Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Australia v West Indies - 1st Test, Day 3 at Brisbane.
There's not a lot I can say a day late but domestic cricket duties have kept me from recording my thoughts about the disasterous final day for the West Indies.
Of course, just like my domestic cricket duties, the disasters are only one side of the coin. In Tamworth, City United lost in all four grades against their arch rival, Bective East. Lost is being used here as an extended euphamism to gilt the lilly of a thrashing. They took all 40 of our wickets, whilst we collected only 15 of their's and needless to say, their run totals were considerably higher. Heads and spirits might well be down but that would be misplaced. Some good things happened in the course of the day.
So too the West Indies.
Peter Roebuck has been scathing in his treatment of Chris Gayle and in viewing his disengagement in this Test on the surface only, that might be fair. It would also be fair to remember he has travelled to the other side of the world and back within a week to tend to an ailing mother - a trip that would be physically and emotionally demanding. Last year, I travelled 6000kms from Broome to Sydney and back via Adelaide and Perth to attend my mother's funeral and I was a wreck for a week afterwards and all I had to do was drive a car and sightsee. I don't think I would have wanted to play park cricket, let along face Australia on the rebound.
Roebuck is right to say that leadership from senior players was lacking. He just reaches his conclusion via the wrong track.
The West Indies were flogged but the future could be seen and not through a Hubble telescope. Adrian Barath played well ... no, very well. He batted like an old time West Indian, with shot making from supple wrists and neat footwork. We might have seen the birth of something special in Brisbane.
Equally, Dowlin and Ramdin looked the goods - the latter with gloves as well as bat in hand.
The greater worry is the injury to Taylor, as Roach isn't ready to be the spearhead of this attack. He'll bowl well as the apprentice, but not if cast as the master craftsman. Such responsibility could destroy him. His time as master will come.
Bravo is not up for this and never has been. His very ordinary, very suicidal shot to the world's most inoccuous bouncer bowler was even more embarassing than Chris Gayle's second innings "I'm too great to play at dat maan." Chanderpaul too must step up and not just to take wind from the Aussies sails. Blokes like Barath and Dowlin must have such a great player firing. He is now the second greatest accumulator of runs for the West Indies but working against him is his failure to insert his class into the game on visits down under. For their future and therefore the future of cricket in the Carribean, Chanderpaul must occupy the crease.
As for Gayle, he has always blown hot and cold and its hardly fair to expect anything else. Maybe in Adelaide, with those short square boundaries and his troubles a litttle further behind him, he might blow hot as a desert wind roaring down from the Flinders Ranges.
His young team mates seem eager to play.
As for the Australians, they hardly put a foot wrong but then, this is the game they like to play: one foot on the throat, the other kicking the head. At least this year they're not hurling abuse as well.
A final word on the referral system - crap. It might be okay for TV audiences who will sooon be whisked off to an add break when a decision is referred but what about the punters at the ground. Three mintues or more waiting for a decision saw those in the paying seats booing and slow handclapping after a minute. But then, I'm old fashioned in many ways and still think two umpires is enough and believe that chance is a fine thing and so it should stay. How long will it take before we are convinced by the TV boffins that players are inconsistent and should be replaced by cgi cricketers, programmed from the records of greats?
Won't that be good. Cricket3.0
Of course, just like my domestic cricket duties, the disasters are only one side of the coin. In Tamworth, City United lost in all four grades against their arch rival, Bective East. Lost is being used here as an extended euphamism to gilt the lilly of a thrashing. They took all 40 of our wickets, whilst we collected only 15 of their's and needless to say, their run totals were considerably higher. Heads and spirits might well be down but that would be misplaced. Some good things happened in the course of the day.
So too the West Indies.
Peter Roebuck has been scathing in his treatment of Chris Gayle and in viewing his disengagement in this Test on the surface only, that might be fair. It would also be fair to remember he has travelled to the other side of the world and back within a week to tend to an ailing mother - a trip that would be physically and emotionally demanding. Last year, I travelled 6000kms from Broome to Sydney and back via Adelaide and Perth to attend my mother's funeral and I was a wreck for a week afterwards and all I had to do was drive a car and sightsee. I don't think I would have wanted to play park cricket, let along face Australia on the rebound.
Roebuck is right to say that leadership from senior players was lacking. He just reaches his conclusion via the wrong track.
The West Indies were flogged but the future could be seen and not through a Hubble telescope. Adrian Barath played well ... no, very well. He batted like an old time West Indian, with shot making from supple wrists and neat footwork. We might have seen the birth of something special in Brisbane.
Equally, Dowlin and Ramdin looked the goods - the latter with gloves as well as bat in hand.
The greater worry is the injury to Taylor, as Roach isn't ready to be the spearhead of this attack. He'll bowl well as the apprentice, but not if cast as the master craftsman. Such responsibility could destroy him. His time as master will come.
