Michael Jeh

 

There are not too many other sides in world cricket that make me that nervous, even when Australia are seemingly cruising towards victory

 

Why and how are some actions just totally unacceptable in terms of fair play and yet, some other dubious practices are given immunity from the ‘cheating’ tag with the responsibility for the decision ultimately being ceded to the referee/umpire

Michael Clarke's press conference today was sensible, understated and realistic

We keep talking of consistency from umpires when it comes to lbw decisions or wide calls or anything else on the field

If it comes to pass that players from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England withdraw; the risk is it will create an East-West divide that will take many years to repair

Here’s a question for you then

Despite Gayle’s cool persona, a cricketer of real substance lies underneath that languid exterior

Goodness knows what he was thinking or what his excuse will be for seemingly gnawing away at the cricket ball, but as captain it really begs the question of whether he is true leadership material.

Having watched youngsters playing cricket in just about every part of the cricketing world, it still astounds me that countries like Australia make it to the final of the Under-19 World Cup

While Sri Lanka and India have improved the standards of their out-cricket to reach the levels of the world's best, Pakistan still lags behind, and pay the price for it, time and again.

As he nears the end of a brilliant career, Ponting will need to decide if he will go down in flames, hooking and pulling like a man still in his pomp, or whether he can shelve the ego and grow old gracefully (in a cricketing sense)

What’s best about Test cricket played on this sort of pitch between two relatively evenly-matched teams is that it has provided a platform for every type of cricketer to be villain and hero

Some of the players are hardly household names either and yet, their performances thus far have endeared themselves to the home crowds.

Every country has their own culprits but the theme is universal; refer to national pride, passion, honour, competitiveness etc and that buys you immunity from good manners

The spirit of Christmas and the Spirit of Cricket: two abstract concepts that are more about misty-eyed, mushy sentimentalism than about anything you can actually see and touch and feel

Do we really think that umpires are biased towards their own country

If anyone chooses not to come to the Gabba these next five days because there is a limit on alcohol or beach balls or whistles or Mexican Waves, the policy would have achieved its main aim – keeping cricket sacrosanct for those who actually prefer

What will be interesting to see is whether the funding is truly directed to the grassroots of the sport or whether it ends up being siphoned towards the elite end of the pyramid.