the unbeaten tour. Arthur Morris remembers the stunning Leeds victory; Neil Harvey left Australia with a borrowed bat and no pads; Ron Hamence was the squad’s best singer; and Sam Loxton says the only team meeting happened on the ship before they arrived.

For more on the tour go here.

Don't judge Casson by his numbers ... yet

Posted on 06/14/2008 in Australian cricket

	Beau Casson © Getty Images

The figures don’t look good for Beau Casson in his first Test for Australia, but Alex Brown says in the Sun-Herald it was a promising performance.

Save for a pair of catches - one a spectacular, diving effort to remove the West Indies captain Chris Gayle - the rookie spinner had little to show for his day in the field, finishing with an unflattering 0-43 from seven overs.

But delve a little deeper, and there are signs that Casson is capable of performing at the elite level.

Doug Walters used to have a small stand named after him at the SCG, but with the construction of the new Victor Trumper Stand all he gets is a room. Walters’ wife tells the Sun-Herald the family is not happy.

June 13, 2008

Baggy greens go to the highest bidder

Posted on 06/13/2008 in Australian cricket

	Steve Waugh loves his baggy green © Getty Images

A new book covering the history of the baggy green is being released. In the Australian Peter Lalor takes a look at the developments, from Victor Trumper’s skull hat to the Waugh-era cap worshippers, and sees how much the items are selling for at auctions.

Allan Border is as surprised as anyone to learn that his baggy green cap is being hocked by an auction house with an asking price of between A$10,000 and $15,000. "Mine?" he says. "There's no way I would sell any of that stuff."

Border has his first baggy green framed and guarded. It is a precious item to him and he would never let it go, but the auction house is selling one along with scores of other items from what is titled The Allan Border collection, including numerous state caps. The baggy green being sold is almost certainly his too.

June 12, 2008

Haddin plays through the pain

Posted on 06/12/2008 in Australian cricket

Brad Haddin is appearing in the third Test with a broken finger and Alex Brown reports in the Sydney Morning Herald about the injury.

Haddin broke the finger in his first hour as a Test wicketkeeper, but played through the first Test at Sabina Park without major incident. A subsequent infection, however, proved far more troublesome, requiring him to have his entire fingernail removed during the ensuing match in Antigua.

June 11, 2008

Ponting rated Australia's most wanted

Posted on 06/11/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting is No. 1 © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting is the most marketable athlete in Australia, reports Simon Canning in the Australian, while Andrew Symonds rose from 27th last year to 10th.

Cricket may have lost its appeal as Australia's most popular sport but its stars remain the nation's most sought after sponsorship vehicles. Cricketers filled six of the top 10 spots in the latest Sweeney Sports survey of the most marketable sports stars, with the Australia captain Ricky Ponting listed as marketing's most sought after property. Ponting ranked No. 1 with a score of 74 points on the Sweeney scale, ahead of retired wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist on 67.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown charts the emotional rise of Beau Casson, who will make his Test debut in the West Indies on Thursday.

Upon receiving confirmation that he would become Australia's 401st Test cricketer, an overwhelmed Casson struggled for composure as the backslaps rained down from his new international team-mates before Tuesday's training session at Kensington Oval. The emotion carried into the ensuing net session, as the realisation of his achievement constricted nerves and spinning fingers.

June 10, 2008

Caribbean vibe stirs Ponting

Posted on 06/10/2008 in Australian cricket

In his column in the Australian Ricky Ponting tells of his love of the atmosphere when playing in the West Indies.

Despite the fact that West Indies have struggled over the past decade or so, the people remain passionate about cricket. They always want to talk about it, and cricket during Test and one-day matches is usually celebrated in typically West Indian style - with plenty of music and action in the stands.

June 6, 2008

Casson's challenges greater than most

Posted on 06/06/2008 in Australian cricket

Beau Casson could make his Test debut for Australia next week and to get to this stage he has had to deal with more issues than most cricketers, as Chloe Saltau writes in the Age.

Casson was born with a congenital heart defect known as Fallot's syndrome. The condition makes it difficult for him to lower his heart rate after extended periods of physical exertion, and has prompted three open heart operations. He works to a modified training program, in which he is granted extra time to recover from exercise. He is monitored regularly.

But that's it. In every other aspect of his life and career, Casson feels in no way different to his cricketing contemporaries. And if, as expected, the national selectors bestow upon him the honour of becoming Australia's 401st Test cricketer for the third Test in Barbados, the 25-year-old expects no problem from his ticker, and no special treatment from his teammates, opponents or public.

June 3, 2008

Lee briefs it like Beckham

Posted on 06/03/2008 in Australian cricket

Brett Lee is shaping up as Australia's answer to David Beckham by launching his own line of men's underwear and modelling them himself, AAP reports. Lee wants a collection that is cool, sporty and affordable.

"You see these other brands and they're worth A$35 to $45 for a pair of briefs or a pair of boxer shorts and trunks and stuff," Lee told AAP. “Sixteen and 17-year-old kids can't afford that. So we can make briefs with the highest quality with the fabrics we've got for under $10."

After Shane Warne’s rejection of a Test comeback, his manager re-confirms the news to AAP.

In the Daily Telegraph Stuart MacGill talks about the timeline of his retirement.

June 2, 2008

Where do Australia go after MacGill?

Posted on 06/02/2008 in Australian cricket

	Stuart MacGill has called time © AFP

Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about Stuart MacGill’s exit, which came on the same day Shane Warne won the Indian Premier League final.

Even in retirement, Warne was stealing his contemporary's headlines. Once, that might have irked MacGill. It has often been said that the New South Welshman's greatest fault was to have been born in the same generation as history's most prolific spinner, and the constant comparisons with Warne often wore thin in the early days. But, over time, MacGill came to accept that his accomplishments would always be compared to the impossible standards of his Victorian rival, that his career would be inextricably linked to Warne's, that there was no escape from the shadow.

The Herald Sun’s Jon Pierik says Cricket Australia has to do everything it can to lure Warne out of retirement while Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian Beau Casson will need to change history.

In the Age Matthew Wade looks at Warne’s impact on the IPL.

May 30, 2008

'I'm retired, but not hurt'

Posted on 05/30/2008 in Australian cricket

	Gravy plans to tone down at the new stadium © Cricinfo Ltd

The West Indies-Australia Test is the first at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Alex Brown, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, has a chat to Gravy, the local hero famous for his costumes at the cricket, to find out about the move from the Recreation Ground.

"It isn't the same," Gravy said. "I do miss the old ground." Sitting outside his street stall on Kentish Road, where shelves are crammed with batteries, cigarette lighters and dusty old beer bottles, Gravy's celebrity status is clear. All day, locals and Australians have asked for his thoughts on the Frank Worrell Trophy series, and more importantly, whether he will attend the inaugural Test match at the new stadium.

He will, but with reservations. "I won't be dressing up no more," he said. "I'm retired, but not hurt."

Shaun Marsh, the left-hander starring in the Indian Premier League, will be joining the Australians for the one-day leg of the tour next month. In the Age Chloe Saltau looks at the multi-talented Marsh family.

May 29, 2008

Did the IPL break 'ironman' Hayden?

Posted on 05/29/2008 in Australian cricket

	Matthew Hayden © Getty Images

Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun about Matthew Hayden’s withdrawal from the West Indies tour due to an injury sustained during the Indian Premier League.

While Cricket Australia opted not to attack the Indian Premier League yesterday, its silence is a bit like ignoring the elephant in the room. Australia's decision to send Hayden home from the West Indies has raised eyebrows in the game. Not because there's any doubt about the legitimacy of the injury. Hayden is - or was - a cricketing ironman, and has played at times more on will than fitness.

What is concerning is that this serious achilles tendon - a longtime issue - flared while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. A Twenty20 tournament that may have transformed player payments, and be all the rage in India, but one that very few people are talking about in Australia.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown talks to Andrew Symonds about his West Indian roots while Ricky Ponting also looks at Symonds in his column in the Australian.

May 25, 2008

Doubts hang over once invincible Australia

Posted on 05/25/2008 in Australian cricket

The fact that West Indies are providing a serious challenge to Australia in the first Test indicates Australia have lost their aura of invincibility in the past 18 months, according to Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In a playing sense, the most obvious difference between the current Australian side and that which clinched the Ashes 5-0 two summers ago is the lack of a dominant spinner. Stuart MacGill struggled with injury in two Tests against Sri Lanka, and Brad Hogg was decoded by the Indians after the first Test in Melbourne. Now surgically-repaired and streamlined, MacGill will be heavily scrutinised in the second innings at Sabina Park, where conditions should suit.

The veteran leg-spinner was harshly dealt with in the first innings in Kingston. Dwayne Bravo, in particular, was more than comfortable taking the attack to MacGill, and his two wickets were the result of batsmen looking to attack - his last victim, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, fell attempting to blast a chest-high full-toss out of the ground. With Warne's mooted comeback nothing more than a fanciful dream, the Australians need MacGill to fire like never before.

But there have been other, more subtle, changes to the Australian side as well. As important as Stuart Clark, Phil Jaques and Brad Haddin are to the national cause, they cannot hope to inspire their teammates in the same manner as their immediate predecessors. Which is hardly their fault. McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist were widely regarded as the world's leading exponents of their respective crafts, but only after years of dominance.

May 23, 2008

Shane can't stay out of the spotlight

Posted on 05/23/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Weekend Australian, Peter Lalor writes that although a Test comeback for Shane Warne seems positively ridiculous, that has never stopped the legspinner before.

Love him or hate him, you just cannot ignore him. Most former Test champions fade quietly into retirement. At best they adopt a blazer and a polished media persona, at worst they man the machine guns for hacking attacks on the game and players who have diminished so much for their absence.

Not Warne, however. No, when he left the stage the spotlight followed.

He has been gone from the national team for an entire summer, but has made sure he is rarely forgotten and so it was on Monday morning that the world woke to hear that the leg-spinner was open, after a fashion, to making a comeback for next year's Ashes.

The thought was tantalising, but there was a lot of fine print that needed to be taken on board before anybody got the steak knives in this deal.

May 22, 2008

Symonds finds the perfect runner

Posted on 05/22/2008 in Australian cricket

Alex Brown reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that Andrew Symonds took the chance in Jamaica to catch up with another sporting superstar, Asafa Powell.

On a sweltering morning in Kingston, Symonds and Stuart Karppinen, Australia's strength and conditioning trainer, assumed the roles of spectator as Powell continued his comeback from a chest injury in the shadows of Long Mountain. Both snapped photographs and compared observational notes as the Commonwealth Games gold medallist - who has broken 10 seconds for the 100m a staggering 33 times and holds the world record at 9.74 - went through his paces.

Though dreadlocks are de rigueur in this part of the world, Symonds's trackside presence did not go unnoticed. The burly Queenslander's shoulder charge, which floored an errant streaker at the Gabba earlier this year, attracted as much discussion as his exploits with bat and ball. Powell, for his part, was delighted by the Australian's visit.

"Everybody knows who he is and what he's done," Powell said. "He's a great player. With travel and training it, can be hard to keep up with the cricket, but I'll definitely try to get down to Sabina Park this week to watch him."

In the same paper, Brown looks at the new-look Australia line-up being used in the first Test, which includes some faces from the past.

The 'evolution' of the baggy green

Posted on 05/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	Steve Waugh wears his cap with pride © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting is excited about the Test series starting in the West Indies, but he also uses his column in the Australian to justify the cap controversy of the opening tour match. A sponsor’s hat was worn instead of the white floppy or baggy green.

Some former players were upset that we did not wear the cap during our warm-up game, but they do not understand what happened or why. There has been an evolution in what the baggy green means to the Australian team and I would argue that there has never been a time when it was more respected.

In the Herald Sun Ian Chappell says too much is made of the baggy green and it is a “$5 bit of cloth”.

"It is a cap, a nice cap, but has only become more than a cap since Steve Waugh started to jump up and down about it," Chappell said. "Cricket memorabilia has also played its part, going for ridiculous prices. It is a $5 bit of cloth. I haven't got one, haven't had one since the day I finished. I don't need to look at an Australian cap to remind me of what I did."

May 20, 2008

Warne stirs laughter, eye rolling – and fear

Posted on 05/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Larger than life: Shane Warne © Getty Images

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, says Shane Warne’s fanciful suggestion of an Ashes comeback has been met with rolled eyes and laughter in Australian cricket circles, but was enough to send a shiver of fear down the spines of England's batsmen.

Those poor, long-suffering souls have seen enough horror movies to know that no matter how dead the bad guy looks, he always manages to reach a gnarly hand out of the grave one last time ... The greatest leg-spinner of all time admitted the whole notion of an Ashes comeback is a "fairytale" and Cricket Australia treated it as something of a joke, but Warne has never tired of the spotlight and knows that even the peak of his nose through the velvet curtains is enough to raise excitement in the cheap seats.

In the unlikely event Warne does attempt a comeback, allow yourself to rejoice, writes Richard Hinds in the Sydney Morning Herald.

And save the pity for Stuart MacGill.The great bridesmaid spends more than a decade in Warne's colossal shadow. He suffers serious injury when Warne finally walks away. Then, after he has taken seven wickets in a tour match in the West Indies, Warne muses he might step in should MacGill break a leg.

May 19, 2008

Hats off to Australia’s breathtaking contempt

Posted on 05/19/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Age Greg Baum looks at Australia's decision to wear a sponsor’s cap during their tour match in the West Indies and says it is one of a series of events that makes it hard to treat the Tests seriously.

All of the Australians are in the Caribbean and, unlike the West Indians, are not conflicted about who they are representing. They took the field against a Jamaica Select XI on the weekend wearing blue baseball caps bearing the name of their brewery sponsor. Plainly, they were playing not for us, but for yet another franchise.

This was a breathtaking contempt, not just morally, because of the campaign against binge-drinking, and not just aesthetically, because it made the Australian team look like a pack of Sunday afternoon pub players. Always, the baggy green has held special significance in Australian sport. As the commercial era dawned, it was the only thing Cricket Australia quarantined from the clutches of marketeers.

May 17, 2008

Australia ditch baggy greens for sponsor’s hats

Posted on 05/17/2008 in Australian cricket

	And there are the Australians in their famous, er, blue hats © Getty Images

There were no baggy greens in sight on the opening day of Australia’s tour match against a Jamaica XI and Greg Matthews, speaking to the Sunday Mail, is furious. Cricket Australia says the players chose to wear the sponsor’s hats because not everyone has played in a Test and earned the traditional cap.

"Money talks, you're selling your pride, selling the baggy green, what price is it? It just cheapens things," Matthews said. "Personally, I would have worn my baggy green. I wouldn't have given a razoo what they told me.”

May 16, 2008

Trumper about to stand test of time

Posted on 05/16/2008 in Australian cricket

Victor Trumper has emerged as the favourite to have a Sydney Cricket Ground stand named after him, AAP’s John Coomber reports.

The SCG Trust has decided that its new stand, currently under construction in the old 'Hill' area, will be named after a cricketer. But the Waughs are out of contention because the trust has decided the player needs to have been retired for at least ten years. Steve Waugh retired in 2004, leaving Test immortal Victor Trumper as the favourite.

See Trumper's player page here.

May 14, 2008

Why Noffke should face West Indies

Posted on 05/14/2008 in Australian cricket

	Could Ashley Noffke play his first Test next week? © Getty Images

Robert Craddock, writing in the Courier-Mail, argues the case for Queensland’s Ashley Noffke to make his Test debut against West Indies next week. It is almost certain a reshuffle will have to occur to replace Michael Clarke, who stayed home due to a family death, and Simon Katich is also a contender for the spot.

Given the emotional strain Clarke has been under and the marathon two-day trip from Australia and his recent lack of cricket, the Test selectors may be reluctant to play him. If he is unable to play then Noffke, because of his valuable batting ability in a side which would feature a five-man tail, would be the logical inclusion.

New South Wales have found Josh Hazlewood, a 17-year-old bowler, who reminds officials of the young Glenn McGrath, the Daily Telegraph reports.

"If you look at Josh's height, action and his background, it's hard not to draw comparisons with McGrath," Dave Gilbert, New South Wales’ chief executive, said. "You never like to saddle a young bloke with enormous expectations, but I think you'll see some really big things from this kid in the next few years."

In the Herald Sun Jon Pierik writes Simon Taufel, the world’s No. 1 umpire, has not yet signed a new contract with the ICC.

May 13, 2008

A girl in demand

Posted on 05/13/2008 in Australian cricket

Ellyse Perry, the dual international, is a teenager with cricket and soccer vying for her long-term attention. The Sydney Morning Herald reports the battle between the sports is intensifying after she was named in the football squad for the Women's Asian Cup in Vietnam.

The call-up comes amid speculation Perry, 17, will be used as the promotional face for the Women's Cricket World Cup, to be held in Australia next March. However, the Matildas coach Tom Sermanni says Football Federation Australia won't be pressuring Perry to choose between the two games.

May 12, 2008

Rookies make up for lost time

Posted on 05/12/2008 in Australian cricket

This Tuesday marks the 140th anniversary of the first team to play under a national Australian banner. The 1868 side completed a six-month long tour of England, a trip which Jamie Pandaram looks at in the Sydney Morning Herald, while also considering the new generation of emerging talent:

The players have not been recognised as being among Australia's 399 Test cricketers - no full-blooded Aborigine is on the list - but they would have been proud to know that nearly one-and-a-half centuries later, the new generation of indigenous cricketing talent is as proficient with books as bats.

NSW's top male and female Aboriginal prospects, Josh Lalor and Samantha Hinton, plan not only to excel on the cricket field but in the fields of business and medicine. Lalor has just started a Business/Commerce degree and Hinton will begin a nursing course this year.

May 9, 2008

Watch out for Beau leggies

Posted on 05/09/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Age, Chloe Saltau meets Beau Casson, Australia’s second spinner on their Test tour of the West Indies.

Casson started bowling leggies for a simple reason — Warne — and with three brothers and three sisters was never short of someone to try out his new tricks on. "I tried everything, bowled a few offies, but I just found leg-spin a bit more exciting. We could almost play a Test match out the back of our house. I loved it," he said.

Casson's talent was obvious from the moment he shone for WA in a tour game against England in 2001, and NSW officials wanted him from after he captured the wickets of the Waugh twins and Michael Slater. They later found he had the work ethic to complement his talent and the discipline to manage a congenital heart problem, which he says does not affect his cricket.

May 8, 2008

Ponting takes a liking to the big screen

Posted on 05/08/2008 in Australian cricket

Most cricket fans love watching Ricky Ponting on television and the batsman has joined the craze. A big screen was wheeled in while Ponting was in the nets during the camp in Brisbane so he could play a shot and then see how he did it, the Daily Telegraph reports.

"It's the first time I've used that, it is the best little coaching session you can have," Ponting said. "It's good to have a coach or someone standing by that knows your game. But to have it explained to you is one thing, to see it for yourself and be able to identify yourself what you are doing during a shot is fantastic."

How technology could have changed history

Posted on 05/08/2008 in Australian cricket

	Would a referral have saved Michael Kasprowicz in 2005 and won Australia the Ashes? © Getty Images

Peter Lalor argues in the Australian Ricky Ponting could have made a ton on debut, Australia should have won the 2005 Ashes and India may have won the Sydney Test if the proposed ICC rules on umpire referrals were already in use.

Errors have at times changed the course of a match and a career. Ponting was given out lbw on 96 in his debut Test at Perth against Sri Lanka to a ball clearly going over the stumps.

Andrew Symonds was given not out in Australia's first innings of the Sydney Test against India this summer when he admitted he hit the ball. That and a number of other decisions in the match had many Indians believing they had been robbed. And, of course, England may never have won the 2005 Ashes had the umpire seen that Michael Kasprowicz's hand was not on the bat when the ball hit his glove, with the Australians three runs short of a remarkable victory in the second Test.

In the Age Chloe Saltau looks at the rise of Brad Haddin, the son of a Gundagai publican.

May 2, 2008

Beating Australia's soccer threat

Posted on 05/02/2008 in Australian cricket

Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun cricket is ready to fight off soccer’s push to become Australia's most popular sport in the next 100 years.

Cricket Australia has commissioned extensive research in a bid to protect and promote the sport - and its brand - and is confident soccer will never dampen the interest in cricket. The Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young has suggested soccer could even work hand in hand with cricket.

May 1, 2008

Australians return home much richer

Posted on 05/01/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Australian, Peter Lalor looks at the Australians who have returned home from the Indian Premier League ahead of the Test tour of the West Indies this month.

If there is a queue at the international airport of late, it's because Australia's cricketers are lining up to pay excess baggage fees for the sackloads of rupees they plundered during their brief, but profitable, excursion to India. Cricket has seen nothing like the Indian Premier League and the players' bank accounts have seen nothing like it either.

At least two of the Australians have earned $3000 or more per run scored. And it didn't matter what sort of run. A nice cover drive and an ugly outside edge were equal in the eyes of the benevolent bean-counters.

April 24, 2008

Another look at the Bradman-Fingleton feud

Posted on 04/24/2008 in Australian cricket

	Jack Fingleton opened the batting for Australia in the 1930s © The Cricketer International

Philip Derriman writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about Jack Fingleton, the opening batsman and journalist, who is famous for his writing – and a lifelong rift with Don Bradman. The centenary of Fingleton’s birth will be celebrated at the SCG on Monday and a biography about him will be released later in the year.

The feud apparently began in the early 1930s and ended only when Fingleton died in 1981. Nobody has ever got to the bottom of why they disliked each other so much, although everyone has assumed religion had something to do with it. Bradman was a Mason and Fingleton a Catholic.

There was also the question of who leaked a dressing-room story to the press during the Bodyline series of 1932-33. Fingleton was blamed for it, but he always maintained Bradman was the culprit and should have owned up.

In the lead-up to Anzac Day Paige Taylor wrote in the Australian about the fast bowler Tibby Cotter, the only Australian Test player to die in World War I.

It is generally accepted that Cotter was shot on October 31, 1917, by a Turk after the famous charge at Beersheba by the 12th and 4th Australian Light Horse regiments. But in his book to be published in October, Andrew Sproul and co-author Max Bonnell advance a new theory: that the 32-year-old was fatally wounded when a Turk prisoner committed an act of perfidy. "I have felt driven, over time, to get the story right and to tell it," Sproul said.

April 22, 2008

Australia look to science for day-night Tests

Posted on 04/22/2008 in Australian cricket

The use of a pink ball at Lord’s has given Cricket Australia hope of finding a suitable object for day-night Tests. Michael Brown, the board’s general manager of cricket operations, tells the Sydney Morning Herald he will be meeting with scientists and Australian Institute of Sport experts next week.

"We want to try and do a proper, orchestrated research project," Brown said. "If we are serious about this issue - to get a better day-night cricket ball and a ball we could possibly use in Test cricket - we need to understand the constraints, which is what the MCC are doing ... We need to factor in the practical cricket people, the scientists, the people who make the leather, the cricket ball manufacturers. We see this as being a really serious project that could have lots of implications, but you've got to understand, too, it could go nowhere.”