Bravo is not up for this and never has been. His very ordinary, very suicidal shot to the world's most inoccuous bouncer bowler was even more embarassing than Chris Gayle's second innings "I'm too great to play at dat maan." Chanderpaul too must step up and not just to take wind from the Aussies sails. Blokes like Barath and Dowlin must have such a great player firing. He is now the second greatest accumulator of runs for the West Indies but working against him is his failure to insert his class into the game on visits down under. For their future and therefore the future of cricket in the Carribean, Chanderpaul must occupy the crease.
As for Gayle, he has always blown hot and cold and its hardly fair to expect anything else. Maybe in Adelaide, with those short square boundaries and his troubles a litttle further behind him, he might blow hot as a desert wind roaring down from the Flinders Ranges.
His young team mates seem eager to play.
As for the Australians, they hardly put a foot wrong but then, this is the game they like to play: one foot on the throat, the other kicking the head. At least this year they're not hurling abuse as well.
A final word on the referral system - crap. It might be okay for TV audiences who will sooon be whisked off to an add break when a decision is referred but what about the punters at the ground. Three mintues or more waiting for a decision saw those in the paying seats booing and slow handclapping after a minute. But then, I'm old fashioned in many ways and still think two umpires is enough and believe that chance is a fine thing and so it should stay. How long will it take before we are convinced by the TV boffins that players are inconsistent and should be replaced by cgi cricketers, programmed from the records of greats?
Won't that be good. Cricket3.0
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Australia v West Indies - 1st Test, Day 2 from Brisbane.
History often has lessons for those who forecast the future. The theory goes that life makes its way in the universe by going back to where it started, giving those of us with a more philosophical bent the perception that "things" - events for which our vocabulary looses the power to select words - "things" go in cycles.
Nowhere is this more obvious that Test cricket. I say nowhere when I really mean to say nowhere where I have any expertise or interest ... but you know what I mean.
Teams ebb and flow, as does their dominance of the game at the highest level. Australia ended such a cycle of dominance, ironically, with the acrimonious win against India in Sydney in the first days of 2008. Having been "the dog" since the week after Anzac Day in 1995, when Richie Richardson showed Hayden-like sportsman and a distinct lack of honour in describing Mark Taylor's Australians, they ended the era as "monkeys". Their demeanour rather than their ability as sportsmen, dictating the closing curtain.
Much of this has to do with personnel and as any good administrator knows, when you discover a prime crop of players, you immediately start planning for when they retire. Australia has lost a batch of superstars in the last few years. The same thing happened in 1984 and the same again in the middle 1960's and so the story rolls back through time. What was different this cycle was the decline in their powers happened much earlier but was propped up by arrogance and aggression and big-headed buffoonery (there is such a word, I just invented it).
How does this impact on what is happening in Brisbane?
Despite all of the atrocious administration in the Caribbean, which is intent on milking the dollars without feeding the cows, it could be that a new crop of West Indians is trying to rise and the voluntary sporadic abdication by Chris Gayle and his fellow strikers has opened the door for some new faces and here in Brisbane, they are certainly playing like a cricket team. Unfortunately, a lack of senior players prepared to stand and fight will make their journey harder.
Is it crazy to suggest that guys like Travis Dowlin or Adrian Barath or Brendan Nash could go on to become Chanderpaul's or Sarwan's? I've seen enough to imagine Kemar Roach could be a new Holding. Certainly Holding looked no better at the same stage.
Test your memory and think back to Ian Chappell's tourists in the West Indies in 1973. Sobers was out of the series and the West Indies relied on the aging Rohan Kanhai to be the mainstay of the batting with Clive Lloyd having been on the scene long enough to be called experienced. In their Test infancy were Alvin Kallicharran, Maurice Foster, Lawrence Rowe and Derrek Murray and the other Greenidge, Geoffrey, who soon disappeared. This was a series where Australia field two leg spinners, O'Keefe and Jenner, where Lillee broke down and Max Walker was our quickest bowler and John Benaud headed the bowling averages whilst the Windies fielded four spinners!
Two years later in Australia, four new boys were in the team - Richards, Holding, Roberts and the real Greenidge. They took a bath but didn't like it and showed signs they had what old Rooster had - true grit.
Back to the present day, I reckon their are signs of grit in the likes of Roach. I admired the way Bravo fought hard on day two and always tries even though he's not quite a Test player.. Benn has great height and a subtle change of pace, he just needs Ashley Mallett to talk to him about spin and drift. Behind the sticks, Ramdin was and always is impressive. He can bat too. Once the Pretty Boy finds another way to make money, they might do worse than give him the Captaincy. He knows a bit about bowling other than catching it. He used to open the attack!
