The Buzz
Warne's musical pitches up new audience
Shane Warne has helped revive the art of leg spin, sell millions of copies of News of the World and make ‘blond and overweight’ a combination irresistible to women
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Shane Warne has helped revive the art of leg spin, sell millions of copies of News of the World and make ‘blond and overweight’ a combination irresistible to women. Now he is luring men – the beer-drinking, sports-loving kind – to Melbourne theatres through the smash hit musical based on his life.
Eddie Perfect, the actor playing Warne in ‘Shane Warne – The Musical’, says Warne is someone who has fascinated Australia, and come to typify the best and worst of the country. "We're getting guys dragging their girlfriends to the theatre, which is the opposite of how it usually works," Perfect told AFP. "You see young blokes making their way to their seats carrying armfuls of beers for their mates, just like they do at the cricket.”
Perfect said the new faces in the audience had upset some in the traditional group but it was for the best. “It's like Reformation theatre when people were buying oranges to throw at the actors - why shouldn't they have fun?"
There have been suggestions of taking the production to London and even India and Perfect is keen to go international. He said not much would have to be changed in the current musical to suit the English audience since Warne was as popular in England as he was in Australia. But the chance to play in India excited him. "It'd be a blast. We could turn every number into a huge Bollywood production."
Full postDravid loves to tell the tale
With the tour to Pakistan called off, most of the Indian team had a month’s break from international cricket and they used the precious time to pursue some personal interests
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
With the tour to Pakistan called off, most of the Indian team had a month’s break from international cricket and they used the precious time to pursue some personal interests. Sachin Tendulkar looked for real estate in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie and Mahendra Singh Dhoni trained with the National Security Guards.
Always the intellectual, Rahul Dravid decided to lend his voice to a talking book on cricket for children, Cricketmatics, which will be brought out by the Karadi Tales company, a Chennai-based group which publishes books on Indian heritage. Dravid said he was keen to involve himself in such a project because his three-year-old son, Samit, wanted his parents to read stories to him. And so, as quick as he is to hop across and keep the ball away from his off stump, loving papa opted to offer junior a fun way of learning. The son is father to the man.
It remains to be seen if Dravid explains how to tuck bat behind pad to avoid the lbw.
Full postFast-tracked Australians
South Africa's series-clinching win over Australia on January 26 - Australia Day - was special for the country's cricket fans, for it followed the historic Test win on what has been an epic tour Down Under
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
South Africa's series-clinching win over Australia on January 26 - Australia Day - was special for the country's cricket fans, for it followed the historic Test win on what has been an epic tour Down Under. But for one family, being at the Adelaide Oval and witnessing South Africa beat Australia was bittersweet, for they had only a few hours before switched over to the other side.
The Fasts, formerly of Johannesburg, chose the national holiday to become Australians, a few of among about 13,000 people from 120 countries to do likewise. They had only moved to Australia five years ago, bowled over by the openness and sociability of Adelaide.
Before the match, the Fasts walked out in front of a full house and spoke a few words. "We fell so in love with the country and decided it would be a good move for us," Cathryn Fast told The Australian."We had to think long-term for our three beautiful children, what would be best for our family. We thought about it long and hard and decided it would be wonderful to be part of the Australian life here."
Her husband, Ralph, said the family hadn't expected to become citizens at the venue, and certainly not when South Africa played Australia.
Full postAin't no mountain high enough
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
Two teams from England are planning to play the world’s highest game of Twenty20 on a plateau halfway up Mount Everest. Expedition leader Richard Kirtley dreamed up the idea two years ago during a trip to the region. He saw the Gorak Shep plateau, which is 5165 metres above sea level, and instantly thought it resembled The Oval.
“I wasn't confident that I'd find enough people nuts enough to try it, but in the end I got over 100 applications,” he said. “I'm proud of the tradition of British eccentricity. The most important thing for me was that it wasn't just going to be a bunch of blokes going up there for a bit of a knock-around.”
Full postThe drugs don't work for tourism
The internet can do wonders in helping to promote a place to the world, but it also has a down side – just ask Hastings, the south coast town in England.
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
The internet can do wonders in helping to promote a place to the world, but it also has a down side – just ask Hastings, the south coast town in England.
A cricket team cancelled their tour after finding a guide online that pinpointed Hastings local drug hotspots under a map entitled: ‘Map to show hotspots for discarded injecting paraphenlia' (sic).