April 12, 2008

Painful waiting paid off

Posted on 04/12/2008 in Australian cricket

Brad Haddin doesn’t normally wait by the phone to find out if he’s been selected for the national squad, but this time around he just couldn’t help himself. It was a painful two weeks he tells Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I just wanted to hear it officially: you've been named in the squad for the West Indies. I was on edge every time the phone rang. I was like a bear with a sore head until I got that confirmation."

April 9, 2008

Bollinger's back-story

Posted on 04/09/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Sydney Morning Herald Jamie Pandaram finds out more about Australia's newest fast bowler, Doug Bollinger.

Cricket is the loneliest of team sports, and the backslappers and well-wishers don't usually arrive until after success. Bollinger learned early, nobody would be knocking life's stumps down for him.

So when he decided to take up cricket at 15 after spending his earlier years on the rugby league field with Seven Hills, the son of a Dutchman wasn't taking shortcuts. By 21 he was picked up by the Fairfield grade club, and in quick succession he had managed to knock over three more stumps; the third grade team, seconds, and then firsts in his debut season.

Bollinger featured in the first grade grand final that year, and knocked that stump over too with a premiership win. "After that it just kind of happened," he said.

April 5, 2008

Victorians try to tie up Taibu deal

Posted on 04/05/2008 in Australian cricket

The Melbourne club Northcote is hoping to attract Tatenda Taibu for next summer, Chloe Saltau reports in the Sunday Age.

Taibu is expected to relocate to Melbourne and represent Northcote, a move that could position him for future Bushrangers selection, although he will not be considered for a place on Cricket Victoria's contract list for next season. Northcote president Mark Sundberg confirmed the club hoped to recruit the bright young wicketkeeper-batsman, but said he had so far been unable to contact Taibu.

How to spot a sprouting star

Posted on 04/05/2008 in Australian cricket

Jamie Pandaram, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, looks at how New South Wales’ talent scouts have found players such as Brett Lee, Michael Clarke and Phillip Hughes. The next big thing is tipped to be Josh Hazelwood, a 17-year-old fast bowler.

Those in the know at the state’s high performance unit believe they can tip a future champion before he or she is old enough to get a driver's licence. "It's the X-factor," the department's manager, Alan Campbell, said. "They look like they want to be there, they keep bouncing back after all the tests we put them through. And they have the ability to perform when it really counts.”

In the Herald Sun Ron Reed writes Geoff and Shaun Marsh, who was picked in the one-day squad to tour the West Indies, are in line to become only the second father-son combination to represent Australia.

April 3, 2008

Richie enters more halls of fame

Posted on 04/03/2008 in Australian cricket

Richie Benaud will be one of the first inductees into New South Wales’ Hall of Fame, but he tells the Daily Telegraph he would be 12th man if the dozen selected ever played in the same team. Don Bradman, Victor Trumper and Steve Waugh will also be honoured.

"When this side was first announced back in January, I recalled seeing Bill O'Reilly listed at No. 12 on the list,” Benaud said. "And had that been the case [in a match], I can assure you I would have been on the end of a blasting from Tiger O'Reilly."

April 1, 2008

Where have all the Victorians gone?

Posted on 04/01/2008 in Australian cricket

	There was no fairytale Test call-up for Bryce McGain © Getty Images

Victorians have traditionally felt their players get overlooked for national selection to accommodate New South Wales cricketers. Australia’s 15-man Test squad to tour the West Indies features eight New South Wales players and no Victorians, although both teams made the Pura Cup final. In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed reports.

For the first time, Victoria has no cricketer considered good enough to be picked for an overseas Test tour. The Australian selectors, including Victorian Merv Hughes, yesterday ignored the Bushrangers in naming 15 players for the three-Test trip to the West Indies next month. Cricket Australia statistician Ross Dundas said the only other time this had happened was in 2003, when champion spin bowler Shane Warne was serving his year's suspension after failing a drugs test.

Victoria’s main hope for a Test call-up was the legspinner Bryce McGain. In the Age, Peter Hanlon chats to McGain after he missed the cut.

The Test squad, however, is again bereft of Vics, leaving the Bushrangers some way off meeting their mission statement of having 30% representation in national teams by 2011. McGain by then will be pushing 40, but thinks himself more of a chance than now. He knows he is an unusual story, and has enjoyed people's interest, but is aware that he was essentially a first-year player this summer.

March 27, 2008

Katich edges closer to Bradman

Posted on 03/27/2008 in Australian cricket

Simon Katich’s incredible season, which includes a record 1506 Pura Cup runs at 94.12, continues as he pushes to match some of Don Bradman’s records in the Sydney grade competition. Jamie Pandaram, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, looks at Katich’s numbers.

Katich has now tallied 569 runs at an average of 113.80 in grade cricket. If he scores 31 in this weekend's semi-final against Gordon, he will maintain an average of 100. Don Bradman was the last player to post better averages in state and grade cricket in the same season, scoring 1051 runs at 116.77 for NSW, and 549 runs at 109.80 for St George, in 1929-30.

March 25, 2008

Banning sledging won't fix lip problem

Posted on 03/25/2008 in Australian cricket

Greg Baum, writing in the Age, says the ICC might as well legislate to get rid of bad breath and smelly armpits if it wants to cut sledging from the game.

Its proposal is a bureaucrat's solution to cultural problem. Make a rule, press a button, tick a box, all fixed. But what is fixed? No one has properly established even what constitutes sledging.

Ian Chappell bristles to be called the father of sledging; he maintains his Australian teams were noisy, but never personal. Australia has never been anything less than noisy since. No one wants a foul-mouthed cacophony out there. But nor does anyone expect churchy silence.

Simon Katich tells the Daily Telegraph he would have no problems playing under Ricky Ponting if he was picked in the squad for the West Indies tour and has dismissed a report of a rift with the captain.

March 24, 2008

Casson mounts case as Test option

Posted on 03/24/2008 in Australian cricket

Australia have been searching for a new spinner and in the Sydney Morning Herald, Alex Brown suggests Beau Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner, should be picked for the tour of the West Indies.

Bryce McGain would not seem to fit the job description as set out by Andrew Hilditch's panel. A solid performer for Victoria this summer with 38 first-class wickets, McGain will nonetheless be 36 by the time Australia arrive in the Caribbean. At best, he represents a band-aid solution to Australia's spinning problem.

Casson, on the other hand, has shown rapid improvement this year. After failing to make an impression in his first season-and-a-half with NSW, the 25-year-old was among the Blues' best bowlers in the past two months, claiming 21 wickets at 26.43 in his past four matches.

March 22, 2008

Punting on 'Punter'

Posted on 03/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	Adults admire him and kids want to be him © AFP

Ricky Ponting may have sold for less than expected during the Indian Premier League auction, but he's making the big bucks elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Adults admire him and kids want to be him - and that's adding up to a winning financial wicket for the Australian cricket captain.

Industry experts estimate the Tasmanian-born skipper, who ranked as the most marketable sports star last year, is making about $2 million from his Australian endorsement deals alone.

Taking into account his earnings from cricket, the man nicknamed "Punter" is said to be worth $4 million per year. This includes an almost million-dollar base salary from Cricket Australia.

March 19, 2008

The final anti-climax

Posted on 03/19/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Daily Telegraph, Chico Harlan gives an outsider's interpretation of the one-sided Pura Cup decider between New South Wales and Victoria.

With the Pura Cup final four-fifths done, the Bushrangers had already sustained enough damage to recognise what would happen in the worst-case scenario (they'd lose), and what would happen with a last-day inspired effort (they'd lose), and what would happen with the intervention of a minor miracle (they'd lose).

Cricket, at least to this American outsider's eyes, delivers a reliable supply of oddities, but it saved the best for last, turning its grand final into a grand anticlimax. At least briefly, sport meant inevitability. NSW defeated Victoria like boiling water defeats lobster.

Michael Horan writes in the Herald Sun that reaching five of a possible six domestic finals in the past two years has brought little joy for Victoria.

Where are the Pura Cup final crowds?

Posted on 03/19/2008 in Australian cricket

Christian Nicolussi, writing in the Daily Telegraph, looks at the relevance of the domestic game after small crowds have watched a star-studded New South Wales dominate the Pura Cup final against Victoria.

On Tuesday just 1893 fans - including several school groups - turned up at the SCG as the Blues closed in on victory ... Domestic cricket has failed to capture interest, with just 11,893 fans making their way to the historic SCG the past four days. Not even cheap $10 tickets, glorious autumn sunshine and the chance to watch Australia superstars Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark and Michael Clarke could boost numbers.

In the Age Lyall Johnson hears the jokes about whether sport’s “mercy rule” needs a name change to the “Victorian rule” after their treatment at the SCG.

The Adelaide Oval’s A$90 million re-development, which was to be ready for the 2010-11 Ashes, has been delayed due to concerns over costs, the Australian reports.

March 17, 2008

Sharing one last drink with Bill Brown

Posted on 03/17/2008 in Australian cricket

	Bill Brown was not only an Invincible but also Australia's last remaining link to pre-war Test cricket © Getty Images

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that he visited Bill Brown the day before he died, as severe pain coursed through his body.

He could barely talk but though breathing heavily I heard him mouth a word which sounded like "whisky". When I asked whether he wanted a drink he nodded, so I dashed to the local bottle shop and got a bottle of Johnnie Walker and two glasses, putting a nip in each.

Then I noticed his eyes were closed and his breathing more subdued. Accepting we had spoken our last words I quietly said: "it's OK old mate, you don't have to drink anything" and I swear I felt my heart slide through the soles of my shoes as I patted his hand.

Then, guess what? His eyes opened and he said: "what do (you) think I am . . . a man or a bloody mouse . . . where's my whisky". His eyebrows arched and his mouth curled up at the corner as it always did when he delivered a cute line. It was one last little treat from the man the cricket world loved.

Mike Coward in the Australian writes that Brown was more than just an Invincible.

Apart from his distinguished playing record, this generous, self-effacing man had further claims to fame. He was the last survivor of the first televised cricket match at Lord's in June, 1938 when he carried his bat for a masterful 206 and identical, controversial run out decisions in successive months against India at Sydney in 1947 led to an immediate addition to the lexicon of the game.

For a man renowned for his fastidiousness on and off the ground it was surprising he repeatedly left the non-striker's crease before the bowler, Vinoo Mankad, delivered the ball. On both occasions in the Australian XI match and the second Test Mankad issued a warning to Brown before removing the bails. Today, this rare form of dismissal is known as Mankading.

March 15, 2008

MacGill v McGain in legspin duel

Posted on 03/15/2008 in Australian cricket

	Stuart MacGill believes he's already on the plane to the West Indies © Getty Images

Stuart MacGill and Bryce McGain will go head-to-head in the Pura Cup final, which started on Saturday, as the main contenders for a spin spot on the West Indies tour in May. Malcolm Conn writes about the battle in the Australian.

MacGill, 37, and Victoria's McGain, 36 in 10 days, ply the same trade on a cricket field and are the two oldest players in the game but, for all these obvious similarities, have little in common, including their attitude to the West Indian tour.

Despite playing just his second match for New South Wales after a three-month lay-off following wrist surgery, MacGill believes he is already on the plane for what will be his third tour of the West Indies ... McGain, who has exploded on to the state scene in little more than a year following Shane Warne's retirement, says he can't afford to think beyond his next over.

In the Age Chloe Saltau also talks to McGain, who no longer plays the trumpet or works in IT, while Greg Baum interviews David Hussey.

Philip Derriman, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, takes a look back at the 1984-85 Sheffield Shield final between New South Wales and Queensland.

March 13, 2008

What’s it like facing Brett Lee for the first time?

Posted on 03/13/2008 in Australian cricket

	Matthew Mott says coming up against Brett Lee wasn't “a hell of a lot of fun" © Getty Images

Victoria will run into Brett Lee in the Pura Cup final on Saturday and Andrew Stevenson, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says only four of them have played against Australia’s fastest bowler in a first-class match. Matthew Mott, the New South Wales coach, remembers his experience.

"It was when he was young, and speed was everything, and he'd just come in and try and knock blokes' heads off,” Mott said. “It wasn't a hell of a lot of fun to face him. And he's obviously a lot more accomplished bowler now than he was then." The match will be Lee’s first Pura Cup final.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn says Simon Katich and David Hussey have the most to gain during the decider.

The two leading Pura Cup run-scorers this year are not considered among the best 25 players in the country because neither has a Cricket Australia contract. As a result there is likely to be some soul-searching by the four-man selection panel during and after the Pura Cup final given the number of players without contracts named in the Pura Cup and state one-day teams of the year.

For a look at the domestic all-star sides go here. The Age wonders whether the Sheffield Shield will return next season.

March 11, 2008

No shock in Australia's decision on Pakistan

Posted on 03/11/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald the withdrawal of the Australians from the trip to Pakistan is not a surprise.

Truth to tell it would not have been much of a tour. Already the trip had been curtailed, with two Test matches and five ODIs replacing the full program. Every player was to be given a personal guard and asked to remain inside luxurious hotels. Every spectator was to be searched umpteen times by soldiers and policemen. It is not much of a way to play any sport. And local fans hardly flock to Test matches in the best of times.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn says the cancellation of the tour may lead to Cricket Australia staging a short one-day series. If that happens the players signed to the Indian Premier League will be staying at home.

It is unlikely that the coaching staff will want their best players involved in a helter skelter entertainment package without Cricket Australia coaching or medical support in India on the eve of a West Indies tour which contains three Tests, five one-day matches and a Twenty20 game. At the very least Cricket Australia will program a training camp at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane for the beginning of May before the team leaves later in the second week.

The decision to postpone the tour prevents the possibility of a rift between Cricket Australia and its players, AAP reports.

New South Wales stars chase more spoils

Posted on 03/11/2008 in Australian cricket

Australia’s Pura Cup final starts on Saturday and the Daily Telegraph reports Victoria will face a New South Wales squad worth more than A$6 million. Brett Lee, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark and Nathan Bracken have returned while Phil Jaques, Brad Haddin, Stuart MacGill and Simon Katich will also be there. “The multi-million-dollar line-up would hold their own against the likes of England, New Zealand and the West Indies,” the paper said.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson writes about how Lee, Clark and Bracken have pushed out the bowlers who carried the team into the final.

March 8, 2008

Ponting's men enter the unknown

Posted on 03/08/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting and his team face more tests © Getty Images

Tim Lane writes in the Age about the end of Ricky Ponting’s glory days and predicts things will be much harder for Australia in the future.

Ponting now leads Australia into the unknown. Were he three years older he, like others, might call time and quit while he's ahead. Were he three years younger, and a recently appointed captain, he could contemplate taking the team through a new era. Time, though, rarely makes these decisions so straightforward. The glory days are over and Ponting's new challenge has begun.

The Pura Cup season is winding down and New South Wales have a dilemma over where to stage the final if they win the hosting rights. A rugby league game is due to be held at the SCG during the decider and Michael Clarke has a test of allegiance, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Damien Martyn has popped up in India, where he will appear in the Indian Cricket League. In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown looks at what he has done since the strange end to his international career.

March 6, 2008

Experts rate Symonds' tackle

Posted on 03/06/2008 in Australian cricket

Andrew Webster, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, compares Andrew Symonds’ shoulder charge during the second final to other big hits and talks to rugby league players about the tackle.

Trevor Gillmeister believes Symonds should work on his technique. "He didn't drive through properly," he said. "He didn't finish the tackle off. And if he's ever going to make it in rugby league, he might want to put a cheap shot in there somewhere, too."

March 1, 2008

The class of '91

Posted on 03/01/2008 in Australian cricket

With Adam Gilchrist exiting soon, the Sydney Morning Herald sifts through its archives and comes with Peter Roebuck's predictions on the class of '91.

After watching Gilchrist's innings at the MCG, Roebuck says the flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsman seems set to break the usual norm of players leaving the grand stage on a quiet note.

A small crowd was given a rare treat, something to savour long after the final curtain has fallen.

No tears need be shed for the gloveman. Rather, let us celebrate a happy ending. Gilchrist is going on his own terms, and in style.

February 29, 2008

India v Australia - the best or worst of times?

Posted on 02/29/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald the “moment of decision has come” for Australia and India.

These two cricketing nations must find a way to live together and play against each other without creating these foolish disturbances. A choice must be made. There are only two viable positions: either everything goes or nothing goes.

The Age reports on the reaction to Matthew Hayden’s “obnoxious weed” comments in India and Peter Hanlon looks at the end of an embittered summer.

However, Mark Taylor, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, says this season has been the best he has witnessed as a commentator.

"You'd have to go back to those West Indies days of the late '80s and early '90s where there was fierce competition and also a fair bit of animosity to match the same intense rivalry today."

February 27, 2008

Australians upset at lack of board support

Posted on 02/27/2008 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian the country's players are frustrated with Cricket Australia over its lack of support through a regularly heated campaign against India. The latest incident came when Matthew Hayden was reprimanded for calling Harbhajan Singh an “obnoxious weed”.

The players are annoyed that Cricket Australia continues to kowtow to a constantly threatening and whining Board of Control for Cricket in India despite India maintaining its reputation as the worst behaved team in the world.

February 26, 2008

Ponting prepares for special delivery

Posted on 02/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Ricky Ponting’s wife showed off her baby bump as the partners of Australia’s players had their moment on the red carpet at the Allan Border Medal. For the lowdown on the WAGs go here and take a look at our photo gallery. A report on Brett Lee’s medal win is here.

Foes become friends after rocky start

Posted on 02/26/2008 in Australian cricket

Two of New South Wales’ brightest young players have come a long way since Moises Henriques Mankaded Usman Khawaja in the first game they played together. In the Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson takes a look at the duo’s development, which peaked with a dramatic 90-run partnership against Victoria.

The 21-year-olds - Khawaja was born in Pakistan and Henriques in Portugal - might be an emblematic pair showing off a new face of Australian cricket. They might be great mates who've known each other since they were 10, who've played junior cricket together for Australia and who share a burning ambition to wear the baggy green. But not all the history is good.

"We didn't get along too well to start off," Henriques says in masterly understatement. "The first game we played against each other 'Ussie' kept backing up two or three metres as I was bowling, so, not really knowing the rules, I Mankaded him and he was given out."

Khawaja, who went into the match with two centuries under his belt, didn't say much - and not just because he's too well brought up. "I think he was crying," Henriques says. "Yeah, there might have been something like that," admits Khawaja, who still has a video of the incident. Friendship came soon after.

February 25, 2008

Ponting's sense of fair play

Posted on 02/25/2008 in Australian cricket

In the midst of Ricky Ponting’s century at the SCG, one act of sportsmanship passed almost unnoticed, Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ponting could not avoid his partner's shot and diverted the ball into an unpatrolled area. Since the collision was unintentional and the stroke was heading towards long-on, the Australians were entitled to take a run. Instead, the home captain sent his colleague back. It was a small act that passed almost unnoticed. But it showed a sense of fair play. It was the conduct of a man determined to win but not at any price.

Ponting’s men might have fetched big money in the Indian Premier League auction but as Chloe Saltau reports in the Age, they could earn $20 million for a single Twenty20 match if Allen Stanford’s latest plan gets off the ground.

February 23, 2008

Symonds surely worth the spend, reckons Sir Viv

Posted on 02/23/2008 in Indian Premier League

	Who wouldn't pay to watch this man in action? © Getty Images

Andrew Symonds has often been likened to Viv Richards, and the West Indian legend is not surprised by the Australian allrounder's price at the Indian Premier League auction. He tells the Sydney Morning Herald:

"I am a great fan of Andrew Symonds, his fielding and the way in which he plays his cricket, with that sort of aggression. Having people like that on board is certainly going to add to the [Indian Premier League] razzamatazz. So if I was as well-connected as those individuals [the league's franchise owners] in business, with the funds they have, why not?"

The Sunday Telegraph says it discontinuing Symonds' column after Cricket Australia gagged it twice.

In the same newspaper, Stephen Corby recounts his experience of playing park cricket against Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Darren Lehmann and Stuart MacGill.

Anyone for Victor Trumper Day?

Posted on 02/23/2008 in Australian cricket

	"It is time to consider what Victor Trumper achieved, to look at the photographs and piece together the way he batted and ask ourselves have we selected the right hero?" © Stamp Publicity (Worthing) Ltd

Mike Coward, writing in the Weekend Australian, tells the story of David Strange, who wants to create a “Trumper Day”.

Strange, 36, married with a three-year-old son named Victor, after the master batsman of the Golden Age, refers to his Trumper passion as a magnificent obsession. "I have to refrain from talking about it all the time," he said.

That Trumper's name has faded from the consciousness of the contemporary cricket follower distresses Strange and he has the backing of the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust to organise the inaugural Trumper Day for November 2.

"It is curious we have overlooked Trumper," Strange said. "It is time to consider what he achieved, to look at the photographs and piece together the way he batted and ask ourselves have we selected the right hero? While Don Bradman is deservedly loved and respected and will always have a place in the Australian psyche, there are other batsmen out there who can also fit the bill."

February 22, 2008

Australia's batsmen need to focus

Posted on 02/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	The run struggles of Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting continue © Getty Images

It has not been a great time for Australia's batsmen in the CB Series and both Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting are suffering from a run drought. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck details the struggles of Ponting, who "not so long ago a presentable case could be made that he had become the second-best batsman his country has produced."

Now he finds himself scratching around like a backyard chook and relying on more vibrant team-mates to put runs on the board. Doubtless supporters expect more from their captain and heaviest scorer. Old-timers with reliable memories will reflect on their careers and say "welcome to the party!" Hell, Ricky, some of us felt like that all the time.

Just make some runs, is Jon Pierik's advice to Symonds and Co in the Herald Sun.

A report in the same paper says an Australian franchise might be on the cards for the Indian Premier League.

February 20, 2008

Where have all the runs gone?

Posted on 02/20/2008 in Australian cricket

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, looks at the reduction in one-day totals since the Twenty20 World Cup.

It might be the bowlers, the batsmen, the balls or the pitches, but whatever the explanation the facts remain clear: this summer's one-day international series is in the middle of a run drought so severe Al Gore could include it in his next film ... Six months after the ICC introduced a rule to change the ball after the 35th over, an extra power play and allowed a free shot after a no-ball, the batsmen who dominated the game are in such bad touch the administrators might have to ban swing bowling.

February 17, 2008

Australia must clear their minds

Posted on 02/17/2008 in Australian cricket

Australia had their bowlers to thank for their victory over India in Adelaide and Peter Roebuck in the Age considers the poor form of the team's leading batsmen.

Ponting was scratchy. Usually, smartly executed pulls are his damper and vegemite. When he is on song, such shots are lost in the crowd. Now the stroke stood solitary owing to the company it was keeping. Cricket is a tough game and captaincy can be the hardest part. Previously a constant scorer, the Australian captain might find reassurance in the ups and downs endured by counterparts such as Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. But a man cannot sort out his game until he has cleared his mind.