The Australians bowled well. This was disciplined world champion stuff, despite the lost wicket to a noball. Johnston is a different player at home, perhaps because all the creature comforts are near by. His action is different, more fluent and his confidence is up. In that state, he is a world beater. I still question mark Hillfenhaus as our down wind bowler on home soil. Looks seriously like a first change to me. Nudey Bum snared two good grabs in the slips, grabbed a wicket thanks to the very tidy Haddin and more importantly, got through five overs without needing the physio.
Baring weather, Australia 3-0 but not without the pleasure of watching some young men with emerging skills among the opposition and not without fights mounted at times. Certainly enough to warrant the entry price.
On a final note, it was so nice to see the smiles of competitors leaving the arena together yesterday rather than snarling their way to spiteful press conferences. Whoever is responsible, thank you.
Nowhere is this more obvious that Test cricket. I say nowhere when I really mean to say nowhere where I have any expertise or interest ... but you know what I mean.
Teams ebb and flow, as does their dominance of the game at the highest level. Australia ended such a cycle of dominance, ironically, with the acrimonious win against India in Sydney in the first days of 2008. Having been "the dog" since the week after Anzac Day in 1995, when Richie Richardson showed Hayden-like sportsman and a distinct lack of honour in describing Mark Taylor's Australians, they ended the era as "monkeys". Their demeanour rather than their ability as sportsmen, dictating the closing curtain.
Much of this has to do with personnel and as any good administrator knows, when you discover a prime crop of players, you immediately start planning for when they retire. Australia has lost a batch of superstars in the last few years. The same thing happened in 1984 and the same again in the middle 1960's and so the story rolls back through time. What was different this cycle was the decline in their powers happened much earlier but was propped up by arrogance and aggression and big-headed buffoonery (there is such a word, I just invented it).
How does this impact on what is happening in Brisbane?
Despite all of the atrocious administration in the Caribbean, which is intent on milking the dollars without feeding the cows, it could be that a new crop of West Indians is trying to rise and the voluntary sporadic abdication by Chris Gayle and his fellow strikers has opened the door for some new faces and here in Brisbane, they are certainly playing like a cricket team. Unfortunately, a lack of senior players prepared to stand and fight will make their journey harder.
Is it crazy to suggest that guys like Travis Dowlin or Adrian Barath or Brendan Nash could go on to become Chanderpaul's or Sarwan's? I've seen enough to imagine Kemar Roach could be a new Holding. Certainly Holding looked no better at the same stage.
Test your memory and think back to Ian Chappell's tourists in the West Indies in 1973. Sobers was out of the series and the West Indies relied on the aging Rohan Kanhai to be the mainstay of the batting with Clive Lloyd having been on the scene long enough to be called experienced. In their Test infancy were Alvin Kallicharran, Maurice Foster, Lawrence Rowe and Derrek Murray and the other Greenidge, Geoffrey, who soon disappeared. This was a series where Australia field two leg spinners, O'Keefe and Jenner, where Lillee broke down and Max Walker was our quickest bowler and John Benaud headed the bowling averages whilst the Windies fielded four spinners!
Two years later in Australia, four new boys were in the team - Richards, Holding, Roberts and the real Greenidge. They took a bath but didn't like it and showed signs they had what old Rooster had - true grit.
Back to the present day, I reckon their are signs of grit in the likes of Roach. I admired the way Bravo fought hard on day two and always tries even though he's not quite a Test player.. Benn has great height and a subtle change of pace, he just needs Ashley Mallett to talk to him about spin and drift. Behind the sticks, Ramdin was and always is impressive. He can bat too. Once the Pretty Boy finds another way to make money, they might do worse than give him the Captaincy. He knows a bit about bowling other than catching it. He used to open the attack!
The Australians bowled well. This was disciplined world champion stuff, despite the lost wicket to a noball. Johnston is a different player at home, perhaps because all the creature comforts are near by. His action is different, more fluent and his confidence is up. In that state, he is a world beater. I still question mark Hillfenhaus as our down wind bowler on home soil. Looks seriously like a first change to me. Nudey Bum snared two good grabs in the slips, grabbed a wicket thanks to the very tidy Haddin and more importantly, got through five overs without needing the physio.
Baring weather, Australia 3-0 but not without the pleasure of watching some young men with emerging skills among the opposition and not without fights mounted at times. Certainly enough to warrant the entry price.
On a final note, it was so nice to see the smiles of competitors leaving the arena together yesterday rather than snarling their way to spiteful press conferences. Whoever is responsible, thank you.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Australia v West Indies - 1st Test, Day 1 from Brisbane.
A new Test series for a grand trophy which although lost for a spell after the Windies relinquished ownership of it in the mid 1990's, still bears the name of one of cricket's finest gentlemen and the first to weld together the disparate elements of nations who constitute the West Indies cricket team. Oh, if only a Frank Worrell could be found today or even his lanky left-handed ghost, the bespectacled Clive Lloyd. Alas, it is a giant showpony with designer affectations - possibly the love child of Brian Lara and Viv Richards - who tosses the coin. I apologise but I can't bring myself to say he leads.
