The Surfer
Wanted: Sightseeing tour of Warne’s Melbourne
Requests have already arrived from Indian tourists wanting to visit Shane Warne hotspots when they are in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Requests have already arrived from Indian tourists wanting to visit Shane Warne hotspots when they are in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test. Chloe Saltau writes in the Age about the suburb of Black Rock joining the sightseeing trail.
If the demand grows, some smart entrepreneur could start a tour bus like the one that carts English tourists down Ramsay Street to inspect the Neighbours streetscape.
Carl Rackemann, the former Australia bowler, has launched a pink cricket ball to raise money for cancer. Robert Craddock reports on the innovation in the Courier-Mail.
Full postYahoo! slips the googly to Google
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
It was the battle of the search engines at Lord's last Friday, as Google and Yahoo! went head-to-head according to a report at MarketingWeek:
Despite the opposition's selection of an ex-county junior player (who subtly kept his secret weapon-status hidden beneath his old county cap) Yahoo! defeated Google 133-120.
By the time the first ball was bowled in the final the Yahoo! crowd had doubled, which was a measure of the support for the company team and nothing to do with the free booze on offer, of course. There was even a Yahoo! bus that blasted out yodelling from a PA whenever the team hit a four or six.
Full postShah still waiting for opportunity to knock
Owais Shah made his ODI debut in 2001
Andrew Miller
25-Feb-2013
Owais Shah made his ODI debut in 2001. His Test debut followed five years later, and he's had just two one-off opportunities to prove his worth. This week he's back in the limelight as part of England's post-World Cup one-day line-up, and as he told Mike Adamson in The Guardian, he knows that this time, he's got to make an unanswerable case for inclusion.
There must be a reason why I wasn't given a go. Maybe I wasn't the kind of batsman who fits in to what the team was trying to achieve. I'm not really sure, to be honest. You'd have to ask the selectors. Or the coach. Fletcher's not there now though, of course
Australian tour will inspire Murali
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Muttiah Muralitharan’s manager believes the bowler will use any harassment he receives on the tour of Australia to perform better, Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun.
"He is comfortable with what Australia is like," Muralitharan's manager Kushil Gunasekera said. "He understands the harassment given by spectators will only make him more inspired and motivated.
Does Kallis really need a 'rest'?
Neil Manthorp recalls the messy episode that Cricket South Africa had got into when it rested Lance Klusener for a tour to Bangladesh in a piece on the SuperCricket website
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Neil Manthorp recalls the messy episode that Cricket South Africa had got into when it rested Lance Klusener for a tour to Bangladesh in a piece on the SuperCricket website. He says the mistake has been repeated again with Jacques Kallis' omission from the Twenty20 squad. Manthorp believes a player of Kallis' stature should have been given the nod, though many may consider his batting style undesirable for the format.
Who is South Africa's leading six-hitter in both test and one-day cricket? Klusener, Justin Kemp? Shaun Pollock? No. Try someone else. Someone who isn't suited to 20-over cricket. Maybe Kallis really isn't suited to this game. But surely his status means he was worth a chance to prove it, a chance to bat without the constant threat of collapse at the other end weighing him down.
Water worries as Melbourne pitches crumble
It's getting hot in Melbourne, and water is in short supply
Andrew Miller
25-Feb-2013
It's getting hot in Melbourne, and water is in short supply. So too, writes Gideon Haigh in the Herald Sun, is common sense among the bureaucrats of Melbourne.
Mayor John So announced on Monday that Melbourne's fountains would flow and bubble again, thanks to an alleviation of the water crisis. There was no announcement last week, however, when it emerged that the City of Melbourne planned to start ripping out pitches for turf cricket, ostensibly as a water-conservation measure.
The City of Melbourne's attitude to cricket, and community sport in general, is grudging. Cities are for culture, festivals and mayoral personality cults. Sport? That's for ugh, suburbs, and the teeming unwashed multitudes.
"Think of cricket on turf as chess," Haigh writes, "cricket on artificial surfaces as noughts and crosses."
Full postMCG could lose big matches
One-day internationals could be played at the Telstra Dome instead of the MCG after 2008-09, Chloe Saltau reports in the Age .
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
One-day internationals could be played at the Telstra Dome instead of the MCG after 2008-09, Chloe Saltau reports in the Age.
The right to host international cricket in Melbourne may be put to tender if Cricket Victoria cannot strike a more favourable commercial agreement with the Melbourne Cricket Club. "The closer we get to the conclusion of the agreement, the more likely it is to go to tender," the Cricket Victoria chairman Geoff Tamblyn said. There is also a possibility that cricket could be divided between the MCG and Telstra Dome, with the MCG continuing to host the Boxing Day Test while one-day internationals are played across town at Docklands.
In the same paper there is a piece on Romesh Kaluwitharana, who has been completing a level two coaching course.
Full postNot all doom and gloom for England
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
The end of a series brings contemplation – but also Geoff Boycott’s (often stinging) end-of-term report. Following India’s series victory, his wrath in today’s Daily Telegraph is directed at England’s batsmen.
Some of the shot selection was poor. England lost six wickets in the second innings and only one guy, Paul Collingwood, was got out by the Indian bowlers. It's quite obvious that we haven't grasped that when you are trying to save a match it needs a different attitude and more application.
Thorpe a changed man
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
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"The ubiquitous Graham Thorpe, bet you never thought you'd hear that," begins Mark Nicholas in his piece about the former England batsman who has transformed his life (and himself) from the introvert of the 1990s to an extrovert, in The Daily Telegraph.
Having listened harder than we might have supposed of him in the past, Thorpe is now applying all he has learnt to the TMS invitation, studio and live work with Sky, the occasional gig with Fox Sports in Oz and a worthy column in Spin magazine that this month calls for yellow cards and a sin-bin for misbehaviour on the field of play. Go get 'em, Graham.
But Thorpe's biggest deal right now is his life in Sydney with Amanda, the lawyer he was finally able to marry in Bangkok earlier this year. If ever a girl made something of the boy it is Amanda. From the pain of a public and turbulent separation from his first wife Nicky, has come a near perfect after-life. Thorpe was a cricketer for whom the future held much dread and is a now a former cricketer with myriad opportunities at his feet. He has just been appointed assistant coach of New South Wales to Matthew Mott, who took the coaching job when Trevor Bayliss was seduced by Sri Lanka.
Full postThe follow-on debate: Were India too defensive?
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
It's the issue that everyone's been talking about. Here's what the papers had to say.
Lokendra Pratap Sahi lets rip in the Kolkata-based Telegraph:
Full postThe safety-first-and-last types would’ve approved, but few others. More than anything else, Rahul Dravid’s decision to not enforce the follow-on at the Brit Oval has given England the chance to save the third and final npower Test. It also enhanced his image as a captain reluctant to be aggressive. Reluctant to set a bold agenda. Barring one or two, others would’ve blindly gone for the kill if they had the luxury of a 319-run lead.