Andrew Symonds was also tentative. Dangerous in the latter stages of an innings, he has been obliged to bat with more circumspection than befits a player of his power. Batsmen capable of changing the course of a match in 30 minutes are not to be wasted.

February 16, 2008

BCCI warns Australia over Pakistan pullout

Posted on 02/16/2008 in Australian cricket

The Indian board has warned Cricket Australia not to cancel its team's tour to Pakistan, which seems under threat over security concerns.

Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI vice-president, was quoted by the Daily Telegraph:

There will be serious consequences because you can't just pull out [of] a committed tour when the host board is giving you assurances about security and so is the government.

If the host board and government is willing to give assurances, you have to accept that. You can't just cancel a confirmed FTP [Future Tours Programme] tour.

Nets set up fabulous Gilchrist goodbye

Posted on 02/16/2008 in Australian cricket

	Adam Gilchrist reaches his 16th ODI hundred © Getty Images

Adam Gilchrist got to the nets early before his farewell hundred at the WACA, Jon Pierik reports in the Courier-Mail.

More than two hours before play started against Sri Lanka, Gilchrist was working on his timing through repeated throwdowns from coach Tim Nielsen. Frustrated by an unlucky duck at the MCG last Sunday, the soon-to-retire Gilchrist was determined to do well for the last time in his adopted home city of Perth.

Michael Kasprowicz, who retires as a Queensland player on Saturday night, tells the same paper his best ball, sledge and batsman. His biggest regret is never scoring a century.

Peter Roebuck believes Usman Khawaja, who made his first-class debut for New South Wales on Friday, is part of the changing face of cricket in Australia. Read the piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.

February 15, 2008

17 years and 104 days

Posted on 02/15/2008 in Australian cricket

At 17 years and 104 days, Sydney schoolgirl prodigy Ellyse Perry will make cricket history at a fittingly historic venue when she pits her all-round talents against the Ashes holders at Bradman Oval in Bowral as the youngest Australian Test cricketer. The Sydney Morning Herald has more.

"I was in year nine at Pymble Ladies' College, and I like to follow women's cricket as much as I can, so I was at home cheering the girls on"

Retirement reality finally hits Gilly

Posted on 02/15/2008 in Australian cricket

Adam Gilchrist is set to play his final match in front of his adopted home ground, the WACA, when he takes guard against Sri Lanka today. The crowd which booed Gilchrist more than 13 years ago in his first game for Western Australia, as a replacement for local legend Tim Zoehrer, will give him a very different reception. And the emotion is hitting him by the day, says Ricky Ponting. Read on in the Australian.

"He probably won't like me saying this but when I was batting in Sydney during the second game against Sri Lanka, in the middle of one of the overs he came down and had a bit of a chat. "He looked at me and said, 'I'm going to miss this. I'm going to miss being out here with you and I'm going to miss all the good times we've had on the field'.

February 13, 2008

How the WACA grew on Gilchrist

Posted on 02/13/2008 in Australian cricket

	Perth was not very appealing on the first couple of occasions Adam Gilchrist played there © Getty Images

John Townsend, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, looks at Adam Gilchrist’s introduction to Perth, the city where he would make his home after moving from New South Wales.

The first time Gilchrist played at the WACA, his New South Wales team was thrashed within two days and team-mate Greg Matthews was badly bashed by a nightclub bouncer. The first time Gilchrist appeared at the ground as a Western Australia player, he was booed all the way to the middle and for much of the match by a home crowd angry that local hero Tim Zoehrer had been axed to make way for him.

However, Gilchrist says the Perth crowd helped mould him for the international scene.

"That instilled in my own mind that I had to earn some respect, not just from my team-mates but from the crowd, the members and the local community," Gilchrist said. "Fortunately, they welcomed me into that set-up after some time. It is amazing how valuable that experience was once I made the transition into the Australian team because it was a case of deja vu, but it was easier because I had that experience to fall back on."

Australian cricket is sorry too

Posted on 02/13/2008 in Australian cricket

A day after Australia’s prime minister apologised to the country’s stolen generations, the Courier Mail’s Robert Craddock says the country’s cricket is also sorry.

Sorry that of the 399 men to represent our wide brown land during 130 years of Test cricket, none has been a full-blooded Aborigine. In fact, no full-blooded Aborigine has come close. Jason Gillespie, a descendant of the Kamilaroi people who once populated northern New South Wales, is the only Test player to publicly acknowledge his Aboriginal heritage.

Cricket Australia is pushing hard to find an Aboriginal role model, with its annual Imparja Cup featuring 28 indigenous teams from around the country who had breakfast together in Alice Springs yesterday to watch the prime minister's apology. The best 12 players from the carnival will be sent to the Centre of Excellence for a week's special attention but history tells us they will then return to the anonymity of club and country cricket rather than springboard into the spotlight.

Beijing over Bangladesh?

Posted on 02/13/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Age, Chloe Saltau criticises Cricket Australia's decision to play only three ODIs against Bangladesh in Darwin later this year, citing the clash with the Beijing Olympics.

As Australian players prepared to auction themselves off like paintings to share in the riches of the Indian Premier League, and the national team's tour of volatile Pakistan hung in the balance, it could easily have escaped attention that two Test matches against Bangladesh that were written into the Future Tours Program, the blueprint that is supposed to make the cricket world go around, effectively slid off the face of the earth, or at least were postponed until Ricky Ponting's team next comes up for air some time in 2010.

...

It is perfectly understandable that players would seek to maximise their earning power in the IPL, and they should not go to Pakistan if it is not safe, but if cricket is scheduled primarily for commercial reasons then there will be little reason to play anyone except India and England.

February 12, 2008

Make the IPL work - Warne

Posted on 02/12/2008 in Australian cricket

Shane Warne says in his Daily Telegraph column the world should embrace the Indian Premier League rather than fight it.

International cricket for your country must be the No.1 priority, but let's throw the common sense hat on and say the IPL is not going anywhere and it's a wonderful opportunity for players, spectators and all the fans. Let's make it part of the international schedule and the ICC and the boards can create a new future tours program. Let's find a way for it to work rather than finding a way it can't.

Malcolm Conn, writing in the Australian, looks at the current problems with umpiring and speaks to Robin Bailhache, an official from the 1970s and 80s.

February 11, 2008

The Australian Muslim

Posted on 02/11/2008 in Australian cricket

A little more than a month after the furious row about race and sportsmanship exploded at the Sydney Test match, one young cricketer is ready to step up from the grade ranks and step out on to the SCG. Meet Usman Khawaja, 21, born in Islamabad, believed to be the first Australian Muslim to play interstate cricket and all set to fly the flag for a new generation of cricketers Down Under. The Sydney Morning Herald caught up with this "very" ambitious player.

Even Peter Roebuck had something to say about him.

February 10, 2008

Red Hot Symmo Meter

Posted on 02/10/2008 in Australian cricket

Outlook's Rohit Mahajan profiles Andrew Symonds: Very melting-pot, very Aussie. Symonds plays by basic laws, with a straight bat.

A close associate of Symonds at Queensland narrates a chilling story. "Well, he got into a slight disagreement with a rugby player in South Africa," he says. "Let’s say they did not see eye to eye on a certain matter—How do you think Andrew sought to settle it? He said he’d prefer to handle it ‘man-to-man’, fight it out!"

What could easily have descended into gladiatorial bloodletting was averted by a cooler man present—the young Michael ‘Pup’ Clarke. "Andrew’s philosophy in life is rather basic," says his associate. "But he’s also a free spirit who likes nothing better than to hook up his boat to go fishing or crabbing."

Symonds confused over Cricket Australia’s IPL ‘trick shot’

Posted on 02/10/2008 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds doesn't appear happy with his employers © Getty Images

News Limited papers say Cricket Australia has gagged Andrew Symonds from writing his Sunday column, but they carry a lengthy interview with the allrounder instead. He is annoyed with the body’s stance on the Indian Premier League.

"Right now a lot of the boys in the Australian side are excited about maybe taking part in the IPL,” Symonds says. "But we can't quite work out what's going on with the chiefs at Cricket Australia, who seem to be trying to run interference by putting up a heap of red tape. To be brutally honest, as players we just can't understand the stance they've taken. We're all keen to have a hit if the tour of Pakistan gets called off, but Cricket Australia have played what looks like a bit of a trick shot.”

Philip Heads asks in the Sunday Telegraph whether Cricket Australia is running a police state or a sport?

The agent of Brett Lee and Michael Hussey has urged Cricket Australia to offer its players longer contracts to avoid the lure of Twenty20 tournaments, Jon Pierik reports in the Sunday Mail.

Amanda Dunn, writing in the Sunday Age, runs through some cricket definitions to help Australians over their summer barbecues.

February 9, 2008

IPL teams race for Gilchrist

Posted on 02/09/2008 in Australian cricket

	Adam Gilchrist is in demand in India and Australia © Getty Images

Adam Gilchrist is the man as far as Indian Premier League teams are concerned. Jon Pierik reports in the Courier-Mail on the race to get his signature.

In the Age Tim Lane writes about how Australian players, from the captain down, seem prepared to go to war for the right to play in India.

A lot has changed. Obviously, life for a touring team in India is infinitely better now than was once the case. Even for those used to a five-star lifestyle, many of the big city Indian hotels are eye-opening in their opulence ... For elite cricketers, this rapidly developing nation and growing economic powerhouse has become the most attractive country on earth. The land of the Ganges is a proverbial river of gold.

The Australian’s Mike Coward takes a look at the status of Indo-Australian cricket while his counterpart Malcolm Conn writes about what the game can learn from F1 when it comes to race.

In the Herald Sun Michael Hussey says after Shaun Tait’s exit from the game maybe it’s time for Australia to use sports psychologists more often.

February 8, 2008

Kasprowicz - one of the most likeable men in the game

Posted on 02/08/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Courier Mail Robert Craddock looks back at the career of Michael Kasprowicz.

Inevitably he was defined by his hard yakka work in India, including the 1998 tour that almost broke him.

One night I rang him in his room and he confessed that minutes earlier he had broken down and cried on the phone to home, so physically and mentally distressed was he feeling. His voice sounded croaky and weak. I thought he was shot for the tour. Somehow he got through to win Australia the last Test. It was some effort.

He was branded a subcontinent specialist but once, with a West Indies tour looming, hinted to the selectors, "I do like pina coladas and coconuts as well, not just curries."

Hayden the bananabender

Posted on 02/08/2008 in Australian cricket

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck dwells on the coming together of the old firm - Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist - and their effect on the opposition.

Others might favour playing the ball late and other subtleties, but the bananabender strives to dictate from the outset. It was the approach adopted by the likes of Colin Milburn and Charlie Macartney, a gentleman inclined to crack the ball back at the opening bowler's head at the earliest opportunity. Hayden was soon into his work, driving past the bowler with a restraint that belied the potency of his stroke. Already he was stepping forwards in a manner calculated to make Chaminda Vaas regret his loss of pace.

... Gilchrist took his time against some demanding pace bowling and alert fielding. Not that he dawdled. A bloke called David Hemery used to teach in England. In the 1968 Olympics he won a gold medal in the 400m hurdles. Anyone wanting to talk to him on the move had to break into a trot while the medallist was, by his estimation, walking. Gilchrist is like that. His idea of pottering along is to take only one risk an over.

Australia's future is now

Posted on 02/08/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting says the new players in Australia's sides have provided extra energy © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting looks ahead in his column in the Australian, running his eye over the country's fringe and developing talent.

Adam Voges has been around for a while and hasn't had much of a crack at it, but he has done well when he has played. Brad Hodge is one of those who has come in and out of the side but been unable to nail down a spot because there is so much talent in the squad ... Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach and David Hussey and those sort of guys are going to be the next generation of Australian one-day players, and you are starting to see them getting a go in the Twenty20s as a recognition of their efforts.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson sees some of Australia’s rugby league players encounter Brad Haddin and Nathan Bracken.

February 6, 2008

Gilchrist’s bat a wonder of the world

Posted on 02/06/2008 in Australian cricket

	Goodbye, old friend: Adam Gilchrist's favourite piece of willow broke during the Twenty20 © Getty Images

Adam Gilchrist speaks to the Australian’s Peter Lalor about his “Wonder Bat”, which dressing-room folklore says carries the same powers as one made by Homer Simpson. Since getting it before the 2006-07 Ashes, he has nursed it like “an orphaned marsupial”, but it finally broke in last week’s Twenty20.

It has been glued and pinned and preserved at every turn. If staying up nights with a cold flannel and a bottle of milk would have done the trick, Gilchrist would have been there. The axemen of the team will carry six or eight blades in their kit, but Gilchrist carries just three: the much-loved Wonder Bat, a practice bat and a spare.

Once he was aware just how good this model was, it was immediately excused from training. By the time last year's World Cup came around, it was starting to show some fragility.

Lalor also writes about the change in Nathan Bracken’s prospects since Mitchell Johnson’s arrival while in the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock says Michael Kasprowicz is considering retirement.

Why start so late?

Posted on 02/06/2008 in Australian cricket

On Foxsports, Ben Dorries looks at what he believes is the folly of starting a series late, as the CB Series in Australia has kicked off later than usual:

Only 6481 true cricket diehards - mostly subcontinental expats - turned out to show interest in the India-Sri Lanka clash. By now, mums and dads have gone back to work and kids have had their schoolbags packed and grudgingly headed back to class after the summer holidays.

February 2, 2008

Thanks for the memories, Gilly

Posted on 02/02/2008 in Australian cricket

	A happy ending to a great sporting story © Getty Images

In the Sunday Age, Amanda Dunn pays tribute to Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist also seemed to understand that we want our sports stars to tell us a story, preferably with a happy ending and plenty of action sequences in between. We want them to take us away from mortgages and work and petrol prices and the dog's weird weepy eye for a few hours and tell us, show us, an uncomplicated, exhilarating tale of what is possible.

We want them to elevate us; to show us a little of the best in people, when we sometimes feel we've forgotten what that is. Gilly did all of that, often. One of his many gifts was to play cricket not necessarily as it always was, but how we imagined it should be. It couldn't — he couldn't — go on forever, of course, but there will be one very large hole in the team and the game without him.

Also in the Sunday Age Gilchrist's former team-mate Damien Fleming reflects on a brilliant career.

He was unselfish to a tee. One time he was captaining the Australia team in Malaysia for a Super 8s tournament. After everyone had had a big night and were feeling under the weather, Gilly offered to go to the ground a good 10 minutes' walk away for the toss, potentially to give us a sleep-in. We put the binoculars on him and when Gilly gave us a thumb's-up we knew he had won the toss and we were batting, so the bowlers could get another much-needed half-an-hour shut-eye.

Time for a new crack at our own

Posted on 02/02/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Sun-Herald, Peter Roebuck writes that "It's time to have another crack at the glib Western response to the Harbhajan affair".

India must stop being defensive. It has a mighty story to tell, a functioning democracy created from a chequered history, a nation built in a generation, temples and mosques sitting side by side in so many cities. Nor does its cricket history justify the comment made not long ago by a white opponent that "all Asian cricketers are f---ing cheats." Please can First World newspapers dust off all articles published between 1901 and 2001 deploring the manner in which Anglo-Saxon interests dominated the game? Suddenly India is ruling the roost and the boys are worried about monopolies and cultural hegemony. It is a bit late for that.

January 31, 2008

Waugh and Co still good for Test level

Posted on 01/31/2008 in Australian cricket

	How about another run of 16, boys? © Getty Images

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Philip Derriman says Australia's recent retirees could still be a force enough to challenge the best of the present Test teams.

Consider the line-up. Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann would be sure selections with Waugh as batsmen, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne as bowlers, and Adam Gilchrist as the keeper.

These seven would be the strength of the team. For the other four places you could turn to ex-Test players still in the game - maybe Matthew Elliott, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart Law, the last of whom will be 40 in October but is still scoring heavily for Lancashire.

How would such a combination go against the Australian Test side? In any conditions, you'd have to think they'd be competitive. On a pitch that suited Warne's leg spin, they might well have an edge.

The article also mentions the recent trend of late Test debuts among Australian batsmen, and suggests that more than the stalwarts holding their places, it's the lack of talented youngsters in the pipeline that's the problem.

In the aftermath of Brad Hogg's poor performance in the Tests against India, the Herald Sun seeks a few opinions on which spinner should Australia pick for their forthcoming series.

January 30, 2008

Tired of being little brother

Posted on 01/30/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

The front of the Age's sport pages reflects the anger inside Australia following the outcome of the Harbhajan Singh hearing © The Age

On the topic of India's over-the-top reactions to the events in Australia, Harsha Bhogle, in the Sydney Morning Herald, explains that it has a lot to do with the change in attitude of the average Indian over the decades.

Since I was a little child, my abiding memory is of visiting journalists and cricketers coming to India and making fun of us.We were a country finding our feet, we were not confident, we seethed within but we accepted. The new generation in India is not as accepting, they are prouder, more confident, more successful. Those bottled-up feelings are bubbling through.

The Daily Telegraph reveals that Ricky Ponting made the decision to agree to have Harbhajan Singh's racial abuse charge downgraded after a series of secret meetings with lawyers during the Test match in Adelaide.

"Just fix it then," Ponting is understood to have said when emotions flared. As Symonds came to terms with the judgment, it's believed he said: "I can't believe this is happening."

The Australian has acquired the full text of Justice John Hansen's decision in Harbhajan Singh's appeal.

Australian newspapers are full of reaction to the outcome of the Harbhajan Singh affair, in The Age it is reported that the Australian cricketers are furious that Harbhajan Singh has escaped suspension.

"The thing that pisses us off is that it shows how much power India has," said a contracted Australian player, who refused to be named. "The Aussie guys aren't going to make it (the accusation) up. The players are frustrated because this shows how much influence India has, because of the wealth they generate. Money talks.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Alex Brown says, "in matters directly involving the Indians, don't expect an impartial outcome. Both the BCCI and the ICC have shown their hand in that regard during the past month."

In the Australian Peter Lalor writes, "India, the team that bleated about the spirit of cricket after being beaten in Sydney, has again held a gun to the game's head and had its demands met."

Adelaide Now's Geoff Roach tracks the day's events.

An air of anxiety began to stir among them as the start of play drew nigh without any sign of the principal players. That soon turned to frustration when it was learned the Australian participants had performed their own version of an Indian rope trick by driving into an underground car park and entering the building via a basement lift.

Fearing the same would happen with the Indian party, most camera operators surged 80m east to the car park entrance – only to have to sprint frantically back as a black BMW disgorged Harbhajan and team manager Chetan Chauhan outside the front at 10.50am.

The Australian sports radio stations too are abuzz with listeners calling in to air their opinions. Click here to listen to a few stations.

It’s not just inside Australia comment that the result of the Harbhajan hearing has attracted comment. In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins is less than complimentary about the BCCI’s role.

One understands, of course, the particular sensitivity of matters pertaining to race, but either the BCCI, like all other national representative bodies, accepts the rules of the ICC and, in this case, the procedures that everyone has agreed, whatever the outcome, or there is potential anarchy.

It would not be a good thing if it were to become the expected outcome of every appeal that, whenever a nation's pride is ruffled, oil will be poured on troubled waters. Every case has to be judged on its merits.

Also in The Times Patrick Kidd writes that both teams should move on.

1) If they felt that he had done nothing wrong, India were right to fight this to clear his name. They should now refrain from gloating or complaining about being picked on and get on with the cricket.

2) If Australia thought they had heard a racial slur, they were right to complain. They should now accept that they were mistaken, not complain about the verdict and get on with the cricket.

Prem Panicker, writing in rediff.com, wonders whether in the light of the judgement ICC would take any action on Mike Procter.

Is it fair to say that Procter brought the game into disrepute by delivering a contentious verdict where there was—according to the ICC’s own man—no evidence to underpin such a judgment? And if that is a fair assessment of the performance of the match referee, is it fair to ask what, if anything, the ICC does, what processes it has, to monitor its own officials, to pull them up, to ensure optimum performance?

January 29, 2008

Tait should be commended

Posted on 01/29/2008 in Australian cricket

If Shaun Tait was struggling with the weight of expectation and had lost the desire to play cricket then he has done the right thing by taking a break, according to Robert Craddock in the Herald Sun.

Tait recently revealed his life motto is, "You can't please everyone, so don't try and please anyone". And he has lived up to it by putting his peace of mind ahead of fame and fortune and by taking a break from the game. He is to be applauded for his courage. Some people, who yesterday asked how Tait could be burnt-out after playing just one first-class match in a month, have misread his condition. Sometimes in sport the most mentally taxing place to be is not in the middle or even on the sidelines because of injury. Even more challenging can be the twilight zone where Tait has spent his entire career.

Tait's manager, Andrew McRitchie, tells the Australian the bowler has not quit the game for good.

"He's just having a break,” he said. “It's a brave call for him … he's a 24-year-old big, proud, strong Australian, and for all we know he's been battling for a while. No, he's not quitting, and no it's not an off-ground issue. He's just really had a gutful."

January 27, 2008

Combining calmness with confidence

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	Adam Gilchrist gets a thumbs up from Steve Waugh © Getty Images

Paying tribute to Adam Gilchrist in the Daily Telegraph, Steve Waugh recounts his memories of the wicketkeeper-batsman during his tenure as captain of Australia.

From the moment he entered the Australian dressing room when I began my captaincy of a remodelled one-day outfit, he gave it a calmness with his understated confidence, humour from his larrikin instincts, professionalism as a result of his work ethic and a refreshing vulnerability by never being afraid to display his emotions.

Besides being trusted to bail the team out of trouble with the bat, Waugh also points out that Gilchrist was a vital cog in transforming Australia to a champion side in both Tests and one-dayers.

It was a real luxury to be able to turn to Adam whenever I wanted to increase the run rate in the search for victory. Often it was a gut instinct, spur-of-the-moment decision which meant little or no preparation, but never once did he baulk or resist the notion.

It was on one such occasion that probably turned around the fortunes of the one-day side when, during the tea interval, I contemplated how we were going to turn around our poor form.

It was like a bolt of lightning, an overwhelming urge to elevate Gilly from No. 7 to open the batting to make the most of his natural skills, and the rest is history. He was also responsible, together with Justin Langer, in breaking new ground for the team by chasing down a big fourth-innings total that gave the team faith in its own ability, culminating in the 16 straight victories.

In the Australian, Peter Lalor says the game may never be the same.

It's a loss. You got used to him standing there, egging the team on, bounding in for the return, whispering in the captain's ear, clapping and cajoling.

Ponting stands tall

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting: A gritty hundred for the tough man © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck applauds Ricky Ponting's innings of resolve in Adelaide. He writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Ponting's restraint was impressive. Throughout his innings he played to a plan, collecting singles as a taxman does revenues and pushing the ball into gaps in the old-fashioned way. Disdaining familiar straight drives and leg-side flicks, he reached forward and guided the ball past square leg or else leant back to cut. Refusing to leave his crease and keeping a close eye on Harbhajan Singh's doosra, he advanced at his own unhurried pace.