Fleckney Village Cricket Club, in Leicestershire, instead opted for a five-day tour of the West Country after studying the map, but local officials said it didn’t paint a true picture.
Hastings MP Michael Foster told the Argus: "I will contact the cricket club and invite them to Hastings and I'm sure they will be impressed when they get here."
Full postDhoni masters the tongues
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is surely not of the ilk to be flustered easily, nor the kind to shy away from a challenge, and the India captain seems to have found an ingenious way to handle a few language issues.
"In countries like Australia or England, people speak English in such an accent that it is very hard to understand. So, at parties when locals come to us and start talking, even if we are not getting anything, we say yeah,” Dhoni joked during a show on NDTV. "Or if I have a drink in hand, I excuse myself by saying, 'I'll just get a drink' but never show up in front of that person again.”
Full postTwo hat-tricks and a tie
Two hat-tricks are taken by team-mates in the same game and the match ends in a tie
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
Two hat-tricks are taken by team-mates in the same game and the match ends in a tie. Sounds like a quirky cricket tale but that was exactly the scenario when South Launceston's Under-16 side played the North-East Bushrangers at Scottsdale recently. Shaun Field, 15, and Ben Jackson, 16, opened the bowling for their club, and each took their first-ever hat-tricks in the game, as well as their maiden five-fors.
While both boys were elated by their hat-tricks, South Launceston U-16 coach Peter Linger, who has played cricket for 35, said he had never seen anything like it. South Launceston were set a target of 169, and the match went down to the wire with two runs required off the last ball. However, they could only manage a single. The stuff of dreams. Well sort of.
Full postSunny and Viru make a combo
Virender Sehwag, arguably the modern era's most unorthodox and audacious batsman, has credited Sunil Gavaskar, one of the most composed and technically correct batsmen ever, for opening up more methods to attack.
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Virender Sehwag, arguably the modern era's most unorthodox and audacious batsman, has credited Sunil Gavaskar, one of the most composed and technically correct batsmen ever, for opening up more methods to attack.
"Once Sunil Gavaskar asked me look to take middle-or-off-stump guard. And I think it has suited me," he told PTI. "With a leg-stump guard, you could be chasing a wide delivery. Or leaving a gap. With a middle-and-off stump guard, the bowler doesn't know where to pitch his stuff.
"If it is on [the] stumps, you could whip it to [the] onside. If it is outside the off stump, he is allowing you to play your favourite shots. I always take a middle-stump guard." if In 2008, Sehwag scored 1462 runs (of which 856 were in fours and sixes) in 1703 balls for a strike rate of 85.84.
Full postMcGrath vies for Aussie honour
Glenn McGrath's playing engagements are becoming increasingly rare, but the honours don't seem to trail far behind the former Australian fast bowler
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Glenn McGrath's playing engagements are becoming increasingly rare, but the honours don't seem to trail far behind the former Australian fast bowler. In 2008, 18 months after he finished his Test career, McGrath was awarded life membership of Cricket New South Wales. And he now finds himself a finalist for this year's Australian of the Year, a "huge honour" according to the legend himself, for his fund raising efforts for the McGrath foundation.
Since retiring from Tests at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes, McGrath has bravely promoted his late wife Jane's cancer awareness campaign since her death in June, while raising their two children. "To be acknowledged in this way, it's something very special," McGrath told reporters ahead of the announcement. "I'm sure there's a lot of other people out there who probably deserve it more than me."
The McGrath Foundation is a charity that raises awareness of breast cancer and lobby to fund specialist breast care nurses. Publicity for the foundation was boosted earlier this year during the third Test between Australia and South Africa in Sydney when the ground was bathed in a sea of pink.
"The foundation's growing, the support we've had from everyone in Australia is great, so that's growing by the day so my involvement will become a lot more there," said McGrath.
Full postGreybeard Matthews upstages Jaques
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Greg Matthews, the former Test offspinner, talks a great game – and still bowls one. In the lead-up to Phil Jaques’ return from back surgery, Matthews, 49, let the Test opener know he would be in for a tough time during Sutherland’s first grade match against Sydney University.
“Phil is a great batsman," Matthews said. "I'll give him an hour to get a feel for things, but that's it. If Stuart Clark or Mitch Cook don't roll him, hopefully the old man can come on and get lucky."
Full post