Today was Australia's, with five of the top order scoring runs and all of them upset at not scoring more. Katich was the best of them and Ponting showed enough superb strokes to indicate he'll score heavily against this opponent but with the sort of worrying moments in between as happens to an aging champion. Clarke should be chief among the disappointed.
Hussey is back and he'll have easy pickings to ensure his further daliance, although truth be known, his characteristic fighting century at the last gasp against England was what the selectors had been hanging out for in much the same way as they had sweated blood over Mark Taylor ten years earlier. He was studied poise today and it was a surprise he left earlier than he needed.
North will score a century tomorrow as long as the tail lives up to its ability. This West Australian has an insatiable appetite for runs and an even greater hunger to "be involved" in every minute of every Test day. Have you known a Sandgroper who didn't? They are rugged manly men these collections of testosterone from beyond the Nullarbor. His is the new blood which will invigourate this aging side.
Shane Watson was trapped in front again. That's nine times in eighteen Test innings or every second dismissal. In his last eight innings since the first Test against the Kiwis at this same ground twelve months ago, he's been lbw six times in the process of scoring 246 at 30.75. Now, I may be wrong but wouldn't that indicate a flaw in his technique?
Isn't Phillip Hughes, that bright shining star of someone else's future, back playing Shield cricket and still scoring runs like a fat banker has lunches. Isn't he excluded from this level because of a flawed technique, in his case, against the short ball - a flawed technique that has bought 472 at 52.44 and centuries in each innings at Kingsmead which helped Austraia to a stunning series win. A flawed technique which caused only three of his nine walks back to the sheds in the Baggy Green. Isn't he the same little bloke who went to the land of the Saturday bath and flogged county bowlers to every point a wagon wheel pencil could draw, only to be discarded after three innings in a series which has become renowned for the quality of the Australian selection policy?
You know, I think he is!
So why then is S Watson still opening for ducks and standing caught in the lbw crossfire by bowlers from three different Test playing states?
Clearly, he has a better bum when seen naked and in black and white. My wife says so and she has as much creedence as Andrew Hilditch. More actually, because she's never wrong!
Ah, I remember when double standards we vague accusations you threw when you had no facts. Andrew and the rest of the beer stained mumblers have put an end to that. They've made double standards an art form and so they should. After all, the Chairman is a solicitor.
As much as could be made out, the West Indies toiled today. A lovely word which really means we think you are crap but at least you didn't wave the white flag. Several of them were actually impressive and if placed on a deck which doesn't resemble the Gold Coast Freeway, they may prove difficult and at least make the Australians work for their runs and perhaps even fight for their wickets. Roach was very good and Bravo, Rampaul and Benn each had moments, although Benn holds the most danger as he's a left arm Greek orthodox bowler and Australians traditionally find their type difficult. Bring back Ray Bright I say and let him be a specialist coach. If we can have a Coolie coach the China dolls in our bowling lineup, Mr Perpetual Tourist should be a special to teach our batsmen how to play left arm spinners. Perhaps then we might determine how Brad Hodge first caught Bright's disease.
On a responsive wicket, these Windies "toilers" could roll the Aussies for sub 300.
As in most Tests, we won't know how the wicket is playing until both sides have bowled.
For today, both sides worked hard but Australia's better skills and more experience have them in control.
Today was Australia's, with five of the top order scoring runs and all of them upset at not scoring more. Katich was the best of them and Ponting showed enough superb strokes to indicate he'll score heavily against this opponent but with the sort of worrying moments in between as happens to an aging champion. Clarke should be chief among the disappointed.
Hussey is back and he'll have easy pickings to ensure his further daliance, although truth be known, his characteristic fighting century at the last gasp against England was what the selectors had been hanging out for in much the same way as they had sweated blood over Mark Taylor ten years earlier. He was studied poise today and it was a surprise he left earlier than he needed.
North will score a century tomorrow as long as the tail lives up to its ability. This West Australian has an insatiable appetite for runs and an even greater hunger to "be involved" in every minute of every Test day. Have you known a Sandgroper who didn't? They are rugged manly men these collections of testosterone from beyond the Nullarbor. His is the new blood which will invigourate this aging side.
Shane Watson was trapped in front again. That's nine times in eighteen Test innings or every second dismissal. In his last eight innings since the first Test against the Kiwis at this same ground twelve months ago, he's been lbw six times in the process of scoring 246 at 30.75. Now, I may be wrong but wouldn't that indicate a flaw in his technique?