It's just another difficult period this tough cricketer has encountered and overcome, says Roebuck.

Ponting's first task was to demonstrate that he could win cricket matches and so sustain the domination of the Taylor and Waugh years. In some respects it is easier to inherit a losing side with lower expectations. From a distance it seemed that Australia could only go downhill. It is part of the Tasmanian's achievement that he has managed to defy gravity.

In the same paper, Alex Brown says Adam Gilchrist's exit after his brief innings - perhaps his final in Tests - was "not the most controversial walk of his career, but certainly the most emotional."

As far above rivals as Bradman

Posted on 01/27/2008 in Australian cricket

As news of Adam Gilchrist’s retirement is still sinking in – Damien Fleming today said he had to take ten minutes after being told of the decision – the Sydney Morning Herald explains how he broke the news to his team-mates on the bus heading to the ground on the third day.

The bus was quiet, with each player absorbed in his pre-match routine and pondering his individual role in the third day of the fourth Test. Unannounced and with no fanfare, Gilchrist broke the silence.

Jon Pierik in the Sunday Telegraph says it was the right time for him to go.

Reaction from around the world included Scyld Berry in London’s Sunday Telegraph, who said Gilchrist “has been as far above all other rivals as Sir Donald Bradman himself”, while Simon Wilde in The Sunday Times, added “Bowlers around the issued a sigh of relief”. Even the Scotland on Sunday had an opinion.

January 26, 2008

The long journey from Uganda to Adelaide

Posted on 01/26/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Weekend Australian, Mike Coward tells the story of Jimmy Okello and Patrick Ochan, two members of the Uganda cricket team that played in the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Darwin last year. They have settled in Adelaide and found themselves bowling at Ricky Ponting in the nets this week.

They are now self-sufficient and with the legal assistance provided by the Australian Refugees Association earnestly hope that they will be permitted to remain in Australia. Their legal team will be armed with glowing references from the Western Eagles and from the South Australian Cricket Association. In just seven months, both young men have made a great impact on the local cricket scene. "Every day is like a blessing," Okello said. "We want to settle in Australia." Their working visas are valid only until next month and the uncertainty of their future is causing considerable anxiety.

January 23, 2008

Whatever happened to Cullen Bailey?

Posted on 01/23/2008 in Australian cricket

As Australia struggles to unearth a quality new spinner in the post-Warne era one of their projects, the Cricket Australia-contracted Cullen Bailey, is not even getting a game for his state. In the Age Chloe Saltau chats to Bailey about how he intends to rectify that problem.

When the national selectors were searching the country for a replacement for the injured Stuart MacGill last month, Bailey was so far from selection that he rigged up a rope across the practice nets. In a desperate effort to rediscover the flight and turn that had deserted him, he looped the ball over the rope.

Unlike spin, the stocks of top-class wicketkeeper-batsmen around Australia are overflowing and Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun says it might be time for Adam Gilchrist to step aside from the Test cricket scene.

If Gilchrist plays through another home summer at age 37, will he still be the right man for the job come the 2009 Ashes series? If not, then New South Wales's Brad Haddin must be handed his baggy green next summer. That's only fair for Haddin, who would then have six Tests at home and a tour of South Africa to ready himself for England. At 30, Haddin - who earns a spot in the Australia one-day team as a specialist batsman - is at his peak. His time is now.

January 22, 2008

In famous footsteps

Posted on 01/22/2008 in Australian cricket

	Nick Jewell: 'One of the best jobs in the world, no doubt' © Getty Images

An excellent article in the Age takes a look at state cricket in Australia and what drives the players.

Of course, they all want to play for Australia. Only the cream get there. But the lot of a state cricketer is not shabby. Consider leg-spinner Bryce McGain, who, at 35, cracked his first state contract and has all but had to quit his high-paying IT job with a major bank for the privilege of scraping through as a single dad on a base contract. For him, living the dream of being a professional cricketer has nothing to do with fortune.

The pay’s not bad, ranging from AUS$38,000 for a rookie to Aus$170,000 at the top for those who play every game. Nick Jewell, who opens for Victoria, sums things up nicely.

"One of the best jobs in the world, no doubt … My brother's a plumber and a lot of my friends are tradesmen, out there digging holes in the pouring rain fixing people's plumbing.”

January 21, 2008

The hum of harmony

Posted on 01/21/2008 in Australian cricket

Ah, cricketing harmony, that’s what we like to see and that’s what we got, at last, with the Perth Test. It’s also what Mike Coward likes, as he recounts on Fox Sports and he knows the reason why it came to pass:

The game is indebted to victorious captain Anil Kumble and his vanquished counterpart Ricky Ponting.

The Australian rounds up the Indian newspapers’ reaction and looks at its problem child, causing upset for another reason here.

Michael Jeh, writing in the ABC News website, emphasises that any form of sledging blackens cricket's name.

January 20, 2008

Hayden saved partner's life

Posted on 01/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Matthew Hayden: saving lives © Getty Images

Phil Jaques may be Matthew Hayden's opening partner following the retirement of Justin Langer, but it wouldn't have been so if not for Hayden's timely intervention. No, Hayden didn't use his muscle power to threaten the selectors to pick Jaques, but instead pulled his team-mate out of trouble.

The incident occurred during a boot camp in 2006, when Jaques had a misunderstanding with an instructor during an abseiling [rappelling] expedition. He is quoted in the Age:

Matty literally saved my life. I'm glad he was on the ball so I could have the chance to walk out to bat with him a few more times.

The same report says that a little difficulty in sighting the ball should not discourage youngsters and cites the example of Chris Rogers, the batsman who replaced Hayden for the Perth Test. Rogers "is partially colourblind, wears spectacles in the field and sometimes loses the ball in the maroon seats when he is playing at the Gabba." However, that didn't stop him from playing for Australia.

Australia played with distinction

Posted on 01/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting deserves credit for Australia's changed attitude on the field, says Peter Roebuck © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck defends Australia's mellowed on-field behaviour during the third Test in Perth, and is not willing to accept that the 16-match winning streak ended to due to the change. India played better cricket, he says in the Age.

In short, the Australians were not beaten because they have turned into a bunch of softies. To the contrary, they represented the nation with distinction and after a terrific tussle succumbed to a superbly led and single-minded side that played sturdy cricket for four days. The Australians did not exactly put out a welcome mat for each batsman or blush every time an appeal was rejected. Instead, they shook hands before the match, kept their manners when players collided, did not appeal unless they thought the batsman might be out, did not claim any questionable catches and generally played cricket that the entire world and not just apologists can recognise as hard but fair. As vice-captain and behind the sticks, Adam Gilchrist served with distinction.

Roebuck, who had said that Ponting must be sacked after the controversial Test in Sydney, commended the Australian captain for the manner in which he handled his team in Perth.

Ponting deserves credit for the way his side played. A man under attack faces a stark choice. He can dismiss the remarks and surround himself with backslappers, a species in abundance on this continent. Or he can take the opportunity provided by provocation to re-examine his path. Ponting chose the latter course. It was not a single article that caused the commotion, but the response to it. Moreover, Anil Kumble's comments were altogether more telling, coming from a man of such stature. Australia had lost touch with its better self.

Australia haven't lost their edge

Posted on 01/20/2008 in Australian cricket

	Shane Warne poses with poker champion Joe Hachem © Getty Images

Shane Warne dismisses suggestions that Australia lost the Perth Test due to their changed attitude on the field. He states they were outdone by a team that played better in the Daily Telegraph.

Maybe they were not as aggressive in their body language in Perth as they normally are, but I think that was the nature of this Test, in which they were behind for most of the game.

Maybe a few things were not as they should have been in Sydney, but their body language showed me that the Australian team cared and it was important to them to win the game.

Warne also indicated he was not going to take up poker professionally.

And for anyone who's wondering, I'm not becoming a pro player, just a former sportsman who has a passion for the game.

In the same paper, Robert Craddock says the loss may prove beneficial in the long term, given Australia have away tours to Pakistan, India, South Africa and England lined up.

The Australian team needs to be pressurised and occasionally beaten, as they were in Perth, to learn who can stay in the kitchen when the temperatures are soaring.

January 19, 2008

Australia's latest cricket tragic

Posted on 01/19/2008 in Australian cricket

If Australia’s former prime minister John Howard is jealous of the new man Kevin Rudd for having the Gabba in his Brisbane electorate, he must be equally envious of the new foreign minister. Stephen Smith’s electorate includes the WACA, and in the Weekend Australian Mike Coward looks at Australia’s newest high-profile cricket tragic.

For Smith, the WACA Ground is a very special place and flooded with memories of the feats of cricketers he has long admired, none more than his hero Graham "Garth" McKenzie. He was 12 when first taken to the ground by his grandfather for the Sheffield Shield match between Western Australia and South Australia in 1967-68. The previous year, his family had moved from Narrogin in the south of the state to Perth and his first sighting of some of the great names of Australian cricket is one of his most treasured memories. He carried with him not a modest sheet of paper but the book, the Rothmans Book of Ashes Cricket 1946-1963 edited by Ted Dexter, he had been awarded as dux of Grade VII at Christian Brothers School at Highgate. He was bursting with excitement and somehow hoped he could secure a signature or two.

January 14, 2008

Can Hillary help Hogg?

Posted on 01/14/2008 in Australian cricket

Sir Edmund Hillary, the famous explorer who died last week, would be intrigued if he knew he could be coming to the rescue of one of the Australian cricket team. Brad Hogg is staring at a possible three-Test ban if found guilty of using the term “bastards” in a racial manner in his hearing on Monday evening. The term is deeply offensive in India, but Hogg will insist he meant nothing by it, using a quote from Hillary after scaling Everest as part of his case. The Herald Sun has the full story.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald writes that cricket, though often portrayed as a gentleman’s game, in fact has a darker side:

It might seem a gentle pastime involving a bat and a ball, conducted along lines imposed by carefully written laws and sustained by honoured traditions, but scrape away the surface and it bears a close resemblance to a bare-knuckled brawl.

But he calls for a truce between the two teams, saying it’s time to get back to the cricket. The Australian notes another umpiring controversy in Australia at the weekend, while in The Age the Geelong vice-president says cricket can learn from the example of his AFL team. The Bangkok Post considers a wider impact, on Asian tourism to Australia.

January 13, 2008

On the buses, starring Brad Hogg

Posted on 01/13/2008 in Australian cricket

Concluding an excellent series on cricket at all levels, from club to country, Peter Hanlon in the Sunday Age spends time behind the scenes with the Australians at the Boxing Day Test.

Departure for the ground is at 9am, half an hour earlier on day one to allow for pre-match services. On overseas tours they have a coach and driver, but in Australia it's rented 12-seater buses, driven by whoever is first to the keys. "Michael Clarke is normally in charge of the first bus," Hussey says. "He's down there a bit earlier, keen to get to the ground and get himself set up.” Brad Hogg, who would not have been out of place in On The Buses, is another keen driver. The journey from hotel to ground is no more than 10 minutes in any city, yet long enough to prompt some slack-jawed gazes when children in car back seats realise who they've pulled up next to at the lights.

In the same paper Darren Berry writes about going back to play a match for his old club in rural Victoria.

In the Sun-Herald Brett Lee chats about the challenges of navigating the current tense situation as an Australian idolised in India. Anthony Sharwood writes in the Sunday Telegraph that the Australians won’t win friends, or fans, simply by being very good.

Keith Stackpole, in his Sunday Herald Sun column tries to restore some sanity to the aftermath of the Sydney Test.

Anyone would think the world's worst cricket controversy took place in Sydney last week, with the coverage it's getting. The SCG Test was a five-day beauty, tarnished by several incidents, which have been blown out of proportion.

January 11, 2008

Pushing for higher honours

Posted on 01/11/2008 in Australian cricket

In the Age, Lyall Johnson spends some time with Victoria's first-class team and discovers the personal battles that players one step below international level must deal with.

As a player, you are only an injury or a form slump from being out of a job. Jewell is often targeted by quick bowlers because Shipperd has banned him from hooking or pulling after a run of dismissals a couple of seasons back. Opposing captains crowd him with close fieldsmen, and bowlers aim at his ribcage. Jewell, the son of former Richmond player and coach Tony Jewell, uses his father's words to explain where he is coming from. "Dad always talks about that, coming from his footy background, just how physically, but also mentally, strong cricketers have to be," he says. "As a batsman you've got 11 on two out there, sometimes 11 on one and a bloke bowling a rock and he's trying deliberately to do damage to you. It's a confronting game."

January 10, 2008

Procter must go the whole Hogg with Brad, too

Posted on 01/10/2008 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh at the SCG © Getty Images

Robert Craddock calls Brad Hogg a “silly bastard” in the Courier-Mail but says he must face the same punishment as Harbhajan Singh if he is guilty.

Yes, we all agree the cricket world has gone totally mad, but the parameters have been set by the politically correct world that is smothering the sport ... If Mike Procter finds Hogg guilty and suspends him, all of Australia will scream: "You are kidding. For what?" If he finds him not guilty, India's billion-plus cricket fanatics will claim racial bias, particularly as Harbhajan was rubbed out for three Tests.

Malcolm Conn says in the Australian Harbhajan apologised to Andrew Symonds over a similar incident in Mumbai last year.

In the same paper David King looks at the events in detail and Peter Lalor writes Harbhajan might not even be picked to play on a fast bowler’s pitch in Perth next week.

Steve Waugh reviews the controversies of the Sydney Test in the Daily Telegraph.

The most likely outcome from all of this will be from this day forward Test cricket will have lost some of its colour and character because players will be forever scared to utter a word in the middle for fear of retribution.

In the Age Chloe Saltau says a simple act of sportsmanship might be all it takes to save the series.

"Good luck, Billy [Bowden], but don't mess up [at Perth]," writes Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Though Steve Bucknor's career is drawing to a close, cricket faces dark days if he's bullied out by player power," says Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

An editorial in the Jamaica Gleaner says "it is critical that the ICC engage in a serious debate on governance in cricket and arrive at a clear position on the issue."

January 9, 2008

The Bollyline fall-out continues

Posted on 01/09/2008 in Australian cricket

With the New Zealand tour still a short way off, the English press have focussed their efforts on the fracas in Australia that is being dubbed Bollyline. Paul Kelso in The Guardian considers the long-term impact the situation could have on the incoming ICC president, David Morgan.

During his often stormy four-year tenure as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, David Morgan earned a reputation as a conciliator. In the wake of the rancorous events in Sydney this week it could be precisely the quality the Welshman needs as he prepares to step into his new role as president of the International Cricket Council.

Simon Briggs, in the Daily Telegraph, agrees and wonders if now is the right time for Harbhajan Singh’s hearing to be held while in The Independent, James Lawton is dismayed by what he sees as money talking.

If the International Cricket Council had placed Steve Bucknor's head on a silver platter, put an apple in his mouth, and made a formal presentation to the chief mogul of rupee-laden Indian cricket, Sharad Pawar, they would have only been underlining a dispiriting point. It is that however strenuously principle still attempts to walk in cricket, it is money that talks, relentlessly and without shame.

In The Times, Shane Warne puts the controversy aside and focuses instead on the actual cricket played. He also reconfirms that he will be playing for Hampshire again in 2009.

January 8, 2008

Australian supports Australian captain

Posted on 01/08/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ricky Ponting should be feted © Getty Images

The Australian, which has the country's captain as a high-paid columnist, comes out to back Ricky Ponting, saying he should be praised for exposing racism. Malcolm Conn writes Ponting deserves to be feted, not condemned, for taking his bold stand to protect Andrew Symonds.

In the same paper Peter Lalor wonders how different things would have been if India held on for a draw at the SCG.

Michael Epis, writing in the Age, tells why he doesn’t like the Australian team.

In the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock congratulates the ICC for its removal of Steve Bucknor for Perth. “Making the call to drop Bucknor in the middle of a series may seem cringingly bad timing but sometimes desperate situations call for unconventional methods.”

Hussey given captaincy in Bollywood movie

Posted on 01/08/2008 in Australian cricket

The theatrics have continued at the SCG, where Brett Lee and Michael Hussey have been involved in filming for a Bollywood movie. The Sydney Morning Herald, which has called for Ricky Ponting to be sacked, reports Hussey has been elevated to captain and Brett Lee is hit for three sixes in a row.

And, after some tricky, line-ball decisions by the top umpire Rod Tucker, India dramatically beats Australia in the Test ... "No surprises whose victory," Lee joked.

Players are the problem, not umpires

Posted on 01/08/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

Jonathan Agnew, the BBC’s cricket correspondent, has used his blog to give some forthright views on the current mess in Australia. He starts with Australia themselves.

What a shame it is that the legacy of this fine team will be so tarnished by the ugly and offensive manner in which it plays the game – and has done for at least three years.

Ricky Ponting’s men have trampled all over the spirit of cricket by offering the lame excuse that they are "hard". In their world, deliberately conning the umpire is part and parcel of the game

He then turns to the decision of the ICC to remove Steve Bucknor as umpire.

As I warned when Darrell Hair was seen off by the Pakistan Cricket Board 18 months ago, the way was opened for powerful cricket teams to dispose of officials when a decision is made they do not like. How dare the game be held to ransom in this way.

But the real fault lies with the players – and it is their behaviour, attitude and respect for the game and its traditions that need urgently to be addressed. Umpires will always make mistakes – just as the players do (although you wouldn’t believe it sometimes) and undermining their confidence by removing their most senior colleague in this way is unbelievably foolish.

January 7, 2008

'Sorry, Ricky, you don’t deserve to be trusted'

Posted on 01/07/2008 in Australian cricket

	Ravi Shastri: "What happens if somebody does play the god and other team accept it with glee? I do believe that referrals should be brought into play quite immediately." © Getty Images

G Rajaraman, who asked Ponting some uncomfortable questions in the press conference, writes his version of the story. Read here.

Meanwhile, Prem Panicker, writing in his Rediff blog, believes Anil Kumble should never have agreed to the deal with Ricky Ponting.

What actually happened, though, was farcical—Benson checked with Ricky Ponting, who put up his finger, assuring the umpire that he was sure the catch was clean.How could he give such an assurance? He was in no position to see it, so all he had to go by was the word of Michael Clarke—who could not be sure, either. Besides, Clarke, whose honesty was supposed to decide the fate of a batsman at a critical time, is the same bloke who cut fiercely at a delivery, was caught off the under edge at slip, and stood there hoping the umpires would screw up. You can’t fault him for his hope—the umpires in this game have given enough reason for that. Point though is, Clarke has not exactly been a shining beacon of honesty—and yet Benson took his word, relayed by Ponting, and totally ignored two options that were available, even mandatory.

Ravi Shastri, former India player, says its time to incorporate referrals in cricket.

" ... The other option of players using their conscience to help the umpires is unrealistic. It’s not a case of somebody sitting in the air conditioner summoning his conscience to come out clean. When you are in the heat of battle, with the sun blazing down and five days of your labour coming to nothing, it’s the win you want at all cost.

And then what happens if somebody does play the god and other team accept it with glee? I do believe that referrals should be brought into play quite immediately. Atleast two per innings for each side. "

January 6, 2008

Dodgy deeds leave sour taste

Posted on 01/06/2008 in India in Australia, 2007-08

	© The Age

The initial fallout to the shenanigans at the SCG has started with Peter Roebuck firing the first shots. In his Sydney Morning Herald column he argues that India were robbed and that no sensible person would take satisfaction at Australia’s win.

It was a match that will have been relished only by rabid nationalists and others for whom victory and vengeance are the sole reasons for playing sport. Truth to tell, the last day was as bad as the first. It was a rotten contest that singularly failed to elevate the spirit.

Until another shocking decision was made by a 61-year-old umpire, reliable in his time but past his prime, the fifth day of this unattractive contest was offering plenty of tension to put alongside the memorable hundreds contributed by capable batsmen on both sides. Thereafter they might as well have drawn stumps, as all interest had been removed. Once justice and fair play have been ejected there is no point in playing the game.

January 1, 2008

From Kamala Nagar to Victoria

Posted on 01/01/2008 in Australian cricket

The Australian Under-19 squad for the World Cup in Malaysia had one distinct name - Kumar Sarna - of Indian origin. An allrounder who opens the batting and bowls legspin, Sarna learnt his cricket in New Delhi before settling down in Australia. GS Vivek of the Indian Express caught up with Sarna during the Melbourne Test and tracked his journey.

“I picked up cricket very early, playing with my uncles and cousins in the streets and parks. Then I started going to Montfort Academy for my first proper lessons. I was ten years old then. I am still in touch with my friends back there, and I keep coming to Delhi in between to meet them all and, of course, my relatives. I am forced to speak to them only in Hindi.”

The push for Sehwag

Posted on 01/01/2008 in Australian cricket

	Virender Sehwag is one of India's top-order options © Getty Images

In the Australian, Peter Lalor assesses India’s opening options ahead of the second Test.

Sehwag is a gamble. He is a big hitter who can score quickly and spread a field. He puts all his chips on 23 red, which is all well and good if it comes off. But if it doesn't, he is back home, penniless, before the sun goes down.

John Wright says in the Age that India should go for Sehwag, while Anil Kumble writes in a Daily Telegraph column that the batsmen need to apply themselves more than in Melbourne.

Steve Waugh suggests in the Herald Sun that there is no reason Australia can’t extend their winning sequence as high as 30 Tests.

Greg Baum reflects in the Age about Jason Gillespie’s caution while touring England with his young family in 2005, when the London bombings took place. Baum argues that the Australian players’ concerns over safety in Pakistan are understandable.

Australia's cricketers again confront Gillespie's dilemma as they contemplate a scheduled March tour of Pakistan, a country that in the wake of the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is reported to be on the brink of civil war. Each must be allowed to make his own decision, and that decision must be respected, without consequence for his career.

December 30, 2007

I’m no bunny - Ponting

Posted on 12/30/2007 in Australian cricket

	Ponting: hopping mad after getting out to Harbhajan..again © Getty Images

Despite the success at Melbourne, Ricky Ponting has two matters to press. He wasn’t keen on the MCG wicket and, moreover, he is not Harbhajan Singh’s bunny. Ponting has been out six times to Harbhajan in seven Tests, including twice – and cheaply – in the Boxing Day Test. Malcolm Conn has the full story in The Australian.

In The Age meanwhile, Chloe Saltau has a deeper mystery to unravel than why Ponting is seemingly so susceptible to Harbhajan – what exactly is the new tattoo on Michael Clarke’s forearm?

In the same paper, Troy Cooley is full of praise for Australia’s pace attack, rating them equal to England’s 2005 Ashes bowlers. Praise indeed, particularly as he’s not so keen on giving comparisons.

India, meanwhile, could consider using a sports psychologist, the Sydney Telegraph reports.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck considers his best world team from the year just past.

December 29, 2007

Symonds proves he belongs

Posted on 12/29/2007 in Australian cricket

Once maligned as a one-day basher, Andrew Symonds has now matured into a cricketer worthy of a place in any team, according to Peter Roebuck in the Sunday Age.

