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I awoke to find out Manou was listed – I thought for a moment the selecters had made an intelligent decision to cover their stupidity in dropping Hughes because Mitch was out of form.
No such luck. Full marks to Strauss for the sporting gesture of letting Manou play, if it was the other way around England would be batting with 10.
Even though Manou’s batting isn’t as Haddin he should make up the difference by not conceding as many byes and holding his catches.
We’ve used one of your Manou facts for our Wisden Cricketer blog tomorrow, Wolf. Thanks for educating us.
Frightfully sporting to allow us a wicketkeeper. English benevolence knows no bounds, does it? Perhaps it will earn him a knighthood?
I can’t think what the Scots and Irish, for starters, have been complaining about these past 800 years! It was all for our own good, wasn’t it, dispossessing us for your sheep?
It’s late here, who gets the night hood?
Surely it was the Welsh got the short straw regarding sheep? New South Wales is still full of cricketers who like ewe they know
Strauss had no choice, really, but I’d like to think that he demanded something of Ricky Ponting before saying yes.
“Broken his finger, you say? Well that’s going to make it tough for him, isn’t it? Maybe one of your other players could keep and Haddin could field at long leg. I’ll tell you what, how about I say yes, but only if you bring a bag of jelly babies round to our dressing room every hour for the rest of the match. No, wait. The rest of the series. Even when you’re on the pitch.”
We remarked yesterday that it would have been ironic had it been Strauss out for a blob caught by Manou.
Joking apart, absolutely the right decision by Strauss to let Manou play in the circumstances.
If the only price Strauss extracted from Ponting was to stop wittering on about the spirit of cricket, that will be payment enough.