http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/the-ashes/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-4/ Well, that’ll do me. I give up. The farcical Hughes/Watson runout, the second between the hapless duo in two tests, is all the evidence you need that the Aussie cricketers are completely stuffed in every conceivable way. This was going to be a piece in praise of England. Because really, as much as we’ve all bagged Australia all summer, the Poms have been brilliant. There are no Capital G “Greats” in this England team, but each player plays his part to perfection. But forget England. We’ve just had what can only be called a revelation. Slightly unexpected twist here, but let’s switch our attention to Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, whose seminal work On Death and Dying could well have been written for this summer of cricket. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-4/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-4/#item4835 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-3-the-long-shadow-cast-by-ponting/ Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-3-the-long-shadow-cast-by-ponting/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-3-the-long-shadow-cast-by-ponting/#item4826 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-11/ Leaving aside the air-conditioned comfort and excellent lamingtons of the media centre, your intrepid Punch correspondent journeys to the other side of the SCG to mingle with the Barmy Army. So here we are, at ground level on the far side of the ground, on what used to be the hill but is now a mass of concrete called the Victor Trumper Stand. How very quaint. It’s little England down here. Barmy Army HQ. Wet your whistles everybody. It’s singin’ time. Let’s begin with a Barmy Army standard, to the tune of Yellow Submarine. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-11/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-11/#item4809 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-1/ In any sport, some people look the part from their very first minute at the top level. Michael Clarke was one such case himself when he made his debut way back in 2004, and this day was supposed to be all about his coming of age. The Pup, at last, was Top Dog. But even before Clarke departed with just four runs to his name, it became clear that this grey, slow, rain-interrupted first day of a dead rubber would be remembered for the emergence of Usman Khawaja. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-1/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-punch-the-scg-day-1/#item4808 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ponting-should-jump-before-hes-pushed/ When Commonwealth Bank chief Ralph Norris fronted the recent banking inquiry, he shrugged off concerns about his massive potential salary package with a line to the effect that 95 per cent of his shareholders approve, so what’s the big deal? Ricky Ponting effectively has shareholders too. Or to be more accurate, stakeholders. Or to be even more accurate, fans of Australian cricket. And it’s safe to assume that something like 95 per cent of them would now like him to step down. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ponting-should-jump-before-hes-pushed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ponting-should-jump-before-hes-pushed/#item4770 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-suck-because-we-care-too-much/ The original headline for this piece was “Ashes myopia the root cause of ineptitude”. Then I decided to say it in everyday language. Because Australia’s incompetence in this Ashes series, notwithstanding today’s excellent fightback with the ball, has a simple foundation. In short, we care about beating England too much. While Australia has spent 18 months building for this series, and this series alone, England has been busy building a strong cricket team for all occasions. While Australia has been hell-bent on Ashes revenge, England has focused on Australia as just one obstacle on its climb to the top of cricket’s tree. Let me explain with two contrasting anecdotes. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-suck-because-we-care-too-much/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-suck-because-we-care-too-much/#item4723 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ashes-selectors-finally-put-the-underperformers-on-notice/ Australian selectors, who generally rate somewhere between journalists and used car salesmen on the vocational popularity scale, may just have gotten something right for a change. On the face of it, naming an extended 17 man Ashes squad was a classic act of fence-sitting. But in another sense, it shows that selectors have finally heard the public outcry to remove the dead wood. By picking 17, Andrew Hilditch and his cronies have put the serial underperformers on notice, by picking an in-form specialist for each of the incumbents currently under threat. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ashes-selectors-finally-put-the-underperformers-on-notice/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ashes-selectors-finally-put-the-underperformers-on-notice/#item4473 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/zen-and-ricky-pontings-art-of-morale-maintenance/ (Update, Thursday): Ricky Ponting is at it again. The Australian captain is master of understating the negatives in a losing performance whilst always finding something good to say about his team. And today, here’s a headline from the Times of India - and OK, it is just a summary headline, but it encapsulates Ponting’s piercing analytical style.  For all his success as a batsman and captain the loss against India has seen the Aussies slide to an unconscionable fifth in the world rankings. Ponting’s leadership was publicly questioned during the game when Shane Warne tweeted: “How the hell can hauritz bowl to this field ?? Feeling for hauritz , terrible !! What are these tactics ? Sorry Ricky but what are you doing”. It’s not often this happens, but Warney was probably speaking for the whole country. There’s more from Ponting here at Fox Sports. To be fair the skipper did say last night that the Australians have “got to be harsh on ourselves”. Though his preceding sentence was: “If I had’ve made 200 in the first innings, the result might have been different.” No kidding. The original column follows below. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/zen-and-ricky-pontings-art-of-morale-maintenance/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/zen-and-ricky-pontings-art-of-morale-maintenance/#item4202 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-toast-to-don-bradman/ As Australia’s cricketers started their colossal – and ultimately futile –chase of 546 runs for an Ashes victory at The Oval, it was accepted that the team’s only hope was for someone to play a ‘Bradmanesque’ innings. Given that it’s more than 60 years since Sir Donald Bradman played his final Test on that same strip of dirt in south London, why is it that his name remains the benchmark against which all cricketers are still measured? It’s because for more than a century, Test match cricket has seen Don Bradman – born 101 years ago today – separated by a colossal gap from everyone else in the game. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-toast-to-don-bradman/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-toast-to-don-bradman/#item1007 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/england-twists-the-knife-and-reclaims-the-ashes/ Ricky Ponting’s shock at his team’s emphatic defeat at the hands of England in the deciding Ashes Test is revealed in his concern for his own future he expressed after the game. “I really don’t know what to expect,” he said when asked about facing the music back in Australia. “Hopefully most of the questions being asked will be from journalists and not from people above me.” England’s Daily Telegraph twisted the knife, pointing out that Australia was now fourth in the world rankings and that, combined with the loss of The Ashes, would be “a permanent stain” on Ponting’s career. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/england-twists-the-knife-and-reclaims-the-ashes/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/england-twists-the-knife-and-reclaims-the-ashes/#item992 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Tea at the cricket, and your selfless Punch correspondent once again forgoes the petite fours and fresh fruit in the media room to check out the vibe in the dressing rooms. Talk about a contrast. You simply can’t believe how different the mood is in the England and Australian rooms, both of which you can perve straight into from the back of the Members’ stand. In a word, the England room is relaxed. The Australian room: flustered.