Dismissed as a lightweight 12 months ago, he has emerged as an amusing man capable of taking wickets and scoring runs in any company. Hardly a day goes by without a lively and intelligent contribution from Symonds. He is a genuine all-rounder. In short, he has found the confidence required to release himself on the field. He owes as much to his captain as Matthew Hayden did to Steve Waugh. Belief is the father of achievement.

In the same paper Greg Baum takes a view that a year ago might have seemed sacrilegious - that Australia's new attack boasts virtues the former line-up did not.

Jon Pierik writes in the Sunday Herald Sun that whatever the critics have said about Adam Gilchrist's wicketkeeping over the years, his Australian record of 399 Test dismissals speaks for itself.

Gilchrist is a bigger man than the lightweight Healy, tough-as-teak Marsh or one-time West Indian maestro Jeff Dujon, so he hasn't looked as graceful diving around. He would be the first to admit that. But looks don't matter in cricket - just results.

Also in the Sunday Herald Sun Keith Stackpole suggests that India need to reconsider their batting order, including letting Rahul Dravid play at No. 3.

India's woeful attention to detail

Posted on 12/29/2007 in Australian cricket

India's fielding and front-foot no-balling in the Boxing Day Test has been disappointing and in the Weekend Australian, Peter Lalor examines the issue.

There are players in the Indian side who appear as if they spent their lives telling others to pick things up for them. They see the ball approaching their ankles and like royalty look up as if to summon a servant to fetch the blasted thing. Alas, good help is hard to find in the middle of a cricket match and the moment has past by the time the servant has made his way up the stairs.

In the same paper Mike Coward says Anil Kumble's honeymoon period as India's captain is over.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Age that India have played well in patches but have made too many mistakes to beat Australia, while his colleague Greg Baum argues that there is nothing particularly wrong with the MCG drop-in pitch.

December 27, 2007

A contest at last

Posted on 12/27/2007 in Australian cricket

	Anil Kumble's guile impressed on the opening day at the MCG © Getty Images

At last Australia got the Test contest they had long been craving when, on the opening day at the MCG, they lost nine wickets to India. It was hardly a huge rout but given Australia’s erstwhile dominance, it was enough to satisfy the fans.

Peter Roebuck casts an admiring glance at their captain Anil Kumble’s feats. Kumble took the first wicket and went on to grab five. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Roebuck writes:

Anil Kumble is an undiluted champion. Seldom have India needed his exceptional abilities more and seldom has he responded more impressively.

Steve Waugh, meanwhile, was mightily impressed with Matthew Hayden’s century on the opening day at the MCG on Boxing Day, saying in the the Sydney Telegraph that he now stands on the brink of historical greatness.

For a guy who was deemed to be too one-dimensional by selectors early in his career he now stands on the brink of being Australia's greatest-ever opener able to play in any conditions and to the tempo required.

In the same paper, Jon Pierik adds that questions were answered by the tourists, in front of a more-than-healthy 70,000-strong crowd.

December 24, 2007

Victory 101

Posted on 12/24/2007 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds: Coming up with a winning strategy © Getty Images

Andrew Symonds was part of the Australian team that won a third consecutive World Cup, but perhaps his secret ten-point plan helped more than his contribution on the field. Symonds came up with the "Victory 101" lesson during his injury lay-off, a period in which Australia lost five matches ahead of their World Cup campaign. John Buchanan tells the Sydney Morning Herald:

"He came back into the camp after we lost five games in a row and he was very keen to make sure that outcome wasn't repeated during our World Cup campaign. So he sat down and wrote a 10-point plan on how we were going to avoid that - and for Andrew to actually write something was remarkable."

Phil Jaques, in the Age, talks about his bout of mumps.

"I had a big 'Sherman Klump' face and the shivers, hot and cold sweats, just generally achy and thirsty all the time. I was drinking five or six litres of water a day just to stay hydrated."

December 23, 2007

Bollywood fever hits acting Aussies

Posted on 12/23/2007 in Australian cricket

	New direction: Brett Lee prepares for his cameo © Getty Images

“Actor” will be added to the resumes of four of Australia’s cricketers in the next couple of weeks. Crowd scenes for the Bollywood film Victory will be filmed at the MCG and Brett Lee, Michael Hussey, Stuart Clark and Shaun Tait will make their debuts, according to the Age’s Chloe Saltau.

Lee will appear as himself in what his manager Neil Maxwell described as "a glorified cameo". It will take two days to film when the leader of the Australian pace attack has a break between matches.

Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian Brad Hogg is likely to play at the MCG and Tait is favourite to be 12th man.

In the same paper Peter Lalor looks at the difference in lifestyles for the Indian players when they are away from home.

Peter Roebuck says in the Sydney Morning Herald the game must spread “otherwise it will spend the next 20 years talking to itself”.

It's never too late, even at 36

Posted on 12/23/2007 in Australian cricket

Dropped after his first Test, against India in 1996, Brad Hogg nearly quit the game to take up farming. Times have changed since then and if picked in the final XI on Boxing Day, Hogg, at 36, could be celebrating his second coming against the same opposition and carry forward his one-day exploits to the Tests. Hogg tells Will Swanton of the Sunday Age that he's excited but not overawed.

"During the West Indies series we were looking at our baggy greens. I was looking at Gilly's and it was all frayed but mine was pretty brand new. Gilly said, 'I wish my cap was more like yours. I told him I'd prefer his cap because it was full of blood, sweat and tears.

December 22, 2007

Tendulkar: the heroes' hero

Posted on 12/22/2007 in Australian cricket

Sachin Tendulkar attracts attention wherever he goes and in the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock analyses just what it is about Tendulkar that makes him so fascinating.

Former India coach John Wright says newcomers to the Indian dressing room take two or three games to feel comfortable "because they spend the first few games watching Sachin and learning how to interact with him as a teammate". No group of Australian cricketers admired Tendulkar more than the luckless bunch who saw him peel off 446 runs in three Tests against them on the subcontinent in 1998. They became so infatuated by him that most even bought copies of his famously heavy Vampire bat and brought them back to Australia so they could test them and give a copy to their own batmakers just to see whether they were, in fact, cricket's version of a magic wand.

Another great of the game, Shane Warne, called his former coach John Buchanan "a goose" during the week. But according to Malcolm Conn in the Weekend Australian Warne might end up coaching alongside Buchanan if Cricket Australia confirms it has got its man.

In the Daily Telegraph Nik Walshaw looks back on some famous Boxing Day moments, while Greg Baum chats to the former Australian batsman Colin McDonald in the Age.

Phil Wilkins in the Sydney Morning Herald remembers what it used to be like when touring teams had more than a week in the country before their first Test. In the same paper Peter Roebuck looks at how important Sourav Ganguly is to India.

December 21, 2007

Warne: Buchanan is a goose

Posted on 12/21/2007 in Australian cricket

Shane Warne's fractious relationship with his former coach John Buchanan is no secret, and in the Daily Telegraph Warne calls Buchanan "a goose" who epitomises an arrogant Australian mindset.

I disagree with John Buchanan all the time. I don't think he has made one good point in a long time, actually. Everything that I have read that he says, he is living in pixieland. It just shows what us players had to put up with John Buchanan. We had to listen to his verbal diarrhoea all the time. He is just a goose and has no idea and lacks common sense, and you can put all that in there (the interview).

In the same paper Warne says Australia cannot write off Sachin Tendulkar and must use different tactics against him than under Buchanan. He also declares that 50-over cricket is finished and says the senior players in Australia's setup have a responsibility to know when to retire.

In a busy day for Australian legspinners, nobody in New South Wales Cricket can find Stuart MacGill, who had surgery on his wrist two weeks ago.

December 20, 2007

Resting policy raises priority questions

Posted on 12/20/2007 in Australian cricket

Australia's decision to rest Adam Gilchrist from the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy decider in Hobart could not have come at a worse time as the players prepare to sign big-money deals with the Indian Premier League, according to Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun.

On one hand, the Australia vice-captain is justified in having a break and freshening up for the marathon schedule which awaits. On the other hand, if the likes of Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds and Gilchrist are happy to sign huge deals with the IPL, then why should Gilchrist be rested from his primary responsibility - international cricket?

In the same paper Pierik looks at the potential for the Australians to play in next year's IPL, which will start earlier than expected, at a time when Cricket Australia would prefer they rested between tours of Pakistan and the West Indies.

In the Australian Ricky Ponting gives the thumbs-up to Bryce McGain if Australia decide to choose two spinners for the Sydney Test against India.

Greg Baum writes in the Age about the high-tech recovery from injury of Andrew McDonald, the Victoria allrounder.

December 18, 2007

Double standards of resting players

Posted on 12/18/2007 in Australian cricket

Allan Border, a Cricket Australia director, has spoken out about the resting of players after Adam Gilchrist’s decision to miss the final game of the Chappell-Hadlee Series, reports Jon Pierik in the Herald Sun

"We have guys signing up for Twenty20 cricket in the Indian Premier League," Border said. "I know it's big money and they are professional cricketers, but they won't be rotated out of that, will they?"

Stuart Clark tells the Courier-Mail of his disappointment at being dropped from the one-day team.

AAP reports Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, is not satisfied with the performances of Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey, the South Australia spinners, since they were handed national contracts in May.

December 17, 2007

Weary India search for extra bounce

Posted on 12/17/2007 in Australian cricket

	Yuvraj Singh has been practising with hard plastic and synthetic balls to get ready for Australia © AFP

Peter Lalor writes in the Australian about India’s tired squad of players as they prepare to face Australia in the first Test on Boxing Day. The batsmen are also trying different techniques to adapt to the conditions.

The Indians have not seen a ball bounce above the knee roll for months, but the big-hitting Yuvraj Singh has been recalled to the side and has found a novel way of preparing for Australian pitches. "Right now, I am practising with hard plastic and synthetic balls in order to get used to the pace and bounce of the Australian tracks.”

Jon Pierik speculates in the Courier-Mail that Australian players could be warned against joining the Indian Premier League because of organisational chaos.

Just three months before the tournament promising players millions of dollars is to be held, the eight Indian franchises have yet to be sold and players have yet to see their full contracts, let alone agree to terms and conditions. Players are also concerned that team bases and venues have yet to be finalised.

In the New Zealand Herald David Leggat talks to Daniel Vettori, who is pleased the IPL payments have been released. "Now we don't have to have all the subterfuge about it.”

December 16, 2007

No drying up of Australia's talent pool

Posted on 12/16/2007 in Australian cricket

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck assesses the depth in Australia's domestic ranks and decides it is a pleasing situation to be in when a batsman as accomplished as David Hussey can't get a look in. Roebuck suggests that the fast-bowling prospects are especially promising.

Barely a year ago fears were held that the fast-bowling stocks were emptying as fast as the sugar bowl at an Indian tea party. Glenn McGrath had retired, Jason Gillespie had slowed down and the long-serving Queenslanders had lost their edge. Those worries were misplaced. Indeed, the pace stocking is bulging. In some people's opinion, NSW's sixth-best fast bowler, Mark Cameron, could play Test cricket tomorrow without weakening the side.

Only spinners are thin on the ground, Roebuck writes, and in the Advertiser Richard Earle discovers that Cullen Bailey, the legspinner who has a Cricket Australia contract but is struggling to get a game for South Australia this summer, has no plans to pursue his career in another state.

IPL's money for nothing

Posted on 12/16/2007 in Australian cricket

The vast amounts of money on offer to Australian players who sign with the Indian Premier League are explored in Australia's Sunday newspapers. Will Swanton writes in the Sun-Herald that fringe players might be better off not getting selected by Australia.

Missing out on Australian touring sides is supposed to be soul-destroying for fringe players. Not any more. Australia's selectors will sit down early next year and choose the Test and one-day squads for the tour of Pakistan but, given the trip coincides with the start of the Indian Premier League, those snubbed could be better off than those chosen. If the unwanted sit by the phone for two seconds, a member of the IPL is likely to call with all the promises in the world. We'll make you famous. And stinking rich.

It could be money for nothing, according to Jon Pierik in the Sunday Herald Sun, with players set to retain some of their fee regardless of whether they play.

December 15, 2007

Leave Test cricket alone

Posted on 12/15/2007 in Australian cricket

Mike Coward, writing in the Weekend Australian, expresses his concerns over Cricket Australia's desire to hold day-night Test matches.

Over the past 30 years or so, there has been a widely held view in the cricket community that the condensed forms of the game can be tampered with if need be, but Test match cricket is utterly untouchable. It is an unspoken, unwritten creed. It is particularly unsettling that night Test cricket should occupy the minds of those at CA at the start of a potentially thrilling Border-Gavaskar series and a year after a lucrative Ashes campaign. And, as a consequence of the greatness of recent Australian teams, Test cricket is being played with greater enterprise throughout the world. Test cricket is sacred because it has stood apart from all its mutations and from all other sport for 130 years. This makes it unique. The moment it does not stand apart is the moment it will be despoiled and doomed.

In the Age, Chloe Saltau examines whethere there is a future for one-day internationals in a world that is falling in love with Twenty20, and Tim Lane says in the same paper that cricket is selling its soul.

But the weekend papers are not completely filled with off-field issues and the future of the game - Peter Lalor writes in the Weekend Australian about Shaun Tait's history of intimidating batsmen with his speed and bounce.

December 14, 2007

Warne's 'childish and petulant display'

Posted on 12/14/2007 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that Shane Warne’s call to promote Michael Clarke to vice-captain was really an attack on Adam Gilchrist.

In an increasingly childish and petulant display typical of some of his antics on and off the field, Warne's claim was a continuation of his antipathy towards the West Australian wicketkeeper.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck supports the push for day-night Tests.

Movies, plays and concerts all take place long after the sun has set, and, inevitably, the same applies to most sporting events, including cricket. And the reason is simple: after a day at work or school, people transport themselves into whichever world they choose in the evening. And the customer is always right.

December 12, 2007

Australia consider day-night Tests

Posted on 12/12/2007 in Australian cricket

	Lighting the way to the future? © Getty Images

Cricket Australia is looking at trialling day-night Tests within the next three years so more people can watch on television, the Australian reports.

Officials are examining the possibility of scheduling games from 2pm-9pm or 3pm-10pm. Tests, which traditionally begin at 11am and finish at 6pm, always span weekends, but suffer from smaller audiences on weekdays when people work. The day games also miss TV's prime ratings periods.

"We are tossing it around and working out the fundamentals," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said. “In a realistic sense, we don't see any reason why we can't be at least trialling some day-night Test cricket matches - not necessarily all of them - before the end of the decade.”

In the Sydney Morning Herald Jessica Halloran reports Stephanie Brantz has been cut from Nine’s commentary team. Brantz claimed she was told by Nine sports bosses that no one on the Australian cricket team wanted to talk to her.

Pomersbach has learned his lesson

Posted on 12/12/2007 in Australian cricket

Luke Pomersbach’s international debut was almost as unlikely as it gets. Still on suspension by his state for breaking a curfew, he found himself playing in the second team one minute and then in Australia’s side for the Twenty20 in Perth. It doesn’t stop there: he only received his call-up from the car park of the WACA, having gone there with his girlfriend as a spectator.

Now, he tells The Australian, having been given such an opportunity, he has learned his lesson about discipline and is ready for whenever the international selectors should come calling again.

I've just learnt that to be a professional cricketer you've got to make the right decisions. If you make the wrong decisions you could end up back in the trade industry or whatever you do. Now I'm going to take it a lot more professionally the way I prepare for games."

Also making the most of an opportunity is Ricky Ponting, who took his chance to relax after being rested from the Twenty20. The same paper reports that he headed to the golf course to watch one of his friends show him how it's done.

December 11, 2007

Welcome to Australia

Posted on 12/11/2007 in Australian cricket

Sharda Ugra takes a hilarious potshot at a section of the Australian media. Read the piece in the India Today.

... Australia, rather parts of its press-pack, have, in a stirring show of loyalty, already opened the bowling. It's just that this--the weeks before a tour of Australia--is such a nostalgic time, it can make you all dewy-eyed. It has become such a part of the Australian touring experience, it's a mystery that Channel9 has no memorabilia around it. It is almost like the first stirrings of spring. When the first waves of hot air and echoes of ritual chest-thumping reach distant shores. When the designated trumpet-masters for the Australian team observe a time-honoured tradition. To present all visiting cricketers as worthless, gutless, talentless and technically and mentally inadequate.

It's a wonder that when touring teams first land in Australia, they are not met by large crowds at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International demanding they go home.

Turning Pup into top dog

Posted on 12/11/2007 in Australian cricket

The future of Australia's captaincy has generated plenty of newspaper copy in an otherwise quiet December, despite the fact Ricky Ponting is nowhere near retirement. In the Courier-Mail Ben Dorries explains how after Michael Clarke was dropped from the Australia team a pig-hunting trip with Andrew Symonds helped him to regain his focus.

"We were chasing a pig through cane and Symo had his footy shorts on, a singlet, a pair of joggers and a knife. I had a $400 pair of jeans and brand new shoes. It was pouring down with rain one of those nights and I had mud up to my knees and I'm trying to chase the pig." The getaway refreshed Clarke's mind and he won back his baggy green cap and showed he was ready for extra responsibility during the Ashes last summer.

In the same paper Jon Pierik compares Clarke's promotion to previous Australian captaincy succession plans. Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, wonders if in the future Ponting might give away Twenty20 cricket and leave Clarke permanently in charge.

Australia's future leadership might appear sound but their spin prospects remain an issue. On the radio station 2KY Kerry O'Keeffe ranked the top five spinners in Australia and the Cricket Australia-contracted Cullen Bailey did not make his list.

The fast-bowling stocks are more promising, however, and in the Age Lyall Johnson profiles the Australian Cricketers Association's latest Player of the Month, Doug Bollinger.

December 9, 2007

International standards at 50-year low - Simpson

Posted on 12/09/2007 in Australian cricket

	Jason Gillespie now wants to become a coach © Getty Images

The former Australia coach Bob Simpson, writing in Sportstar, believes the standard of world cricket is the worst it’s been for 50 years. Jon Pierik looks at Simpson’s comments in the Courier-Mail.

With all-time greats such as Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar among the current generation, this is a debatable call by Simpson, 71, who began his first-class career for New South Wales in 1952-53. But his argument does have merit, given that Test nations Bangladesh, West Indies and New Zealand are among the weakest ever seen.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn speaks to Tim Nielsen about Australia’s long break, which ends this week with limited-overs matches against New Zealand.

Andrew Stevenson talks to Jason Gillespie for the Sydney Morning Herald and finds the bowler is going to study for his level three coaching certificate. The quick fall of Ben Hilfenhaus is tracked in the Age.

Bracken learns how to scrap

Posted on 12/09/2007 in Australian cricket

Nathan Bracken is not viewed as one of the hard men of cricket but as Will Swanton writes in the Sun-Herald, Bracken's punishing workouts with Troy Waters, the boxing champion, tell a different story.

Bracken leaves home at 4.30am to be at Waters's place by five. By 6.30, he can barely walk. He'll invariably have a NSW training session later in the day in Sydney. He was unsure about the merits of working with Waters until he jumped on YouTube and watched the second round of Waters's epic WBC super-welterweight championship fight against Terry Norris: three minutes of pure courage. Bracken now hangs on Waters's every word.

While Bracken is hardly mentioned as a Test candidate these days, his one-day team-mate Brad Hogg is preparing for a possible Boxing Day call-up. But in the Sunday Telegraph Bruce Reid and Len Pascoe, the former fast bowlers, explain why they think Australia should ignore Hogg and use a four-man pace attack.

In the Sunday Herald Sun, Keith Stackpole says Victoria's legspinner Bryce McGain would be a better spin option than Hogg, and Terry Jenner also sings McGain's praises in the Sunday Mail.

December 7, 2007

The world keeps spinning

Posted on 12/07/2007 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about Australia's search for a slow bowler to match the impressive stocks in other countries, after spin was not so long ago "supposed to be as relevant as letter writing".

Debate is raging about playing four fast bowlers and forgetting about the slow stuff altogether. After all, the West Indies followed this practice in its dominant years. But captaincy suffered, and once the supply of great pace bowlers ran out, the game was up. The idea also ignores the current emphasis on spin and the empty stands.

In the Herald Sun, Michael Horan looks at one possible candidate for the vacant spin position, Bryce McGain, who at 35 and with only ten first-class matches to his name would be a left-field choice.

And back in the Sydney Morning Herald, Justin Langer explains how he is fascinated by his Test replacement Phil Jaques.

During his twin centuries against Sri Lanka it became apparent that while his stance isn't classical, the position he gets into to strike the ball is very sound. As interesting is the way he watches the ball. One of my favourite sporting images is of Roger Federer hitting a tennis ball. In that shot, it is amazing how closely he watches it - right onto the strings of his racquet. Likewise, I was struck by how Jaques watched the cricket ball right onto his bat during the first two Tests.

Remembering Bodyline

Posted on 12/07/2007 in Australian cricket

It's 75 years since the Bodyline series and the Weekend Australian has reprinted some pieces from the Times looking back on the infamous tour. Murray Hedgcock writes that Bodyline remains a scar on the body of Australia, though one which has long since healed.

It is ridiculous to argue, as some fanciful commentators have done, that Bodyline threatened the Empire and that Australia might even have seceded to become an independent state. E. Rockley Wilson, the former England bowler who had taught Douglas Jardine at Winchester, forecast bleakly when his former pupil was made captain of the touring party: "We shall win the Ashes - but we may very well lose a dominion." But it was a philosophical rather than a political assessment.

However, those few weeks of increasingly unhappy cricket certainly strained relations between dominion and Mother Country in an age when Australians, almost exclusively British by background, looked on Britain as home. There were no spin doctors to massage the facts: cricket administrators debated with political leaders, diplomats and newspaper executives, hoping that the heat of the argument could be cooled by media restraint.

David Frith explains that Don Bradman made peace with Harold Larwood but never with Douglas Jardine.

Patrick Kidd looks at how Bill Woodfull handled the situation as Australia's captain.

Clarke enters era of responsibility

Posted on 12/07/2007 in Australian cricket

	Michael Clarke is Australia's Twenty20 leader © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, takes a look at Michael Clarke after his elevation to the Twenty20 captaincy.

As pale as a ghost, as fleet-footed as a dancer, as shy as a badger, as well-humoured as a skylark and blessed with a bulging heart, Michael Clarke has entered the most significant part of his cricket career. His rise was celebrated, his fall was regretted, and now comes a second, more sustained, surge - one that has brought a sense of stability and, with it, the responsibility of captaining the national team.

Shane Watson has been a bit quiet lately, but he tells the Courier-Mail he’s hitting the ball as well as he ever has. His last four Pura Cup scores are 15, 0, 0 and 0, but he got 70 for Queensland on Wednesday.

AAP reports that Brad Haddin and Adam Gilchrist can fit into the same one-day team after both were picked in the Chappell-Hadlee squad.

