The Australian cricket non-official thread!

I hope that as a collective, sports fans in general gain a greater understanding that it is after all just a game. I think of all the horrible invective directed at Phil Hughes and others (and I'm looking fairly and squarely at anonymous cowards on sites such as Big Footy) about their cricket performance and unfortunately it has taken an event of this tragic nature to illicit the sort of respect and admiration that should exist in life as well as death.

Michael Clarke was extraordinary this morning - a true leader.
 
People with test match tickets might want to check CA for revised dates.

Adelaide now first test.
Brisbane 2nd.
Melbourne unaffected.
Sydney pushed back to 6th January start.

Also changes to some BBL:04 fixture dates to be announced too.
 
Just would like to get people's thoughts on the bouncer after the tragic accident a couple of weeks ago
I for one would not like the bouncer banned,growing up watching cricket in the seventys and watching players like hookes,Richards,Chapelle,Walters,greenidge and the list goes on,hooking of there noses,sure enough there was a few knocks but the hook shot was played of the back foot and you were inside the line and that's how we were taught,with 50 over one dayers and more recently t20 you see the hook shot played a lot more of the front foot or on the crease,especially since the interduction of all the safety gear like helmets,chest guards,arm guards etc.
Peoples thoughts please
 
Really good question mate. It was interesting to read that Peter George in a Brisbane club game last weekend told the batsman that he was going to bowl him a bouncer and then (paraphrasing) "bowled it so short that I nearly hit myself on the toe". The ball sailed over the batsman's head, was called a wide, but was at least out of his system.

We almost need a repeat of David Warner pulling Broad to the fence in the second over of last season's Gabba Test to take the nervous energy out of it and show that not all bouncers are dangerous.

I think that once the players are out there, the competitive spirit will come back to them. Maybe what we won't see for a while is the barrage delivered to the tail-enders (like Brett Lee used to). Mitch might go with the "one short, one full" theory, which admittedly is sort-of his tactic against the tail anyway.
 
The number of "new listing" Phillip Hughes items cropping up on eBay - even newly MANUFACTURED unofficial items - is an example of society at its worst. Someone actually listed his funeral programme last Wednesday DURING the service as an auction item. I suppose Official Memorabilia might release something, hopefully in conjunction with a charity/research foundation of some sort.
 
The Australian team for the first Test has been named:

Chris Rogers, David Warner, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (c), Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Nathan Lyon. Josh Hazlewood (12th), Phillip Hughes (13th).

What a lovely touch making PJH408 the 13th man :-)

Going to need a box of tissues tomorrow morning I reckon!

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Glad the cricket is back on. And the short ball is being bowled and negotiated.

And I'm even gladder I remembered to tape the first session.

That first 4-5 overs was breathless from Warner.

2/113 at lunch after Michael Clarke won the toss and elected to bat is a healthy start.
Out are Rogers 9 and Watson (at 3) 14, with Warner not out on 77 and Clarke recently to the crease and not out on 9.
 
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What a terrific day of Test cricket it was - Michael Slater's incessant, cringe-worthy references to Phillip Hughes aside. I was like you @The Mad Hatter - had to record the first session and was glad that I did. I thought that the pre-match tribute to Phillip Hughes was perfect, we'd have all seen the voice-over piece from Richie Benaud over the last week but to see it up on the big screen was just....wow.

My off-field highlight was Warney's one-liner to James Brayshaw, who had his left hand in a plaster-cast type thing...."I thought you were RIGHT-handed mate" :-)
 
I think Channel Nine need to adopt the "less is more" approach to telecasting live sport. We don't need a one-hour lead-up as most of it is filled with the self-indulgant rubbish that is on now!! It is STILL half an hour before play starts for goodness sake...and they're talking about Warney and.....something!?
 
Should go back to 2 in the box.
Should have at least 2 international commentators too.
It's a real boys club with each trying to be out clown the other. Not ALL commentators have to be ex-players. But there are also a few ex-players with a lot more insight in to the game than some of the buffoonery Slater, Tubby and Healy provide. Don't get me wrong, I like it in small doses. And it's ironic they've become 'oh back when we were playing…blah blah blah'…the whole think AB railed against when he was captain and he is still head and shoulders above many of them when it comes to comments on the game.
And please, I know this hurts, but time to let Richie and Chappelli gracefully retire. I don't mind Bill in Melbourne for the colour.
 
And before I go…the future of cricket (and NRL & AFL) for mine won't even include commercial TV.
The sports bodies will sell it direct to the punters streaming to TVs, computers, lap tops, hand held devices.
10 years time it'll all be streamed.
 
Can't believe how many people around the traps write Clarke isn't a real man, as compared to say, Steve Waugh.

So what are they inferring?

Clarke's a 'poofta'?

Or a 'sheila'?

Seen as weak, effeminate, not a 'real bloke'?

LOL.

I don't get it. Really I don't.
 
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