Isn't Phillip Hughes, that bright shining star of someone else's future, back playing Shield cricket and still scoring runs like a fat banker has lunches. Isn't he excluded from this level because of a flawed technique, in his case, against the short ball - a flawed technique that has bought 472 at 52.44 and centuries in each innings at Kingsmead which helped Austraia to a stunning series win. A flawed technique which caused only three of his nine walks back to the sheds in the Baggy Green. Isn't he the same little bloke who went to the land of the Saturday bath and flogged county bowlers to every point a wagon wheel pencil could draw, only to be discarded after three innings in a series which has become renowned for the quality of the Australian selection policy?
You know, I think he is!
So why then is S Watson still opening for ducks and standing caught in the lbw crossfire by bowlers from three different Test playing states?
Clearly, he has a better bum when seen naked and in black and white. My wife says so and she has as much creedence as Andrew Hilditch. More actually, because she's never wrong!
Ah, I remember when double standards we vague accusations you threw when you had no facts. Andrew and the rest of the beer stained mumblers have put an end to that. They've made double standards an art form and so they should. After all, the Chairman is a solicitor.
As much as could be made out, the West Indies toiled today. A lovely word which really means we think you are crap but at least you didn't wave the white flag. Several of them were actually impressive and if placed on a deck which doesn't resemble the Gold Coast Freeway, they may prove difficult and at least make the Australians work for their runs and perhaps even fight for their wickets. Roach was very good and Bravo, Rampaul and Benn each had moments, although Benn holds the most danger as he's a left arm Greek orthodox bowler and Australians traditionally find their type difficult. Bring back Ray Bright I say and let him be a specialist coach. If we can have a Coolie coach the China dolls in our bowling lineup, Mr Perpetual Tourist should be a special to teach our batsmen how to play left arm spinners. Perhaps then we might determine how Brad Hodge first caught Bright's disease.
On a responsive wicket, these Windies "toilers" could roll the Aussies for sub 300.
As in most Tests, we won't know how the wicket is playing until both sides have bowled.
For today, both sides worked hard but Australia's better skills and more experience have them in control.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Gayle Forced Wind(ies)?
It's time for Gomer Pyle to become a cricket analyst.
"West Indies Tour Unravelling" ... surprise, surprise, surprise!
"West Indies Tour Unravelling" ... surprise, surprise, surprise!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Vale Mr Callen
Pause in your day just long enough ... perhaps long enough for a naked light bulb to swing back and forward in a stark room, badly needing paint ... and remember the work of Edward Woodward, who died overnight, aged 79.
American press are reporting his highlights package to include Breaker Morant and The Wicker Man on film and The Equalizer on TV but have completely neglected the best British spy drama ever shown on the box, Callen. In fact, Callen set the standard for many that followed, including one of the more recent, Spooks. It was gritty and had fantastically drawn characters: from Russell Hunter's desperate, horrible little man Lonely, through to Patrick Mower's despicable Cross and in the midst of them all, Woodward's ice cold but fractured David Callen. A government sanctioned killer who played with his little wooden soldiers in his spare time but was increasingly fragile as the weight of the lack of morals of his profession bore down on him.
Woodward was never anything less than superb in ever episode.
In film, his portrayal of Harry Morrant was pivotal to the success of more than a film but also to the bolstering of the industry in Australia and all that has followed. If Brian Brown and Jack Thompson shone in that movie, Woodward fuelled their flames by bringing to life an Aussie male of his time, torn between Empire and his devotion to a wide brown country whose plains, including those around Gunnedah, he had ridden and whose freedom he extolled.
I have another reason to be grateful to Mr Callen. It was one of the first TV shows that I, as a lad, shared with my Dad. The loungeroom would clear and the two of us would settle in, hypnotised by that swinging light bulb and that simple, dramatic theme song and for the next hour, Dad was all mine, without competition. In a family of seven, such time was a rare luxury.
Vale Edward Woodward.
Thank you Mr Callen.
American press are reporting his highlights package to include Breaker Morant and The Wicker Man on film and The Equalizer on TV but have completely neglected the best British spy drama ever shown on the box, Callen. In fact, Callen set the standard for many that followed, including one of the more recent, Spooks. It was gritty and had fantastically drawn characters: from Russell Hunter's desperate, horrible little man Lonely, through to Patrick Mower's despicable Cross and in the midst of them all, Woodward's ice cold but fractured David Callen. A government sanctioned killer who played with his little wooden soldiers in his spare time but was increasingly fragile as the weight of the lack of morals of his profession bore down on him.
Woodward was never anything less than superb in ever episode.
In film, his portrayal of Harry Morrant was pivotal to the success of more than a film but also to the bolstering of the industry in Australia and all that has followed. If Brian Brown and Jack Thompson shone in that movie, Woodward fuelled their flames by bringing to life an Aussie male of his time, torn between Empire and his devotion to a wide brown country whose plains, including those around Gunnedah, he had ridden and whose freedom he extolled.
