The Surfer
Thorpe supports ‘incredibly brave’ Trescothick
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
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Graham Thorpe probably knows more than anyone about what Marcus Trescothick is going through. In his Sydney Morning Herald column he says Trescothick is an incredibly brave man.
In this sport we play, in which being macho is mandatory and admitting to any kind of fragility is akin to defeat, to make his problems known is incredibly courageous, and people should give him all the sympathy and support he needs.
Obviously, I feel a certain amount of empathy towards Marcus at the moment. When I pulled out of England's tour of India to try to save my marriage in 2002, the disintegration of which had become very public, I remember feeling incredibly alone on the flight home. I felt as if I had let everyone down, that I was a failure. Once I got home, I locked myself in for a while and just generally felt ashamed of myself.
Full postThe first victim of this greedy game
The reaction to Marcus Trescothick's sudden departure from Australia has been huge, and perhaps the most worrying article comes from Geoff Boycott , a man who played more than a hundred Tests for England
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
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It is just the beginning – more players will crack up in the future. There is a quick and easy way of stopping this happening but it would involve the game's administrators taking the one step that they dread – cutting back on the amount of international cricket.
Sadly the game is led by people with one thing on their minds – making lots of money. They are no doubt well-meaning people who love the game, but they lack one quality – the experience of playing at the top level.
International cricket brings in millions of pounds and there is no way the game's administrators will stop their money-grabbing ways. It means players are being worked into the ground and the burden of playing non-stop cricket is taking its toll.
Full postShane Warne the role model
Jon Pierik interviews Shane Warne for The Courier-Mail and discovers the legspinner feels he’s an ideal mentor for young players .
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Jon Pierik interviews Shane Warne for The Courier-Mail and discovers the legspinner feels he’s an ideal mentor for young players.
"If you take a 'who cares?' attitude towards it, they can actually say what they want," Warne says. "I have been burnt enough times, nailed ... what haven't I been nailed about? I know I've brought a lot of it on myself, but I also think some of the press has been uncalled for and unfair at certain times.
"That's where I could be a good mentor for younger players because there's not one thing I haven't been through – sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, everything, whether it be divorce, banned for a year, the lot."
Elton John is a man who has really done rock ’n’ roll and he’s expected at the Gabba for the first Test. Sir Richard Branson, Robbie Williams, John Major and Prince William are also rumoured to be considering visits, according to The Courier-Mail.
Full postLots to do in little time
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
There are 40-odd team meetings left for Rahul Dravid to revitalise his team. If, as is rumoured, Dravid is viewed as closer to Chappell than to his team, then that needs immediate rectification, writes Rohit Brijnath in Sportstar
There are approximately 15 matches left to get our quick bowlers to figure line and length is not as complicated as Fermat's last theorem. Overreaction gets us nowhere, but India's public is entitled to its team at least knowing the basics. Furthermore, is there something in the Penal Code we are unaware of which forbids bowling coaches? If Australia can have one, humbly so can we.
Richie and his bikini babe
Richie Benaud will be joined by a bikini-clad model, Lara Bingle, to front the advertising of Channel 9's Ashes coverage this season
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
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Richie Benaud will be joined by a bikini-clad model, Lara Bingle, to front the advertising of Channel 9's Ashes coverage this season. Shuper effort, that. More at the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
The doyen of cricket is joined by bikini babe Lara Bingle - clad in parochial green and gold togs and cricket pads - in Channel 9's new Ashes campaign.
"So, where the bloody hell are you?'' Bingle says in the promo, coining her Tourism Australia catchcry to attract viewers to the series.
Full postHitting the jackpot
We are used to stories about local cricket clubs scrimping and saving to mend a leaky pavilion roof or buy a new motor mower
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
We are used to stories about local cricket clubs scrimping and saving to mend a leaky pavilion roof or buy a new motor mower. But The Daily Telegraph reports on a small club at Eversley in Hampshire who applied for National Lottery funding and found themselves £1 million richer – enough to provide eight football pitches, an additional cricket square, a new changing room complex and a clubhouse extension.
Full postLanger ready to settle one last score
Images of Vaughan lifting the urn at The Oval are etched on Justin Langer's mind
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Images of Vaughan lifting the urn at The Oval are etched on Justin Langer's mind. But rather than becoming embittered by the experience, the battle-hardened batsman, along with the rest of the side, has used the setback as an opportunity for reflection and introspection, writes Alex Brown in The Guardian.
"I hate the word complacent, but maybe we just lost the sharp edge of our game in England. That loss was the greatest thing to happen to this team. England put us back in our place. It was the jolt we needed."
Waugh wants MacGill for Gabba
Steve Waugh suggests in his Daily Telegraph column something he did only twice as captain - picking Stuart MacGill for the first Test at the Gabba.
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Steve Waugh suggests in his Daily Telegraph column something he did only twice as captain - picking Stuart MacGill for the first Test at the Gabba.
Legspin is England's achilles heel and it's our great fortune to have the two best exponents of this craft residing in Australia. For that reason, I believe Stuart MacGill should join Shane Warne in the first Test line-up at the Gabba.
The single most important set of statistics in deciding Australia's first Test team belong to Pakistan reject Mushtaq Ahmed. During the English county cricket season he claimed a monumental 102 wickets - 41 more than the next best, including 11 five-wicket hauls at an average of under 20 at a strike rate of one wicket every six overs.
Robert Craddock, writing on the FoxSports website, worries about Michael Clarke.
Full post No one spared a thought for Kasprowicz at the time
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
For many, the enduring image of the 2005 Ashes is of Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee after the Edgbaston Test but it is wrong, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.
Wrong, because Flintoff was consoling the wrong man. It wasn't Lee who had just been dismissed so that Australia could no longer reach their target. It wasn't Lee who, if you were being hypercritical, could be said to have cost Australia the Ashes. No, that was Michael Kasprowicz. He was the one who needed an arm around his shoulder.
Brett Lee speak
He may be the fastest bowler in the world, but Brett Lee does not fit the recognised model of the modern paceman
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
25-Feb-2013
He may be the fastest bowler in the world, but Brett Lee does not fit the recognised model of the modern paceman. Read his interview in the Sunday Times:
The slate will be clean at 11 o’clock in Brisbane when that first ball is bowled. It doesn’t matter what’s happened recently with England; it doesn’t matter what’s happened recently with Australia, there’s going to be a lot of nerves on both sides on November 23. It’s a love/hate thing. England hate to lose to Australia; we hate to lose to England, but there’s respect on both sides. And there will be some great cricket played.
Also read Robin Scott-Elliot's piece in the same paper. England expect a barrage of bouncers in Australia, he writes, but it will not match up to the assault suffered on the 1974-75 tour.
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