December 5, 2007

Gilly’s ball saved after backyard burial

Posted on 12/05/2007 in Australian cricket

While the world – ok, ok, the public relations department of Cricket Australia – was begging for the ball Adam Gilchrist hit for his 100th Test six to be handed back, it was actually buried in a backyard in Melbourne. According to the Herald Sun it was underground for a week - check out the picture of the burial scene - after flying back from Bellerive Oval.

Cricket fanatic John put the ball in a box of socks, then dug a hole and buried it inside an ice-cream container. "I thought it would be a bit rough - more than rough, a tragedy - for the ball to be on someone's mantelpiece," he said.

Australian players go hi-tech for Twenty20

Posted on 12/05/2007 in Australian cricket

The Australians will wear vests with global positioning systems during the Twenty20 match against New Zealand and the data collected will be shown by Nine, Alex Brown reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The players are unlikely to be significantly inconvenienced by the computerised vest, given that several of them have been wearing similar technology during games for the past few months. Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken wore GPS equipment as part of an Australian Institute of Sport trial to monitor players' workloads, and vests were worn during Australia's recent one-day tour of India and the Test series against Sri Lanka.

Jon Pierik and Ben Dorries question the commitment of Australia towards Twenty20 after Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden were not part of the squad for Perth. AAP reports about the fall of Ben Hilfenhaus, who missed a place in the team.

Will MacGill's gamble pay off?

Posted on 12/05/2007 in Australian cricket

Chloe Saltau, writing in the Age, weighs up the risks of Stuart MacGill’s decision to have an operation on his injured hand.

MacGill will know better than anyone that consenting to surgery is a gamble that could cost him his career, but in doing so he has still given himself the best possible chance to guide Australia through the tricky early stages of the post-Warne era.

Jon Pierik says in the Herald Sun Australia is suddenly in crisis.

Where once the world champion had Shane Warne, with Stuart MacGill menacingly hovering in the background, there now is neither. Warne is gone forever, MacGill may now be following, and the dearth of young spinners at first-class level is a bigger worry than WorkChoices was for John Howard.

December 4, 2007

Too much cricket, not enough time

Posted on 12/04/2007 in Australian cricket

Adam Gilchrist, speaking in the Sydney Morning Herald, responds to claims the Australians are hypocrites for complaining about too much cricket and then signing up for Twenty20 competitions. Gilchrist and a group of other players intend to appear in the Indian Premier League despite regular fears of burnout from their official commitments.

“Players have been going to England in off-seasons and taking opportunities to play and learn the game and earn some good money over in England, so it's not new,” Gilchrist said. “But I do understand critics might say that we are trying to get less [cricket], but when something else comes up we want more."

It looks like the ball Gilchrist hit for his 100th Test six will be returned. It is likely to be on public display by the end of the Australian summer.

December 2, 2007

IPL storm hits Australia

Posted on 12/02/2007 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian about the Indian Premier League and says Australia’s players are in a dash for cash that has left them in danger of compromising their obligations. Tim May, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association chief executive, says there are concerns over the contracts.

"There is ambiguity,” he said. “We have been surprised by the level acceptance of the contracts by player managers. As a professional representative association, we're surprised that player managers would accept contracts that are probably not as professional as they should be.”

In the Sydney Morning Herald Lalit Modi says there will be no conflict between players and their countries. "The national teams come first," Modi said. "We will only choose players if they are free from international commitments. There is no conflict.”

Jon Pierik reports in the Courier-Mail that Australia’s players have no interest in splitting the sport and Paul Marsh, the Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive, tells AAP the stars realise they won’t be able to take part in the IPL for two years.

Australians forget their manners

Posted on 12/02/2007 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sun-Herald that Australia's top cricketers have forgotten their manners in agreeing to play in the Indian Premier League.

In the past, the appropriate response to any dispute between sportsmen and officials was to support the blokes wearing the sandshoes. But times have changed. Players no longer catch a tram to the MCG or cadge a lift to the SCG. They do not play for a few years and then go off to work for a brewery. Nowadays they have share portfolios, tables at sumptuous restaurants, books on the shelves, shows about wine, chart-topping releases, computer games on sale and dress not in blue singlets but in designer suits. They are advised by managers, promoted by agents, enticed by vast corporations and protected by unions cunningly disguised as associations to placate the right-wingers running amok off the field.

In the same paper Will Swanton looks at what Damien Martyn has been up to in the year since his surprise retirement.

One of the gripes about Martyn during his career was that he was insular and didn't make the effort to spread the wisdom gained from nearly 20 years of first-class experience. He was Australian under-19 captain but never displayed the leadership qualities that could easily have led him to the Test captaincy if his career had taken a smoother course after his debut at 21 in place of Dean Jones. One of the first things Martyn did this year was to sign up for a leadership course. Go figure.

December 1, 2007

Toasting wine and cricket

Posted on 12/01/2007 in Australian cricket

	Cheers: Stuart MacGill has launched a new lifestyle TV show © Getty Images

It’s been a busy week for Stuart MacGill, who launched a new lifestyle TV show as a sideline to his fight for his Test future. The Weekend Australian columnist Mike Coward sees MacGill talk about his love of wine and writes about the changing culture of the Australian dressing room.

He admits he is no sommelier and is a trifle sheepish chatting with those with a much greater wine knowledge, but he knows what he likes and is keen to spread the gospel. And he has the capacity, enthusiasm and infectious personality to do so.

If his body doesn't fail him, MacGill has the chance of playing Test cricket regularly at the very time the drinking culture within the Australian team is changing. Much to the bemusement - or is that horror? - of Rod Marsh and David Boon and other beer-drinking stalwarts of Australian cricket, Ricky Ponting's men generally celebrate their successes with fine dining and fine wines.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about George Gilbert, New South Wales’ first captain.

In the Age Tim Lane marks the upcoming anniversary of World Series Cricket.

November 29, 2007

Net closes on collector of Gilchrist ball

Posted on 11/29/2007 in Australian cricket

	"Hi John, it's Cricket Australia. We saw you picked up Adam Gilchrist's six in Hobart" © Contributed pic

The search for the ball Adam Gilchrist hit for his 100th Test six is getting interesting again. Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, says Cricket Australia is closing in on the man known as “John”.

A CA spokesman said he had spoken to John's workmates and an intermediary, who confirmed the man had boasted about having the ball and that he still had it in his keeping. The man did not come to the phone and has been asked to make contact with CA but has not returned calls.

Lalor also writes about whether an India-Australia series can rival the Ashes.

It’s award season and Matthew Hayden has won the prize for Queensland’s Sports Star of the Year.

November 28, 2007

Australia want six Ashes Tests

Posted on 11/28/2007 in Australian cricket

	The Ashes trophy may take a little longer to win in 2010-11 © Getty Images

Chloe Saltau writes in the Age about Australia’s push for six Ashes Tests and the possible restructure of the annual tri-series.

In the short term, Cricket Australia is working to finalise the visits of New Zealand and South Africa next summer for three Tests each and, in all likelihood, separate head-to-head series of five one-day internationals.

In the longer term, it wants to play a Test in every state when England tour, which last happened in Australia in 1978-79, and is prepared to reciprocate by returning to six Tests when Australia tour England. The major obstacle is the proximity of England's next tour, in 2010-11, to the 2011 World Cup in India.

Saltau also speaks to Michael Hussey, who says his brother David should be considered for Australia’s one-day side.

Australia have won the Sydney Morning Herald’s Sports Performer Team of the Year award.

Secrets for dismissing Sachin

Posted on 11/28/2007 in Australian cricket

The former Australia coach John Buchanan, speaking in the Advertiser, has given Australia a few tips on how to deal with Sachin Tendulkar during the Test series with India.

"What I've been seeing for a while is that his feet don't move early in his innings and he is not very fluid early on," Buchanan said. "That makes the good-pace short ball a great weapon. It doesn't necessarily mean you will get Sachin out with the shorter ball. But you can push him back on his crease and then look for a full ball which he can tend to squirt to the slips early in his innings when he doesn't have great control."

Chloe Saltau writes in the Age about Terry Jenner’s frustrations when people ask: "Where are Australia’s young spinners?"

November 26, 2007

More knee surgery for MacGill?

Posted on 11/26/2007 in Australian cricket

	Stuart MacGill might be about to open the door for Brad Hogg © Getty Images

Stuart MacGill is preparing to rule himself out of Australia’s Test series against India to have knee surgery in an attempt to prolong his career, Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

But in doing so, the veteran leg spinner will surrender his position to Brad Hogg, allowing the West Australian a prime opportunity to cement his place in the Test side over the course of the four-Test series against India. Should all go to plan, MacGill would be available for the final rounds of the Pura Cup competition, then present himself for Australian selection before the tour of Pakistan. But there are no guarantees. At 36, and having already undergone surgery on the knee this season, there is a very real possibility MacGill might not regain fitness in time for the tour of Pakistan. And if Hogg were to perform strongly against India, MacGill's international career would be all but over, anyhow.

MacGill has only himself to blame

Posted on 11/26/2007 in Australian cricket

The belting Stuart MacGill has taken from the media during the past week has not been helped by MacGill’s own attitude over the years, according to Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail.

It's a cliche but sportsmen ignore it at their peril - show respect for people on your way to the top, or the same people might just elbow you in the breadbasket once you fall to your knees. MacGill never showed much of that respect and consequently people are queuing up to question his future as a Test bowler after his modest performances when hampered by injuries in two Tests against Sri Lanka.

In the same paper Craddock looks at Shane Watson’s progress – he has just started to bowl as he continues to recover from repeated hamstring injuries.

In the Australian, Michael Clarke chats to Peter Lalor chats about his development in the Australian team and about his possible future role as Ricky Ponting’s successor.

Nick Walshaw, writing in the Daily Telegraph, sets out to discover if Brett Lee still has the killer instinct he displayed in 2003, when he bowled “dangerously fast” and “sadistically short” to a group of journalists enlisted to face him in a promotional net session.

November 24, 2007

Jaques realises 20-year-old dream

Posted on 11/24/2007 in Australian cricket

Aspiring actors wanting to break through in Hollywood often have to wait on tables for years on end as they bide their time, patiently but confidently. Australian opener Phil Jaques' route to top-flight cricket was punctuated with some hard graft of his own, his stint coming as a labourer, sealing tanks. Chloe Saltau meets a combative, never-say-die batsman who is now reaping the rewards of a self-belief which he has had for more than 20 years when, aged eight, he told his mum he was going to play for Australia. Read all about it in The Age.

November 22, 2007

Where have all the young spinners gone?

Posted on 11/22/2007 in Australian cricket

Stuart MacGill's struggles in the Test series against Sri Lanka have put Australia's selectors in a tricky position ahead of such a hectic upcoming Test schedule. In the Herald Sun Jon Pierik wonders what has gone wrong in the development of Australia's slow-bowling stocks.

While MacGill will worry the selectors, what is equally concerning is the lack of slow bowlers around the country. That Brad Hogg is considered the next best option, at age 36, sums up Australia's predicament. Good on Hogg for resurrecting a career which seemed dead four years ago. But, really, shouldn't there be a 20-something legitimate wrist-spinning option around? Shouldn't there be a youngster emerging who was inspired by Warne to take up the leg-spinning craft in his teenage years? It appears not.

There might be a lack of quality young spinners in Australia's first-class ranks but the batting prospects remain strong. In the Daily Telegraph Tom Walshaw chats to one of the newbies on the scene, Phillip Hughes, 18, who debuted for New South Wales this week and is already being compared to another blond, spiky-haired New South Welshman.

But comparing Hughes to "Pup", or even fellow Blues opener Phil Jaques, is to overlook his own unique rise from bushie to Blue. An ascension completed with such speed, even Australian Test great John Dyson failed to recognise the debutant when presenting his NSW cap at the SCG on Tuesday.

There is still no sign of the ball that Adam Gilchrist struck to bring up his 100th Test six on Saturday.

November 21, 2007

It's time to go, Rudi

Posted on 11/21/2007 in Australian cricket

	Rhett Lockyear earned a stump, and a pat on the back from Phil Jaques, for his supersub efforts © Getty Images

Robert Craddock pulls no punches in his Courier-Mail blog, where he says Rudi Koertzen has become an embarrassment to the game.

Rudi, who has hearing problems, is not a bad man but he has a large ego and simply cannot accept his time has come. His decision to give out Kumar Sangakkara caught off the shoulder yesterday was the howler of the summer.

Another man who didn’t have the best of times in Hobart was Stuart MacGill, and in the Herald Sun Steve Waugh says MacGill needs to improve his fitness.

In the Mercury, Brett Stubbs chats to man who had a much more enjoyable experience on Bellerive Oval – Australia’s supersub Rhett Lockyear, who contributed a catch and two run-outs to Australia’s victory.

Age wearies them, but it doesn't stop them

Posted on 11/21/2007 in Australian cricket

Australia might have lost a few of their ageing stars after last summer but as Greg Baum discovers in the Age, some cricketers have a good 50 years left in them by the time they reach their late 30s.

One Friday night in 1944, Brendan Lyons, captain of Xavier's first XI, was despairing of how to bowl to Scotch's schoolboy prodigy and future Test opener Colin McDonald. In the study hall that night, Lyons "surreptitiously" read a coaching manual in which Don Bradman advised that a fast bowler should sometimes surprise by delivering from a yard behind the stumps. First over next morning, the emboldened Lyons clean bowled McDonald. Doubtless, Lyons' arm is not as high now. Nonetheless, there he was yesterday at Royal Park, bowling a couple of presentable overs into the teeth of a howling northerly and glaring at a batsman who pulled him disrespectfully for four. Lyons, 80, was the most senior of the "world's oldest XI" — average age 75.5, birth certificates provided — which played the "world's oldest second XI", all over 70. These were men who look upon age as a sundry.

November 16, 2007

Murali bamboozled by Warne's spin

Posted on 11/16/2007 in Australian cricket

It seems that Shane Warne’s spin has done it again. After Warne wrote that Muttiah Muralitharan’s action should be tested in a match, he made up with Murali by telling him that the article was referring to any bowler with a suspect action – not specifically Murali. Alex Brown examines the saga in the Sydney Morning Herald.

There's a problem here. Warne did refer specifically to Murali in his column. But given that Muralitharan has not read the article directly, he accepts Warne's version of events and offers an apology for his outburst. Another opponent bamboozled by Warne's spin. And things were good. Like a pair of old chums, Warne and Muralitharan arrive for the trophy unveiling ceremony, flashing smiles and sharing a few laughs while camera shutters click and pens scribble around them.

But later, when Brown reads the relevant part of Warne’s column back to Murali, things change.

"You do know that Warne referred to you by name in his column?" Murali is asked. "But he says he didn't," he replies. The passage is read back to Muralitharan. "Then everything is the same as yesterday," he says. "I apologised because he said it was not about me."

In the Age, Peter Roebuck discusses the sudden rush to condemn world cricket as one-sided after Australia’s win in the first Test.

November 15, 2007

Stick this trophy back in the cupboard

Posted on 11/15/2007 in Australian cricket

Creating a Warne-Muralitharan Trophy was a mistake from the start, writes Greg Baum in the Age.

The Warne-Murali trophy is a marketing ploy, the latest instance of sport's compulsion to present stuff. It's a photo opportunity. Its provenance shows it. One of the enshrined has only just retired, the other is still playing. Not nearly enough time has elapsed for proper appreciations of their relative deeds and standings to be made, let alone the tension between them resolved. The portents are not good. Warne and Murali are fundamentally and congenitally estranged.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Chloe Saltau chats to Adam Gilchrist about his award as Australia's greatest ODI player, and to Ashley Noffke, who was named the Australian Cricketers' Association Player of the Month for October.

November 13, 2007

Pressure grows on Cricket Australia

Posted on 11/13/2007 in Australian cricket

	Sri Lanka's Sunday Times makes its point

As the row over Cricket Australia’s demands to charge agencies for access to international matches grows, the pressure on the board escalates, although it has, perhaps unsurprisingly, found an ally in the Indian board, an organization which is not averse to grabbing income from anywhere it can.

In Sri Lanka there is widespread anxiety that the public might miss out on a landmark when and if Muttiah Muralitharan breaks Shane Warne’s record of Test wickets. The Sri Lankan board has written to CA and Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times published a silhouette figure with its cricket coverage with a caption: "This space is dedicated to what would have been an action picture of the Test match in progress in Brisbane. The black figure is courtesy of Cricket Australia."

The subject has attracted comment across the globe. In the Gulf News, Gautam Bhattacharyya wrote:

Cricket Australia, one of the most progressive and professional bodies to run the sport, is now being termed as 'greedy.' It's very much a subject of debate, but what is certain is that they have set a rather dangerous precedent now.

In Jamaica’s Gleaner, Tony Becca points out that sports needs the media.

Cricket at all levels has been surviving because of sponsors, for sponsors' presence is key. And if the media, if the newspapers are not present, neither will the sponsor's product or service. Sport has become big business, but it has become big business partly because of the exposure and the coverage it receives from the media - and none more so than cricket.

Greg Baum makes a similar point in The Age:

This, though, is not about marketing. Mostly, cricket shares a mutually convenient relationship with media; cricket sells papers, papers sell cricket. It is true of other sports and other media

The Times of India's Partha Bhaduri takes off on the Indian board's stance.

There’s no denying the fact that such demands could spill over into written content as well, apart from changing the way the Internet functions and is regulated.

Did anyone actually watch the first Test?

Posted on 11/13/2007 in Australian cricket

Nobody ever expected an Ashes-like audience for the first Test of Australia’s home summer but the turnout at the Gabba was disappointing regardless, writes Jon Pierik in the Daily Telegraph.

If cricket is a game of statistics, then attendances for the first Test at the Gabba would surely have this great ground struggling to hold its spot in the side. Queensland Cricket had hoped for an overall match attendance of about 60,000. It didn't even reach that modest figure, with 55,953 (1285 yesterday) filing through the turnstiles over five days, although it was one of the best returns for a series involving a sub-continental team. Whatever spin Cricket Australia puts on that, it's not good enough for a sport which claims to occupy the hearts and minds of Australians in summer.

Cricket Australia also comes under scrutiny in the Australian, where Peter Lalor looks at the potential for Muttiah Muralitharan to break Shane Warne’s Test wicket record at Hobart with no photographic coverage because of the ongoing dispute with media organisations.

In the Herald Sun, Steve Waugh assesses Sri Lanka’s problems and decides they made the mistake of trying to be competitive rather than planning how to win.

November 12, 2007

Australian dominance is killing Test cricket

Posted on 11/12/2007 in Australian cricket

For the second season running, a prospective challenger to Australia's hegemony has been sent packing. Last November it was England and now it's Sri Lanka who have been routed in the first Test at The Gabba. But far from cheering this turn of events, even the uber-Aussie Malcolm Conn of the Australian fears for the lack of competitiveness on show.

The sadness of Australia continuing to raise the bar in Test cricket means the foundation of the game is becoming less and less relevant in more countries as the Twenty20 phenomenon multiplies the excitement in shorter forms of the game.

This is even so in Australia, which has the strongest tradition of Test cricket with England. If Australia was playing a one-day or Twenty20 match at the Gabba it would have sold out long ago.

Wrong move by Cricket Australia

Posted on 11/12/2007 in Australian cricket

Tony Becca, of the Jamaica Gleaner agrees with the media protest against Cricket Australia's decision to charge a fee to cover the game.

Fazeer Mohammed, writing in the Trinidad Express, presents a different angle to the issue.

Fact is, we (I include myself because I'm just as guilty) the readers, listeners and viewers really aren't all that interested in such matters so long as we get what we want, never mind who is providing the coverage in whatever form-print or electronic. Given the reputation of journalists as a bunch of arrogant know-it-alls, there are no doubt more than a few out there who enjoyed the sight of Coward, Conn and others being locked out.

November 11, 2007

Lee sings his way to World Cup stardom

Posted on 11/11/2007 in Australian cricket

Brett Lee missed this year’s World Cup with an ankle injury but he is guaranteed to star at the next one. As David Sygall reports in the Sun-Herald, Lee has been asked to produce and perform the theme song for the 2011 World Cup to be held on the subcontinent.

Lee had other things to think about at the Gabba, where he spearheaded Australia's solid bowling effort against Sri Lanka. His team-mate Stuart MacGill, on the other hand, would have been disappointed to finish the first innings with just one wicket, according to Peter Roebuck in the Sunday Age.

In the same paper Damien Fleming compares MacGill to the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield – both “don’t get no respect”.

Also in the Sunday Age Amanda Dunn chats to Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry and co about the 30 years they have spent in the Channel 9 commentary box.

And in the Sunday Telegraph Terry Jenner calls for Muttiah Muralitharan's action to be tested in Test-match conditions, while Arjuna Ranatunga hands out some rare praise for Ricky Ponting's captaincy.

November 8, 2007

Reporting from the Gabba ... or somewhere nearby

Posted on 11/08/2007 in Australian cricket

	James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive, chats to the journalists who were locked out © Getty Images

An accreditation dispute left News Ltd journalists locked out of the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Gabba. Peter Lalor from the Australian offered this report from outside the ground.

Chaminda Vaas came in to bowl the first ball of the Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane today, I think. It gets a bit hard to say what happened as the quick disappeared behind a barbecue cooking sausages just as he was approaching the wicket. Judging by the lack of crowd noise there was neither a boundary or a six from the delivery. Apparently the same thing happened for the next five balls.

Mark Day, who writes on media issues for the same paper, offers his opinion on the dispute

November 4, 2007

Honouring the world's best bowlers

Posted on 11/04/2007 in Australian cricket

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that naming the trophy in the Australia-Sri Lanka Test series after Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan was “a masterstroke”.

It was also important to bring these spinners together. Rivalry had set them apart. Warne had been graceless, pointing out the number of wickets Murali has taken against weak nations, as if the Tamil had arranged the fixture list. Sri Lanka's supporters had responded by pointing at the skeletons in Warne's cupboard. Australians cast aspersions about Murali's action. The Lankans put it down to jealousy. All the more reason to unite the opposing factions.

In the Australian, Malcolm Conn argues that the inclusion of Ben Hilfenhaus in Australia’s Test squad is actually good news for Stuart MacGill.

And in the Daily Telegraph, Jon Pierik looks at whether players signing autographs while fielding on the boundary is a distraction.

Hussey's harsh initiation

Posted on 11/04/2007 in Australian cricket

In the Sun-Herald, David Sygall speaks to Michael Hussey about his early days as a first-class cricketer – and some of the events that shaped his future.

He was picked for Western Australia and received an introduction he will never forget. "I was 12th man and the only young fella in the team at the time," Hussey says. "Tom Moody told me he needed to take some pills for a backache. I told him I'd get some water, but he said, 'No. They're suppositories - and you need to apply them'. Everyone joined in on the act and I was about to scream as Tom dragged me to the toilets. Thankfully, they all burst out laughing and that was the end of it."

Daniel Lane writes in the same paper of Ricky Ponting’s most important partnership – with his wife Rianna.

