< 1 minute readThis is a quote from Australia’s federal defence minister, Stephen Smith. And yes, you read that job title correctly. “Well historically of course there have been a series of atrocities committed by the Australian Cricket Board or Cricket Australia or the Australian selectors against Western Australian cricketers but this one
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Shane Watson is a batsman
< 1 minute readIf you want to be taken seriously as a batsman, one of the worst things you can do is bowl. Every team is desperate for all-rounders, but the label gets misapplied so much it tars those who actually warrant it. Shane Watson probably just about qualifies as an all-rounder –
Continue readingRicky Ponting is not Australia captain
< 1 minute readGetting a new Australia captain is like getting a new Doctor Who. It takes quite a while to get used to the new one because his face is all wrong. As a captain, Ricky Ponting was both hugely admirable and a world-class tool. A Ricky Ponting interview normally features lots
Continue readingShaun Tait retires from Twenty20 to prolong Super Over career
< 1 minute readAustralian fast bowler, Shaun Tait, has announced his retirement from Twenty20 cricket, saying that at the age of 28 he can no longer subject his body to the punishing two-over spells demanded of him. Tait said: “I’ve never really been the biggest fan of cricket and I just don’t know
Continue readingIndia beat Australia in the World Cup and everyone is happy
< 1 minute readIndia are through to a World Cup semi-final. Australia are out. Ricky Ponting’s proved his class with a hundred. Everyone’s happy. There are no losers in this situation. None whatsoever. No-one who matters is in any way disappointed with the events of today. It is one of those rare moments
Continue readingCricket World Cup storylines
< 1 minute readThe great thing about actual, proper tournaments is the way that narratives develop. Every remaining team already has a good story in place if they eventually go on to become World Champions. Pakistan – Would defy what was a catastrophic build-up to the tournament even by their standards. Being as
Continue readingAustralia’s World Cup winning streak bookended by losses to Pakistan
< 1 minute readAustralia lost in the World Cup yesterday. Turns out we were there last time that happened, at Headingley in 1999. That match featured one of the all-time great run-outs with Inzy taking a quick single in the time it took Moin Khan to run two. Nothing unusual in that, but
Continue readingWhy did Ricky Ponting smash a TV?
< 1 minute readThere are some great stories going around about Ricky Ponting smashing a telly after being run-out against Zimbabawe. We like the ones that depict feeble tantrums rather than those where he has THE RAGE. Our two favourites so far are: That he threw his gloves at the TV and now
Continue readingIf only there were an eighth one-day international between Australia and England
< 1 minute readWhat is the greatest mark of quality for any given one-day international? We’ve always thought that if a game features four wicketkeepers, that’s a pretty good sign. During the seventh one-day international between Australia and England, that dream was finally realised. In many ways, this match represented a high water
Continue readingAshes series were already too frequent
2 minute readWe’d like to add a slightly more sober footnote to our post from last Friday. We described back-to-back Ashes series as being ‘quite literally the worst idea of all time’. We stand by that and would like say that it’s actually the worst idea by an even greater margin that
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