Personal Issues Force Clarke Home ... batsman leaves one day series
Crowd Antics Spur On Johnson
Ponting Happy With Successful Reaction
Out Of Form North Pleads His Case
Australia's Season In The Sun - rating Australia's successful summer
Apart from items one and three further underlining the class difference at the top of Australian cricket between the sort of sensitivity we would all like to see in our own boys when compared to the thug next door, don't all of these headlines have an air of predictability about them. If batsmen could have picked Murali's doosra with as much efficiency as the public can pick tomorrows cricket headlines, Mr Google Eyes would only have half the wickets.
Same old, same old.
- Australians behave like thugs on the field because the NZ crowd is atrocious ... no, some of them behave like thugs because they are thugs
- The Skipper approves just as long as we win because in the end, its not how you play the game, it's if you win. Wind back a couple of months when Ponting made that call on a wet Sydney morning in arguably the worst piece of captaincy in the history of Australian cricket. But a few days later Australia won, so he was right and Lango's wrong ... right?
- Clarke places his relationship - one he hopes will be for life - above another meaningless ODI tournament, all be it with famous names on the trophy. The public's reaction is to scorn him, call him soft etc etc etc
- North has taken to the media to try and retain his Test spot because, he realises where real power resides in Australian cricket. The media have been selecting our teams and sacking players since the fiasco with Allan Border's retirement
- and Australian cricket endlessly self-promotes the team. Yes, they couldn't have done more this summer (apart from score centuries). No losses and 17 wins from 19 but against two teams so rife with internal division and possibly even the whiff of brown paper bags filled with greenbacks and phone calls from a shadowy figure who uses the pseudonym Jack. For Pete's sake! We may as well have played the City United Thirds for most of the season! Despite all the clean sheets, the two 3 blot Test scorelines still only has us at No.3
The real news and real dangers come in a headline hidden way down the page ...
Sheffield Shield Final Could Be Axed
Why? To allow Cricket Australia to stage an expanded T20 Big Bash. When will cricket authorities learn that it's simple mathematics. If you cater for the lowest common denominator, that's what your game becomes ... low and common.
On Clarke, this from the CA website: " "Michael is attending to personal, non-cricket matters and we ask on his behalf that his privacy be respected," Cricket Australia general manager of cricket Michael Brown said." Yet, they title the article "Clarke quits NZ tour" instead of something a little more respectful like: "Clarke granted personal leave". Pfft.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Sheffield Shield, it is rare that I feel inspired to write to Cricket Australia to protest, yet I have done so on this occasion. My message will likely fall on deaf ears but I feel better for it, if nothing else.
“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” Abraham Lincoln
ReplyDeleteYou go right ahead Tim. I have a long line of protests behind me and an even longer one in front.
Lango, Agreed on all points except Marcus North! Why would he go to the press when he pays a manager to look after the spin
ReplyDeleteI said right from the start that this current lot would have a soft summer and look at the opponents now. West Indies struggling against those GIANTS Zimbabwe and Pakistan in their usual state sacking players, changing selectors and restoring old hacks.
Poor old Lara, she thought it OK to have it off with a high profile married man but when the publicity turns against her it is all too much. Good old Max Markson does it again.
The ugly Ponting era raises its ugly head as soon as adversity knocks on the door. Go back to his stats this year take out the 200 (dropped on O ) and evidence is compelling that as a 3 his days are finished at top level.