Kerry O'Keeffe uses his Sunday Telegraph column to suggest that Stuart MacGill deserves a Test spot because “he could spend an off-season trapped inside a vat of riesling and still return match-winning numbers at his next appearance”.

And in the Sunday Herald Sun Keith Stackpole laments that Victorian cricket is at one of its lowest points, with no Victorians deserving a spot in the Test team.

November 3, 2007

Symonds develops into main man

Posted on 11/03/2007 in Australian cricket

	Expectations are high for Andrew Symonds © AFP

Andrew Symonds enters a Test series as a match-winner for the first time, according to Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Like his breakthrough one-day century against Pakistan at the 2003 World Cup, many within Australia's cricket community believe Symonds' innings of 156 against England at the MCG last December has marked a turning point in his Test career. And expectations are high ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn reports on Stuart MacGill’s place in the Test team and says he is not on the outer.

The facts are that the Australians grew more tired of Warne and his constant, self-consumed dramas than they ever have of MacGill's occasional lapses of sanity.

Cricket is at a critical point in its evolution, writes Mike Coward in the same paper.

November 2, 2007

Theatre goers set for a ball with Shane Warne musical

Posted on 11/02/2007 in Australian cricket

Shane Warne: The Musical is set to roll out in Australia next year, according to a report on the News.com.au website.

Our Cricinfo reviewer was impressed when he went to the premiere in Adelaide in June this year, as Eddie Perfect – the writer and star – trialled the production. And, if rumours are to believed, one day the show could be coming to England.

November 1, 2007

Hogg and MacGill battle it out

Posted on 11/01/2007 in Australian cricket

	Brad Hogg's success in one-day cricket, and the recent Pura Cup, has made him a contender for the slow bowler's spot, alongside Stuart MacGill © Getty Images

Australia named their squad for the first Test on Thursday – and included 13 players who are in line to take on Sri Lanka. The inclusion of both Brad Hogg and Stuart MacGill raised eyebrows across the media, although it is generally agreed that only one slow bowler will make the XI.

Robert Craddock, writing for Fox Sports, reckons that Hogg's inclusion is “a sobering slap in the face” for MacGill, who had been thought of as the front runner prior to the recent Pura Cup matches in which Hogg impressed. But, he says, the decision to give them both the chance to impress in the nets was the correct one.

Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, told The Australian however that they weren't going to be assessed in the nets at all, and that the inclusion of both was to allow them to choose the best bowler for the conditions at the time.

Either way, he is keeping his cards close to his chest on the issue: "There is going to be a tough call, but I'm sure the selectors will make the right one."

Peter Roebuck, in the Sydney Morning Herald, merely thinks that to take a second spinner is a waste of an airfare.

Perhaps the panel is trying to be gentle with deserving players unlikely to make the final cut. But Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg have not emerged from a delicatessen. They are battled-hardened warriors produced by a rugged system. They know the score and await the verdict. MacGill realises he has wickets on the board but needs to show form. Hogg understands that his stocks are rising but senses, too, that he is the challenger. There is no need to soft-soap them. Either they are in the team or not.

Warne: Go after Murali

Posted on 11/01/2007 in Australian cricket

Shane Warne, writing for Fox Sports, explains the best way to play Murali and says he wants to see aggression from Australia in their forthcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka:

As a general rule for batsmen, the better the bowler, the more aggressive you have to be. If you just try to survive, eventually one delivery will have your name on it and in Murali's case he will bowl lots of deliveries with your name on it.

You need to make a statement and get after him before he gets you.

October 31, 2007

MacGill casting a hefty shadow

Posted on 10/31/2007 in Australian cricket

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Webster ponders whether after all those years in Shane Warne's shadow Stuart MacGill is now casting a somewhat larger shadow of his own.

As the eccentric leg-spinner nudged chicken skewers around a barbie and tipped expensive riesling down his throat at a sponsor's function in the mid-arvo sun, it was hard not to notice what some observers had murmured during the drawn Pura Cup match between NSW and Queensland. That MacGill was carrying more than the weight of expectation. "There is no doubt I am overweight," MacGill admitted to the Herald. "I don't know how far over I am. I just don't feel all that comfortable at the moment."

Meanwhile, in the Herald Sun, Jon Pierik rates MacGill and his rival for a Test spot, Brad Hogg.

And in the Age John Buchanan, who has a new book coming out, speaks to Martin Blake about his time as Australia’s coach.

Along the way, he dealt with the controversies and emotions that engulf modern cricket. He also dealt with the mavericks, notably Shane Warne, with whom he shared what appeared to be a mutual distaste. He says he stepped back from Warne after upsetting him by saying publicly in 2001 that he was overweight. "I feel I've always left the door open for him if he wanted to talk," Buchanan said.

October 30, 2007

Fear not, cricket widows

Posted on 10/30/2007 in Australian cricket

	Watch out, girls: here comes the cricket © Getty Images

The Australian summer is upon us but not everyone shares the excitement of watching cricket day in, day out. For those cricket widows, Laura Demasi has provided a "girl's guide" to the sport at one of Sydney Morning Herald's blogs:

Cricket is like hay fever; a seasonal affliction that consumes its victims relentlessly; chewing up days and weeks of your life. And an obscenely unfair share of household TV time.

To me the game looks like little more than a bunch of guys wearing white lipstick, standing around a very large patch of grass doing a bad job of resisting the urge to itch their crotches, which, granted, must be mightily irritated in those polyester pants.

[...]

In an ideal world we could just run away to ... err (anywhere without a television will do) but unfortunately cricket's black hole-like qualities do make it difficult to escape its grass-stained grasp every single time.

So when life demands that you do cricket, we recommend you fake it. Your impressive knowledge of the sport will earn you serious brownie points, which can be leveraged to your advantage the next time HE complains about your dedication to shopping.

October 29, 2007

MacGill as flat as yesteday's lemonade

Posted on 10/29/2007 in Australian cricket

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck discusses Stuart MacGill's disappointing bowling effort for New South Wales against Queensland. Roebuck says MacGill was "as flat as yesterday's lemonade".

Stuart MacGill did not look much like taking a wicket until it was too late to matter, whereupon a lower-order man tried something more often seen on Moore Park. Admittedly the pitch was slow and the batsmen were set but a bowler of his class ought to trouble modest opponents battling to save a match on any surface. Instead, his work lacked sparkle and his opponents were able to counter him comfortably off front and back foot.

In the Daily Telegraph, Steve Waugh chooses his preferred Test XI for this summer and suggests Australia made a mistake by axing Simon Katich from the national contract list.

October 28, 2007

Throwing a Katich amongst the pigeons

Posted on 10/28/2007 in Australian cricket

Just when Australia's selectors thought they could pencil in their Test batting order, Simon Katich has confused matters with 306 for New South Wales against Queensland, as Peter Roebuck reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Katich damn near scored 200 in a session. Feats of this sort are not supposed to be possible in this era of athletic fielding, slower over rates and persistent seamers. It was all a reminder that cricket does not change all that much. It is still a battle between bat and ball. A long hop remains a long hop whether delivered by in 1929-30 by Pud Thurlow or in 2007 by Mitchell Johnson (who must at times have regretted leaving his plumber's round). A flat pitch is still a flat pitch. And capitulation is still capitulation.

In the Herald Sun, Jon Anderson looks at the end of one of Australian cricket's longest feuds, between Rodney Hogg and Graham Yallop.

How a receptionist shamed Aussie superstars

Posted on 10/28/2007 in Australian cricket

Australia's cricketers rediscovered sportsmanship after a barrage of callers complaining about their behaviour reduced Cricket Australia's receptionist to tears. Read this AFP report for more.

October 27, 2007

John Buchanan: The cricket coach

Posted on 10/27/2007 in Australian cricket

'If cricket is a team game played by individuals, what does a coach do? The Australian cricket team has enjoyed an extraordinary purple patch over the past decade, and for much of it the man with the clipboard was John Buchanan. Meet him on the Sports Factor'.

Australian cricket lacking a cultural mix

Posted on 10/27/2007 in Australian cricket

Cricket in Australia hasn't moved beyond its traditional Anglo base and has not found a following among migrants to Australia from non-cricketing nations such as Greece, Italy and Holland writes Andrew Stevenson in the Sydney Morning Herald.

CA anti-racism officer Peter Young describes growing beyond the Anglo base as "an absolutely critical issue for us; it's a scary issue. There was a time a generation ago when it was just taken for granted people would just play cricket."

Young estimates that a quarter of Australians were born outside cricket's embrace, and he recounts the experience of CA chief executive James Sutherland attending a cricket clinic in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern with his six-year-old son.

"They were all from one background - his own," said Young "He said it was scary, one of those wake-up moments."

October 26, 2007

Murali is last hope for Wallaby wannabe

Posted on 10/26/2007 in Australian cricket

In a light-hearted article in the Guardian, the Australian sportswriter Mike Ticher predicts a rough ride is in store for Muttiah Muralitharan ... and his chief antagonist is likely to be none other than the country's Prime Minister, John Howard.

Howard is struggling to turn round ominous opinion polls, secure a fifth straight election victory and, most importantly, make sure he will still have the use of his personal RAAF plane to take him to and from the Boxing Day Test at the MCG (cost to the taxpayer last year a mere £5,700). He needs a distraction, a circuit-breaker such as the Tampa refugee crisis he exploited so successfully in the 2001 election. And at this desperate late stage there can be only one contender for the sports-mad PM: Muttiah Muralitharan.

October 25, 2007

It sounds like Glenn McGrath, but it's Stuart Clark

Posted on 10/25/2007 in Australian cricket

	Are you Glenn McGrath in disguise? © Getty Images

Glenn McGrath has gone, but the tradition of predicting series whitewashes has been passed on to Stuart Clark.

"It's going to be a great summer with Sri Lanka and India coming out," Clark said in the Herald Sun. "And hopefully the fans can come out and support us and we can bring home 4-0 and 2-0 series wins." Quizzed further on the prospect of a series whitewash against both India and Sri Lanka, Clark said: "I have just predicted 4-0 and 2-0."

The Australian’s Malcolm Conn writes about the moment Muttiah Muralitharan narrowly avoided a powerful drive from Kumar Sangakkara in the Adelaide nets.

October 24, 2007

Close watch on Murali as Sri Lankans land

Posted on 10/24/2007 in Australian cricket

Cricket Australia will meet with Sri Lankan officials to discuss what could happen between Muttiah Muralitharan and crowds over the next month, according to Alex Brown in the Age.

Other stories about the Sri Lankans arriving in Australia for the two-Test series are here and here.

Ponting sheds light on Martyn mystery

Posted on 10/24/2007 in Australian cricket

In the Age an extract from Ricky Ponting’s new book, Captain’s Diary 2007, reveals how Ponting was told of Damien Martyn’s shock retirement while playing golf with Stuart Clark.

"After nine holes I decided to check my phone, which is where it all got a bit bizarre. I saw I had a missed call from Michael Brown, Cricket Australia's general manager, cricket operations, and immediately turned to 'Sarf' and said, 'I reckon Marto's retired.' I have no idea why I reacted to the message in that way, but sure enough that's what I was told when I returned Michael's call.”

Ponting says Martyn’s strange disappearing act left him in an awkward position.

"It's not for me to say whether Marto's decision to retire was right or wrong. I was disappointed because we had lost an excellent player, someone who'd bailed us out of difficult situations many times in the past," said Ponting. "I was frustrated because I was left answering questions about something I knew nothing about, when one media appearance by him would have cleared the air.”

October 23, 2007

Clarke grabs a stump and copies Bradman

Posted on 10/23/2007 in Australian cricket

Michael Clarke uses the stump-and-golf-ball technique employed by Don Bradman as a child to prepare for Australia’s home summer. In another clip of Cricket Australia’s “Hungry For It” campaign Nathan Bracken aims for a coin while fine-tuning his bowling.

Andrew Stevenson, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, tells of his fear as he faces Stuart Clark in the nets.

October 22, 2007

Symonds won't tell Aussie crowds to behave

Posted on 10/22/2007 in Australian cricket

In the Australian, Malcolm Conn speaks to Cricket Australia’s public affairs manager Peter Young about the decision to drop plans to use Andrew Symonds as the face of its campaign for better crowd behaviour this summer.

"There are a lot of elements to this [campaign]," Young said. "During the first one-day match in Melbourne last summer we had something like 100 people treated in casualty for wounds and injuries they received during the Mexican wave. That sort of thing is diabolical." Young also confirmed that a woman broke her jaw when a spectator went to punch a beach ball being thrown among the crowd and hit her by mistake. A seven-year-old child was also "squashed" when a spectator leapt to punch a beach ball and landed in the seat in front of him.

I wouldn’t condemn what happened with Andrew Symonds as ‘racism’, writes Ayaz Memon in the Daily News and Analysis.

Meanwhile, in an interview to NDTV, an Indian news channel, Symonds tries to play down the monkey chants controversy and feels the media has blown the issue out of proportion.

Australia selectors spoiled for choice

Posted on 10/22/2007 in Australian cricket

The post-Ashes concerns that Australia would need to find replacements for three Test stars have died down, with plenty of contenders pushing their cases. Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that the batting and fast-bowling vacancies are easy to fill but the spin position will be a tougher decision.

In the absence of compelling reasons to the contrary, Australia should continue to play with variety. Certainly a spinner must be included in the party. Mention has been made of the younger fellows but they are far behind the proven performers. Stuart MacGill has the track record but not recent form or fitness. Brad Hogg has been superb in India. Unable to read his spin, the batsmen have found it hard to line him up. If anything, Hogg relies too much on baffling the batsmen and does not take enough wickets with his main delivery. It is to his advantage that the game has been taken over by lefties. Often his stock ball is leaving the bat.

October 21, 2007

Symonds calls for good crowd behaviour at home

Posted on 10/21/2007 in Australian cricket

Andrew Symonds has used his column in the Sunday Herald Sun to say he doesn’t want to see any ugly chanting at India's players during Australia’s summer. Symonds was targeted during the one-day series but he received only boos during the Twenty20, according to AAP.

“Personally, I'm doing fine,” Symonds wrote. “What started off really as a bit of fun has become relentless. The media picked up on it over here and hasn't stopped. While it's certainly been a challenging chapter in my cricket career, it hasn't left me hurt or scarred. But I have been slightly embarrassed by it all."

The same paper reports the MCG will not separate supporters for the Boxing Day Test while Cricket Australia is planing a "Don't Go Ape" campaign.

In the Sun-Herald Will Swanton talks to Stuart MacGill about age, replacing Shane Warne and his fine series in Pakistan.

October 20, 2007

$6.5m gallery for Bradman museum

Posted on 10/20/2007 in Australian cricket

The Australian government are to invest $6.5m in a "cricket hall of fame" - two galleries showcasing cricket from 1970 onwards - to be built in Sir Donald Bradman's home town of Bowral. The Australian has the full story.

Work on the galleries at the Bradman Museum of Cricket would start almost immediately and should be finished by February 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary the cricketing legend's last game.

“My government support will ensure that the Bradman museum remains one of the best museums in the world,” New Ltd quoted Mr Howard as saying. Bowral is in the safe Liberal seat of Hume.

Captain Bradman ‘resented’ by team-mates

Posted on 10/20/2007 in Australian cricket

	Don Bradman: amazing batsman, unpopular leader © Getty Images

Don Bradman’s leadership qualities were not universally admired by his team-mates. The new book Inside Story: Unlocking Australian Cricket's Archives, which has an extract in the Herald Sun, reveals complaints about Bradman’s rise to the captaincy after he took over from Vic Richardson.

Bradman said that Richardson "resented that like nobody's business", and also that a clique in the Australian team based around its "strong Catholic element" resented his appointment as Australian captain on November 30, 1936, favouring their co-religionist Stan McCabe.

Bradman disavowed any sectarian biases, saying that he "didn't care two hoots whether a man was a Catholic or a Mason", and denied being behind the complaint that led to Catholics McCabe, O'Reilly, Leo O'Brien and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith being arraigned before the board on vague charges of undermining their captain and being unfit.

He did, however, concede: "I don't think there is any doubt at all that there was a group of people, O'Reilly was one and Fingleton would have been one for certain, who wanted Stan McCabe to be captain instead of me.

From one Australian leader to another, Ricky Ponting writes in his column in the Australian about the team’s novel situation of playing against world champions. “I can't remember being in it since Sri Lanka won the one-day international crown in 1996.”

Cricket, crowds and racism

Posted on 10/20/2007 in Australian cricket

	Andrew Symonds © AFP

Peter Roebuck writes about the treatment of Andrew Symonds in the Sydney Morning Herald, offering insight into India and examining racism in cricket.

It has in some quarters been argued that Symonds and company are being precious and that, weary of accusation and bemused by their unpopularity, Australians are trying to show they are also sometimes victims. Darrell Hair's collapsed case against wrongful dismissal depended on racial prejudice. But is not the law open to all-comers? If Symonds, Hair or anyone else feels they have been mistreated owing to the colour of their skin then let the matter be investigated. Symonds has not railed against every provocation. Just this one.

In the same paper Andrew Webster writes a moving piece about the Western Suburbs club in Sydney and Soumya Bhattacharya says lunatic fringes should not define countries.

The Australian’s Peter Lalor, who has been criticised in India for his reporting of the monkey chants, takes an in-depth look at the past week.

Pity Andrew Symonds. Not that he wants your pity. Or, for that matter, attention. He is a man who has never courted publicity or plaudits. Yet here he sits, blinking and bewildered, in the middle of a storm that is not of his making or his liking. Symonds loves a scrap and can go as hard in a obscenity-laden exchange as anyone in cricket, but this sort of fight and this sort of debate sits as comfortably with him as a necktie.

In the reality show that is India today, there is every danger that the new, aggressive, young "superior" India could end up as a farcical entity, doing no good to itself and to those who wish it well, writes Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times.

Antara Dev Sen, writing in the sify website, explores the inherent rasicm in Indian society.

We disrespect dark skin, of course, even though we are primarily dark-skinned ourselves. Our attempts at whitening our faces have continued for centuries – through grandma’s remedies to today’s fairness creams. We even have fairness creams for men, a new trend in men’s style. But a lighter skin colour does not always protect you from taunts. We are downright racist and rude to the people we call ‘chinks’ – even if they are rich or powerful like the Japanese or Chinese. And it doesn’t stop with foreigners.

Also read Siddharth Saxena in the Times of India and Srinivasan Ramani in the Post.

Meanwhile Kaushik Sunder Rajan reviews the series on his DailyCric blog where he says India's solution lies not in youth, but in depth.

October 18, 2007

Ponting’s plea for no Symonds repeat

Posted on 10/18/2007 in Australian cricket

Ricky Ponting hopes there isn't a repeat of the chants directed at Andrew Symonds in Mumbai during the Twenty20 match in the same city on Saturday, reports AAP’s Tom Wald.

“I just hope it does not happen again in another cricket venue I play in because it leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth,” he said. “I am sure there will be a lot of embarrassed people around this country, as well, to know this stuff has happened again at one of their cricket venues. It is done now. Hopefully in the Twenty20 match on Saturday it does not happen.”

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown writes about how the ICC has vowed to take action over the incidents in India. The Hindu's Nirmal Shekar urges the BCCI to take tough steps to combat the problem and says that India should stop pretending racism is something that happens in 'other' countries.

Back in Australia the game's administrators say there will be no place for any racist taunts at Indian or Sri Lankan players when the teams tour later this year. John Coomber, writing for AAP, reports security operations will be so good offenders are bound to be caught. A former homicide detective will be Cricket Australia’s match-day security officer, according to a story in the Courier-Mail.

October 17, 2007

Symonds target of Mumbai's monkey chants

Posted on 10/17/2007 in Australian cricket

	A section of the Mumbai crowd © Getty Images

All of Australia’s major newspapers carry detailed reports of the racist abuse directed at Andrew Symonds during the one-day game in Mumbai. The incident occurred when Symonds batted, as covered by AAP and the Herald Sun, and Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald there can be no denying of the issue now.

Peter Lalor outlines the story in the Australian and also looks at the denials in India, which range from the “ridiculous to the ignorant”.

The level of debate continually degenerates to "well, look at them, they're worse to us". But claims yesterday by the Vadodra police commissioner CP Thakur that the punters were praying to the monkey-featured Hanuman take the banana.

In the same paper Malcolm Conn writes about Australian administrators’ fears over the reception Muttiah Muralitharan will receive during Sri Lanka’s two-Test tour. “There will be tight security, including plain clothes police in crowd hot spots to act against spectators caught hurling abuse, particularly of a racial nature.”

October 16, 2007

Symonds race storm continues to blow

Posted on 10/16/2007 in Australian cricket

The reactions to the chants aimed at Andrew Symonds in India continue in the sports sections of Australia’s papers with differing reports. In Sydney’s Daily Telegraph Richard Earle writes under the headline “Indian official says we’re racist” after an interview with Ratnakar Shetty, the Indian board’s chief administrative officer.

Over at the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown reports on the ICC warning India to follow the anti-racism code and treat the incident seriously. The All Men are Liars blog on the Herald’s website looks at where Australians stand on racial comments.

Ricky Ponting, speaking to AAP, has defended Symonds against claims from Mark Waugh that the allrounder was being “precious”. The agency also carries a story by John Coomber saying racial abuse and vilification is commonplace in Australian sport.

October 15, 2007

'World cricket all but paralysed'

Posted on 10/15/2007 in Australian cricket

	© Getty Images

It’s a full paper in the Australian with Malcolm Conn covering the racist chants aimed at Andrew Symonds and Peter Lalor looking at Ricky Ponting’s subtle jibes at the opposition. The columnist Patrick Smith takes a global perspective by saying “world cricket is all but paralysed”.

The ruling body cannot make a decision that is not compromised. Bowling has been reduced to throwing, umpiring to the art of convenience, racial abuse to a point of view. Player behaviour teeters on the brink of violence.

Money is power and principle has no currency. Andrew Symonds continues to be racially abused. The Board of Control for Cricket in India scoffs at the accusation and Cricket Australia mumbles but does not act.

The Indian papers weren't short on opinion either. One shouldn't jump the gun on the racism angle, writes the Hindustan Times' Kadambari Murali, but it's time the Indian board took action against erring crowds.

Well, we do know he [Symonds] was taunted. What we don't know is whether the taunts were intended to be racist or a puerile and reprehensible way of upsetting an opposition player. Whatever it is, it is high time the BCCI took serious note of this. I doubt if the delinquents who taunted Symonds intended to do so because he was the team's only "black" member. Frankly, I doubt if that occurred to anyone. From an Indian perspective, he is viewed as just an Aussie — a member of a team having its way with India.

In the Mumbai Mirror Dhananjay Roy feels it's a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

October 14, 2007

Cricket Australia must support Symonds

Posted on 10/14/2007 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn’s column in the Australian questions Cricket Australia’s response to the racist crowd chants directed at Andrew Symonds in India on Thursday.