I have another reason to be grateful to Mr Callen. It was one of the first TV shows that I, as a lad, shared with my Dad. The loungeroom would clear and the two of us would settle in, hypnotised by that swinging light bulb and that simple, dramatic theme song and for the next hour, Dad was all mine, without competition. In a family of seven, such time was a rare luxury.
Vale Edward Woodward.
Thank you Mr Callen.
Priorities
A little known fact...
The first testicular guard was used in cricket in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.
It took 100 years for men to realize that their brains could also be important.
(From sometimes correspondent, Claude)
The first testicular guard was used in cricket in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.
It took 100 years for men to realize that their brains could also be important.
(From sometimes correspondent, Claude)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Bye, Bye Miss SCG?
The claims by the CEO of Cricket NSW that the potentially Ashes deciding Test of 2011 could be played on an over-sized football ground is as easy to pick as a Dave Gilbert slower ball. What's that you say? Same bloke ...
Mr Gilbert has obviously gained his negotiating style from watching the NSW Teacher's Federation and their not overly subtle rumblings and threats which they trot out in the six months before the next wages agreement. Both involve withdrawal of labour and both are heavily laden with more bullshit than a Poll Hereford stud farm.
The same thing happen five years ago, only in the intervening time, Cricket NSW has already taken one day internationals, state one-dayers and Forties (Twenty+20) or is it Four Hundreds (Twenty x 20), out to Homebush to sniff the ground where Mick Jagger stood. Therefore, the negotiating cupboard is a tad bare and hence the threat to take Test cricket to the mid-west.
However, Simon Katich's reaction is the reason it won't happen - the players wouldn't stand for it. What would you rather brag about to grandchildren? Being able to say your bum waxed the same wooden bench that Bradman's did or that Nate Myles once went walkies in the same locker room without a plastic bag? For all of cricket's massive leaps forward into pop culture, the players still hold Test cricket as the highest, most revered and most sought after form of the game and the venue is all of that desire and more. Players talk of grounds as you or I may talk of favourite Hawaiian shirts. Do we seriously think Ponting and Strauss are salivating at the thought of boldly tossing a coin where no captain has gone before?
As for fifteen year olds in Sydney having only seen major sporting events at Homebush, that's because they haven't been to a Sydney Test and global warming will have to do better than a two degree rise to stop hell freezing over the day Dave Gilbert pockets enough dollars on behalf of Cricket NSW to get Test cricket away from the SCG.
... and another thing. What grammatical inbecile came up with the idea of placing the noun before the adjective in naming cricket organisations. Cricket NSW? Cricket Australia?
Idiots bloody!
Mr Gilbert has obviously gained his negotiating style from watching the NSW Teacher's Federation and their not overly subtle rumblings and threats which they trot out in the six months before the next wages agreement. Both involve withdrawal of labour and both are heavily laden with more bullshit than a Poll Hereford stud farm.
The same thing happen five years ago, only in the intervening time, Cricket NSW has already taken one day internationals, state one-dayers and Forties (Twenty+20) or is it Four Hundreds (Twenty x 20), out to Homebush to sniff the ground where Mick Jagger stood. Therefore, the negotiating cupboard is a tad bare and hence the threat to take Test cricket to the mid-west.
However, Simon Katich's reaction is the reason it won't happen - the players wouldn't stand for it. What would you rather brag about to grandchildren? Being able to say your bum waxed the same wooden bench that Bradman's did or that Nate Myles once went walkies in the same locker room without a plastic bag? For all of cricket's massive leaps forward into pop culture, the players still hold Test cricket as the highest, most revered and most sought after form of the game and the venue is all of that desire and more. Players talk of grounds as you or I may talk of favourite Hawaiian shirts. Do we seriously think Ponting and Strauss are salivating at the thought of boldly tossing a coin where no captain has gone before?
As for fifteen year olds in Sydney having only seen major sporting events at Homebush, that's because they haven't been to a Sydney Test and global warming will have to do better than a two degree rise to stop hell freezing over the day Dave Gilbert pockets enough dollars on behalf of Cricket NSW to get Test cricket away from the SCG.
... and another thing. What grammatical inbecile came up with the idea of placing the noun before the adjective in naming cricket organisations. Cricket NSW? Cricket Australia?
Idiots bloody!
City United Cricket Club
For Tragics who would like to see what I get up to now during the summer months, take a detour to http://www.cityunitedcc.com.au which is the batting end of the City United Cricket Club of Tamworth.
If only mobile phone and websites were around in the 80's ... in the days of Waratahs.
If only mobile phone and websites were around in the 80's ... in the days of Waratahs.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Unashamed Self Advertising ...
As much as I despise others who deem to blow their own trumpet, there comes a time in all our lives when we are forced to purse our lips and blow.
