Australian Cricket Team

It was on. You could feel it. Tendulkar was in the mood. It was The Little Master’s last match at the SCG, a ground he loves in a city he loves, and you could just sense a big score. Maybe even that elusive hundredth hundred.

The night was warm enough for T-shirts, cool enough for comfort. Australia had runs on the board, but nothing that looked beyond India’s reach. The sun was setting and the scene was set. And then it happened.

Sachin Tendulkar was run out. There was the suggestion that Brett Lee impeded him. Twitter went into meltdown in India, even though it’s fair to say the Indian tweeters didn’t exactly have the best view of proceedings. Replays showed Brett Lee had done nothing wrong. The world’s biggest and most authoritative cricket website, the India-based espncricinfo.com, concurred.

Continue reading "Good riddance India, and don’t forget to slam the door" »

The really great thing about us Australians is that we don’t let bad things get us down.

A World Cup for Qatar? No worries. It’ll probably save us all a bunch of stadium renovations we didn’t need anyway. Not to mention that we might actually move towards an economy built on more stable foundations than the questionable benefits of global events we host every quarter century or so.

Three for two against the Poms in the cricket? She’ll be right. We’ll be 3/94 by lunch once Huss and Watto have dug in.

Continue reading "As the eucalypt sprouts new shoots after a fire…" »

Oh dear. Oh deary, deary me. So I’m channel surfing on the couch last night pondering the inevitable demise of 50 over cricket.

Turns out, I was penning a eulogy for the wrong victim. It’s not One Day cricket that’s dead. It’s Australian cricket’s golden era.

Look, obviously we all knew we were in trouble when guys like Warne, McGrath and Gilly retired. But hands up who didn’t think we could hang tough and rebuild this summer with a few old heads to nurse the young guys to maturity? Not now. In whatever format you care to name, Australia is now officially a rabble.

Continue reading "RIP Australian cricket" »

It’s time for the Aussie cricket selectors to make the boldest decisions they’ve made in over two decades.

Andrew Hilditch, that other big bloke with the moustache and their fellow selectors need to run a broom through the Australian team otherwise the best we can hope for is more of the same mediocre cricket that has become common in recent times.

Back in the mid-80s, though their hand was forced somewhat by retirements and rebel tours, the Australian selectors opted for a youth policy under the guidance of captain Allan Border.

Continue reading "Ponting’s not the problem, his team is getting creaky" »