Cricket Australia must come out from behind its shroud of protocol and publicly support Andrew Symonds in the racism row that has engulfed world cricket. Whatever the fine print may say in the ICC's anti-racism code, Symonds deserves better. CA's silence on the painful issue of racism gives the distinct impression that it is once again kowtowing to India to protect its lucrative relationship with cricket's wealthiest country.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown speaks to Trevor Bayliss about life in Sri Lanka since taking over as coach.

Hussey recalls traumatic times

Posted on 10/14/2007 in Australian cricket

	© Getty Images

Mike Hussey has revealed how he feared he'd lose his wife and premature daughter this year. Braden Quartermaine reports in the Herald Sun.

Only two days after her husband helped Australia win cricket's World Cup in the West Indies in May, Amy Hussey was taken to hospital with serious complications 25 weeks into her pregnancy.

While Amy spent three weeks in hospital before giving birth to Molly, Australia's star middle-order batsman visited her every day while looking after daughter Jasmin, 3, and son William, 18 months, at home by himself.

October 13, 2007

Hodge aims for opening slot

Posted on 10/13/2007 in Australian cricket

"The glint in his eye betrays the flecks in his hair. Brad Hodge is discussing his plans for the summer and, more specifically, his bid for Justin Langer's vacated Test berth," writes Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald.

As with everything in Hodge's career, it won't come easily. Phil Jaques, believed to be his main rival for Langer's former post, is a seasoned opener and in tremendous form, returning from Australia A's tour of Pakistan with two centuries and an average of 123.33 from two unofficial Tests. But, across the Indian Ocean, there is evidence to suggest Hodge might be nudging his way to the front of the queue. Despite posting three low totals in the one-day series against India, the selectors have seen fit to persist with him at a time when Brad Haddin can't help but score runs.

October 12, 2007

Clark’s dreaded call from Hilditch

Posted on 10/12/2007 in Australian cricket

	Stuart Clark © Getty Images

Stuart Clark speaks to the Australian’s Peter Lalor about what it’s like when Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, gives you a call.

Clark answered the phone. "Stu, it's Andrew Hilditch." Bugger. "Can I come up and see you for a minute." Yeah, right. Don't forget to bring a blindfold and last cigarette. As Clark said later: "You know Hilditch isn't ringing to catch up for a drink." Hilditch needn't bother making the trip, or saying another word, but he is supportive and reasonable.

In the same paper Malcolm Conn looks at Jason Gillespie’s new book: he talks about the new law that suited Murali and reveals a few team secrets.

October 11, 2007

Australia's Hall of Fame rewards big three

Posted on 10/11/2007 in Australian cricket

Three players were recognised by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame on Thursday: Steve Waugh, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Ron Reed reports for News Ltd Warne and McGrath received “The Don” award while Waugh was an inductee.

October 9, 2007

Popular Lee eyes more Indian exposure

Posted on 10/09/2007 in Australian cricket

	Star quality: Brett Lee © AFP

Brett Lee is the most popular of Australia’s players in India, Alex Brown reports in the Sydney Morning Herald, and once his cricket career is over he hopes to make a Bollywood movie.

Images of Lee can be found emblazoned on T-shirts, billboards and magazines across the country, and his deeds on the pitch are analysed and dissected in infinitesimal detail on India's cricket-devoted television channels. Lee feels neither overwhelmed, nor overexposed, by these developments. In fact, he plans to increase his presence in India over the next 12 months. Following the chart success of his debut single with Asha Bhosle last year, Lee plans to record and release his first studio album in India during breaks in Australia's schedule.

In the Herald Sun Mark Taylor pays tribute to Matthew Hayden, who has become the first Australian to score 1500 one-day runs in a calendar year.

October 7, 2007

Could Hogg step into Warne's shoes?

Posted on 10/07/2007 in Australian cricket

Do you think Brad Hogg can replace Shane Warne as Australia’s Test spinner? Richard Earle, writing in the Courier-Mail, believes he can and speaks to Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen about the move.

"He has done himself no harm at the moment, his performances in the first couple of games have been fantastic," Nielsen said. "It will be interesting to see when they sit down to select that first Test team what they take into account."

Lee leads the chorus

Posted on 10/07/2007 in Australian cricket

Glenn McGrath's retirement has given Brett Lee a new role as the senior pro in the Australian bowling attack. In an interview to Malcolm Conn of the Australian, Lee talks about his battles with injuries over the last few years and fatherhood.

Brett Lee believes he is a changed bowler, at least in part because he is a changed man. For all the joy Lee experiences as the new leader of Australia's attack in the post Glenn McGrath era, it is the mention of his 10-month-old son Preston that sparks the biggest smile

In the Herald on Sunday, Muttiah Muralitharan isn't just content with beating Shane Warne's record, with 1000 Test wickets in sight.

The Daily Telegraph reports that New South Wales opener Phil Jaques is close to earning a Test spot.

October 3, 2007

Queensland improve their focus

Posted on 10/03/2007 in Australian cricket

Queensland’s players have adopted an unusual training method – batting while wearing glasses that have had their bottom half blacked out and others that have been blurred. As Robert Craddock explains in the Courier-Mail, the aim is to improve the batsmen’s concentration.

"I felt they were quite useful," experienced batsman Martin Love said. "With the blacked-out glasses you lose sight of the ball three or four metres before it gets to you so you start reaching for the ball and hitting it in the air. Eventually you adjust and start waiting for the ball to come to you and hit it later. When you give the glasses away you tend to hit the ball later. That is what we are trying to achieve."

September 19, 2007

States licking their lips over Twenty20

Posted on 09/19/2007 in Australian cricket

Australia’s Twenty20 international against India in February could draw the biggest crowd of the Australian season, Peter Lalor writes in the Australian. Cricket Victoria expects more than 80,000 fans will flock to the MCG for the three-hour fixture.

There are only two international Twenty20 matches scheduled for summer. Last year, nearly 30,000 turned out to see the Twenty20 final between Victoria and Tasmania. One state official said that the new form was "where the big bucks are" and claimed it was the only state generating a profit. Costs for the Twenty20 matches are considerably lower than for one-day internationals or Pura Cup matches.

In the same paper, Malcolm Conn suggests that the ICC World Twenty20 should be used a template for future World Cups.

This is a far cry from almost two months of the often soporific cricket that dragged itself around the Caribbean this year for the traditional World Cup, which was fittingly decided in total darkness amid complete chaos as Australia claimed a third successive title.

September 13, 2007

Congratulations Zimbabwe

Posted on 09/13/2007 in Zimbabwe cricket

	© Getty Images

There’s not much to cheer in Zimbabwe these days, so you can forgive the state-run Herald newspaper, the only mainstream publication in the country, from going overboard after Zimbabwe’s stunning win against Australia. It was unsurprising that the match is the lead story on the front page.

One commentator noted that now everyone knew why the Australian national side was banned by its government from coming to Zimbabwe for a one-day international series this month.

Zimbabwe had won the hearts of the crowd for their commitment in all departments and it was no surprise that virtually everyone waited for their chance to congratulate the victorious players who went on a victory lap. The electronic scoreboard stayed with the message "Congratulations Zimbabwe" for the night.

Perhaps fortunately, the result came too late for today’s Australian papers, but tomorrow’s are unlikely to be too forgiving to Ricky Ponting’s side.

David Hopps in The Guardian notes:

It was also an embarrassing start for Tim Nielsen, Australia's new coach, whose side were 50-1 on favourites, but who looked unprepared both physically and mentally. They had practiced on the featherbed pitches of Johannesburg and entirely failed to adapt to the more hostile conditions in Cape Town.

In The Daily Telegraph, Simon Briggs says it was down to preparation.

Beset by political troubles, Zimbabwe have suspended themselves voluntarily from Test cricket indefinitely. There are many within the sport who believe they should not be allowed to compete at all until the tyrant Robert Mugabe is deposed. But whatever the real-world backdrop, this team have clearly prepared themselves with great efficiency for this tournament. Their bowling was disciplined, and their batting cool-headed.

September 11, 2007

Ponting: 'Cricket is only a game'

Posted on 09/11/2007 in Australian cricket

In his column in the Australian, Ricky Ponting writes about why it was time to be a husband first and a cricketer second when he looked after his ill wife, how a police escort rushed him to the ICC Awards night, and whether Alex Kountouris, the team physio, thinks Ponting should play Australia’s opening game at the ICC World Twenty20.

Alex grabbed me during the awards night and asked me if I was going to be right to play and I said "absolutely" but that indicates to me that he and a few others might think differently. A lot of the guys are still having trouble sleeping after being here a week, so with the schedule I've been on, I expect to be waking up early over the next few days at least. That mightn't help my cause.

In the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock reflects on Ponting’s rise from impish scallywag to Australia’s best batsman since Bradman.

Being a star has never stopped Ponting from being himself, as evidenced by the journey, the night before an Ashes tour, when he travelled in the back of a mate's car with one of his racing greyhounds from Launceston to Hobart, feeding the dog a celebratory Kit Kat on the way home after it won at $13.

Craddock also looks at the tug-of-war that is developing for the Twenty20 services of Glenn McGrath.

In the Age, Chloe Saltau speaks to Mr Cricket, Michael Hussey, about his four-month break from the game, during which his wife gave birth three months prematurely.

September 8, 2007

It's a wonderful compliment

Posted on 09/08/2007 in Australian cricket

Malcolm Conn of the Australian lashes out at Shane Warne for his list of fifty greatest cricketers.

By ranking Adam Gilchrist at a lowly No.20 and Steve Waugh a laughable No.26 among the cricketers he played with or against, Warne has once again exposed his immaturity and petty jealousies.

It is yet another example of why he was overlooked for both those players in leadership roles, much to his lasting anguish.

However, Gilchrist himself strikes a different tune.

“As far as my position is concerned, to be in his top 20, given the amount of cricketers he has played with and against over the years, well it's a wonderful compliment.”

September 3, 2007

Warne's list proves there was division in the ranks

Posted on 09/03/2007 in Australian cricket

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Shane Warne’s decision to rank Adam Gilchrist at No. 20 and Steve Waugh at No. 26 in his top 50 cricketers confirms what was widely speculated – Warne never liked either of them very much.

People are saying – they're right – the friendship between Warne and Waugh deteriorated after Waugh pipped him for the Australian captaincy in 1999, then reached an icy low from which it never really recovered when Waugh dropped Warne on a West Indian tour a few months later. They are also saying there was little warmth in the relationship between Gilchrist and Warne because they were men of contrasting styles – the wholesome family man and the reckless cavalier whose lives rarely met in the middle.

Craddock goes on to congratulate all three men for putting their differences aside.

In a perverse sort of way, Warne's modest rating of Steve Waugh and Gilchrist gives us a hint of why Australian teams have been so successful over the past decade – they simply put the personal stuff to one side and go out and play for the team. It sounds easy to do but it has been beyond many fragmented England, West Indian, Indian and Pakistan teams of the same era.

While Warne's list might have been a disappointment for few, it surely wasn't for Sachin Tendulkar, the player he rated No. 1. In his reaction to the Times, Tendulkar said,

“That’s very special. I will absolutely treasure this. I’ve been around for 18 years and Shane has played against me all that time. It feels wonderful when someone of his stature appreciates your performances.”

September 1, 2007

Warne rates Tendulkar No. 1

Posted on 09/01/2007 in Australian cricket

	Shane Warne: 'You have to watch India in India truly to appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats' © AFP

Shane Warne completes his countdown in the Times and says that "no Australian is in the top three – but few can dispute the brilliance of my final top ten".

I place him very slightly ahead of Lara because I found him slightly tougher mentally. It is such a close call, but here is an example of what I mean: in Australia in 2003-04 he was worried about getting out cover driving so he decided to cut out the shot. I saw the wagon wheel for his next innings: he scored 248 without a single cover drive. Like Lara, he has scored runs all over the world. I have seen him run down the pitch and hit Glenn McGrath over the top for six, and I have seen him hit me for six against the spin going around the wicket.

Read what Tim Line has to say in the Age about Warne ranking Steve Waugh at No. 26.

Warne's list is significant. It will be cited through the years by historians and others who follow the game as the judgement of one of cricket's most significant figures. It will state clearly that Warne regarded a contemporary Australian great as being flawed. Alas, such skewed comparisons between Waugh and players of clearly inferior records expose the man making them as being less than completely objective."

August 27, 2007

Players want privacy protection on drugs

Posted on 08/27/2007 in Australian cricket

As Cricket Australia finalises its illicit drug-testing code, Australia’s players have asked for guarantees their privacy won’t be compromised. Chloe Saltau writes in the Age that the demand has come after a news outlet released the details of drug histories and medical records of two Australian Football League players.

Cricket is leaning towards a system similar to the National Rugby League model — a first positive test would see penalties deferred if the player agreed to counselling, while a second would attract a harsher punishment. The system preferred by Cricket Australia has the support of the Federal Government and is tougher than the controversial AFL "three-strikes" policy now in crisis.

August 26, 2007

Jones eyes place on Cricket Victoria board

Posted on 08/26/2007 in Australian cricket

Dean Jones is pushing for a spot on Cricket Victoria’s board but there are concerns over a conflict of interest because of his role in the Indian Cricket League. In the Age Martin Blake talks to Jones, who says the series is hosting “glorified exhibition matches”.

August 22, 2007

Australia game for video technology

Posted on 08/22/2007 in Australian cricket

	Nathan Bracken can watch himself bowl for hours © AFP

Peter Lalor writes in the Australian about Australia’s high-tech computer games that double as training tools. Each squad member has a PlayStation to watch digital footage prepared by the coaches.

Nathan Bracken spends hours studying himself bowling and Matthew Hayden spent an entire flight from St Kitts to St Lucia examining digital images of himself batting against South Africa before a critical return match against the Proteas during the World Cup.

"They can do it on their iPods if they need to, but they found the PlayStation portables have a bigger screen," the coach Tim Nielsen said. "The other thing is they can chuck a game in when they've finished watching the cricket, or they can make out they're watching the cricket and play a game if that's what they want."

August 20, 2007

Und guten Morgen, Herr Shane Varner

Posted on 08/20/2007 in Australian cricket

You must have read the news that Shane Warne is considering applying for a German passport so he can play county cricket as a non-overseas player next year. Aaron Timms takes the mickey out of Warne in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Warne has always been German to his core. So much has been clear from the first day of his Test career. After leaving the field at the end of play, he was asked how he felt. "Sehr gut," he replied. This was misunderstood to be a reference to his gut, and Warne paid the price for being German by having to endure a torrent of humiliating stories about his weight in the 15 years that followed. The signs multiplied. The stump in the air, the battle with nicotine, the incrimination of his mother after it became clear he had taken a diuretic: all were proof of Warne's indisputable Germanness.

August 19, 2007

New coach and new challenges for Australia

Posted on 08/19/2007 in Australian cricket

	Tim Nielsen is stepping into John Buchanan's shoes © Getty Images

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail about Tim Nielsen, who takes over the hands-on coaching duties when Australia’s contracted players start a camp later in the week. Craddock looks at the challenges ahead for Nielsen, including replacing the wildly successful John Buchanan and dealing with Stuart MacGill.

Nielsen may have a right to feel as if he is singing the next song after Pavarotti or taking to the dance floor after John Travolta but he is a no-nonsense, strong-willed, self-confessed cricket "nuffy" who sees rich opportunity rather than a bar too high to jump over.

Australia has chosen well for Nielsen has the type of bottomless enthusiasm and optimism needed for a year in which the side will play a staggering world-record 22 Test matches.

August 17, 2007

Wanted: Sightseeing tour of Warne’s Melbourne

Posted on 08/17/2007 in Australian cricket

Requests have already arrived from Indian tourists wanting to visit Shane Warne hotspots when they are in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test. Chloe Saltau writes in the Age about the suburb of Black Rock joining the sightseeing trail.

If the demand grows, some smart entrepreneur could start a tour bus like the one that carts English tourists down Ramsay Street to inspect the Neighbours streetscape.

Carl Rackemann, the former Australia bowler, has launched a pink cricket ball to raise money for cancer. Robert Craddock reports on the innovation in the Courier-Mail.

August 15, 2007

Water worries as Melbourne pitches crumble

Posted on 08/15/2007 in Australian cricket

It's getting hot in Melbourne, and water is in short supply. So too, writes Gideon Haigh in the Herald Sun, is common sense among the bureaucrats of Melbourne.

Mayor John So announced on Monday that Melbourne's fountains would flow and bubble again, thanks to an alleviation of the water crisis. There was no announcement last week, however, when it emerged that the City of Melbourne planned to start ripping out pitches for turf cricket, ostensibly as a water-conservation measure.

The City of Melbourne's attitude to cricket, and community sport in general, is grudging. Cities are for culture, festivals and mayoral personality cults. Sport? That's for ugh, suburbs, and the teeming unwashed multitudes.

"Think of cricket on turf as chess," Haigh writes, "cricket on artificial surfaces as noughts and crosses."

MCG could lose big matches

Posted on 08/15/2007 in Australian cricket

One-day internationals could be played at the Telstra Dome instead of the MCG after 2008-09, Chloe Saltau reports in the Age.

The right to host international cricket in Melbourne may be put to tender if Cricket Victoria cannot strike a more favourable commercial agreement with the Melbourne Cricket Club. "The closer we get to the conclusion of the agreement, the more likely it is to go to tender," the Cricket Victoria chairman Geoff Tamblyn said. There is also a possibility that cricket could be divided between the MCG and Telstra Dome, with the MCG continuing to host the Boxing Day Test while one-day internationals are played across town at Docklands.

In the same paper there is a piece on Romesh Kaluwitharana, who has been completing a level two coaching course.

August 13, 2007

Thorpe a changed man

Posted on 08/13/2007 in English cricket

	Thorpe: Australia bound © Getty Images

"The ubiquitous Graham Thorpe, bet you never thought you'd hear that," begins Mark Nicholas in his piece about the former England batsman who has transformed his life (and himself) from the introvert of the 1990s to an extrovert, in The Daily Telegraph.

Having listened harder than we might have supposed of him in the past, Thorpe is now applying all he has learnt to the TMS invitation, studio and live work with Sky, the occasional gig with Fox Sports in Oz and a worthy column in Spin magazine that this month calls for yellow cards and a sin-bin for misbehaviour on the field of play. Go get 'em, Graham.

But Thorpe's biggest deal right now is his life in Sydney with Amanda, the lawyer he was finally able to marry in Bangkok earlier this year. If ever a girl made something of the boy it is Amanda. From the pain of a public and turbulent separation from his first wife Nicky, has come a near perfect after-life. Thorpe was a cricketer for whom the future held much dread and is a now a former cricketer with myriad opportunities at his feet. He has just been appointed assistant coach of New South Wales to Matthew Mott, who took the coaching job when Trevor Bayliss was seduced by Sri Lanka.

August 10, 2007

Watson exposed on fake MySpace profile

Posted on 08/10/2007 in Australian cricket

Shane Watson has become the victim of a fake MySpace entry and the Australian Cricketers’ Association is upset, Malcolm Conn reports in the Australian.

Under Shane's Blurbs on the site, it says: "I'm Shane Watson, but you probably recognise me cause I'm hot. I like to model … I like to play cricket, but I'm usually injured." The ACA chief executive Paul Marsh claimed the false entries on MySpace were a "pathetic exploitation by people who have nothing better to do with their time".

Victoria search for more green and gold

Posted on 08/10/2007 in Australian cricket

The under-represented Victoria have grand visions of lifting the number of representatives in Australia’s Test and one-day teams, Chloe Saltau writes in the Age.

Brad Hodge and Cameron White are the only Bushrangers in possession of Cricket Australia contracts for the 2007-08 season, and since the retirement of Shane Warne, Victoria does not have a regular representative in the Test side. Under new chief executive and former Australian swing bowler, Tony Dodemaide, Cricket Victoria is taking steps to deal with the issue that has been a source of constant frustration to players, administrators and coaches.

August 3, 2007

Aussies may face virtual Murali

Posted on 08/03/2007 in Technology

Virtual reality studios, GPS tracking, data mining and neural network software programs - what do all these have to do with cricket, you ask? These are part of a series of technological developments planned to help maintain Australia's domination of world cricket. John Coomber writes in the Brisbane Times:

Cameras will be set up to capture as nearly as possible a batsman's-eye view of the opposition bowlers, and relay the feed to a studio near the Australian dressing room.

Players padded up and waiting to bat will be able to rehearse their innings using images gathered from the middle, and projected life-size back into the pavilion.

Don't you want to hear what Geoffrey Boycott thinks of all this?

July 31, 2007

Symonds wrestles with rugby league giant

Posted on 07/31/2007 in Australian cricket

	Cricket was a safer sport for Andrew Symonds © Getty Images

Andrew Symonds stepped into a training session with the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team and left with some not-so-gentle reminders of why cricket was a safer career choice. AAP’s Wayne Heming reports Symonds plans to attend a few more sessions in preparation for the Twenty20 World Championship in September.

"Hopefully this will help condition me,” he said. “It's a bit of fun and it's a bit different. You don't realise how skilful and strong these blokes are.''

Symonds considered switching to rugby league in 2003 but stayed with cricket and has become a key member of the one-day team. “For longevity in life, I think I picked the right sport.''

July 30, 2007

Tait’s need for more speed

Posted on 07/30/2007 in Australian cricket

Despite his string of recent injuries, Shaun Tait tells the Australian’s Malcolm Conn he wants to bowl faster when he returns.

Tait, 24, broke 160kph during his second one-day match earlier this year and believes there is more to come. "I'll try and get myself ready and see if I can get a bit quicker," he said. "There's no reason why I can't if I'm fresh.

“When I bowled that ball I was coming off a fair bit of cricket and I wasn't as fit as I'd like to be. If I can get myself fit enough there's no reason why I can't bowl a bit quicker."

July 26, 2007

Jaques' wet and wild off-season

Posted on 07/26/2007 in Australian cricket

	Floods at Worcestershire's New Road ground cost Doug Bollinger "everything except one shoe" © Getty Images

It wasn’t quite what Phil Jaques had in mind when he planned his English summer. A season at Worcestershire was intended to prepare him for a possible promotion into Justin Langer’s old spot as one of Australia’s Test openers. But as Jaques told Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald, Worcestershire’s floods have kept him off the ground - literally.

"We went back to the ground to have a look at it, and cars in the car park were completely submerged and pads and gloves and bats were floating across the ground. We had to enter the dressing rooms through the roof, and we fed the swans from the second deck of the pavilion. I've never seen anything like it."

Jaques managed to save his gear but his team-mate Doug Bollinger lost “everything except for one shoe”.

"I got a call from Gareth Batty the other night, asking if he could stay at my place because the road to his house has been cut off. It's been a bit like club cricket, with a lot of people swapping and borrowing gear. It probably hasn't been an ideal season over here, but at least I'll be fresh when I get home."

July 23, 2007

Wessels emerges in coaching circles

Posted on 07/23/2007 in Australian cricket

Kepler Wessels is back in Australia this month, coaching the South Africa side at the Emerging Players Tournament in Queensland. In an interview with Malcolm Conn in t