"Six Nines", my first collection of poetry, will be released on 7th December in Armidale and Tamworth. Tony Bennett (the cricketer, writer, poet, publisher and singer but more importantly than all of those things, friend) will launch the book of 42 poems in Tamworth at Narnia Bookshop on 12th Dec from 10:00am. I'll be joined by son Chris Langston, who will be playing a few pertinent songs and hope any, many, all of my friends and potential customers as possible.
The book will retail for $19.95 and I'm currently investigating how to set up Pay Pal on a website. The limited reviews are so far very flattering and by necessity, extremely accurate! Their are poems about cricket, old mates, love, death, peace and war and many of the experiences we have all had in getting this far.
It may be obtained from Angus & Robertson (Tamworth & Armidale), Narnia Bookshop (Tamworth), Dymocks (Armidale) and The Reader's Companion (Armidale) and from me if I ever manage to get the website thing sorted.
"Six Nines"
"Six Nines", my first collection of poetry, will be released on 7th December in Armidale and Tamworth. Tony Bennett (the cricketer, writer, poet, publisher and singer but more importantly than all of those things, friend) will launch the book of 42 poems in Tamworth at Narnia Bookshop on 12th Dec from 10:00am. I'll be joined by son Chris Langston, who will be playing a few pertinent songs and hope any, many, all of my friends and potential customers as possible.
The book will retail for $19.95 and I'm currently investigating how to set up Pay Pal on a website. The limited reviews are so far very flattering and by necessity, extremely accurate! Their are poems about cricket, old mates, love, death, peace and war and many of the experiences we have all had in getting this far.
It may be obtained from Angus & Robertson (Tamworth & Armidale), Narnia Bookshop (Tamworth), Dymocks (Armidale) and The Reader's Companion (Armidale) and from me if I ever manage to get the website thing sorted.
"Six Nines"
Sunday, November 8, 2009
This Lad Tendulkar ... The Best I've Seen
For once, I take no risk in making a definitive statement. For once, common sense, fact and emotion sit in the stands, happy to share three adjacent seats watch and talk the game and reach the same conclusion ... Sachin Tendulakr is the best I've seen.
I might successfully argue Tendulkar is the best there has been but I couldn't be bothered splitting cricket hairs with you. I watched his debut hundred against Australia at the SCG just days before I began serving my eight year sentence in a remote country hell. It was only his second century and the glue was still wet on the lad's pubic hair as he drove through the on side and unleashed cuts and drives whilst Ravi Shasti made a celebrated double century. Reid had broken down (again) and McDermott and Hughes were plundered but his sternest discipline was reserved for the tubby, blond rookie bowling leggies. In the years which followed, it was a position of ascendancy - a mastering - he never once gave up. His dominance of the game's best bowler is one of the truest marks of his greatness.
Another is his ability to lift the boring and mundane from its collection of medium pace trundlers and fielding restrictions and coloured clothing and repetitive tactics and outcomes and suddenly blow a handful of Tinkerbell's magic dust over the event and make it memorable. Even the highlights of his 175 this week are unforgettable, the stuff of breath taken away.
Yet, he waves this magic wand with little fanfare and almost embarrassing humility. He takes the spotlight but never wants to talk about anything but cricket as the camera's click and whirr, gathering more moments to sell. He smiles occasionally but mostly sticks to talking about this game or the game but is rarely cornered on his game. He understands the game is more important than any of its players.
I watched the last outing of that old red hankied warrior. I applauded him to and from the wicket on his last day, numbing palms and fingers in the doing. I revelled in his last ditch stroke play and was disappointed as he left, proud as he should have been, for a job well done. Despite my affection for Waugh, despite my admiration for his style, his grit, his contribution to the Baggy Green's legend, its Tendulkar's double century which was the remarkable achievement during those few days at the SCG. I doubt I'll ever watch better batting.
When Waugh slog/swept one last, career-ending time to deep forward square leg, my love of irony was sated again. It was Tendulkar who took the catch. It was as though something more than a cricket ball had passed between them.
The Little Master ... you'd better believe it!
Read what my mentor Roebuck says ...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cricket/peter-roebuck/2009/11/07/1257247789373.html
I might successfully argue Tendulkar is the best there has been but I couldn't be bothered splitting cricket hairs with you. I watched his debut hundred against Australia at the SCG just days before I began serving my eight year sentence in a remote country hell. It was only his second century and the glue was still wet on the lad's pubic hair as he drove through the on side and unleashed cuts and drives whilst Ravi Shasti made a celebrated double century. Reid had broken down (again) and McDermott and Hughes were plundered but his sternest discipline was reserved for the tubby, blond rookie bowling leggies. In the years which followed, it was a position of ascendancy - a mastering - he never once gave up. His dominance of the game's best bowler is one of the truest marks of his greatness.
Another is his ability to lift the boring and mundane from its collection of medium pace trundlers and fielding restrictions and coloured clothing and repetitive tactics and outcomes and suddenly blow a handful of Tinkerbell's magic dust over the event and make it memorable. Even the highlights of his 175 this week are unforgettable, the stuff of breath taken away.
Yet, he waves this magic wand with little fanfare and almost embarrassing humility. He takes the spotlight but never wants to talk about anything but cricket as the camera's click and whirr, gathering more moments to sell. He smiles occasionally but mostly sticks to talking about this game or the game but is rarely cornered on his game. He understands the game is more important than any of its players.
I watched the last outing of that old red hankied warrior. I applauded him to and from the wicket on his last day, numbing palms and fingers in the doing. I revelled in his last ditch stroke play and was disappointed as he left, proud as he should have been, for a job well done. Despite my affection for Waugh, despite my admiration for his style, his grit, his contribution to the Baggy Green's legend, its Tendulkar's double century which was the remarkable achievement during those few days at the SCG. I doubt I'll ever watch better batting.
When Waugh slog/swept one last, career-ending time to deep forward square leg, my love of irony was sated again. It was Tendulkar who took the catch. It was as though something more than a cricket ball had passed between them.
The Little Master ... you'd better believe it!
Read what my mentor Roebuck says ...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cricket/peter-roebuck/2009/11/07/1257247789373.html
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Slack, slack, slack ...
I don't know what's come over me. Since writing the article about Andrew Hilditch, I've just had this over powering urge to do very little and see how things turn out and when I have written anything, its been totally inaccurate and against what everyone thought I would write.
OMG ... I think I'm channelling TCOS.
Help me ... please ...
... of to Newcastle over the weekend. Maybe I'll find some inspiration in the city of Holland and Gilmour. Let's see, one carried the name of a serial killer - not to be confused with Brett Lee, who is cereal killer - and the other is best friends with a man so Quirky he even bears the label. Dougie came from near there but I've already immortalised the Dungog Kid in verse and I possess no greater gift.
Must put some time back into the bigger picture. My days are spent in digital countdown on City United's affairs - a noble pursuit to be sure along pathways that meander up garden paths as they did at Waratahs, twenty years ago in the land of one day summers. Its just that the big stars are so much easier to trash as they aren't as likely to come around to your house and rip out your tomato plants as much as disgruntled club members upset with how you wrote them up in match reports. I've loved compiling the website www.cityunitedcc.com.au but I'm yearning for some mixed metaphors at the SCG.
Perhaps I'll start back at Newcastle but wait a few weeks. Just before Chirstmas, the Vics come a visiting to No.1 Oval in the former Steel City ... the other one ... the northern one ... oh, bloody Newcastle then. Good chance to see a lot of Test players and that forgotten man of Australian Cricket ... ah ... what's his name? Hoddernot? Hogeworth? Justin Hodges? (close but no cigar ... no, that was a White House intern). Hopefully I'll think of it before Dec 19th.
Better get that quiz running again. Novel idea - how about readers pose questions. Send them to me at plangsto@bigpond.net.au and I'll use them in the Quiz, including a recognition of who posed the question. Preference for cricket questions is more than implied.
Ah bed ... I sleep perchance to dream ...
OMG ... I think I'm channelling TCOS.
Help me ... please ...
... of to Newcastle over the weekend. Maybe I'll find some inspiration in the city of Holland and Gilmour. Let's see, one carried the name of a serial killer - not to be confused with Brett Lee, who is cereal killer - and the other is best friends with a man so Quirky he even bears the label. Dougie came from near there but I've already immortalised the Dungog Kid in verse and I possess no greater gift.
Must put some time back into the bigger picture. My days are spent in digital countdown on City United's affairs - a noble pursuit to be sure along pathways that meander up garden paths as they did at Waratahs, twenty years ago in the land of one day summers. Its just that the big stars are so much easier to trash as they aren't as likely to come around to your house and rip out your tomato plants as much as disgruntled club members upset with how you wrote them up in match reports. I've loved compiling the website www.cityunitedcc.com.au but I'm yearning for some mixed metaphors at the SCG.
Perhaps I'll start back at Newcastle but wait a few weeks. Just before Chirstmas, the Vics come a visiting to No.1 Oval in the former Steel City ... the other one ... the northern one ... oh, bloody Newcastle then. Good chance to see a lot of Test players and that forgotten man of Australian Cricket ... ah ... what's his name? Hoddernot? Hogeworth? Justin Hodges? (close but no cigar ... no, that was a White House intern). Hopefully I'll think of it before Dec 19th.
Better get that quiz running again. Novel idea - how about readers pose questions. Send them to me at plangsto@bigpond.net.au and I'll use them in the Quiz, including a recognition of who posed the question. Preference for cricket questions is more than implied.
Ah bed ... I sleep perchance to dream ...
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